Two of my most popular images were shot in a two-week span last year. I’d just read Joe McNally’s Hot Shoe Diaries and I decided to put a few of the techniques to use. Both are excellent examples of using Color Temperature for effect, something that I think is extraordinarily important to travel photographers. As we’ll see, the different effect produced by a simple in-camera adjustment gives two distinct emotional feelings.

Let’s take a look into the above image:

Triathlete Jasper Blake isn’t the biggest man, but he races with a huge heart. He’s been training vigorously and plans on making a big splash at Ironman events over the next few years. I had the fortunate opportunity to shoot some portraits of him in Victoria last spring, so I arranged a meeting near the water front. As a beautiful sunset was occurring to the west, I set up this image facing east.

Using a single off-camera flash, this time to camera left, I was able to manipulate the color to give this image a colder feeling by adjusting the camera’s white balance to tungsten. Satisfied with a punchy blue background, I then added a CTO gel to my flash. This helped bring Jasper back from the brink of suffocation to a pleasant, balanced tone.

Camera Settings: Nikon d300 | Lens: 17-55mm @ 26 mm | f/8.0| 1/60th second | ISO200 | SB-800 Camera left with a CTO color gel

Now, on to image number two:

This photo is extremely orange. It gives a warm feeling that, when coupled with the sharp shadow, portrays a feeling of either loneliness or independence. Singer songwriter  Charlene Birkbeck waited patiently as I ruined frame after frame. Eventually the sunset finished and I lost my nice directional orange light. Fortunately, it was the exact situation I was looking for. I was prepared to bring the sunset back, but redirect it just enough to cast the shadow on the wall.

I changed the camera’s color balance to Cloudy, something I could have done in post-production but I wanted to verify the results on my LCD, and took a test shot. next, I added a CTO color gel to my flash head, located to camera right, to increase the warmth a touch more. Finally, I moved the flash further away and zoomed it to 105 mm to sharpen the shadows cast by the light.

Camera Settings: Nikon d300 | Lens: 17-55mm @ 20 mm | f/3.5| 1/30th second | ISO200 | Sb-800 Camera Right with a CTO color gel

Now, on to image number two:

Triathlete Jasper Blake isn’t the biggest man, but he races with a huge heart. He’s been training vigorously and plans on making a big splash at Ironman events over the next few years. I had the fortunate opportunity to shoot some portraits of him in Victoria last spring, so I arranged a meeting near the water front. As a beautiful sunset was occurring to the west, I set up this image facing east.

Using a single off-camera flash, this time to camera left, I was able to manipulate the color to give this image a colder feeling by adjusting the camera’s white balance to tungsten. Satisfied with a punchy blue background, I then added a CTO gel to my flash. This helped bring Jasper back from the brink of suffocation to a pleasant, balanced tone.

Camera Settings: Nikon d300 | Lens: 17-55mm @ 26 mm | f/8.0| 1/60th second | ISO200 | SB-800 Camera left with a CTO color gel

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Tags | accessories, color, equipment, gear, photojournalism, Portraits, technique, Travel, Travel Photography