Using White Balance as a Creative Modifier

It's long been joked about that although I use a lot of coloured lighting in my photography, 90% of the time I actually use the auto white balance setting on my camera.

But why?

The reasoning is relatively simple, sometimes there are just far too many colour variables at work in some of my shots to actually use a "correct" white balance. You see, there is no "correct" white balance just like there is no "correct" aperture. In my opinion white balance is a creative modifier and the white balance you choose has just as much creative impact on your shot as the aperture you choose.

Here's one of the pages from the notes of my Colour and Exposure Workshop - This shot was taken with five completely different colour temperatures at work in a single shot. A pink, blue and orange gel plus straight flash and cloudy daylight. It… — Here's one of the pages from the notes of my Colour and Exposure Workshop - This shot was taken with five completely different colour temperatures at work in a single shot. A pink, blue and orange gel plus straight flash and cloudy daylight. It would almost be impossible to give this image a "correct" white balance value so I let my Nikon camera do the work for me and set it to Auto White Balance.

A few months ago I was doing a lot of research on white balance (exciting as that sounds) and as I was writing the course notes for my new Colour & Exposure workshop I stumbled upon even more proof that there is no correct white balance. I put together a table of the Kelvin values that the two largest camera manufactures in the world use. You'll see below that even they can't agree on what is "correct".

Take a look at the table above of the Kelvin values I got from the worlds two largest camera manufactures white balance charts. Neither Canon or Nikon can agree on what the "correct" Kelvin value is for Flash photography. Not only that but they're m… — Take a look at the table above of the Kelvin values I got from the worlds two largest camera manufactures white balance charts. Neither Canon or Nikon can agree on what the "correct" Kelvin value is for Flash photography. Not only that but they're massively different.

Nikon says that when you set their cameras to flash white balance mode the shot will be captured with a Kelvin value of 5400K and Canon's flash white balance setting is 6000K. That's a difference of 600K - that's a hefty wedge of Kelvin difference right there. So which camera manufacturer is correct? Well, neither... and both, because it's an arbitrary figure that's based on a personal preference. Now I know some of you will be struggling at this point because surely we've always been told what the correct white balance for daylight is? Well those traditional photographers among you may well remember that film had exactly the same variables, daylight Fuji film was a lot "cooler" that the Kodak that film that was renowned for producing a far "warmer" looking image. There was no correct film to use back then and photographers regularly argued about which was the superior colour film. But there wasn't, it was simply personal preference.

Back when we used to shoot film we would have to buy specific tungsten film to shoot indoors under tungsten lighting and use daylight film for shooting outside in the daylight. Things are a lot simpler now and we simply adjust the white balance or K… — Back when we used to shoot film we would have to buy specific tungsten film to shoot indoors under tungsten lighting and use daylight film for shooting outside in the daylight. Things are a lot simpler now and we simply adjust the white balance or Kelvin values on our cameras to suit the situation as it arrises.

What is Kelvin?

Before we get too deep into this rabbit-hole though let me just catch everybody up to speed on what we're talking about when I mention the word Kelvin. Essentially Kelvin is the number that dictates white balance on your camera. Just like we use pounds or kilos to measure weight, we use Kelvin to measure colour temperature which is your white balance.

Kelvin is a scale that measures colour temperature; we then interpret this into our cameras and images with white balance.

HISTORY ALERT - SKIP IF NECESSARY

Long-story-short, Lord Kelvin decided to burn a block of pure carbon in the mid-1800's. He recorded the various colours the carbon changed to at different temperatures resulting in the colour temperature scale we use today. The Kelvin numbers scale is also actually a temperature scale and is one that is used frequently in physics because it has no negative value. For example zero Kelvin is actually absolute zero or -273 Celsius. Zero Celsius (waters freezing point) is 273.15 Kelvin and 100 Celsius (water's boiling point) is 373.15 Kelvin and so on.

Ok so now that we know what Kelvin is, and that White Balance seems fairly arbitrary when taking our shots - how come I feel like I've been told otherwise my entire life? It's simply easier to teach anything when there are rules and constraints in place to work within, like the saying goes, "You have to know the rules before you can break them".

Take a look at the shoot below to see what I mean by breaking the rules, all of the images below were taken in the daylight on the same day - I had to go a LOOOOONG way back in the archives to find a shoot that I had taken with natural light! All the shots have a different Kelvin value attached to them but quite often the better looking shot is the incorrect one.

All of these shots were taken on the same day in the daylight and I have played with the Kelvin values in Lightroom to illustrate how varied Kelvin values can be but yet still visually acceptable.

Granted some of the above shots might seem a little extreme in colour variation and you may have a strong preference towards one end of the Kelvin scale or the other, but I still believe that these are all still viable and all "correct". It just goes a little way in illustrating my point that white balance and Kelvin values are personal choice but also a strong creative modifier that can set the tone and mood of an image or series of shots. Take a look at the silver jumpsuit shots above: the technically correct white balance is probably closer to the 6200K mark, but when I cool the image right down with a 5200K the jumpsuit starts to pop and shine with those rich blue tones. Although the 6200K one is closer to actually being correct, the 5200K is certainly a more fashionably aspirational look and certainly makes it a better image because of it in my opinion.

Where do gels come into this? - I know it's coming.

So yes now that we know we are allowed to break the rules of white balance let's step it up a gear and not only change the colour of our shots via the cameras white balance but let's also change the colour of our subject and our surroundings with coloured gels too.

For a lot of my work I will only use coloured gels and no un-coloured lighting. Essentially every light in my set will have an artificial colour placed in front of it called a coloured gel, this means that the Kelvin value on my camera is completely open to me to abuse and play with as I see fit.

For example if I am taking a classic portrait shot with no gels I have to be careful not to push my white balance choice too far otherwise it will just look bad and not creative at all. Yes I know I said you can do what you want and there is no correct value but with classic lighting shots you still have to be a little cautious. See the three images below.

You can clearly see above that if you're using classic lighting you'll still need to be careful not to push the white balance too far. Yes you can warm it up or cool it down a little but drastic adjustment like we see here are never going to be acce… — You can clearly see above that if you're using classic lighting you'll still need to be careful not to push the white balance too far. Yes you can warm it up or cool it down a little but drastic adjustment like we see here are never going to be acceptable.

If on the other hand you'd like to use only coloured lighting and no bare flash or daylight then the creative options available to you via white balance and Kelvin are seemingly limitless.

Take a look at the three shots below with the same Kelvin values we saw earlier to see what I mean. The model is completely washed in colour so there is literally no "correct" value whatsoever. Granted the three setups are using different coloured gels in each but I still feel it illustrates the point of how powerful Kelvin is. Yes I could have set my Nikon camera to 5400K for flash photography as I'm supposed to have done and I would have gotten some very pleasing shots too but it's also fun to play with other looks that the Kelvin adjustments can offer.

The shots above were all captured using coloured gels on all of my lights in the scene so it opens up a whole world of creativity when playing with white balance and Kelvin values.

It is of course worth remembering that you don't need to set the camera to a specific white balance whilst you're shooing. Remember that as long as you're capturing raw files you can play with the Kelvin value until your hearts content later on in post processing software like Lightroom, Capture One or Adobe Camera Raw.

Featured Model: Remi Curtice

In Summary

So what did we learn? Well, first and foremost - if you take nothing else away from this article - it's simply that you shouldn't worry too much about the white balance setting on your camera. Most of the time AWB (auto white balance) will be totally fine for what you need and especially if you're shooting raw as you can tweak it later on in post-pro.

Secondly, bin the grey card! There you go, I said it. Seriously though, unless you work in the Pantone department at Adobe, a hermetically sealed factory at Mercedes or the office of Saatchi & Saatchi (to be fair I still think they'd laugh you out of the building) then that grey card literally isn't worth the paper it's printed on. I have a close friend of mine who works as the photography manager in one the industries top online retail fashion departments photographing clothes that demand precise colour rendition and he says that he sees colour variations in grey cards all the time. There is NO industry standard for grey cards. Base your white balance on what looks best to you not what another companies deem to be correct. If you've read this far then you're definitely ready to break the rules!

Lastly, make sure to play with varying Kelvin values in your natural light shots but also play with full colour wash shots too. Apply coloured gels to all of the lights in your setup and adjust the Kelvin in the camera to see how different amounts can significantly influence the look and feel of the shot.

If you give the colour wash shots a go, definitely share them my way with the Kelvin values you've used as I'd love to see what effects you come up with. Yes that's right I'm a nerd too :)

As always feel free to ask any questions below and I'll answer them as best I can.

If you need some coloured gels then feel free to check out my own coloured gel packs here Jake Hicks Photography - Coloured Gel Packs

Remember: AWB for the WIN ;)

:WARNING: Temptation is only a quick scroll away...

If you liked some of the gelled lighting shots in this article and you'd be interested in learning how to take those shots yourself or you're simply interested in finding out everything there is to know about Gelled Lighting then why not check one of my workshops: Gelled Lighting Workshop

I have also just released a brand new 22 hour complete Gelled Lighting Tutorial video. I go over everything from studio lighting setups with gels to being on location with gels plus I also go through my complete retouching and post pro workflow. For more details and complete breakdown of everything that's include check out my Coloured Gel Portraits Tutorial

I also offer comprehensive coloured gel packs. These collections of gels are what I use day to day to create some of the most highly saturated colours around. If you're looking at getting into gelled lighting or need to get stronger and richer colours in your coloured gel work why not check out my Jake Hicks Photography Gel Packs

First Play With The New Bowens Studio and Location Flash Units

The other day I was fortunate enough to receive a visit from Mr Bowens to have my first hands-on play with the new Bowens flash units. I don't think it's a secret that these lights have been in the oven a LOOOOONG time now, and I can't tell you how many versions we've gone through to get here in the last couple of years. But, they're finally here and straight out of the bag they are looking pretty damn gorgeous.

For those that aren't aware, I am a Bowens ambassador and a member of TeamBowens. I've been involved with speaking at events and providing training for them for a couple of years now both here in the UK and overseas. As a result of my association with Bowens I was fortunate enough to be involved to some degree in the design process of these heads and although I had a pretty good idea of how they were going to look, actually seeing them realised for the first time was pretty sweet.

I was able to grab a few quick shots of the new units straight out of the box. This is the brand new Studio head the XMS Studio 500w.

So what's the core differences between the two heads I saw?

Well one is a studio head and one was a location head. Obviously the studio head plugs directly into the mains and the location head is powered by a battery. Base figure on battery life is 500 full power flashes off a single charge plus the batteries are Lithium-ion so they'll withstand a ridiculous amount of re-charges too.

On the lefthand side you've got the 500w studio head and on the righthand side you've got the 500w location head. They're pretty much the same size and weight to be fair but remember the location unit has the battery inside the actually head. If you… — On the lefthand side you've got the 500w studio head and on the righthand side you've got the 500w location head. They're pretty much the same size and weight to be fair but remember the location unit has the battery inside the actually head. If you look closely on the righthand unit you'll see a little hatch towards to the rear, that's the drop-in battery back there.

Straight off the bat these new heads are VERY different looking to the now old Gemini models and in fact very different looking to any of the previous Bowens heads. The whole range is about to receive a complete overall. Obviously the key Bowens feature of the universally adopted S-fit attachment is still firmly in place but everything behind that has been changed. The most notable feature is the removal of the L-bracket, the bracket that attaches the light to the light stand. It has now been replaced with a central attachment with a cool quick-release handle. In practice this is a big improvement, the weight is now more centralised and there is far less stress on the units chassis from one side. As a result it is easier to angle up and down plus it's far quicker to tighten with the quick release handle over the half dozen turns of the knob on the side.

On the left is the old L-bracket on the Bowens heads. It would attach to the side of the head via a knob that you had to tighten. The new lights seen here on the right are attached to the stand via a central stalk that is tightened by a simple quick… — On the left is the old L-bracket on the Bowens heads. It would attach to the side of the head via a knob that you had to tighten. The new lights seen here on the right are attached to the stand via a central stalk that is tightened by a simple quick-release lever shown here.

The other most obvious change is of course how streamlined the actual bodies of the lights are now. Everything has been removed from the sides of the units so there's no longer any knobs and dials on the sides and it is now all situated at the rear of the lights in a slick looking disk of buttons and lights.

The rear of the lights now house everything that there is to adjust. No longer are there any knobs and dials on the sides of the lights, everything can be accessed from here. On the right is the studio unit and on the left is the location unit.

What's going on with that colour?

You may have missed it but last year Bowens dramatically changed their brand identity and the core change was the dramatic colour overhaul of the logo and marketing. Bowens has a core colour of magenta (apparently not pink) so as a result all the lights now have a magenta interface with all of the lights buttons and dials being lit by that vibrant colour.

The rear of the studio unit displays its readout and button labels in a vibrant magenta accents.

The rear of the location unit has the added feature of a large display as well as the magenta highlights. This large screen quickly and easily tells you what's going on including channel, flash duration (pretty cool feature) flash power, battery pow… — The rear of the location unit has the added feature of a large display as well as the magenta highlights. This large screen quickly and easily tells you what's going on including channel, flash duration (pretty cool feature) flash power, battery power etc. In fact pretty much everything you need to know is clearly displayed on this screen.

Like I said at the outset, this was a super quick play and I didn't really get chance to shoot with them in earnest. I simply fired off the heads to see how fast they fired, how low the power went and how many stops of power they had etc.

Impressions?

First impressions are strong indeed and I have to say that obviously they look good and they fire a flash when you press the button beyond that I'll have to see for myself when they're being used during an actual shoot.

The other points of note is that they both come with independent on-camera telemetry style units. These are the gadgets like Pocket Wizards that speak to the flash form the camera. Both the studio and the location units can be completely adjusted from their independent units. At present is doesn't look like the location and studio units transceivers will work together and you'll need a separate unit for both but I can't confirm that until I've played with them. Obviously you could still optically slave one. For example you set the transceiver to talk to one head and then the others could respond via infra-red so they're still compatible that way.

Also the location unit will have a feature that you can replace the battery with a power cable. It's not currently available but you'd simply pop out the battery and replace it with a drop in power cord so if you wanted to use them in the studio day-to-day then you can do. Then if you want to go out on the road you would simply just switch out your power cable for the battery instead.

The studio units are now made of a super tough exterior but Bowens has now come away from a metal body. The result is a 500w studio mono block that comes in at 3.7kg which is only a little more than the location unit.

The location unit has TTL which is great news for those on the move shooters like wedding photographers that need great quality of light and modifiers but with the responsive features of speedlights. The location unit also has the HSS (High Speed Sync) feature with capture times of up to 1/8000 of a second. For those that want fast moving objects frozen in time then I'm pretty sure 8000th of second is going to do it.

So that's the super quick look at the new Bowens heads. Mr Bowens has graciously promised me some of the first units out of the door so I will be eagerly awaiting my heads to give them a proper test in earnest. I will certainly be letting you know how I get on.

What will I be looking for when I test the new heads

Things that I will be personally looking at is going to be ease of use with the on camera trigger system. Will it be easier and faster to adjust everything from the box on top of the camera than simply walking over and adjusting the heads themselves.
I will also be looking at colour consistency. For my work with colour this needs to be consistent not just for the first 100 flashes but for the whole day. This can fluctuate as the bulb warms and cools so I'll interested to see how these new heads cope in reality not just on a colour meter.
I am also keen to see how they will work at consistently at low power outputs. Strobes don't like to be used on their lowest power and I take a lot of images with a wider aperture so seeing how they perform for extended periods at this setting will be fundamental.

The Stats of the Studio Unit - XMS500

Bowens XMS500 Website Link

MAX POWER (WS) - 500
FLASH DURATION (T=0.5) - f4.0 - f8.7 = 1/2480 - 1/5180 / f8.8 - f10 = 1/3080 - 1/4000
RECYCLE TIME (100%) - 0.2 (min) - 1.0 (max) sec.
POWER ACCURACY - 1/10th stop & 1 stop
POWER CONTROL - Rotary Dial, XMS Remote
POWER RANGE - 7 stops
POWER RANGE (WS/J) - 7-500
POWER RANGE (FRACTION) - 1/64
FLASH TO FLASH CONSISTENCY (F-STOP) - ±0.05
FLASH TO FLASH CONSISTENCY (KELVIN) - ±30°K/0.53%
MODELLING CONTROL - Rotary Dial, XMS Remote
MODELLING MODES - Off , Proportional, Free Set, Full
READY INDICATION - Beep, Modelling, Rotary Dial LED, Test Button LED
COLOUR TEMPERATURE - 5600K (±300K)
SYNC VOLTAGE - 5V DC
OPERATING VOLTAGE - 190-250V AC 50Hz, 90-130V AC 60Hz
2.4GHZ RADIO CONTROL - Yes
MULTI-VOLTAGE - Yes
AUTO DUMP - Yes
FAN COOLED - Yes
DIGITAL DISPLAY - Yes
WIDTH - 136mm
LENGTH - 485mm
HEIGHT - 192mm
WEIGHT - 3.7Kg

The Stats of the Location Unit - XMT500

Bowens XMT500 Website Link

MAX POWER (WS) - 500
POWER RANGE - 9 stops
POWER CONTROL - Rotary Dial, XMT Remote
POWER RANGE (WS/J) - 2-500
POWER RANGE (FRACTION) - 1/256
POWER ACCURACY - 1/3rd stop
FLASH DURATION (SHORTEST) - 1/10309s
FLASH MODES - TTL, Flash, Strobe
STROBE - Max 100 flashes (per burst)
TTL (FEC) - ±3-stops
BATTERY CHARGE TIME - 4 hrs (to full from empty)
MODELLING - 10W LED
HIGH SPEED SYNC - up to 1/8000s
SYNC DELAY - 0.01 - 30s
WIRELESS CONTROL - 2.4GHz / Optical (IR)
RECYCLE TIME (100%) - 0.01 - 2.0s
MODELLING CONTROL - Rotary Dial, XMT Remote
MODELLING MODES - Off , 100%, 30%, 60%
READY INDICATION - Beep, Test Button LED
COLOUR TEMPERATURE - 5600K (±300K)
SYNC VOLTAGE - 5V DC
2.4GHZ RADIO CONTROL - Yes
AUTO DUMP - Yes
FAN COOLED - Yes
DIGITAL DISPLAY - Yes
WIDTH - 126mm
LENGTH - 368mm
HEIGHT - 144mm
WEIGHT - 3.4Kg

Foreground Bokeh Lighting Tutorial

This foreground bokeh look is actually a setup I played around with a few times many years ago now. I was first experimenting with flare and bokeh but I had completely forgotten all about it until I recently came across some of the shots from those shoots and I thought it would be a good, fun setup to share as you can get some interesting results whilst playing around the much loved bokeh.

Bokeh is those little sparkly points of light you see here in the image above. They appear like this when your camera captures them when they are extremely out of focus either in the background or like here, in the foreground.

Bokeh is something that us as photographers love but I'm not entirely sure why. We may love it so much because we capture something that isn't actually there, we can't see it with our eyes and so I think it holds a measure of excitement in us as we eagerly check the back of the camera awaiting the image to appear to show us what our eyes cannot. Put simply bokeh are light artefacts that appear in our images when we capture spots of extremely out of focus light.

In my youth I worked in a photo lab where we developed film and I remember customers opening their prints for the first time and exclaiming that they'd captured these "weird mystical orbs" in their shots. To a non-photographer, explaining bokeh is far harder than you might think.

So how can we harness these "mystical orbs" into our studio shots to create something a bit more engaging than yet another sunlight-through-leaves bokeh effect?

You will need

1 Sheet of glass/good quality perspex.
2 - 4 Lights (the principles of this setup can be achieved with two lights).
1 beauty dish/small soft box key light
2 directional lighting modifiers - snoot, grid or barn doors etc
1 small softbox as a fill light modifier but a reflector can be a substitute here.
Gels - Optional…. but not really ;)
Glycerine and water mixture.
Hand sprayer thingy.
1 dark background - This can be anything from a black sheet/velvet to a black colourama.
1 shallow aperture lens - Ideally around f2.8 or less.
1 patient model/subject.

Adding coloured gels to your back lights will render the bokeh in the same colours which can look really cool.

The basic principles of this setup are that you create water droplets on the glass that will catch the light in the foreground of your image. You simply place a sheet of glass with water droplets on it in between yourself and the model, shine lights onto the droplets and the model, set your camera to a very shallow depth of field and then take some shots. That's the super simple explanation but lets look at each stage in a little more detail.

For my piece of glass I simply removed the glass that was in a large picture frame. Be careful though as this type of glass is often extremely sharp and fragile. If you can find some good quality perspex then that is definitely safer and a lot easie… — For my piece of glass I simply removed the glass that was in a large picture frame. Be careful though as this type of glass is often extremely sharp and fragile. If you can find some good quality perspex then that is definitely safer and a lot easier to work with.

First off you'll need a piece of glass. I actually just had a picture frame that I simply removed the glass from and used that. I will just say that this process is likely to render the glass seemingly un-cleanable forever, at least that's what's happened to mine. The sheet I had was about 23"/60cmm square so it doesn't need to be massive and you could probably get away with smaller if you just wanted to test it first. I haven't tried this with perspex but if you have access to some then I think this would be a good substitute as handling large sheets of fragile glass around models terrified me. You have been warned and for safety reasons I recommend the clearest perspex you can find.

For my beading mixture I used three parts water one part glycerine but I would advise doing a couple of tests before the model arrives. Start off with half water and half glycerine first then add more water if needed.

Next you'll need the "mystical orb" creating spray. I simply bought a garden/hair sprayer for 99p at the DIY store and then mixed my formula to put inside it. The formula is pretty straight forward, it's glycerine and water, nothing too crazy. Glycerine is one of those products that you've never heard of until you have and then you see it literally everywhere. Glycerine is used to preserve foods, in cosmetics, inks, glues, antifreeze and even medicine. I think it's also a product that helps with severe eczema so I picked up a big bottle of it at a local pharmacy for about £1. The reason you need this is to thicken your water which glycerin does really well as it's very thick and completely colourless. You want to thicken the water so that it doesn't immediately run off the glass you're about to spray it onto. With the addition of the glycerin in your sprayer you can spray some on the glass and it should bead up to create those little droplets you're after. Food photographers use this trick all the time to get those fresh tomatoes covered-in-water-droplets type shots.

You may be wondering why the points of light/bokeh aren't appearing on/in front of the models face. It's because careful placement of the backlights means that the model is actually casting a shadow that you can't see on the glass, this in-turn elim… — You may be wondering why the points of light/bokeh aren't appearing on/in front of the models face. It's because careful placement of the backlights means that the model is actually casting a shadow that you can't see on the glass, this in-turn eliminates any droplets from catching the light which of course means no bokeh in that area.

No you have your piece of glass/perspex and your droplet spray you're ready to start setting up the shot. This next step was by far the trickiest as you now have to support your sheet of glass vertically between you and the model. Personally I used a healthy mix of will and luck to balance mine on a couple of brackets and lighting stands - I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS METHOD - You have a sheet of glass so please, please, please be very careful with whatever method you use to support it but raising it up on a table and then clamping it is a way to go for example.

One of the main issues I had with this set up was focusing. The auto focus is crying out to focus on those points of light created by the droplets in the foreground. You just need to be patient or, like I did in the end, switch to manual focus to se… — One of the main issues I had with this set up was focusing. The auto focus is crying out to focus on those points of light created by the droplets in the foreground. You just need to be patient or, like I did in the end, switch to manual focus to secure a shot.

Once your glass is in place you'll want to setup your lights - wait until the last possible moment to spray the glass as it will run off even with the glycerine. I took my shots with four lights but the principles of this setup an be achieved with two lights if that's all you have. I'll explain my four light setup but also show you what to do if you only have two or three.

First off set up your two back lights behind the model and above head height and angled past the model towards where your camera will be. You could choose to add gels to those lights if you want to (of course you want to ;) ). These lights should have directional modifiers on them like grids, shoots or barn doors as we want to control the light in one area rather than bounce around the set.

Second we want to set up our key light. I used a 22" silver beauty dish but you can also use a small softbox instead but just be aware that the light will spread around a lot more so if you're close to the background then the light might spill onto it. Place the beauty dish on the camera side of the glass and have it above the camera and angled down towards the model.

Thirdly I set up a fill light via a small softbox on the floor. This is positioned under the model and obviously out of shot. You could substitute this for a reflector if that's all you have.

Don't worry, a complete lighting setup diagram is showcased below for both four lights and two lights.

This is the "beading" of droplets I'm referring to. These droplets will catch the light perfectly and create gorgeous bokeh in the foreground of your shot.

Next it's time to get the model in position on the other side of the glass to you and now you're ready to spray the glass. It's advisable to have a sheet or newspaper etc below the glass as you will get some run-off. I didn't find it made much difference which side I sprayed the glass, it's just the highlights you're after and the light hits the droplets whichever side they're on but it was just easier to spray it from camera-side.

Finally you're ready to start taking some shots. You'll want to set your camera to a shallow aperture, something around f2.8 or wider will be preferable. Take a shot and adjust your key light around your aperture then once you're happy with that you can adjust the power of your two back lights. More power on those will create more pronounced bokeh and less power will obviously create a more subtle effect.

This is the four light setup. You'll see that the two gridded spots are positioned behind the model pointing towards the camera, these both have gels attached. The beauty dish is positioned nice and close to model and the small soft box is on the fl… — **This is the four light setup.** You'll see that the two gridded spots are positioned behind the model pointing towards the camera, these both have gels attached. The beauty dish is positioned nice and close to model and the small soft box is on the floor acting as a fill light.

If you only have two lights then the basic principles can still be achieved. You simply keep your key light and only have one back light. If you have a third light then I would add it to the back and substitute the fourth light (the fill light)&nbsp… — If you only have two lights then the basic principles can still be achieved. You simply keep your key light and only have one back light. If you have a third light then I would add it to the back and substitute the fourth light (the fill light) with a reflector.

So there you have it, that's the in-camera foreground bokeh lighting setup. It seems like you need a lot of kit and preparation to achieve it but it's really not that bad and like I say, if you really want to give it a go but only have a couple of lights then you can still get the look.

Below is a bunch of images that I took when I was first experimenting with it. Like I say it was many years ago when I took these so please don't look too closely haha :D

Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments below and if you give this technique a go then definitely get in touch as I'd love to hear how you got on and if you have anything to add.

Thanks again for reading this technique guys, good luck and feel free to share with your friends and I'll see you in the next one.

I release photographic tips and techniques each and every week so if you don't want to miss one then simply sign up to my monthly newsletter via my FREE TIPS page.

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Flash Triggers - The Difference Between Radio and Infrared Triggers - Plus a Godox Trigger Review

Things fail, it's inevitable so make sure you have something in place to keep the shoot on track if your latest and greatest flash triggers lets you down. I always, always, always keep at least one basic sync cable in my bag for this very reason. Th… — Things fail, it's inevitable so make sure you have something in place to keep the shoot on track if your latest and greatest flash triggers lets you down. I always, always, always keep at least one basic sync cable in my bag for this very reason. This simple cable saved this shoot from being just another series of natural light snaps without question.

What's a Flash Trigger?

First off, "what is a flash trigger?" It's simply a way to fire your flash at the same time you press the shutter when the flash is mounted somewhere other than on top of your camera. I personally use a variety of methods to do this, and it can be as simple as a direct cable from camera to flash or the slightly more advanced infrared triggers or radio triggers. If you've ever looked into getting a flash trigger you'll know that not only are there all those initial choices but there's also a million and one options within them. Prices also vary greatly and there are plenty of well established companies like Pocket Wizard who offer the premium level products but also at premium prices. I've used the radio triggers from Pocket Wizard in the past and they have always worked well and as intended but I'll be honest and say that as a studio strobe shooter I rarely used some of the more impressive features their products have but those features might be better suited to tricky Speedlight setups. For me personally and my photographic needs I simply need the flash to fire when I press the shutter on my camera. Surely that's not too much to ask is it?

You'd be surprised and as a result I often resort to infrared triggers over the radio triggers as they have been more consistent and reliable in a controlled studio environment.

I've gone through my fair share of infrared triggers over the years and although they are ugly as all hell they are thankfully relatively inexpensive. They sit on the cameras hotshoe and send out an infrared signal to fire the flashes whenever you p… — I've gone through my fair share of infrared triggers over the years and although they are ugly as all hell they are thankfully relatively inexpensive. They sit on the cameras hotshoe and send out an infrared signal to fire the flashes whenever you press the shutter.

What's the difference between an infrared trigger and radio trigger?

I usually shoot with multiple lights in my setups and often upwards of 4 and 5 lights, all of which have to fire at the same time not just most of them. A radio trigger for example requires a transceiver/transmitter, this sits on the camera and sends out a radio signal to the receiver which is attached to the flash which in turn fires. Simple right? Yes and no. You've fired one flash perfectly but it's now that flashes sole responsibility to fire the other flashes as the other flashes in the setup don't have receivers. All of the other flashes have infrared receivers in them though so as soon as they see the first radio triggered flash go off they then fire themselves and the chain goes on. This all happens very quickly but not simultaneously so if you're trying to capture something fast moving with this method then you'll see ghosting as the first flash catches an image then another flash fires and so on but between the flashes firing the subject may have moved. Like I say this is only fractional but it's worth being aware of when photographing water or other fast moving objects.

The little red square circled here is what looks for other flashes firing and triggers itself to flash. (Ignore the tinfoil here, that was used to "boost" the light capturing abilities of the head. It works but it's hardly very professional looking.)

Infrared triggers send out the initial signal from the camera so all flash heads should receive a firing prompt at the same time eliminating this issue but infrared also has another benefit. A lot of my lighting setups will include focused areas of flashes that only illuminate small areas of the subject. This flash may be a snoot or grid so it's very directional and won't spread the flash around the rest of the studio (see the diagrams below as an example). This is great but this flash will also not spill onto other flash heads in the setup so it won't fire the other flashes. To get the maximum use of radio triggers you ideally need all of your flash heads to have a receiver so that they all fire at the same time but also that all the flash heads will fire even if you're using very directional lighting. There are many flash heads that have built in radio receivers now or at least radio card slots to add them. But if like me your flash heads don't, you'll need to purchase receives for all of your flash heads and this can get a little pricey for 5 or 6 of them.

In this shot you can see the radio triggers at work. The green dots represent the radio triggers. The one on the camera fires the receiver on the soft box which in turn fires the infrared triggers inbuilt on the additional lights. The infrared trigg… — In this shot you can see the radio triggers at work. The green dots represent the radio triggers. The one on the camera fires the receiver on the soft box which in turn fires the infrared triggers inbuilt on the additional lights. The infrared triggers are shown as red dots here.

Now lets look at a similar setup but this time we'll be using more directional lighting. The initial trigger works as expected and the camera triggers the strobe as before. This time however we are using directional lighting so the initial flash onl… — Now lets look at a similar setup but this time we'll be using more directional lighting. The initial trigger works as expected and the camera triggers the strobe as before. This time however we are using directional lighting so the initial flash only fires the infrared sensor that receives flash light. The additional light that didn't fire couldn't see the flash this time because the initial flash was too directional resulting in a misfire. The only was to remedy this with radio triggers is to have all of the flash heads equipped with receivers.

Finally lets look at the infrared triggers (shown here as red dots). The initial trigger from the camera can see all the lights so all the lights fire at the same time regardless of the lighting modifier used. None of the lights is waiting for the p… — Finally lets look at the infrared triggers (shown here as red dots). The initial trigger from the camera can see all the lights so all the lights fire at the same time regardless of the lighting modifier used. None of the lights is waiting for the prompt from another flash head as the camera talks to all of them simultaneously.

I'm a cheapskate

No that's unfair, I wouldn't say that I'm a cheapskate per se but like every other business owner I've EVER met, I hate spending money. There's a difference. I prefer to say that I'm "efficient" when it comes to spending money on business tools so if I can find a product that does exactly what I want and it's less expensive than other similar products then surely it deserves consideration.

When I'm buying new products, I'm mindful of how many features the new product has that I'll actually use. "Oh cool that new IJUF camera has 4K, AWESOME!" Will I ever use it? No of course not so I'm not best pleased to pay for features I won't use.

I've always been a firm believer of this quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” –Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Simply put, if it does exactly what I want then I don't need anything else getting in the way. Enter Godox.

Who the hell is Godox Photo Equipment Co. Ltd?

Godox has taken the photographic industry by storm in recent years but they've actually been around since 1993. Godox is based in China and is a photo equipment company that operates in the middle ground between the ultra cheap and the more expensive brand names. Godox benefits from exceptionally low manufacturing costs thanks to it's location plus it has an insanely short time-to-market window. This essentially means that it can produce huge quantities of products and have them for sale in a very short space of time. In a digital age where everybody knows the moment a new product is released, having a company that's quick on its feet is a plus. Before you say it, no this simply isn't another Chinese company that copies other manufactures products and sells their version at a lower price point. Godox actually has their own R&D team of around 25 people. That's larger than many major international lighting brands and they bring out some pretty impressive lights at some silly low prices. I haven't used them myself but I haven't heard anything but good news about them.

I purchased my flash triggers from Godox for a couple of reasons that I'll go into. Firstly they do exactly what I want and nothing more, they fire the lights when I press the shutter. I will still use an infrared trigger when appropriate but for times where I need a radio trigger, for example where line-of-sight prevents infrared triggers from working consistently, these radio triggers will be perfect. Secondly, they are very reasonably priced, no they're not the cheapest option out there but anything cheaper than this will simply fail and break after a couple of uses. Trust me I've tried those. Godox is currently in that sweet spot which is reasonably priced but still reasonably well made and reliable. Remember these things operate on radio waves, a technology that has been around a while now and radio waves don't have a "God tier" of effectiveness regardless of what marketing gurus may tell you.

So what's the Godox Flash Trigger like?

I purchased a couple of different products, a transceiver and receiver combo pack plus an additional receiver.

The Godox receiver and transceiver combo pack (on the left) plus an additional receiver (on the right).

…and because I bothered to take these back-of-pack shots I'm going to show them to you for no reason I can think of.

The transceiver and receiver pack plus additional receiver cost me £24.99 including postage. I'M SORRY, WHAT? Yes you read that correctly, those three items and postage for less than 25 quid. I genuinely felt bad.

If you're a real scumbag you can even "Make Offer" if you think £25 is still too much for all that lot!

It's well packaged and comes with the intended products like receiver and transceiver plus each box contains instructions, warranty and an input jack converter.

Each box contains the stated transmitter and receiver plus warranty and input jack converter. The input converter is actually the opposite to what the eBay listing stated, it actually converts the strobe input to a speedlight input. This is even bet… — Each box contains the stated transmitter and receiver plus warranty and input jack converter. The input converter is actually the opposite to what the eBay listing stated, it actually converts the strobe input to a speedlight input. This is even better for me as a strobe shooter. One less piece of kit to loose.

What's the difference between a transceiver and a transmitter?

This is actually fairly simple but often gets confused. A transmitter simply transmits a signal, nothing more. A transceiver on the other hand transmits a signal but also has the ability to receive a signal. This is particularly useful for speedlight shooters who like to adjust the flash outputs from their camera for example. For me, I simply need to fire a flash so the transmitter is perfect for me.

What I like about my Godox Flash Triggers

First off, I love how lightweight each of these products are. Both the transmitter and the receiver weigh very little but the transmitter is of most importance as it's situated on top of your camera all day so any additional weight up there is going to be noticeable very quickly. The biggest reason for this low weight is the absence of cumbersome batteries. A lot of transmitters contain AA batteries whereas this one is powered by a simple 12V lithium ion button battery. This whole unit weighs less than a box of matches and is hardly noticeable when on your camera. The battery is apparently good for around 10,000 shots too. We shall see.

The Godox transmitter is incredibly small and lightweight and weights less than a box of matches thanks to its efficient and button battery.

I also really like that the receivers are powered via the flash heads. You simply plug the receiver into the flash head and then plug the the power cable into the receiver. This is great for a couple of reasons, again it keeps the weight down, you don't have additional batteries in there plus it limits the points of failure in the system. You aren't worrying about the batteries running out on them plus you aren't carrying additional batteries around with you for this eventuality.

The Godox receivers plugs straight into the flash heads power socket and then you plug the power directly into that. This negates the need for additional batteries.

On this topic of having the receivers plugged into the power supply like this I really like how uncluttered that is. That might sound odd but I've had several very expensive receivers in the past but they all seem to have a four foot cable to attach them to the lights. This simply isn't needed at all so you end up with 3 1/2 foot of unwanted cable (granted this is alittel exaggeration but the cables are stupidly long). The result being is that you never let the receiver hang down like that so you have to find a way of attaching it to the light. In the past I've had it gaffer taped to the light, velcroed to the light, I've even had elastic bands around them attaching them to the light stands, it's an absolute mess. This Godox receiver simply plugs in exactly where you already had a plug and hangs seamlessly down where you already had a cable hanging down before. No stupid MacGyver tape and swearing mess of unused cables.

Whether you decide to purchase flash triggers or not, make sure you have a backup plan. Look at this guy, he apparently "FIXED" my flash trigger on the day with some parcel tape. We looked super pro in front of the client on that day ;)

Points to Remember

These Godox transmitters and receivers are very, very affordable.
They are not the cheapest but they have a solid build quality without the big name prices.
They are incredibly lightweight. The transmitter is especially light and ideal to have on top of your camera all day as you'll barely notice it's there.
The receiver unit plugs directly into the power socket of the flash heads so you don't need to worry about additional power for those or carry additional batteries for them.
The receiver hangs down in place of your normal power supply cable so you won't need to worry about taping it to the light head or the light stand with yards of spare cable.

That's pretty much it for the basics of flash triggers and although these points are heavily weighted towards studio strobe users like myself the same principles are still relevant even if you're using speedlights instead.

If anybody has any questions about any of that then as always feel free to fire away and I will do my best to answer them as soon as I can. Plus I highly recommend these Godox triggers, and at that stupid low price I reckon you should pick up a set and give them a go. I'll be getting a couple more receivers now for all my other lights too so make sure you leave me some :D

Useful links

Godox

Pocket Wizard

That crazy cheap eBay listing - Valid as of October 2016

Other articles that might interest you...

Old and New Nikon lens review - Is there any difference in the new lenses?

Start taking studio shots for under £25

10 things your camera bag needs as well as that extra flash sync cable

Part One

Part Two

:WARNING: I also sell stuff!

Get Google to Tell You When Somebody Steals Your Photo

Welcome back to "This Week In Image Theft"! Once again the soulless parasites are out and about stealing my shots, and once again I have to waste my time trying to do something about it. But there are a few things that I can put in place to ease this pain.

Firstly there's the site Pixsy - they're a reverse image search company where you give them your images. You tell them where you keep your shots, then they look everywhere else online to see if they appear somewhere without your permission. It's an impressively powerful software and they manage to extract all kinds of results that I never thought possible. For a full review of the service you can check out my article here "Finding People Who've Stolen Your Photographs".

Pixsy is great at finding shots, but it can be a bit overwhelming when you receive your update email from them like this...

I think it's pretty safe to say that I won't be going through all of those 14,624 matches.

Granted a lot of those will be innocuous reposts of my blog and articles plus a bunch of sharing of my pictures etc., which is fine, but I'm also sure there will be a ton of illegal uses of my work in there too. The problem is that I'd have to spend a week or two - time that I don't have - to find them. If I was fortunate enough that somebody like Nike or Gucci had used a couple of my snaps then it would certainly be worth those two weeks but I highly doubt I'm that lucky. The most common offenders by far are nightclubs and the chances of getting any money out of them is frankly laughable.

It just doesn't make smart business sense to devote hours, if not days, of my time to sift through over 14 thousand matches of my work online. The stolen images above are the result of just going through the first 15 pages of 'image matches' on Pixs… — It just doesn't make smart business sense to devote hours, if not days, of my time to sift through over 14 thousand matches of my work online. The stolen images above are the result of just going through the first 15 pages of 'image matches' on Pixsy before I gave up.

So apart from the dragnet approach of stumbling around the internet looking for copyright infringes I can also get Mr Google to do some of the hard work for me.

Google has a feature called Google Alerts, which is basically a simple line of code that looks at the specific terms you've given it, let's say, "cute kittens & baby pictures". Google then collates a list of all webpages with that term and delivers them to you with a regularity that you dictate. So if you were to choose a more sensible "Alert" like your company name, for example, "Jake Hicks Photography" and you wanted to see every new page that used those words in combination, you could receive that data once every day. This is exactly what I do and the beauty of this is that you can literally set this up in under 2 minutes.

Go to https://www.google.co.uk/alerts for the page I'm referring to below.

Type your chosen alert in here...

Click "Show Options" to…. you guessed it.

Your desired alert phrase.
How often you want to receive emails from Google about it. Once a day/week etc.
News, video, blog etc. Choosing Automatic gives you everything in my experience.
Your preferred language of trigger. For example if English is selected it won't show you results from France. With company names like your brand though always choose your language.
The region specified to search in. For copyright infringement just choose "Any Region".
You can choose between "Only the Best Results" and "All Results". I have no idea what modifier they use to determine "best" so simply stick to "All Results".

And you're done! It literally takes 2 minutes and it's super simple and surprisingly effective.

Once you've set up your Google Alerts, Google will send you an email at the end of the day with infuriating massages like this!

Google Alerts obviously doesn't look at your images, it works purely on text so it's going to give you different results to a reverse image search site like Pixsy will.

If all you wanted to know was the stuff about Google Alerts and setting it up then you're done. The rest of this article looks at a current copyright infringement case that I'm working on that was brought to my attention via Google Alerts, hence this article. If you're interested in the details then please continue.

So what is Google Alerts actually good for?

In my experience Google alerts generally just picks up re-blogs and a lot of Pinterest activity but every once in a while it does spot idiot companies who are stupid enough to actually include my name in their sales pitch alongside my pictures.

Pixsy hasn't caught this infringement yet, but Google Alerts did.

Pixsy has the facility to "submit a case" which involves you finding a copyright infringement yourself but passing it over to them to handle. Last week Google Alerts told me of this site that was selling cheap phone cases with my images on them so I took the information and submitted it to Pixsy.

Here's what they said...

So after submitting the online details an immediate and automated response says, "Pixsy Resolution is not available for this website, and more information is available in our FAQ. You are welcome to send a takedown notice instead.". Unfortunately I found nothing at all pertaining to this in the FAQ and as to why it's resolution centre won't touch it, but it's my assumption that Pixsy won't bother with this case because it's operating out of one of the copyright "dead-zones" like China. Upon looking under the contact details for the phone case company it does indeed appear to be doing exactly that.

As it stands at the moment the only legal recourse I have is to issue a takedown notice as per Pixsy's automated advice. I cannot find any reference to this action on their site and although I'm sure it's just me being daft I can't see how I can begin to implement such a thing. I sent them a message requesting help over a week ago and have heard nothing back as of yet. To be fair to them, there is no money to be made out of this on their end so the importance of my message to them isn't high. I get it - we're all businesses trying to make a buck, but I'd certainly appreciate any advice from either them or yourselves out there on exactly how I begin to implement a takedown notice.

Also, is it really worth it? Countries like China and other copyright lax countries steal stuff all the time to little or zero penalty. Should I bother wasting my time that I could be spending to make money in other ways just to satisfy my pride? Have any of you bothered to issue a takedown notice in a copyright haven and have you had any success or results?

I'd love to hear your feedback and experiences on this, guys, so please feel free to fire off in the comments section below, and I hope this article helps you find some image stealing scumbags of your own to stop.

A review on the reverse image search site Pixsy "Finding People Who've Stolen Your Photographs"

Adding copyright metadata to your shots via Lightroom "Adding Copyright Metadata"

:WARNING: Monies Required Ahead

I run regular workshops on some advanced lighting techniques like gelled and lighting and my post pro workflow. If you're interested in finding out more then please check out my "Training" page.