color temperature

I saw on the new Seacam 250 strobe you can change color temperature, exactly what is and does color temperature do and what are the advantages of been able to use it on a strobe? Thx

Hi Patrick,

Sunlight is essetially 5,000 kelvin color temp. Cool white flourescents are around 6,500kelvin.

The higher the temperature, the bluer the light basically.

IMO, warmer strobes (like the Ikes) are better for WA photography, where the light has to go through a lot of water. Higher kelvin strobes are OK for macro photography, but you'll get a colder look, if you don't do a white balance in photoshop.

Cheers

James

Thanks James, is this something that you can do in RAW later or will changing it in RAW lose some quality?

Hey Patrick,

In a flash only image you can do most of this in RAW. But in a balanced light image you cannot adjust the flash-fill light colour temp without changing the background (blue) light.

Alex

If you're a photoshop wiz and have an image with good tonal separation between a blue background and a flash-lit subject you might be able to select out different adjustment layers for the foreground and the background (using the magic wand for, say, the blue water with maybe 30-50 tone steps latitude, saving this selection and then inverting the selection or correcting all the background beneath it) and then modify the colours independently. Any blue in the flash-lit image is going to muck this up, of course. I've managed it once or twice; this is a crude example that took 30 seconds, before and after:

Tim

B)

I used to use a Subtronic Mega Colour which offered this. Essentially it allows for different colour balances between flash lit foreground and available lit background. Where it can be quite helpful is when shooting a subject further off than normal. In this case switching to a lower, warmer colour temperature will help to counteract the coolness produced by shooting through a longer distance of water (and if you think about it the total light path is flash to subject to flash which can be quite lengthy depending on your subject). Using the warmer flash can also help the vividness of the blue background if you shoot raw and adjust files to produce a 'neutralised' foreground. The cooler setting is useful for close-up shots.

A related question: How important is it that both of your strobes be the same temp? If you use one 5100K strobe and one 5500K strobe together, will the difference really be noticeable?

I don't think you'd notice that, no. Where you'd notice is when you shoot a 5100K strobe and a 6500K strobe.

Cheers

James

Thanks all, one last question, on the seacam 250 digital, will they work with a subal ND2 and is the ttl electronics in the strobe now, so you can just, to quote Microsoft "plug and play"? I emailed Steven Frink twice but he never emailed back.

Hi Patrick,

Steve travels a lot, you may want to try emailing Liz (waterhouse@aol.com).

Cheers

James

Will do thanks.