PHOTOGRAPHY GELS
Photography gels are a well known product used in photography and the film industry and yet not a lot of people use them. My guess for this would be that it is not an easy to find product. Even when you go to most camera stores, they don’t seem to stop gels which is a real shame because it is an awesome way to add some creativity to your photographs.
So what are gels? Gels, are a type of plastic film with a particular tint or colour to it. If you’ve never seen a sheet of gel before you could be forgiven for thinking that is the same as cellophane. Whilst it does look similar to cellophane, it is very different in a couple of ways. Gels are much more durable I’m thicker than cellophane and probably more importantly, gels are heat resistant whereas cellophane is not. I learned this the hard way by taping a sheet of cellophane to one of my flash units. At the time I was shooting at 4 power, and quite rapidly. Even though it was only a speed light, it ended up melting the cellophane onto the flash unit. I would imagine that if you were to do that with a studio strobe, there is a really good chance of the cellophane catching on fire so I highly recommend against using cellophane where you should be using gels.
There are two types of gels that you can purchase. The first type of gels are a theatrical type of gel. These gels come in all sorts of different colours. The colours are not standardised and will vary depending on the manufacturer of the gel. Using theatrical gels is a great way to add creative components onto your photograph. The colours available are endless and they are relatively inexpensive to purchase if you purchased them the correct way which I will share with you later in this article.
The second type of gels available are for colour correction. When using strobes, typically, you’re not able to change the colour temperature of your light. There are some constant lights where you can make the light cooler or warmer, but these lights tend to be more expensive and have less output. These type of lights are called bi-colour lights. More often than not, photographers and videographer’s prefer to buy lights that are not bi-colour because they’re cheaper and they have a consistent light temperature regardless of the type of lights that they have.
In order to change the colour temperature of one of these lights, you need to use a CTO or CTB type of gel. CTO stands for colour temperature orange and CTB stands for colour temperature blue. Unlike the theatrical gels, both the colour and the strength of the colour of these gels is the same regardless of which brand you purchase. The strength of the CTO and CTB gels is measured in cuts. The most common strengths of gels are a full cut, 1/2 cut, and a quarter cut. This doesn’t mean that you are limited to just those strengths. It is quite common to layer different strengths of gels in order to achieve the look that you’re after.
CTO (color temperature orange) and CTB (color temperature blue) gels.
The types of scenarios that these types of gels are used in, is when you’re trying to match your artificial light to the ambient light. Imagine you’re shooting portraits during sunset and you are using flash to fill in the face of your subject. The light given off by the sun as it is setting it’s going to be quite orange. Your flash unit will not be as orange as the light emitted by the sun. If you do not put a gel in front of your flash, the scene will look quite orange and the person that you’re trying to photograph is going to look a little blue. Using a full cut of CTO gel is going to match the light from the flash to the light from the sun.
The opposite can happen if you’re photographing before the sun comes up. If you’ve ever taking any photos before sunrise, you would have noticed that the light has somewhat of a blue tint to it. If you took a picture using a flash with no gel on it, you will end up with a subject that is going to look somewhat orange and not very flattering. In this case, you would use a CTB gel to try and match the light from your flesh to the ambient light in the scene.
When it comes to balancing the light using gels, there is no hard rule on how many cuts of gels you need to use to match your ambient light. It is simply a matter of experimenting until you get the desired outcome.
When attempting to match your lights to the ambient light, it is always recommended to go in small steps. Keep looking at the LCD on your back of your camera to see what kind of results you’re getting. If you think you may have gone too far, you probably have so remember to use it sparingly. Also remember that when using gels it is going to reduce the output of the flash so you will have to compensate and turn the power of your flash up.
Now, gels come in all sorts of sizes and colours regardless of whether they are colour correction gels or whether they are they are theatrical gels. When purchasing gels from a store you are always going to get a better deal if you go to the professional and industry supply top stores. Your average camera store will only be able to provide the small and dedicated gels that are made for speedlight and small flash. If though, you really want to get the best bang for your buck, you should consider purchasing gels of the rolls. When you purchase gels off the rolls, you get to specify how much you need. I typically purchase around 6 feet of each colour. Doing it this way is better because you can then cut the sheets to the size that you need. Because gels are reusable and pretty much indestructible, that should last you a number of years.
I’ve tried storing gels in many different ways. The best way I’ve found is to use tube containers. I’ve used the type used for mailing things and they were just fine. I’ve now found something that fits my needs a little bit better, and it is a tube designed to hold art prints. I like this container much better because it has a handle which is easier for carrying.
There are various different ways to mount gels onto flash units. Anything from magnets to Velcro but to be honest with you I’ve found that using a little bit of gaffer tape is the best way forward. I keep 2 small squares of gaffer tape permanently on either side of my flash units. Anytime I need to place a gel on my flash I just peeled back the two bits of gaffer tape and secure the gel using the tape. It’s very low tech but it works really well and it doesn’t cost anything.
Below you’ll find some samples of photographs taken using gels. It will give you a pretty good idea of what’s possible. Using gels may sound a little bit complicated but I promise you it is not and you will have a lot of fun experimenting. If you want to get started with gels, I’ve included some links below to some of the more affordable gels that you can get started with. If you have any questions on anything discussed in this article please leave them in the description and I would be happy to answer them. Happy gelling!
Dan Cantero
Dan Cantero is a commercial and headshot photographer based in Sydney Australia.