Gel shoot
Working with Gels
Well my order from Rosco arrived and it was time to have some fun. Working with gels is something new to me. I’ve had the standard CTO gels laying around gathering dust and that’s about all they did. Then I saw some photos some really good shooters had produced and I just had to try my hand at it.
In my studio I mainly shoot on black or white seamless and occasionally on thunder grey. I wanted to see how the gels would do on each. I found that shooting on black produces a richer saturation and can produce a more textured appearance than on white - which can produce a more pastel effect. This is not to say gels on white can’t produce gorgeous rich colours as well. It’s all in developing a subtle touch.
The biggest problem I found in shooting in such a tiny studio is of course light hitting the model when you only want it to hit the background. Barn doors and bookends can help control that but you need a lot more space to set a system like that up. I tried every configuration I could think of and finally decided if I couldn’t control it - I would embrace it.
For the photos in this eZine I worked with Daisy - a fantastic and very professional model on a black background exclusively. She knows her poses and expressions and can totally own the stage. All I had to do was manage the lighting and click the shutter.
Toward the end of the shoot I switched over to lighting the model with gels. It’s a lot more finicky getting that right and the model has to stay more in one place. I used a bounce to kick light back from the orange gel lighting her while a single blue lit the background. It’s very hit or miss and if Daisy moved too close or far from the lights it would make a big exposure difference due to depth of flash.
I found filters on the orange side worked especially well but browns didn’t. Browns tended to look metallic and not so brown. I imagine they can look brown as expected but only if turned way down. Blue filters rock as does green but reds - nah. I have my favourites picked out :-)
So that’s my story and I’m sticking it.
~Randi Scott~
Gel shoot
Working with Gels
Well my order from Rosco arrived and it was time to have some fun. Working with gels is something new to me. I’ve had the standard CTO gels laying around gathering dust and that’s about all they did. Then I saw some photos some really good shooters had produced and I just had to try my hand at it.
In my studio I mainly shoot on black or white seamless and occasionally on thunder grey. I wanted to see how the gels would do on each. I found that shooting on black produces a richer saturation and can produce a more textured appearance than on white - which can produce a more pastel effect. This is not to say gels on white can’t produce gorgeous rich colours as well. It’s all in developing a subtle touch.
The biggest problem I found in shooting in such a tiny studio is of course light hitting the model when you only want it to hit the background. Barn doors and bookends can help control that but you need a lot more space to set a system like that up. I tried every configuration I could think of and finally decided if I couldn’t control it - I would embrace it.
For the photos in this eZine I worked with Daisy - a fantastic and very professional model on a black background exclusively. She knows her poses and expressions and can totally own the stage. All I had to do was manage the lighting and click the shutter.
Toward the end of the shoot I switched over to lighting the model with gels. It’s a lot more finicky getting that right and the model has to stay more in one place. I used a bounce to kick light back from the orange gel lighting her while a single blue lit the background. It’s very hit or miss and if Daisy moved too close or far from the lights it would make a big exposure difference due to depth of flash.
I found filters on the orange side worked especially well but browns didn’t. Browns tended to look metallic and not so brown. I imagine they can look brown as expected but only if turned way down. Blue filters rock as does green but reds - nah. I have my favourites picked out :-)
So that’s my story and I’m sticking it.
~Randi Scott~