Question: I'm just learning photography and I found this picture 

<http://www.michaelkormos.com/blog/a-lovely-afternoon-family-photography-nyc-family-photographer>

The background was warm with yellow soft tones ... but the subjects are clear. I wondered how can I do that?

Yesterday I did a test, but failed ... lOLz ... It was a bright sunny day at the lake nearby and I changed the white balance color to warm and shot with the flash on her face. But ... her face become darker, as seen in this picture:

![Lake BSB and forest](https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5784/22887832505_b52defc5f7_z.jpg)

I want to know how to make her skin tone natural. Which flash gel should I use for this?

Another case, I did this shoot at night with very low light. 
I used off-camera flash and shot at the subject but I saw my flash became blueish, like the garden lamp. Here is the picture:

![2015-10-19_07-11-23](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/595/22262648996_70ce8d7c07_z.jpg)

how can I fix this color and, if possible, could you reference an article or book that can help me learn more about color and white balance?

Answer: 
A shot like this requires you to **shoot during the [golden hour](https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/16028/what-is-golden-hour)**. The light at this time of day will be very warm/yellow with very pronounced shadows. Other factors that can help you get a shot similar to this include careful application of additional light sources such as a reflector, as well as special consideration for what lens may produce the desired effect such as lens flare.

Further, if you want to replicate the effect that this photographer achieved, I would recommend you **read some of his blog posts** such as this one: [5 Easy Backlighting tips by Michael Kormos](http://www.clickinmoms.com/blog/easy-backlighting-tips-for-your-photography-by-michael-kormos/)

Here is an example I shot 20 mins before sunset at my location:

[![Example image at golden hour](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZCWZz.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZCWZz.jpg)
First, to get this warm and yellow background, you need to be shooting in that kind of light, which generally only happens at sunrise and sunset. You can see by the catchlight in the eyes that the photographer was using a fairly large reflector to get light back onto the subjects. Also, you will notice that the super golden part of the light is way off in the distance - the further away, the more golden, so being close to the subject with the camera means less gold, more natural.

So it's essentially three things: shoot just before sunset, put the light source behind your subject and a good distance away, and use a reflector to get light onto your subject's face.