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09-15-2012, 11:58 PM - 1 Like   #1
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Gary fong flash gel trick ??

Has anyone had any success replicating Gary's whit balance trick with his flash gels ? I'm REALLLLLLY wanting to do it today at a engagement picture session I'm doing, but I'm not 100% how to set the white balance on my k-5 , using one of his colored gels like he does for his trick. If you haven't see. It yet, it's amazing. He takes a colored gel (blue for example), and covers his lens with it, in manual mode and takes a picture, sets the white balance based on that picture. Then he puts that gel on his flash & takes the picture. Anything that his flash hits is normal color, but the background is a cool looking burnt red color. I have some great ideas for this couple I'm shooting today but I need a "complete idiots guide" to setting the white balance on my K5 by taking a picture of a gel covering the lens. Thank you so much in advance.

09-16-2012, 12:06 AM   #2
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Check page 208 of the K-5 manual to find out how to set a custom white balance.
09-16-2012, 02:17 AM   #3
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Shoot in raw. I have found that is the best way to do it. I did some engagement photos just recently using the light sphere and some gels, worked well.
09-16-2012, 06:22 AM   #4
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Here is my post on how to use a Colorright Pro white balance device (which you also put in front of the lens before to get the ambient WB) with a K-5. It outlines the steps to follow in sort of a "complete idiots" way, even though none of us are complete idiots, since we use a K-5!

09-16-2012, 07:28 AM   #5
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Thank you Panoguy !!! And yes, I know we're not idiots ha ha, we're ahead of the times ! I just felt like a monkey doing a math problem trying to figure out the custom WB on this thing, even after reading the manual.
09-17-2012, 12:54 AM   #6
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Hi from Gary Fong

Thank you for reminding me to do a video with my Pentax. One thing also that people sometimes miss is when they take the reference photo, they don't use "daylight" rather than AWB. If you use AWB, of course, it will try to correct the off-color "during" the capture of your reference image, and that would be going backwards!

Gary
09-17-2012, 01:31 AM   #7
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I tried and tried step by step with the video on iPad next to me and cannot get my k5 or k10 to replicate what is in that video
I contacted g fong website and got a message saying they did not know if it would work with a Pentax as they had no access to one to test it one!!!

09-17-2012, 06:45 AM   #8
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Yeah, I'm convinced it's not possible with a K-5. I tried following the directions above to the proverbial "T" with no success. When I go to the custom manual white balance and take the picture of the gel in front of it (Blue), the result on the screen is a gray/white looking color. Then I scroll up through the other settings and it looks bright blue on "tungsten", so I think "cool, I'll try taking the shot on tungsten". Fire a trial shot, and everything just has a blue tint. That's not how the trick is supposed to work. Everything should be a crazy red color (BEFORE turning on the flash & putting the blue gel on the flash). So after nearly throwing my K-5 over the balcony, I have finally admitted defeat.
09-17-2012, 06:48 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by Isnwm Quote
When I go to the custom manual white balance and take the picture of the gel in front of it (Blue), the result on the screen is a gray/white looking color. Then I scroll up through the other settings and it looks bright blue on "tungsten", so I think "cool, I'll try taking the shot on tungsten".
You want it to look gray, you're telling the camera that blue is gray, so when you light something up with the blue gel over the flash it will look normal and everything not lit by the flash will look weird.
09-17-2012, 06:54 AM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by elliott Quote
You want it to look gray, you're telling the camera that blue is gray, so when you light something up with the blue gel over the flash it will look normal and everything not lit by the flash will look weird.
I understand, but in the video, Gary says the gels are supposed to produce polar opposites. A blue gel white balance should make the camera see everything in red. Seeing it in blue or gray doesn't benefit me. I want my camera to see the world as red, slap on the blue gel on the flash, take the shot w/ the flash, and the subject be normal & background be red. But for the life of me, I can't get my camera to take the blue gel white balance correctly.
09-17-2012, 07:03 AM   #11
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I think the confusion comes from the different process between setting the white balance on his Canon and your Pentax. The fact that his screen was blue is irrelevant to you, that is because he actually took a picture on auto white balance with the blue gel, of course it will show up as blue. What he does next is go into the white balance settings and tell the camera that the blue shot is 18% gray, so it uses that as a reference to base the other colors on. Now with Pentax, you aren't taking the extra step and taking the shot on auto white balance, you're just going to tell the camera "the next thing you see is 18% gray". So it will take the shot through the blue gel and compensate immediately, so what you see on the screen right after taking this white balance sample is gray, this is correct.

If I can do it with my K100D, you can do it with a K-5.
09-17-2012, 01:55 PM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by elliott Quote
I think the confusion comes from the different process between setting the white balance on his Canon and your Pentax. The fact that his screen was blue is irrelevant to you, that is because he actually took a picture on auto white balance with the blue gel, of course it will show up as blue. What he does next is go into the white balance settings and tell the camera that the blue shot is 18% gray, so it uses that as a reference to base the other colors on. Now with Pentax, you aren't taking the extra step and taking the shot on auto white balance, you're just going to tell the camera "the next thing you see is 18% gray". So it will take the shot through the blue gel and compensate immediately, so what you see on the screen right after taking this white balance sample is gray, this is correct.

If I can do it with my K100D, you can do it with a K-5.
Sorry you have lost me here, if I take a image on daylight wb with a blue gell on the lens and then go to custom wb and try to make it grey I cant so how is this g fong thing supposed to work?

If you can do with your K100d please be so kind as to supply a step by step guide
09-17-2012, 02:09 PM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by adwb Quote
Sorry you have lost me here, if I take a image on daylight wb with a blue gell on the lens and then go to custom wb and try to make it grey I cant so how is this g fong thing supposed to work?
You don't take an image on daylight wb, you go into the custom white balance menu, put the gel in front of the lens and press the shutter while pointing at the ambient light source. That is it, it now thinks blue is neutral gray. Now when you put the same gel over your flash it will give off blue light, but your camera thinks blue is neutral gray, so whatever is lit by the flash will look normal. Everything else will have a strange color cast, since the ambient light is not blue.

Gary Fong did not invent this, people used to do this with film decades ago by using the wrong color correcting filters, we just do it digitally now.

For a K100D:
1: Press the Fn button
2: Press left to access white balance settings
3: Go down to Manual
4: Press right to adjust white balance
5: Place gel in front of lens
6: Point camera at light source
7: Press shutter
8: Now your screen should look gray, so press OK
9: Place gel in front of flash and point it at your subject
10: Shoot
09-18-2012, 01:55 AM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by elliott Quote
You don't take an image on daylight wb, you go into the custom white balance menu, put the gel in front of the lens and press the shutter while pointing at the ambient light source. That is it, it now thinks blue is neutral gray. Now when you put the same gel over your flash it will give off blue light, but your camera thinks blue is neutral gray, so whatever is lit by the flash will look normal. Everything else will have a strange color cast, since the ambient light is not blue.

Gary Fong did not invent this, people used to do this with film decades ago by using the wrong color correcting filters, we just do it digitally now.

For a K100D:
1: Press the Fn button
2: Press left to access white balance settings
3: Go down to Manual
4: Press right to adjust white balance
5: Place gel in front of lens
6: Point camera at light source
7: Press shutter
8: Now your screen should look gray, so press OK
9: Place gel in front of flash and point it at your subject
10: Shoot
Still don't work on a k 5 following your reply is no different to what I have tried before.

On a k 5 if you place the blue cover over the lens on manual wb and save all that happens is the grey tones shft to blue
However I also have a canon g12 and with that when the blue cover is put over the lens and saved the display goes instantly red as in the g fong video.

There obviously is a completely different way of doing things between the two brands.

Which I suspect is why there is no further response to this topic by G Fong.

Perhaps that is why there are so many comments on photo websites about adjusting wb both in raw and jpeg modes when using other brands. I always get the impression their AWB is not perceived to be accurate as they constanly go on about not using it and slecting sunny or cloudy or whatever.

I have found that the majority of the time when shooting raw with k10d ,KM, Kx, Kr, K5 all of which I have been lucky enough to own at sometime that the AWB setting gets it right 99% of the time and and adjustment in Lr or Ps is minimal if applied. Even under tungsten while not perfect in AWB it,s a dam sight better than my g12 gets on auto under tungsten lights.

Last edited by adwb; 09-18-2012 at 02:09 AM.
09-18-2012, 03:44 PM   #15
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I think the custom setting for WB when using flash has to be set to "unchanged." Default setting on K7 is AWB, K5 might be different.
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