Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hi,

I had the opportunity to shoot with Westcott TD6 cold fluorescent lights recently, and I find the color temperature to be excellent and I think, appears cleaner and much more pleasing than my E640 units.

I was wondering, should I try removing the dome on my Einsteins? I read that the dome reduces the color temperature by 300.

Or, can you recommend another method to help make the color of the lights cleaner?

Thank you!

You could put a couple of gray cards set up as a V and light them from the sides; one side with the Westcott, and the other with the Einstein. Knowing which is cooler can give you an idea how to filter the source with a Lee or Roscoe theatrical gel (Which are pretty cheap too as I pay about $6 for a 20x22 inch sheet at local theatrical light rental shop.).

I filter for around 5,250 Kelvin as my Daylight (I believe that is also Nikon's Daylight Kelvin default number?), but I also have a Sekonic C-500 color temperature meter too which helps in my filtering to get me there. Most CMYK printer's light boxes are set for around 5,000K so I'm within reason.

That said, I have some newer speedlights and they are very blue, some in the area of 7,000+ K. They do need filters. Somewhere, manufacture's dropped the ball on digital and the older film electronic flash units (e.g. Vivitar 283/285) had some yellowish/orange filter as part of the head for correction. Now we got colder blue lights unless filtered.

My old Buff Ultra's have one gold tube and one clear tube in them (They used two tubes for those oldies.). The gold tubes were for Ektrachrome slide film to warm it up a bit. Still not down to 5,250 K but close enough.

If you really want to see color pop, try some old Press 40 flashbulbs sometime if your camera will allow for them on sync. I believe the old flash bulbs ramped up and down in an orangish way as they burned to their peak blue, and it adds a bit of warming to the skin coloring. Electronic flash is always sort of cold in comparison.

Often wondered why the flashtube makers for strobes didn't use a bit of some warm rare gas like neon or strontium to the xenon gas to warm the cold xenon flash up a bit. Least Buff used to paint the older tubes with a gold stripe to warm them up. Now we resort to digital and software to correct it all, which isn't always the best way to go, imho.

Mack

Color is a fickle thing. The OP mentions "excellent" color and "clean" color, but those are subjective adjectives, and are rather vague.

"Daylight" color temperature falls withing a range, typically in the 5,000K to 5,700K range, though actual light during the day can extend well beyond this range in both directions.

Once camera manufacturer may decide on a certain temperature is "daylight", and a flash may or may not be that temperature. This does not mean either is incorrect. Also, a camera at a given set of settings may render a flash as one color profile with one lens, and a different color profile with a different lens, sometimes even within the same company and I have even seen this on two specimen of the same lens.

Be sure the color mode of Einstein is set to COLOR, as ACTION mode can shift blue.

You can remove the dome if you wish, but also remember any modifier you use will also shift the color to some degree.

Ultimately, we recommend a custom white balance for each scene, using a purpose made white balance tool (not a gray card, unless it says it is also for white balance).

Thanks for the replies!

I always setup a custom white balance from a gray card, and I use the color checker passport and create a custom profile that I load in Lightroom, to be sure the colors are claibrated to a standard, so I have a level of consistency with my work.

I also use a ColorMunki Photo to calibrate my 22" Macintosh monitor.

I'm by no means a technical expert, but what I'm trying to express is I can't seem to duplicate the wonderful color of the light from the Westcott TD6's, with my Einsteins. (I don't own TD6's, just tried them and might purchase a set)

The Einsteins have a warmer, yellower look to me, and I have difficulty fixing it in Lightroom. I'm using a large PCB Octabox for my key light, and the power of the strobe is usually around 3/4 to nearly full power so I can get F/8 or F/11 at 1/200. I use a Lastolight Triflector for fill and for nice catchlights. This is for head shot work I do.

The shots are improved in post, but not perfect.
See example: http://www.ivanbodenphotography.com/Por ... -3nVN7Bh/A

I think they can be better if the color was a little cooler (my poor choice of words - cleaner) in temperature.

I will continue to experiment and see what I can do, but I must confess, it's been a little frustrating.

Any other thoughts or recommendations are appreciated!

Thank you!

What kind of gray card? Have you used the one included with the color checker?

Try a gel to correct, maybe a #444 Lee over the Buff to warm it if you feel it is too cold. Lee has a suggested filter listing for florescent here: http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/technical-list.html#&filter=conversion

Then there is also the Kelvin calculator on their site too: http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/mired-shift-calculator.html but you need to know the actual Kelvin of the lights and don't rely on published info as there are too many variables, especially when fabrics come into play with brighteners.

Fwiw, even the aluminum bowl reflectors have a color cast to them. I dyed color-correction socks for most of mine with a very, very dilute Rit gold/yellow dye to get them all down to around 5,250K, but I have a color temperature meter too. The newer Sekonic color meter also has a color spectrum scale and shows magenta/green spikes in fluorescent lamps too. Personally, most florescent need some color adjustment and most filter makers make a bunch of FLD filters. FL was a nightmare to deal with with film and I suspect the boom in CFL or LED for digital isn't that much better in that they rely on post software to fix it.

Establish what you want as your standard working light source, and adjust anything else to it. Takes work, and a color temp meter helps to get you there.

Good luck!

Mack