Canon 5D teperature setting in studio

[TLV]

In my studio my grey card always results in an adjustment to 4650K in camera RAW. And it is correct. This is after setting my Elinchrom lights with a light meter to F8 on whatever lens. So I then set my Canon 5D to 4700K and use manual colour temperature . Great it does work and the white balance on the RAW pics is good before any adjustment. However in the Canon manual it says that the estimated flash temperature is 6000K. This worries me - what is going on here?

[coreypolis]

I think the key word there is estimaed. every light is different, and it sounds like your bulbs are more tungsten based, which could be a result of age or just in the manufacturing proccess. Hand held flashes tend to be a cooler color temp than studio lights, and with manual color balance settings it really doesn't matter :) Only in film days would it really be a problem.

[FlashZebra]

In my studio my grey card always results in an adjustment to 4650K in camera RAW. And it is correct. This is after setting my Elinchrom lights with a light meter to F8 on whatever lens. So I then set my Canon 5D to 4700K and use manual colour temperature . Great it does work and the white balance on the RAW pics is good before any adjustment. However in the Canon manual it says that the estimated flash temperature is 6000K. This worries me - what is going on here?
As flash tubes age they tend to cool off. In addition, if you have light modifiers such as umbrellas and soft boxes they also change the color temperture in a meaningful manner.

I recently checked the color temperature on about 15 different flash heads at my camera club. The flash heads ranged from about 4500 K to 5500 K.

So, I do not think it is odd that you have a flash head with a color temperature of about 4700 K.

Enjoy! Lon

[Wilt]

If you really want to be a perfectionist, simply gel one of the lights to balance it to the other lights!

[TLV]

So - nothing to worry about. Many thanks that is reassuring.

[chtgrubbs]

Your Elinchrome lights have a UV absorbing coating on the flashtube which is light yellow in color and warms up the light. Also, studio flashes are designed to have a color temp which is closer to the color balance of professional daylight slide film which is 5000K. The flashes the manual refers to are shoe-mount strobes which cooler in color balance.

[IamRoger]

Also be aware if you set your custom temp in your camera then import the raw file to photoshop, photoshop may show a different temp. This is not wrong. This has been explain by Thomas Knoll, one on the builders of photoshop, that it matches colors not exact temp. due to algorithm secrets between Adobe and Canon and may so exact numbers, but photo color should still be correct.

When i set my temp of 5600K it always shows about 5000K in photoshop.

[TLV]

Thank you all again - I have learned a lot