Assistance required on flash photography

[MelC]

Hello to all forum members. I would greatly appreciate some assistance or advice on how to create coloured ( say blue or red) backgrounds in a 3 - 4 flashlight set up. My current approach is to use 2 - 3 strobes on the main subject and one strobe with a coloured gel aimed at a white background. In isolation, the coloured background is fine but when all stobes are fired the coloured background is washed out and loses any semblance of colour. l have experimented with distances, ratios and power settings on the stobes but always with unsatisfactory results. Thank you in advance for any suggestions or advice.

 

[480sparky]

My guess is all the other lights are not shielded from the background. You'll need to use some sort of blocking device to prevent that. Such as a barn door.

 

[table1349]

Light Science and Magic, Fourth Edition: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting: Paul Fuqua, Steven Biver Fil Hunter: 8580001063096: Amazon.com: Books

 

[Derrel]

Instead of using a white backdrop, use a gray or darker (charcoal, or black) backdrop, which will give darker coloration. BLACK is a great color onto which to fire a colored gel. On white, a gel fired onto that will at times, create too much kick-back onto the subject, espcially at close distances or in cramped shooting areas.

 

[zombiesniper]

Completely agree with Darrel on the background colour.

I used a fog grey for these.

Logan blue by Trevor Baldwin, on Flickr

Logan red by Trevor Baldwin, on Flickr