changing film types, or emulsions, like switching from the now discontinued
Kodak E100S transparency film to the Kodak E100SW film (the “SW” stood
for saturated warm).
This technique is helpful when shooting sunsets too. During the digital
revolution, the term “white balance” was new to most photographers, and
only those with video backgrounds understood it immediately. Those without
a video background would wait for the “golden hour” to capture that warmth
of the sun, only to find the warmth had disappeared because their cameras
were set to “auto” white balance. In the beginning of the digital photography
age, not much was written about white balance and many photographers lost
some sweet, golden light to automatic white balance (AWB). AWB is great
for pictures at your child’s birthday party, but custom or manual white balance
is what a professional photographer utilizes to take dramatic photographs.
Instant Sunsets.Another of my favorite white balance tricks is to create
sunset “strobe” light so my subject can have the big red ball of sun in the back-
ground while appearing to be illuminated from the front by that
same ball of light. Unfortunately, during the golden hour, the sun’s
light is not as intense as it is at high noon, and therefore, not even
reflectors can provide the intensity of light needed to light your sub-
ject to match the intensity of the sunset light in the background.
Many photographers overcome this lack of intense light by filling
their subject’s front with flash, but this is boring light. The subject looks like a
tourist, lit by flash, standing against a sunset background.
To help curb this “flash picture” effect and make a more natural looking
photograph, I place a Rosco (#02) Bastard Amber gel in front of my flash
source. The story goes that this gel was created by mistake, hence the “bas-
tard” part of its name, but one thing is for sure: when you use this gel, you’ll
have some awesome, more natural-looking sunset photos. Most viewers will
never realize that it’s physically impossible for the sun to illuminate your sub-
ject from the front when the sun is actually setting behind your model.
You can also place a Bastard Amber gel in front of your flash to create the
desert sunset look without having the natural sunset in the background.WHITE BALANCE 81When you use this gel,
you’ll have some awesome, more
natural-looking sunset photos.