Flash photography tip: Create your own warm sunlight
Friday 23 May 2025, 14:07 by Elja Trum | 2,599 views | 2 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
Even on a dull day, you want to take beautiful, atmospheric photos. Your flash can help you imitate sunlight. You can recreate the warm colour of a rising (or setting) sun by putting an orange colour filter (CTO) on your flash, or by flashing into a gold-coloured reflector.
Of course, pay attention to the direction of the light. From the side usually works best, but you also need to consider a logical position for the sun. Especially if there is real sunlight visible in the background too. If the direction differs, your viewer will quickly realise that something is not right.
Make sure your flash fires just a little harder, about 1 stop, than the ambient light, so the effect is still clearly visible, but not exaggerated or causing blown-out areas.
About the author
Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.
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2 comments
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guest wrote on Tuesday 27 May 2025 at 16:31 | replyLeuk artikel. Je geeft aan dat de flitser net iets harder flitst (ongeveer 1 stop) dan het omgevingslicht. Maar hoe bepaal je wat de hoeveelheid omgevingslicht is?
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet. -
Elja Trum
wrote on Tuesday 27 May 2025 at 16:46
| reply
Je kunt dat natuurlijk meten met een (flits)lichtmeter. Als je flitslichtmeter geen omgevingslicht meet, dan kun je de waarden van de lichtmeter van je camera gebruiken.
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.
Maar het is ook prima te doen 'op zicht' op basis van het schermpje van je camera en de histogram (als je geen flitslichtmeter hebt). Dat kost je dan een paar foto's om het licht naar wens te krijgen. Let op (in het histogram) dat er geen uitgebeten plekken ontstaan.
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Elja Trum
Photofacts; everything to do with photography!
Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about PhotofactsPhotofacts is made possible in part by
