Masciandaro Photography wrote:
I thought I was being slick when covering an event and set my color temp to tungsten and taped a CTO gel to the strobe.

Unfortunately the room lights were fluorescent and after some scary looking test shots, I ripped the gel off, set my exposure  to 1/200th, f8 and ISO to 400 to kill the ambient and proceeded to blast away. Not subtle but at least the skin tones didn't look alien.

Do any of you filter/gel to balance for fluorescent or just rely on your strobe to overpower?

For event photos I just set my WB to Auto and adjust in post. It's the easiest way to do it. Trying to shoot an event with ever changing lighting scenarios is a nightmare to do manual WB in so I just avoid doing that all together.

Shot By Adam wrote:

For event photos I just set my WB to Auto and adjust in post. It's the easiest way to do it. Trying to shoot an event with ever changing lighting scenarios is a nightmare to do manual WB in so I just avoid doing that all together.

The problem with your scenario is that the flash will be a different color temperature than the ambient.

me voy wrote:
For event photos I just set my WB to Auto and adjust in post. It's the easiest way to do it. Trying to shoot an event with ever changing lighting scenarios is a nightmare to do manual WB in so I just avoid doing that all together.

Shot By Adam wrote:
The problem with your scenario is that the flash will be a different color temperature than the ambient.

I don't see it as a problem.  When you're shooting an event, you're sometimes close to subjects, sometimes further away.  A gelled flash may not give you consistent color temperatures depending on how close or far your subject is.  At least that's been my experience.  The stronger the flash, the less the light is affected by the gel.  Or maybe I just use really crappy gels.

So I would go without a gel, background light be damned, and at least my subject is lit properly.

Shot By Adam wrote:
For event photos I just set my WB to Auto and adjust in post. It's the easiest way to do it. Trying to shoot an event with ever changing lighting scenarios is a nightmare to do manual WB in so I just avoid doing that all together.

Pretty sure that if you try this trick with a Nikon Speedlight attached the auto WB will set to strobe, even if it says it's in auto.

In any case, I don't want to shoot any event that's lit with fluorescent light bulbs. Blech!

Good Egg Productions wrote:

me voy wrote:
For event photos I just set my WB to Auto and adjust in post. It's the easiest way to do it. Trying to shoot an event with ever changing lighting scenarios is a nightmare to do manual WB in so I just avoid doing that all together.

I don't see it as a problem.  When you're shooting an event, you're sometimes close to subjects, sometimes further away.  A gelled flash may not give you consistent color temperatures depending on how close or far your subject is.  At least that's been my experience.  The stronger the flash, the less the light is affected by the gel.  Or maybe I just use really crappy gels.

So I would go without a gel, background light be damned, and at least my subject is lit properly.

The distance of your subject should not be an issue. If your subject is far away and the flash doesn't reach that far then the WB setting in your camera should take care of the color if you set the right WB. For example: if you shoot in a room lit with Tungsten lighting, you set your camera's WB to tungsten and put a CTO filter on the flash. If you are getting other colors from the flash then you have a filter that is bad. If you are getting too bright or too white from the flash then you are probably over exposing the flash. It could be the TTL that is getting fooled by something on the scene.

me voy wrote:
I gel my flash accordingly.  It's very amateurish seeing a subject lit with flash and the ambient light with a different color temperature. What's worse is seeing the flash only and no ambient light. That's like setting your camera to "Auto" or "P" Your client will feel like they were cheated.

So for the record, what's your starting point for filtration? There's at least a half dozen color temps for fluorescent, I'd assume an FLD filter for the lens, what would you put on your strobe?

me voy wrote:
It's very amateurish.....That's like setting your camera to "Auto" or "P" Your client will feel like they were cheated.

Never had a client dictate what settings I use to get their desired results. I'd probably pass on an assignment like that.

OP, I'd most likley skip the gels in your situation. Gels usually require a more controlled environmemt to get the desired effects.

Masciandaro Photography wrote:

So for the record, what's your starting point for filtration? There's at least a half dozen color temps for fluorescent, I'd assume an FLD filter for the lens, what would you put on your strobe?

I just reread your original post and for some reason I thought you were talking about speedlites. If you are shooting with strobes the same idea apply. You set your white balance to florescent and put an FLD gel on the strobe. Now you can mix ambient with flash and you should get a similar color.

Volition Graphics wrote:

Never had a client dictate what settings I use to get their desired results. I'd probably pass on an assignment like that.

That kind of attitude will make you miss on a lot of opportunities. I have been hired by corporate and business magazines and you will be surprised by how knowledgeable photo editors are. Most of the time they will tell you what they want and what they don't want.

Masciandaro Photography wrote:
I thought I was being slick when covering an event and set my color temp to tungsten and taped a CTO gel to the strobe.

Unfortunately the room lights were fluorescent and after some scary looking test shots, I ripped the gel off, set my exposure  to 1/200th, f8 and ISO to 400 to kill the ambient and proceeded to blast away. Not subtle but at least the skin tones didn't look alien.

Do any of you filter/gel to balance for fluorescent or just rely on your strobe to overpower?

I do for tungsten all the time. I would for fluorescent if I knew enough in advance to have the right gel. I'd love to for sodium vapor too, but I don't think the camera can WB for that anyway.

Good Egg Productions wrote:

me voy wrote:
For event photos I just set my WB to Auto and adjust in post. It's the easiest way to do it. Trying to shoot an event with ever changing lighting scenarios is a nightmare to do manual WB in so I just avoid doing that all together.

I don't see it as a problem.  When you're shooting an event, you're sometimes close to subjects, sometimes further away.  A gelled flash may not give you consistent color temperatures depending on how close or far your subject is.  At least that's been my experience.  The stronger the flash, the less the light is affected by the gel.  Or maybe I just use really crappy gels.

So I would go without a gel, background light be damned, and at least my subject is lit properly.

This is not accurate.