Reproduce sunset light with flash in studio

[Fred_]

Hello,

I would like to have nice warm light like the one you get with the sunset.

I guess I will have to use my bigest modifier and some light gel to warm the light.

Can someone suggest me some gel color and white balance settings?

Thank you

 

[Klaus dk]

Adjust you WB to outdoor shadow, that will give your flash pictures an orange tint.

The logic behind this is, that the shadow setting assumes the light is very blue (reflected from a blue sky) and compensates by pushing wb in an orange direction. If the light is less blue, the orange tint will make the flash look like sunset sunlight. If that is not enough, just set your manual WB to an even higher colour temperature.

Gelling flash is something you do to either match it to ambient or to create a mixed-light effect with different colour temperature from different sources.

 

[Fred_]

Thank you very interesting.

would you gel the flash with some kind of orange + a little bit of red?

 

[Klaus dk]

Thank you very interesting.
would you gel the flash with some kind of orange + a little bit of red?

No, that is the whole point. The WB adjustment in camera or in post "does the gelling."

Take any raw picture into your raw conversion software and change WB, you can change it from icy blue to warm orange by pulling the slider. These three jpgs are all made from the same raw:


Colour temperature: 6800K - flash setting



Colour temperature: 3000K


Colour temperature: 30000K

 

[Fred_]

I understand as their is no ambiante light no need for the gel to match the color temp, only the white balance

thank you!

 

[Klaus dk]

Exactly!

 

[hotdog321]

For what it is worth, I've used a color temperature meter on sunsets an often get a reading of 3200-3400 degrees K--tungsten! An appropriate theatrical gel on a strobe will approximate the warmth of sunset.

But you are just going to get an orange photo unless you are using a contrasting white/cool light source.

 

[LincolnB]

For what it is worth, I've used a color temperature meter on sunsets an often get a reading of 3200-3400 degrees K--tungsten! An appropriate theatrical gel on a strobe will approximate the warmth of sunset.

But you are just going to get an orange photo unless you are using a contrasting white/cool light source.

That makes sense. Thinking out loud, the light from a setting sun is orange but the light from the sky is [still] blue. I guess you could think of it as a two-light setup. The key light would be warm and relatively small in size, the fill light would be warm, several stops less, very diffuse, and positioned directly opposite the key light.

 

[ilta]

Yes, that's true.

This image was made at midday but then adjusted in Lightroom to simulate morning light through a window. A strong low light in a shoot-through umbrella at left, and a fill light bounced off the ceiling at bottom right. I applied an overall amber cast to the picture, and then an additional gradient coming in from right. If I had wanted a sunset instead I would have made it even redder and more directional.

It's not the greatest pose or styling, but for light demonstration purposes it should be sufficient.

--
www.isaiahtpd.info

 

[LincolnB]

For what it is worth, I've used a color temperature meter on sunsets an often get a reading of 3200-3400 degrees K--tungsten! An appropriate theatrical gel on a strobe will approximate the warmth of sunset.

But you are just going to get an orange photo unless you are using a contrasting white/cool light source.

That makes sense. Thinking out loud, the light from a setting sun is orange but the light from the sky is [still] blue. I guess you could think of it as a two-light setup. The key light would be warm and relatively small in size, the fill light would be warm, several stops less, very diffuse, and positioned directly opposite the key light.

Correction - the fill light would be cool