Daylight filter on flash for outdoors?

[DeepSpring]

I have noticed lately that sometimes when I shoot portraits outdoors with my 430ex, more so with direct light then bounced in an umbrella, I end up with a slight blueish tint to where the light hits.

Are the flashes balanced to indoor light which is only about 3200K? Will putting a daylight gel in front of it bump it up to 5500K like it does with constant lights for movies?

 

[Sideburns]

Well, usually a flash is supposed to be balanced for daylight...but you could try it.

 

[Helen B]

Flash is often a little cooler (ie higher colour temperature, CT or CCT) than daylight, mainly because the higher the CT the more efficient it is. There is then a filter over the tube to bring it back to near daylight. It is more efficient (in terms of lumen-seconds per joule) to operate the tube at a high CT and filter down than it is to operate at 5500 K.

If the light from the flash is blue when compared to daylight, then it is firing at a higher CT, not a lower. It is not unusual. I use a 1/8 CTO (colour temperature orange) over flash in daylight as a general rule, to give the flash a warmer look in comparison to the daylight.

Best,
Helen

 

[RacePhoto]

The Speedlite 430EX automatically transfers colour temperature information to recent models of digital SLR cameras . The camera then sets the white balance optimally for the flash shot. This feature works when the camera's white balance mode is set to Auto White Balance (AWB) or Flash white balance mode.

 

[DeepSpring]

The flash is being used off camera tho so it can't communicate with the camera

 

[Garbz]

The Speedlite 430EX automatically transfers colour temperature information to recent models of digital SLR cameras . The camera then sets the white balance optimally for the flash shot. This feature works when the camera's white balance mode is set to Auto White Balance (AWB) or Flash white balance mode.

Which doesn't help because there's multiple colour temperatures in the photo. We're not talking correcting the image to the flash, we're talking about correcting the flash to the ambient which can only be done with colour correction gels.