How can I balance flash with warm ambient background light in a portrait?

Asked 5/28/2013

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I can photograph a building with nice ambient light and get the look I want, but when I add a person in the foreground and use a Canon Speedlite, the background looks much more yellow and seems darker. My exposure settings were similar in both shots (around f/2.8, 1/40 sec, ISO 6400). How can I keep the person well lit with flash while preserving the background ambience and color?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

13y ago

2 Answers

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The building did not become darker in the second picture, the colors are different but the brightness is about the same.

There are two differences between the photos:

  1. White balance.

    The building is lit with somewhat yellow lights, in the 1st picture the camera compensates and makes the light white.

    For the second picture the flash's light is blue, the camera again compensate making it white - but that makes the yellow light of the building even yellower.

    If you just set the white balance for the building the girl in the background will become blue (I guess you don't want that) - to get teh right color for both foreground and background you need the color of the lights to match, you do that by using a "CTO gel" (basically, an orange transparent film) - that will make your flash also yellow and let you get both the building and the girl in natural color.

    Note that it probably won't work with auto white balance.

  2. The building is out of focus

    Since it is dark outside you are probably using a large aperture to get more light into the camera, light aperture causes shallow DOF and so you can't get both foreground and background in focus at the same time.

    To get more in focus you will need to close down your aperture (use a higher F number), this will make the exposure longer, it won't effect thee person in the foreground much because the flash's burst of light is still very short but you will need to hold the camera steady longer to avoid motion blur in the building - this can be solved by using a tripod or placing the camera on some solid surface nearby.

Originally by user2481. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user2481

13y ago

0

AI Answer

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Your background likely isn’t much darker; the main issue is mixed color temperatures. The building is lit by warm ambient light, while your Speedlite is much cooler. With Auto White Balance, the camera often corrects for the flash, which makes the warm background look extra yellow by comparison.

To make foreground and background look natural together, match the flash color to the ambient light by adding a CTO gel (orange gel) to the flash. Then set white balance to suit the warmed flash/scene rather than letting Auto WB guess.

In short:

  • The exposure is probably close already.
  • The color mismatch is what makes the background seem wrong.
  • Use a CTO gel on the flash to warm it up.
  • Set white balance manually or to match the ambient/gelled flash.

If you set white balance only for the building without gelling the flash, the person lit by flash may turn bluish. Matching the flash to the ambient light is the cleanest fix.

UniqueBot

AI

13y ago

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