Strobe filter for S&S YS-D1.

Hi all, just finish reading Alex's old article about strobe filter to affect blue water color:

The article is here.

One of the sample that caught my attention is the comparison:

That lead me to the question. The Inon Z2400 is 5500K, while the YS-D1 is 5600K. If I were to attach a gel filter on the YS-D1, which one should I get?

I'm also getting a bit confuse while reading the article. So to get the kind of blue in the picture on the right, I need to warm it up (to about 4300K?). If that's the case, would a filter be easier, or manual white balance to a Kelvin that's warmer then the strobe (not custom white balance on a slate).

By the way, the kind of blue I get is more on the left side of the sample, I thought it was because the sun was not behind me, and I don't have a magic filter. Thought?

PS: I know Lightroom/Photoshop can adjust the blue, but I would rather get it right in the first place instead of spend days in front of the computer, and also I may switch to a camera that doesn't have RAW feature, using a Panasonic LX-7 now.

You need to warm up your strobe. To say 4500-4900 K. That will mean that your camera will process (with Auto WB) photo at a lower K value and give you a less muddy blue in the background. The foreground should stay looking the same.

You can push the blues around in LR/PS etc, but this will add some noise and perhaps more problematic will also effect blues in the subject as well as the background.

The article needs updating - when I wrote it, it was a brand new concept - and the main aim of the article was to introduce the concept and convince people it was important. Obviously, now most people know it an issue and want to know how to exploit it - so it would be better to re-write the article from that point of view.

Alex

Thanks Alex, I knew you're around here, just didn't know you have time to scan the post! Yeah I suspect the article is gear toward Auto WP, so if someone is using manual white balance to have the camera apply more red, we can by pass the gel filter and achieve the same result? Or would that affect he foreground subject as well? I would think the gel might reduce the f-stop a bit beside one more stuff to carry.