Yellow softbox

I have already stated that putting a blue filter on the outside of a softbox would be a

loose situation. But as far as flare goes, remember that the softbox itself is "flaring

the light" through diffusion. If you look at film crews at work, their filters are often

clipped on the front of their lights without regard to beauty. It wasn't my suggestion

to use this softbox for a "full sunlight situation" at 5500 degrees output. My

suggestion is to use it only in a warm light situation, and I gave several examples.

Therefore, I would not use a blue filter on this softbox. I would go buy a new softbox,

or replace the panel with white sailcloth, which I also recommended above. All these

recommendations point to my belief that this softbox is only good for a warm light

source.

 

It was Steve that wanted to blue filter this softbox to take out the yellowishness. I

honestly doubt you would be happy with the result. Yellow is a subtractive color. If

you put a yellow filter over a blue filter, you get green. The yellow changes the color

bands of the bluishness to greenishness. Also, there is the problem of finding a blue

acetate (not a gel) which would be a 300 degree change. If you are going to go

through this much trouble, you might as well get a new white sailcloth.

 

The reason that film crews simply clip color filters loosely around their lights is

because the light is so hot that if there were no air circulation, the acetate would burn

or fade, especially in the center. Of course, there are infrared filters to reduce this

heat. But if you didn't spring for this, you have to be careful with the positioning of

the filter.

 

Again, the total effect would be like putting a green

filter on the softbox, unless you have alot of red in the amber color of the softbox or

UV tube to counter the cyan or green.

 

I would use this softbox as a light source with UV amber tube or without with other

flash units that are themselves being bounced from a off-white wall or ceiling. I

strongly believe that the result will be pleasing and not stark.

 

This questioner/member wants to know if this softbox is worthless. The answer is:

No. Use it in and around other warm light sources and the 5200 degrees light

output or so of this unit will likely not be obtrusive. If it matters to you what the

color temperature of this softbox is in exact numbers, go buy a $500 Minolta Color

Meter 6 to find out. Otherwise, use it for the previously mentioned cases.

 

I think the respondants to this thread are making silly arguments that are focused on

a single sentence and they are not reading the entire intent of my arguments. For

example, I never suggested putting a Tungsen light into this softbox. But also

realize that the softbox has to be made to accept a hot light. It has to circulate air. I

never suggested using tungsen. Incandescent light would be too, too dim to put into

a softbox. Imagine putting a 100 watt bulb into a yellowed softbox! Your output

would be the same or less than a 25 watt bulb! How are you going to photograph

anything at 6' with that? I believe incandescent lights use a carbon filament.

 

At some point the photographers who came on this site need to use their knowledge

to see that I never described putting either a tungsend or incandescent light into the

softbox as a light source. I would, however, use the softbox with other incandescent

lights in some sort of a warm den setting with a fireplace burning.

 

I would put a filter into a softbox if the softbox were new and white. If it were

yellowed, I would only put an amber filter into it to increase the already amber color

of the light. I would stay in the neighborhood of the original "yellowing". I would not

make the matter complicated and try to filter out the yellowing of the softbox with

blue filters.

 

A new white panel is worth it to purchase new if the panel could be a cloth that would

resist yellowing in the future. This may be marine sailcloth. The cheaper softboxes, I

am told use polycarbonates that yellow with age. They are similar to the material

used for shower curtains. The Marine sailcloth may be more similar to nylon, however

I don't know for a fact what it is.

 

I think that if the respondents want to talk more about this blue filter business, they

should direct themselves to the original guy to brought up this subject: Steve H.

 

I have personally taken a blue Rosco acetate filter and placed a yellow Rosco filter over

it. The result I saw was GREEN. Argue with these results!

I will answer "refridgerator white". If you have ever painted white walls, you have

several choices of "white". If you will compare a "white wall" in a living room to a

refridge., you will find that the white enamel of the refridgerator is a whiter white than

the livingroom. Thus, referring to this highly white color is an illustration. If you

don't have any experience painting interiors with white paint and comparing the

whiteness with a refridgerator white interior, you will not know what this means. I

have the experience, you don't.

 

As for referring someone to use white sailcloth, this is the material I am told that

some manufacturers use or did use until about 1990. I think it is a good

recommendation to give readers an alternative source of a material which is

lightweight, resists aging (UV) and is very, very strong. It looks like white nylon,

similar to the material used in jackets, but alittle more stiff. You could make all

kinds of diffused lights with this stuff. Unlike sailcloth in the 1880 which may have

been made out of hemp, this is space age material. You could simply clip it to the

outside of the softbox for temporary usage.

 

As for "glare on the set". My intuition tells me that this is a person who is new to the

use of softboxes. She has one softbox. There is no indication by the writer that she

has a "set" to light. The respodents to this thread are "letting their horses run" with

their imaginations.

 

All of this takes us away from the focus of a simple usefulness of this softbox for a

slightly warm toned picture.

A warming filter that I would suggest you could use with this yellowed softbox is a:

 

Rosco 443 Daylight to tungsten 4600-tungsten, or;

 

Rosco Half Ct Straw 442 3800-tungsten amber, or;

 

Rosco Full CT Straw Daylight to 3200 degrees amber.

 

You could place these inside your softbox to make very amber light from your

softbox. Each filter has increasing darkness of amber.

 

You can buy this filter material from pro film/video/theatrical stores. It is widely used

in theatrical production lighting, as well.

 

Use of colors is an artistic choice and I simply direct you to the use of filters to

interpret your scene. Yes, I would place an amber filter inside a softbox that was

made for strobe. If you use tungsten lighting, then you'll have to contact the

manufacturer to find out if placing filters inside the softbox would create a fire

hazard.

Melissa,

 

Chimera indeed uses sail cloth for their diffusers. You can find this information by

simply searching on www.google.com for " softboxes chimera sail" and you will find a

number of referrals to the sail cloth material they use for their top of the line diffusion

material.

 

Quote from the Chimera internet site:

 

"The sail-cloth bred translucent light produced by Chimera Lightbanks has been the

photographer's friend for more than a generation now. The Super Pro Plus is the

professional choice. "

 

I think that this is evidence that my recommendation is very valid indeed.

Tom Meyer is making alot of assumptions about what the questioner of this thread needs. He is taking us to "standard practices" of photographers who need "neutral light". So where did she say she needs "neutral light?" If I had a critical job and needed "neutral light", I'd go out and buy a new diffusor for the job!

 

What she is asking is if her money was wasted. Can she use it for anything is the implication. And she wants to know if she can use some other material to replace the yellowed diffusor.

 

Tom gives us a line that he decides who and how one gets 'credibility.' Ho hum.... I'm bored.

 

It's a nice day, the rain has stopped.

I hope this helps you Melissa.

Who's Melissa?

 

Quote "I have personally taken a blue Rosco acetate filter and placed a yellow Rosco filter over it. The result I saw was GREEN. Argue with these results!" Unquote.

 

Ok, I'll try. What is the colour temperature of your light source used to evaluate the Rosco Blue and Yellow filters? What are the exact names of the Blue and Yellow Rosco filters you used? What is the colour temperature of 'refrigerator white'? When you compared it to your walls, did you also take note of the colour temperature of the light source? If I showed you a patch of light of colour temperature 5500K, another of CT 6500K and a third of CT 7500, side by side, can you tell me which one looks 'white'?

 

So, you estimate that a yellowed softbox is about CT 5200K. It is also made out of one part red and three parts yellow, according to you. Can you tell me what CT red and CT yellow make 5200K?

 

Most of us require colour calibration instruments to calibrate our monitors and lights, you seem to be able to do it by eye.

 

Gels are called gels in the industry by convention. Did you find out that they are no longer made out of gelatine just now? Nobody calls them acetates; everybody says GELs.

 

For somebody with fifteem minutes to access the public terminal, you seem to have to time to write long verbose answers.

 

You still have not told me how according to you, flash through 5200K (amber coated tube) plus 5200K (yellowed softbox) adds up to 4900K.

Here is the quote from Chimera:<p>"The sailcloth-bred translucent light produced by Chimera Banks has been the photographer's friend for over 20 years now. While we haven't changed the beautiful light quality of our products, we have <b>greatly improved the fabrics</b> on Lightbanks for still photography. These <b>improvements</b> come about through ongoing strobe bank development plus experience in building Lightbanks for larger tungsten hot lights and HMI sources. The <b>new fabrics</b> are much more resistant to the effects of heat, age and pollution. The color temperature of this new Lightbank is near neutral, and will stay that way. Due to the strength and resistance of these <b>new fabrics</b>, Chimera guarantees that its Lightbanks will maintain original specifications, and warrants fabrics and workmanship for five years from the date of manufacture."<p>Note the liberal use of the terms "greatly improved", "improvements" and "new" as descriptive qualifiers associated with their current fabrics. It seems plain that they are comparing the "new" fabrics with the "sailcloth-bred" fabrics of the past. The term "bred" implies the heritage of softbox construction, and not that current models are made with marine sailcloth, as you insist.<p> <i>"I believe incandescent lights use a carbon filament."</i> if this is true, why aren't they called carbon lights, instead of tungsten? Because Edison designed them, many years ago, with tungsten filaments.<p>Get your facts straight Timber. People depend on these forums, and you aren't giving accurate information or advice... t

Not TE, but Irving Langmuir who invented the tungsten filament for lamps in 1915... t

I called Chimera. They confirmed that their present product is from the sail cloth

family of products. There are several clothes available for sails. Sails may be coated

differently that Chimera's product. Sails get wet, softboxes don't, so call them if you

care about such details.

 

I wouldn't put much faith in Tom Meyer's research abilities. He uses his imagination

to ferret out a whole new meaning on words which are not scientific, but rather sales

tools to infer quality. He could have called Chimera to talk directly to a

representative.

 

By the way, here is a tip on silver mylar material, the reflective material on the interior

of softboxes: search www.google.com for "fhi008". If you ever wanted to make your

own homemade softbox or other device, you could start with this material.

www.ahh.biz is the company site.

 

You would not be placing incandescent lights of 100 watts in any softbox and hope to

have enough light to capture a live person. The output is 25 watts! Your exposure

times would be very long, perhaps 10 seconds or more at 10 feet with such low light.

And then there is the issue of color temperature of incandescents given at about 2900

degrees rather than tungsten's 3200. It is inconceivable that any experienced

photographer would dream of putting such lights into a softbox and then use their

light output to take a picture of a person.

 

Mellissa's softbox is likely not built for hot lights unless they have substantial

ventilation openings and blowers on her heads or lights. They might have to be UL

approved, in addition, and there may be special heat resistant layers on the inside to

accept the heat of tungsten. Forget it.

 

Tom is playing a practical joke on the readers here. He doesn't intend upon doing

any real legwork to help Melissa.

CORRECTION: That number to search for on www.google.com is: "fhi018" for a silver

mylar canvas material with a gray backing. This stuff is water proof, too. Use it for a

photographic reflector or a homemade light modifier. www.ahh.biz is their site.

Linda will of course have died of old age before she finishes reading this complete thread.

Timber quoted a Chimera website. I quoted the same one. Read it for yourselves.<p>Who's Melissa?... t

Correction: Melissa=Linda Here's another idea for a yellowed softbox: Use it to

decorate your room. This would send a message to your friends that you are and all-

the - way photographer. It should make a good reading light.

Melissa is a special code word for "Linda". You have to know the code.

 

Furthermore, if you want to send the message to your friends that you are a all-the-

way photographer, use the yellowed softbox for a reading light in your living room. It

would also make a great make-up light in the backroom. Place it on a boom over

your bathroom mirror.

Use a Yellow Softbox to improve the appearance of your guests:

 

Replace the chandelier of your dining room with the yellow softbox. As your guests

eat dinner, the softbox will improve their appearance through modeling their

cheekbones and diffusion will erase wrinkles.

 

Candles are a point source light, and as such create hard edged shadows if only 1-2

candels are used. The Yellow Softbox can be filtered with Full Straw Rosco filters to

give the warmth of candle light without the harshness of point source lights.

 

To complete this softer lighting, replace the table cloth with silver myler fhi018,

search for it on www.google.com The reflection of the softbox into the silver mylar

canvas will illuminate and fill under chins and eyebrows, further erasing wrinkles.

Typically, the light reflection from around the dessert dish will fill under the eyes, and

the more direct light from around the dinner plate will fill in under the chin.

Photographers call this "butterfly lighting." It is a type of lighting popular in Vogue

cover shots excluding the turkey dinner and pumpkin pie.

 

Timber Borcherding timberborcherding

Addendum:

 

For a more youthful appearance such as from a cover of Elle Magazine, keep the dessert, add a salad, and remove the turkey.

You people need to grow up. And with all due respect Ellis... there is no need to <b> ever</b> use terms like "brain dead" anywhere on this site, especially when that so called "brain dead" person is just trying to help. Where would these forums be if we went around calling names?