G
Guest
Ken, the direct flash will eliminate the yellow light because it is so much brighter than the yellow spot light. The "balance" of the flash and the ambient light is something you have to experiment with until you find a happy compromise. If the flash is bright enough, it will overwhelm the ambient light. When you bounce the flash, you lose at least one stop of light, depending on the surface used for the bounce. The colour of the bouncing surface is also important. I have measured up to two stops loss when bouncing flash off a white surface. Therefore, when bouncing the flash, the ratio of flash to ambient is reduced, and the ambient becomes a bigger part of the lighting, and therefore more visible in the final photograph.
Putting a filter on the lens doesn't solve the problem because the phenomenon is caused by the different colour temperature of the light sources. A blue 80A colour correction filter on the lens will make the spot light become more like a normal "daylight" but the flash will then look far too blue. If you put a yellow/orange gel over the flash such that the flash light becomes a similar "tungsten" colour temperature to the ambient spot lights, then a blue 80A filter on the lens will correct the overall tungsten coloured light for a daylight colour balance.
The basic problem is that the tungsten spot lights give out very little blue light. Our eyes don't notice it, but daylight film records it as it is, as a very orange/brown/yellow light. You can see an ex&le of that light in my photo titled "barbecue restaurant" in this forum's Photo Gallery. Whenever you take photos in that kind of light, flash will not look good, unless the flash is so bright as to sw& the ambient light. But then you would lose the "atmosphere" created by the ambient light. Personally, I try not to use any flash in those tunsgten lit places, and prefer to tweak the colour balance in Photoshop to achieve the most pleasing result.
Digital cameras have a big advantage in these situations. A good digital camera can be set for tungsten colour balance, and used without flash at ISO 800 equivalent sensitivity, and give a "daylight" appearance to the final image. See my image "Japanese Flamenco" in this forum's Photo Gallery as an ex&le.
Putting a filter on the lens doesn't solve the problem because the phenomenon is caused by the different colour temperature of the light sources. A blue 80A colour correction filter on the lens will make the spot light become more like a normal "daylight" but the flash will then look far too blue. If you put a yellow/orange gel over the flash such that the flash light becomes a similar "tungsten" colour temperature to the ambient spot lights, then a blue 80A filter on the lens will correct the overall tungsten coloured light for a daylight colour balance.
The basic problem is that the tungsten spot lights give out very little blue light. Our eyes don't notice it, but daylight film records it as it is, as a very orange/brown/yellow light. You can see an ex&le of that light in my photo titled "barbecue restaurant" in this forum's Photo Gallery. Whenever you take photos in that kind of light, flash will not look good, unless the flash is so bright as to sw& the ambient light. But then you would lose the "atmosphere" created by the ambient light. Personally, I try not to use any flash in those tunsgten lit places, and prefer to tweak the colour balance in Photoshop to achieve the most pleasing result.
Digital cameras have a big advantage in these situations. A good digital camera can be set for tungsten colour balance, and used without flash at ISO 800 equivalent sensitivity, and give a "daylight" appearance to the final image. See my image "Japanese Flamenco" in this forum's Photo Gallery as an ex&le.