Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have some dumb questions about warming gels. I shoot digital and raw and always set custom WB using a whi bal card. I have two b800's. Will the warming gels help with skintones. If I white balance with the gels on the strobes will the custom WB routine not simply balance the warming out? Would I WB without the gels and then add them? Are the gels simply not useful when using raw. I would like to spend less time on skintones in post.
Trying to fiqure it all out,
Daryl Lee

The gels are to help you change the color from your strobes. If the strobes are your only source of light, then no, they there is no difference from changing the white balance. However, if you are mixing light from different sources (natural for example) then gels are very important.

I learned early on that a little warmer is much more flattering for people pictures. You could continue with you current workflow and just warm up the images slightly for nicer skin tones.

Keep in mind, however, that if your lab is color correcting your prints they may change your white balance.

I would white balance WITHOUT the gels, then add gels later or you will get a white instead of a warming color from the gels.

RMS

If you white balance based on bare flash (i.e. no filters) then adding filters will give you a color cast of those filters, since the white balance was not based on that color. Doing a white balance adjustment with the filters will neutralize the effects of the filters.

Thanks to all. That really helped a lot.
Daryl Lee