Custom white balance

[Dobick]

a gold omni bounce from stofen might be a very quick and easy way to accomplish the same thing without having to worry about gels

[PeteQ]

Originally Posted by Dobick

a gold omni bounce from stofen might be a very quick and easy way to accomplish the same thing without having to worry about gels

Gels are easy, certainly no harder than carrying a second omni (one neutral one gold or you are stuck with gold only). A piece of gaffers tape and away you go gellin'. I keep tape stuck to my flash, lens hoods, etc. You never know when you will need it....

The problem with the gold omnibounce is that it is one color. You can get three sheets or varying degrees of color from B&H (I would suggest a light straw, 1/8 CTO and 1/2 CTO to start with) for about the price of a gold onmi. With those and either a template or trace the gels that came with your flash you can cut your own and then adjust the lighting to match ambient very quickly and easily. They truly take up no room in your bag so they are always there once you cut them and if you loan a piece to your friend it's no biggie if they forget to return it!

In use, I slip whatever color I need under my snoot, grid, stofen, etc. and I can use the modifier of my choice with color matched flash and that's a huge advantage over a stofen-type colored cap.

[Dobick]

Pete -- I agree with you to some extent. after reading your response, I got to thinking about why I don't like the gels on my flash units. One reason is that tape seems messy to me (I've always been bad at crafts and can never get the tape on neat, and never remove it fully after it is done). Second -- the majority of the gels that I have used on location have been with the free gel pack from roscoe. I like using the omni bounce for most of my flash uses, so fitting those on with tape for the gel, and then changing it on the fly is kind of a pain in the butt.

If there was a small gel holder that could semi-permanantly attach to my flash units, I would love it.

for the record -- I usually either use 1/2 or 3/4 CTO for most of my on location gel needs

haven't tried using green yet