Photoshoot and Beyond
Abstract: By combining a white balance shift in your camera with a complimentary gelling of your flash, you can easily and efficiently alter the ambient color temperature of an entire environment.
In addition to controlling the color of light from your flash, gels can also allow you to control the color of the ambient areas of your frame. This can allow you to tweak, enhance or drastically an ambient color environment. Read more »
Abstract: You can alter your camera’s white balance and gel your flash to “correct” nearly any ambient light color shift. But should you?Read more »
Abstract: Don’t bother gelling a scene that is completely lit by a single flash. But if a second light is involved—even ambient light—it’s always better to control color at the source.
PIctured above is Midwest Camera President Moishe Appelbaum. He wandered into a lighting class I was teaching at Midwest last fall, so we pulled him aside and shot him. He’s lit by a single LP180 speedlight, fired through a white bed sheet.
(Pro tip: A speedlight fired through a bed sheet will rival the light of the most expensive octabanks in the world—in quality if not in quantity. It all comes down to square inches in the light source. And a bed sheet has a crap ton of square inches.)
After our previous lesson, you might think that this photo is an ideal candidate for a warming gel: caucasian skin, warm background, warm-colored clothing. Why not unify this with a little added warmth?Read more »
Abstract: Warming your flash will greatly improve skin tones. Which warming gel you use depends on your subject, the lighting environment, your camera’s color palette and personal preference.
I still remember the day I was introduced to warming gels. It was nearly 30 years ago. I was assisting photographer Chris Usher in 1988 on a shoot in Washington for Businessweek. As he was setting up his light he asked me to hand him his gels, absentmindedly muttering, “Always gotta warm the key light…”
And I’m thinking, “Wait, what?”Read more »
Abstract: Warming your flash will greatly improve skin tones. Which warming gel you use depends on your subject, the lighting environment, your camera’s color palette and personal preference.
I still remember the day I was introduced to warming gels. It was nearly 30 years ago. I was assisting photographer Chris Usher in 1988 on a shoot in Washington for Businessweek. As he was setting up his light he asked me to hand him his gels, absentmindedly muttering, “Always gotta warm the key light…”
And I’m thinking, “Wait, what?”Read more »
Abstract: How to economically gel umbrellas, beauty dishes and soft boxes
When using bigger lights (such as an Einstein e640, seen above) gelling gets a bit more complicated and expensive. Why? Big lights have protruding flash tubes and modeling lights, and potentially big modifiers.
But for each kind of modifier, there are workarounds that will allow you total gel coverage without having to buy large sheets of gels.Read more »
Just a quick heads-up for anyone headed to Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai that I’ll be holding a drop-in studio session on the afternoon of Weds., Feb 15th. It’s not an official class, just something cool happening on the side.You can learn more about it her…
Hey folks, just a quick heads up that I will be teaching at the Dynamic Images Photo Conference in Reading, PA, on Saturday, March 25th. The conference is put on by the Berks Photographic Society, a rather large camera club that has been doing conferen…
Do you work mostly with speedlights? If so, congratulations. Gelling your lights is going to be quick, easy and cheap. The fresnel lens on your speedlight (where the light comes out) is only about 3-4 square inches. And that is all you are ever going to need to gel on a speedlight.
As far as how to attach the gel, you have several choices and all are simple. But there are also a few things to watch out for, unless you want your gel to be permanently heat-welded to your flash. Read more »
Abstract: Our flashes are calibrated to produce white light. But in the real world, white light is a rarity.
Sara Lando (your mollusk portraitist from Lighting 102) gives a thumbs up while spending a week assisting for photographer Gregory Heisler (seen squinting through camera).
She was assisting Greg for a week of shooting and teaching at Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai. Sara learned a ton of stuff, duly reported on in a three-part series that to this day remains one of the most popular pieces ever written on this site.
Many of the things she learned while following Greg around had little to do with photography: his work ethic, thought process, etc. (Seriously, read the series.) But the week also changed the way Sara thought about light, her most important takeaway being this:
“White light is a lie.”
Read more »
