Why do Alien Bees give off a Pink Tint?

I've been watching people on POTN and other forums posting images with Alien Bees that have one thing in common- Pink Tints. I'm really surprised that people aren't complaining about this as loud as the Mark III focusing issue.

On this forum I've seen Tmrdesign, Curtis, and PacAce recently posting their pink tints. Does anyone have an explanation?

Examples? I've never noticed any such problem...

Is your monitor calibrated?

yes, link to some examples, please.

Short of having any specific image to comment on, I would only assert that in the digital age, the color accuracy of an image has a lot to do with the photographer's ability to adjust his white balance to the light source, and little to do with the light source itself.

Looking at the RGB values in the Alienbees shots from this post, the red channel is a touch higher than the green and blue channels in many places. It was shot on AWB and no color correction was done, since color accuracy was unimportant considering the reason I took the shots.

Would you prefer orange? Blue? All equally easy to arrange.

I dont mean to call anyone out, but Ive thought the same thing. The first person that comes to mind is one person on the board. His images always look a little pink to me

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=430751
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=423699

AdamLewis wrote in post #4627392
I dont mean to call anyone out, but Ive thought the same thing. The first person that comes to mind is one person on the board. His images always look a little pink to me

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=430751
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=423699

Sorry, but I don't see those as sufficient examples considering that is not a controlled environment (not a studio) As you can see, there is orange everywhere and plenty of other things for the light to bounce off of and reflect on the subjects.

I've never had this problem - Do you have any examples Rich?

RichNY wrote in post #4626603
I've been sitting back watching people on POTN and other forums posting images with Alien Bees that have one thing in common- Pink Tints. I'm really surprised that people aren't complaining about this as loud as the Mark III focusing issue.

On this forum I've seen Tmrdesign, Curtis, and PacAce recently posting their pink tints. Does anyone have an explanation?

Is your monitor calibrated using a colorimeter? If not, then you may be seeing everything incorrectly.

Curtis N wrote in post #4626911
yes, link to some examples, please.

Short of having any specific image to comment on, I would only assert that in the digital age, the color accuracy of an image has a lot to do with the photographer's ability to adjust his white balance to the light source, and little to do with the light source itself.

Looking at the RGB values in the Alienbees shots from this post, the red channel is a touch higher than the green and blue channels in many places. It was shot on AWB and no color correction was done, since color accuracy was unimportant considering the reason I took the shots.

Curtis- This is the post that I was referring to when commenting on both your AB images and Leo's having a pink tint to them. Robert (tmrdesign) has also posted some and I'm sure he can post his here as well. I think they were back when he was dealing with calibrating his meter.

What I find interesting is that the 580 flash didn't show show a pink cast- I would have expected both lights to be similar. To eliminate AWB being the issue can you shoot your card again with the AB and a custom white balance set? I believe you will see similar results.

RichNY wrote in post #4626603
I've been sitting back watching people on POTN and other forums posting images with Alien Bees that have one thing in common- Pink Tints. I'm really surprised that people aren't complaining about this as loud as the Mark III focusing issue.

On this forum I've seen Tmrdesign, Curtis, and PacAce recently posting their pink tints. Does anyone have an explanation?

I don't know about the others but in my case, when I'm just shooting for the sake of having sample images using the AB, I don't PP those images other than resize and maybe sharpen after resizing. And the camera is usually set to AWB which I won't bother changing. So that may explain it. When I use the flash shot into an umbrella fired via a PW, I notice the same type of a thing except that the image is bluer. When I set the WB to flash, then the image color comes out a little truer. I'll see if that's the case with the AB when I get home tonight. If so, I'll make it a point to always use the Flash WB whenever I shoot with the ABs. I guess I just got spoiled by the fact that the 580EX when mounted on the camera automatically sets the WB for me.

Thanks Leo. This should be easy to see- either shooting a grey card with a CWB set or (AWB) has a pinkish tint or it doesn't.

Rich,

I may have a plausible explanation, at least in my case.

Referring again to this post, I agree that examining the RGB values shows a bit more red in the AB shots than in the Speedlite shots.

The white seamless target was hastily setup above a large dining room table with a bright red tablecloth. The flash was near the opposite end of the table.

The AlienBee with its standard reflector threw a wide beam of light, and some of it bounced off the tablecloth. On the other hand, the Speedlite was zoomed enough to keep most of its light from hitting the tablecloth so the amount of bounced light was insignificant.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

I don't know if there really is such a thing as a completely 100% nuetral 5600K strobe. My strobes (JTL's) lean toward 5350K with umbrellas and 5850K with a softbox. Bare, they are closer to 5500K, but never on 0 for the green/magenta slider. So I always shoot with a Whibal card or with my Expodisc in the studio to create a custom WB.

I have never noticed this, we need a controled studio to test it. Although I own a few Alien Bees the only place I get to shoot has dark red walls. Any Alien Bees owner have access to a white or black studio to test and post the results?

RichNY wrote in post #4628499
Curtis- This is the post that I was referring to when commenting on both your AB images and Leo's having a pink tint to them. Robert (tmrdesign) has also posted some and I'm sure he can post his here as well. I think they were back when he was dealing with calibrating his meter.

What I find interesting is that the 580 flash didn't show show a pink cast- I would have expected both lights to be similar. To eliminate AWB being the issue can you shoot your card again with the AB and a custom white balance set? I believe you will see similar results.

Rich, in that same thread, for the pictures I posted, I should note that the wall was not white or anything close to it. The actually color of that wall is a yellowish beige even though the picture shot with the 580EX shows it as being whitish. So you really can't go by my pictures to determine the color cast of the strobes. The WB was off for both the flash and the strobe but more so for the flash.