Quote Originally Posted by RonG


I tried the Gellin idea but color was never close because of fluctuations in the lamps so I decided I could live with it.
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"I don't recommend setting a custom color balance with a gray card because then you won't know which gel filtration to apply to the strobe to match the color."


I'm no pro at this trick, but it normally leads me in the right direction. I pull out my gray card (actually it's a white/gray/black card, which kinda helps, such as the ones from PhotoVisionVideo) and shoot it, then view the histogram. I adjust color temp via the manual mode (i.e. setting the temp in degrees K), trying to get the red component directly above (i.e. the same brightness) the blue component. Adjusting the K to lower numbers moves the red component lower ("left"). Once I get them close, I then tweak the green component using the WB Shift option to get the green in line with red/blue. When I'm done, I have a pretty good idea of the color temp and green shift of the ambient lighting, and that guides me towards the gel that I want. Tedious (at first), quicker with practice, but without a shot of a gray card pulled into Lightroom or some other tool that'll tell you color temp and shift, it's the method available at my disposal on-site.