FILTERING INONS

Hi, guys

Since my Inons Z220 are 5.500K, maybe warming them a little bit might pose some benefit when shooting WA (basically ability to cool my WB so I get nicer blues).

So my question is: which type of filter do I have to attach to my strobes? It is OK just a piece of orange acetate or do I need something more elaborate?

I also do understand that once I use the filters I can get rid of the diffusors, isn´t it?

I would say I´ve read about this in prior posts as a by-side topic, but I´ve been unable to find it again.

Thank you very much for your comments.

Hi Pedro,

I have a new pair of Inons and am experimenting with this at the moment. I would suggest going to for a pink to orange filter. But much weaker looking than you might at first imagine. Basically like pink or light orange.

I was planning to do soem tests in the next few months, and when I have found a combo that works I was going to write an article, post some comparrison shots and provide some suggestions. But that is a while away!

Hopefully someone else may have some suggestions for both of us! The few people I know who use them already basically found theirs by trial and error and can't remember (or won't say) what they are using!.

Alex

Hopefully someone else may have some suggestions for both of us! The few people I know who use them already basically found theirs by trial and error and can't remember (or won't say) what they are using!.

Hi,

I have seen someone using a pair of Z240 with light orange difusers about 1mm thick. I was wondering what CC30 or else Pro Filter he was using but I've realised he found a solution with the bottom of a thin Tupperware case

He is getting very pleaseant blues with it...

Wonder if his wife found out what happen to that particular Tupperware case

You may want to try 10cc or 20cc Yellow or Red. You get "gels" at a store for theater lighting.

Careful how you think when choosing filters on strobes.

Warming filters work in a pretty straightforward manner since the strobe light continues to maintain a white overall balance. Those kinds of filters aren't the only choices, though. Diffusers usually offer some warming effect but they are neither strong nor predictable.

You may also use color filters but doing so will throw white balance off. To compensate, the camera's white balance (or raw converter) will adjust, but this adjustment will effect strobe light AND ambient light. This is how strobe filters control blue water backgrounds.

You may use a CC20 yellow as Deep6 suggests and end up with 20cc of blue added to ambient. That could work like you want. Using a red version, though, will probably not do you what you want. Surprisingly, it is the green filter that does the most good with blue water backgrounds. The difference between green and yellow strobe filters is the red boost that green provides.

So there are two ways to achieve bluer water: the first is use a warmer strobe or warming filter on the strobe and the second is to use CC filters on the strobe in either yellow or green color.

Note that lens filters do NOT alter background water color. You must use strobe filters for that. I choose to use both lens AND strobe filters in a matched way but the lens filter does not strictly have to match the strobe filter since they are accomplishing two different functions.

My last post was a bit slap-dash. It is a balmy 51 (11) degrees here on the plains and I have self-medicated myself with pots of legal stimulant. So, let me try this again with your help.

I am new to digital photography; so, I am referencing my film experience. If some of the following doesn’t work in the digital world, I stand corrected.

Consider James Young’s color theory. Combining selected colors of light will result in white light (5,500 deg. K, mas o minos). Red + Green + Blue = White (RGB) additive or their color opposites (subtractive) Cyan + Magenta + Yellow = White. If one is shooting into light shadow, adding a 10cc yellow filter to lens will subtract some of the blue resulting in ~ white light and less (deeper) blue. Deeper shadows require more correction. This can be seen easily see in B/W, where Y, Orange, R filters deepened the sky.

Consider water a defusing, dichromatic filter. The greater the distance form your light source (strobe) the more the color of the light is changed. With R then G and then B being most affected in that order. Adding Y to your camera lens will affect the Sun lit water background (ambient). Adding R to your strobe(s) will increase the R in your illuminated foreground. With E6, I would get deeper blue water by simply metering the ambient water background and reducing the exposure 1 to 1-1/3 stops and adjusting the strobes for proper lighting. Craig, I am disagreeing with you on this point: I am assuming that the strobe lighting would not over power the ambient lit background.

With the previous disclaimer still enforced, it seems to me it is easier to color correct (RAW, digitally) post exposure than to be committed to and absorbed with color correction while composing the initial image.

Regards,

Bob

Consider James Young’s color theory. Combining selected colors of light will result in white light (5,500 deg. K, mas o minos).

Consider water a defusing, dichromatic filter. The greater the distance form your light source (strobe) the more the color of the light is changed. With R then G and then B being most affected in that order.

Adding Y to your camera lens will affect the Sun lit water background (ambient).

Adding R to your strobe(s) will increase the R in your illuminated foreground. With E6, I would get deeper blue water by simply metering the ambient water background and reducing the exposure 1 to 1-1/3 stops and adjusting the strobes for proper lighting. Craig, I am disagreeing with you on this point: I am assuming that the strobe lighting would not over power the ambient lit background.

Film, on the other hand, is highly non-linear (unlike digital) so other techniques such as you describe may change the hue of the water. With digital, reducing background exposure results in darker water but not bluer water.

With the previous disclaimer still enforced, it seems to me it is easier to color correct (RAW, digitally) post exposure than to be committed to and absorbed with color correction while composing the initial image.

I am new to digital photography; so, I am referencing my film experience. If some of the following doesn’t work in the digital world, I stand corrected.

Hey Bob,

Don't worry. This is something new to digital underwater photography - and it caused much confusion and debate when I first wrote about it and it was discussed on Wetpixel!

This thread is one of several where this issue of strobe colour temp determining your WB settings and therefore you resulting blue water colour was discussed.

The big difference with film is that (to quote Craig) "Digital allows you to white balance to your foreground light source". The white balance settings you use for your foreground are global (act on the whole image). Warm strobes simply allow you to set a cooler white balance for the foreground - and thus get a bluer blue in the background. On film warmer strobes just give you a warmer foreground and the same background.

Now most people on Wetpixel accept this way of thinking - but as far as I know it has not been written about in any of the books on underwater photography - so it is not exactly mainstream knowledge - even though at the start of this thread it was taken as read.

Alex

warming them a little bit might pose some benefit when shooting WA (basically ability to cool my WB so I get nicer blues).

This is correct, if you warm the foreground then colour correct the foreground either in post process or with a colour correction filter, the background (less affected) by the flash will go colder. This works both in film and digital.

ie: if the foreground looks the same in both pics, one with warm filter on flash and one without, the one with the warm filter on flash will have a cooler b/g.

which type of filter do I have to attach to my strobes?

Cokin P series would be excellent and last a lot longer, they have lots of options. These are much tougher than acetate but cost more. I have even seen a filter holder advertised to hold these filters which permits stacking.

You can also use them over the lens

I also do understand that once I use the filters I can get rid of the diffusors,

Good over the lens filters should not diffuse the light at all.

Regards

Mark

Maybe the folks at Inon can help here, as I seem to recall that INON made different colored diffusers other than the white/opaque for their strobe heads. They still list a blue version...

http://www.inonamerica.com/products.php?pr...=5&subcat=1

Somewhere in my mind I seem to recall a red and or yellow versions as well (not talkign about the focus light filter but the larger diffusers). Perhaps it was only out of Japan? I could be mistaken.

Hi all,

Filtering Inons Z240 is one of the things I've been doing some testings over the last couple months.

Using Z240 for WA without any filtering is most of the time out of question because the resulting image (foreground) will be too cool.

The Inon's suplied diffusors cut off too much light (even the -0.5 one) and aren't of any help regarding colour temperature.

As far as I can remember I am a big fan of the simple solutions. So I've started to look around in the supermarkets in the Tupperware plastic boxes and found a round ones with the proper diametre whose transparent lid's are available in colours from light reddish and light yellow. I've started with the "red" ones and used them for some time. Recently I've done some comparative testes during a dive and found tha the yellow ones even cuts out less light than the red ones.

Besides changing the light colour they also even the light pattern that the Z240 have.

On the last dive I used a piece of Lee filter (colour yellow - sunlight) but I need to do some side-by-side test to find if they are any better.

Cheers,

Rui Guerra

www.photoguerra.com