Whip out the CTO

When shooting in lower light (or if you have a really powerful strobe), you can put an orange gel on your flash so that the light that hits the subject is, well orange. Then, you adjust your white balance (I always just do it later in Lightroom) so the subject looks neutral, which makes the background turn blue. Here isa great collection of examplesof using this color shifting technique. (Side note: I couldn t remember the term color shifting this morning, and several helpful readers reminded me onthe ImprovePhotography Facebook fan page). If you ve never heard of gelling a flash, you will be surprised to know that a gel is not jelly like in consistency. It s just a plastic colored transparency. You canbuy a set of gels for around $10 on Amazonthat fit most flashes.