Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I want to shoot with wide apertures and with the AB800's turned all the way down I'm still getting blown out. I would rather not use a lens filter. Anyone know about how color-neutral the AB ND filters are. I have the filter holder for color gels so this would be a cheap solution if the quality is there.
Thanks

First off, i hope your doing a white balance after your lights are setup and adjusted as you want them. It takes two minutes at the most and can save you so much time in post processing. Landscapes are not such a big deal if color shifts a little but with people, it's a huge deal. People know what skin color looks like, who wants a blue baby pic.

That said, what difference does it make if your ND is color shifted a bit. Do what should be a standard WB before your shoot and you will be fine.

NEVER EVER us auto WB in a studio.

Hope that helps...

I do a lot of outdoor portraits (gotta love the vagabond), I still WB to the lights and let the late day sun/sky turn a beautiful warm color but my people look natural color.

I still shoot RAW so I can alway adjust later if I don't like the look but I will always error on the warm side.

While custom white balance is the best route, color temperature variations can still be a concern if not all sources are affected the same (i.e. not all lights are gelled). This can also be said of all other modifiers as well. I will look at absolute results as soon as I can. Relatively speaking, the gels are made by a reputable company, and they would be the same as you got from the "big photo houses".