Using Custom WB as a Creative Tool

Red to Blue

In as much as it is a necessary task when shooting in RAW, I have no stamina for prolonged post-processing (PP) work. I would rather be out there making pictures rather than sitting in front of a computer monitor. I do most (lately, it seems to be all) of my PP work in Lightroom, which works for me since I mainly just make adjustments to the sliders under the 'Basic' and 'Detail' panels for the pictures that I shoot. And for this very reason, I always strive to get the shot right, as I have previsualized it, before I even press the shutter. If I can't make it in camera, then I won't fake it in post.

This brings me to an article I read on setting and using a custom white balance (WB) to create an interesting scene from an otherwise ordinary location. I didn't really fiddle with the WB setting on my camera until about two years ago when I wanted to get more consistent color temperatures when working with flash, and even then I mainly just used the preset modes. If you need a primer on WB, I recommend you read this simple and easy-to-understand article on the subject.

I wanted to test the principle of the technique, so I opted to do the reverse of what's shown in the article that I linked to above. I also wanted to find out if it would work on non-human subjects, so I choose to shoot my wife's potted plants.

Okay, on with the experiment! It starts with setting the camera's WB to 'Daylight', and then shooting the scene with a red gel in front of the lens.

I wonder if I can pass this off as an abstract art piece. I mean this guy certainly pulled it off. But I digress. I shot the concrete wall above the plants since it was as close to a neutral gray as I could get. I then used the file to set my WB to a custom value, after which I set my WB setting to 'Custom'.

So, did it work?

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I am a little surprised to report that it did. I shot one frame of my subject under the new custom WB and got the picture below.

From the above picture, it would appear as if I shot this either at dawn or at dusk. I actually carried out this lighting experiment in the shade at about three 3:00 pm. So far so good, but there's still the business of adding the off-camera flash into the mix.

Taking the Red Pill Gel

I had my settings dialed in to give a depth in the shadows that I wanted for the final image. I proceeded to attach the red gel to the flash and dialed in a power setting to properly expose my subject. I attached a grid to the front of the flash to restrict the beam of light, so I could selectively light the scene. If the theory behind the technique holds, the gelled light is supposed to come out free of any color cast. I composed my shot and got the picture below.

I liked how it gave me a rich 'layered' result. I had to make minor adjustments in post, especially since the light was still a bit on the red side for my taste. Of course, one could always do this in an image editing suite like Photoshop, but if (and that's a big if) I could pull it off, it would probably take me longer than it did to set everything up for the shot above. All in all, I would call this particular lighting experiment a success. Up next, human trials.