A full cut of CTO?

A full cut of CTO? What on earth is that, and why could I possibly need it? Whenever I go out on a shoot, I'm always thinking about how to take my photography to the next higher level.

When you go out shooting a portrait, are you concentrating a lot of your energy on making sure your pictures are sharply focused? For most of us, the answer is no. Sure, we put a certain amount of effort into making sure that the lens is focused, especially with new equipment, but after a while, focusing becomes second nature. Let's think beyond that. What's going on with the background, and with the light. It's outdoors, and it's about 3:30 in the afternoon, still a little too early for the golden light. The sunlight is behind our model Rosalyn's right shoulder. It's a day after a rainstorm. The grass is a gorgeous green and the skys are clear and blue. Due to some harsh sun backlighting her, it's clear that I'm going to need to add some light on Rosalyn's face, but if I just blast away with an electronic flash, the shot's going to look cold.

With a new Nikon, there are lots of times you can shoot without even thinking about white balance, but this was not one of those times. I wanted the look of warm sunlight on the model's face, and I wanted to do it without throwing off the natural color of the grass, the bricks and the sky. The trick: Place a Rosco Cinegel CTO (Color Temperature Orange) Jell over the flash and bump the flash power up about 2/3 stop. This gives the shot that afternoon sunlight look and the model's skin tones look warm. If I tried this shot without the jell and flash combination, adjusting white balance in photoshop, the results would not have been pretty. Getting it right at the moment you trip the shutter is the key. Visualize. Check your preview monitor and histogram. Fix what's not what you want, and keep shooting and checking. It works!