Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have three AB800'S and have had them for about a year now. I recently have been learning color correction and spending a lot of time learning and practicing color correction in post production. That's when I started to notice the problem, while my two lights are at 5500k my third light is around 4900K. What could cause this? (It appears when using bare bulb, umbrella, and soft box) and can this be fixed? I am able to correct is post production but It is quite time consuming. Any help is much appreciated, Thank you in advance.

Your color temp will change with power setting. Are you checking all your lights at the same power?

Your color temperature can change with power setting as well as modifier used. Also, light bouncing off odd colored walls/ceilings/carpet can affect color temperature.

To see if a light is problematic, you must test all three under the same conditions. (i.e. individually test each light with the same modifier, at the same power, using the same color target for each).

All voltage controlled lights will exhibit a color shift as you dial down power (about 80 degrees per stop).

Well I learn something new every day, the light in question is usually lighting the background at a lower power than the other light, tested and you were right. Thanks for the help!