Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I just got my ABR800 and was using for a shoot on Saturday. When the ABR800 was shot at full power (no modifiers and the diffuser removed) the whites would be very blue (white balanced to 5600K).

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?

Thanks!

By "whites" are you referring to textile material or something else? Often textiles will use whiteners that will fluoresce, causing a bluish cast.

It's a wedding dress. It was during a bridal session. I've never seen whites go this blue though while using speedlight type flashes.

Your speedlites likely have a UV coating on them. You can try either a UV gel on the flash, or try using a UV filter on the lens.

Interesting.

I'll try with a UV filter to see if that makes a different.

What would be the best way to put a "UV gel" on the abr800?

with no reflector or anything, it would be difficult. With the reflector, you could tape/clip one to the outside of the reflector (with a hole cut in it). We sell some gels, but not UV. The ones for teh ring flash are donut shaped and fit inside the reflector and diffuser.

Current AB tubes are UV coated. Additional UV gel can help a lot here. Wedding dresses are notorious for fluorescing. I think you'll get just as much blue from speedlights on a particular dress.

UV on the lens won't help much . . . the blue is already produced by the fabric. Filter on the lights is the best solution by far. Easy to clip a gel on a 7 or 8 1/2" reflector, harder on softboxes/umbrellas.

The reflector is still on. Diffuser is the only thing I took off.

do you guys sell replacement bulbs that are UV coated? Wouldn't this solve this problem? If not, can you point me to someone that sells this UV gel?

Thanks!

We do not have UV coated tubes for the Ringflashes, however you can buy 24x24 sheets of gel at B&H or Adorama (plus many more places). Also, if you have a local stage lighting supplier or a pro level camera store, they may have some as well. These will be square sheets, and will need to be cut to fit.