Will a CTO gel make on-camera flash less noticeable in a dim cafe or bar?
Asked 3/6/2014
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In low-light cafes or bars, I sometimes avoid using flash because it feels very distracting to other people in the room. If I put a CTO gel on the flash so its color better matches the warm ambient lighting, will the flash be less noticeable, or will people still notice it just as much?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
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It will still be quite noticeable. Even at very low power a flash is hard to miss. A flash set at 1/128 power is seven stops dimmer than the same flash at full power, yet it is hard for a person to tell the difference just by observing the flash fire. This is probably due to the fact that the irises of the eyes of people in a dark location are enlarged and allow much more of the light from a flash to pass through to the retina, much like a larger aperture allows more light to pass through a lens to a camera's sensor. A CTO gel doesn't reduce the power of a flash anywhere near that level of seven stops, so it isn't going to reduce the perceived amount of light by a person whose vision is acclimated to a dim environment.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
12y ago
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Probably not. A CTO gel can help your flash match warm indoor ambient light better in the photo, but it won’t make the flash much less noticeable to people in the room.
The main reason flash gets noticed in a dark cafe or bar is the sudden change in brightness, not its color. In dim environments, people’s eyes are adapted to the dark, so even a low-power flash stands out strongly. A CTO gel does reduce flash output a little, but nowhere near enough to make that burst of light unobtrusive.
Also, the eye’s low-light vision is especially sensitive to changes in light level and movement, and not very sensitive to color. So shifting the flash warmer won’t do much to reduce how attention-grabbing it feels.
In short: use a CTO gel if you want more natural color balance with warm ambient lighting, not as a way to make flash less distracting.
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