P3D Re: flash painting

["David W. Kesner" <drdave@xxxxxxxxxx>]

In P3D digest 3440 Nathan Kreuter asks:

> Has anyone out there done much "painting" with flashes?  You know, putting
> the camera's on bulb and then triggering flashes manually to produce
> desired affect - all at night of course.

Yes, I do this quite a bit in my stereo cave photography.

>  If so, my question is whether I
> can produce secondary and tertiary colors with the primary colored filters
> that you can buy for flashes. Maybe it would be more
> worth my time simply to put colored tissue paper like what art classes use
> over the flash instead.

You answered your own question here, except that instead of 
colored tissue paper use theatrical gels that are made for that 
purpose. You should be able to get just about any color you want 
and they were made to show light through and are very durable.

Don't forget that if you are shooting buildings you will most likely 
need tungsten film to compensate for the fluorscent lighting through 
the windows. Then you will have to compensate the gel colors to get 
the desired color. Also don't forget to watch out for street lights that 
can be anything from mercury vapor to high pressure sodium.

Good luck and let us know how it works out.

That's all for now,

David W. Kesner
Boise, Idaho, USA
drdave@xxxxxxxxxx


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