Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hello me again thought I would try the forums before calling tech support. I was doing some copy work the other night and had 2 AB800s set at the same power on either side of some artwork. During post I noticed that the strobe camera right had a much warmer light temp than the strobe camera left. Again I attached an image as example.

Notice the cool to warm shift from camera left to right? Is this a flash tube issue or something bigger with the strobe. It's a bit frustrating.


Color corrected and this what the actual piece looks like in real life.


Thanks for any help.

-mark mortensen
Lakewood Colorado portrait and event photographer.
http://www.markmortensen.com

I really can't see a color difference on the images posted here. (I believe it's there but I can't see it.)

Might I suggest you do a series of test shots with a color chart or a WhiBalance card and compare the results using one flash at a time.

BTW, did you use any modifiers with the strobes?

Yes, I used Paul's large soft boxes. I even just created a blog post that shows the entire setup if you are interested.

http://www.markmortensen.com/technique/how-to-photograph-artwork/

I am determining that I'll need to do some tests with all my strobes and figure out what the white balance is for each strobe at each power setting. On my monitor I can clearly see a yellow color cast on the right of the image on the first image I posted in my original post.

Thanks for the reply.

-mark

Switch the soft boxes and see if the color difference follows. Try without any soft boxes

John

Looks more like exposure difference than color difference to me. I agree with swapping the softbox sides as a test. I see maybe 100°K of actual color shift visually - pretty hard to get much closer than this with any system unless everything is absolutely identical, including vintage.

Were it me, on this particular shot, I would desaturate in post in one color adjustment layer, then do a second color adjustment layer and colorize the whole thing to get exactly the tone you that matches the original best.

Also, room influences can easily create this much color gradient.

"Also, room influences can easily create this much color gradient."

Amen, I get far more shift from the room than even the ultra low end strobes I used to keep at home.

I looked at you set up and wonder if the ceiling is not your issue, rare wood is VERY warm and yours looks sloped and who know where the light is bouncing from the supports.... I would start by covering the area above and below the lights with a big piece of black felt ASAP.

Ray