Dull yellow cast from Photo Flex soft box!?

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I noticed a slight dull yellow cast on a product I was shooting with a 4x5 camera. The cast was directional and I tried changing film, removing all the fill lights- I finally traced the problem down to a Photo Flex Soft Box attached to an Elinchrom flash. I tried the the same shot (with the same Elinchrom flash) by replacing the soft box with a white umbrella- the yellow disappeared. I called Helix, the Chicago dealer I purchased my lighting equipment from, and the represenitive told me he had never heard of "that" problem- he seemed rather amused by my plight. I contacted Photo Flex and was told that the problem I am having was possible 5+ years ago (my box is only 1 yr. old), but they have not heard of such a problem in recent years. Has anyone had similar

-- Jeff Stange (jeffstange@ameritech.net), November 12, 1999

Answers

Yet one more reason why Plume (Wafer or Worldbank) or Chimera are better products.

-- Ellis Vener (evphoto@insync.net), November 12, 1999.

Could you have used a slow shutterspeed with your orginal Photo Flex Soft Box test and faster shutterspeeds with everything else? I ask because if you drag the shutter some of the colour cast from the modeling light could "yellow" your image.

-- David Grandy (dgrandy@accesscable.net), November 13, 1999.

Funny you should say so! I have exactly the same, shot one picture with umbrella and got good neutral colours, did ther same with soft box photoflex lite-dome and got a "warmer photograph" .Synchro speed was the same (Give a man some credit guys!) so my photoflex is 3 years old. I am sick and tired of people who claim that they have never heard of this that and the other and treat you as if you were the only one to have had something wrong, therefore it must be your fault! I'll be interested to know if you have any solutions. Thanks a bunch to those who use any chance on this forum to say " I Told you so.......!" , don't understand their point. regards

-- andrea milano (milandro@multiweb.nl), November 13, 1999.

I don't use Photo Flex softboxes, so don't have any direct experience. It would seem like the solutions to this problem would be: (1) replace the softbox or (2) characterize the color shift, and either gel the softbox or filter the lens.

I'll try to be positive about Photo Flex (and I too have had some bad experiences in the past) by saying the one product of theirs I do like are the collapsible fill panels. They stay nice and flat.

-- Larry Huppert (Larry.Huppert@mail.com), November 13, 1999.


I used a Photo Flex Lightdome on my El 1000 for food and product shots, and noticed a warm cast on Painted metal products especially on hightlights,but since i used an additional silver lined softbox it was all but unnoticable until I used it as alone for food shots with Kodak EPP that resulted in a sick yellow tinge, Thank God for Photoshop that it was easy to correct for the Agency(CLIENT).Since then I only use it for Black and White. Since I dont want to throw it away I might just line the yellowish white liner with lightweight silver material.I hope Photo Flex lines future domes with none coloring white material.

-- juan Antonio F. nieva (bugnieva@info.com.ph), November 14, 1999.


I don't know if this is at all helpful, but my Photoflex Silver Dome inner baffle has yellowed over time because of heat, both from my Lowel Omnis and the modelling light in my strobe heads. I did not realize this until I bought a second and compared them and their output. It is decidedly yellow, though it was only made obvious to me in comparison. Could this have happened to yours? The new one has not yellowed after some heavy use so maybe they have switched material or construction method.

-- Rob Tucher (rtphotodoc@juno.com), November 15, 1999.

I have a strip light by Photoflex that is an easy 20/25 units Y, but the Multidome is pretty neutral. I think it's the particular vintage of P-Phlexx that determines your filter pack (it certainly has contributed to my light structure). The yellow of the coated fabric looks yellow to any eye. Just shoot b&w (ha). Or do as Ellis suggests, the last painting I photographed I rented two big Chimeras... no filter.

I've got two 60" umbrellas that I only use with tungsten film under halogens, their about 12/15 units blue. Testing is good...t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), November 15, 1999.


My experience is that if I am shooting with any softbox, I can expect the scene to be much "warmer" than the quality of the (strobe) light coming from a metal reflector or a fresnel spot. I have learned to expect it and compensate with lens filters or light source gels. I have a few Chimeras and a bunch of PhotoFlex boxes and I use Normans with UV coated tubes.

Skot Weidemann

-- Skot Weidemann (SWeidemann@aol.com), November 17, 1999.


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