Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Ok, two part question:

On one of my old WL10K strobes, I have these stick on gel holders. They are white plastic about 1.5 X 1.5 inches, and they have a couple of "teeth" sort of like a comb, that you use for holding full size gel sheets.

Those gel holders must have tape on the bottom because they stick on to the sides of the cans.

One edge of the gel slides into the "teeth" of the holder, and the other side of the gel slides into the teeth of the other holder (which is placed on the opposite side of the light).

I haven't seen them on the PCB site, but I am pretty sure I must have got them from PCB way back when (around 1995)

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Part two of question:

MY WL10/5K series strobes can still be a little bit TOO BRIGHT when used in my smallish studio when I want to shoot at a wide aperture (like f/4 or wider), even with a softbox / umbrella in place.

In cases where it is too bright, is a neutral density gel the only / best option to soften the light further (without having to move the light further from the subject)???

I was thinking I could paint the silver reflector with white paint, but that would probably be a BAD idea on many levels.

If there was a way to make a white cone-shaped insert to line the reflector, that would be great. But it would probably be a fire hazard...

Anyway, any suggestions on how to reduce the output lower than 1/3 on a budget would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Are these what you have? http://www.paulcbuff.com/clips.php (2nd item)
We did have these in white some time ago, but have since changed them to black. Otherwise, we have not had any other plastic gel holders. We did have the UMF (current item, which does not attach to the 10/5K's) and the similar LMMF which was similar to the frame portion of the UMF, but could snap over any of our 7" reflectors. Both of these Items were metal.



You could ND gel the light or use an ND filter on your lens. One of these two options would be your best option. Going with a different reflector material would scatter the light, and maybe make a small difference in direct light usage, but not a real difference in umbrella or softbox usage. We do carry ND gels here: http://www.paulcbuff.com/nd6.php

Thanks for the response!

I think they are the Set of 12 Nylon Clips that you linked to. If those would work, I will probably be ordering some more.

I might think about whether to go with the ND Gels or the ND Lens Filter. The problem with the lens filter is that if would be mixing the White Lightnings with a flash gun, it would reduce the light from BOTH equally... so the balance between WL and flash gun would be the same.

Thanks again and will think about this.