There are three commonly used color correction gels: CTB Color Temperature Blue isn't that useful for color correction with flash, but can be used over a tungsten light to bring it to a similar color temperature to daylight. CTO Color Temperature Orange can be used to make a daylight balanced light (like flash) match tungsten lighting. A light orange can also be useful for matching sunset / sunrise light. Green Often called 'plus green' or 'window green', used to make a daylight balanced flash match fluorescent lighting. The reason they are known as gels is because they were originally made from gelatin. Plastic is a lot more long lasting, cheaper, and easier to use, so you're unlikely to find any flash gels still made from actual gelatin today. In this article we'll look at how you can use flash gels for balancing flash with ambient light, creative use of gels for colored lighting effects, how they can be used for reducing the light power, and creating softer lighting. You may be wondering why you would want to use an ND gel with your flash. Why not just turn the power on the flash down instead if it's too bright? Well, there can be instances where the flash is too bright even at minimum power. This is where an ND gel can come in handy. I tuned the modeling light on the cyan-gelled strobe so it gives out continuous light, while the other two strobes were used in the conventional way.

8 Awesome Lighting Setups Using Gels For Creativity 8 Awesome Lighting Setups Using Gels For Creativity

The 3rd light source had no gel and was used with a square 70cm softbox and a reflector just under the model to soften the shadows.Color gels are essentially pieces of thin semi-transparent plastic (generally polycarbonate, polyester, or some other heat-resistant type) that change the color of your light. Understanding how to match your flash light to the ambient light in your shot also opens the possibility of changing the color of your lights to create color contrast between the two light sources, but first learn to match the color of the light and then experiment with creating contrast with color. Use the small space to your advantage and turn the entire ceiling into your light source - But remember, this really only works if your ceiling is white, or at the very least, a neutral colour.

s the difference between using CTO gels and CTB gels? What’s the difference between using CTO gels and CTB gels?

Since I had a very small room to work in, I kept to a simple, 3 lights sources, portrait setup using one reflector and two gels: blue and magenta. Color correction is a process used in stage lighting, photography, television, cinematography, and other disciplines, which uses color gels, or filters, to alter the overall color of the light. Typically the light color is measured on a scale known as color temperature, as well as along a green– magenta axis orthogonal to the color temperature axis. Don't forget that you can also modify the colors by playing with the white balance too. For example, if you photograph a subject with a tungsten white balance and use one flash with an orange gel, and another without a gel. The white balance will make the orange gelled flash will appear neutral and the ungelled flash will appear blue. Color correction gels absorb light of some wavelengths more than others. This Rosco gel has a low transmittance at long wavelengths.

Let’s dive right into how to go about working with gels. Starting with the most basic rule of every gel: it reduces overall light output. Think of gels as obstacles that cut a portion of the light’s power. Some gels like Profoto and Expo Imaging might say how much light was cut by each gel. As such, a blue gel cuts four stops of light, while a yellow one only cuts half a stop of light. You may want to intuitively dial the power-up and use gels on the most powerful light you have. The color of each flash will vary slightly depending on quality and consistency but is generally very very close to daylight which is 5500K.. Your camera’s flash or strobe white balance icon in your menu generally looks like a flash or lightning bolt. The first step to shooting with flash should be to set your white balance to that setting. Diffusion gels cause a loss of light, and this is usually given in the name / specification of the gel. As a general rule, the better the gel diffuses the light, the more light will lost. So a one stop diffusion gel will very likely give a softer light than a quarter stop diffusion gel. The solution is to gel your flash so that its color matches that of the ambient lighting. By adding a green gel to your flash, the flash will no longer look magenta, but neutral, as the fluorescent white balance setting neutralizes the green color. The optical snoot has a very specific quality to it thanks to its ability to create incredibly hard light resulting in the modifier producing very strong shadows and highlights. Its other core feature is that it can shine very defined highlight and shadow shapes thanks to its focusing lens at the front. The shapes that it shines are often referred to as gobos and they are metal disks with patterns cut into them that sit in the modifier itself. You don’t have to use the gobos though and I often just use the optical snoot as a very hard light source and that’s what I’ll be doing again here in the following lighting setup. Gelled Colour Gradients

How to Use CTO and CTB Gels to Change the Color of Your

Many kits include some method of attaching the gels to your flash. The simplest is velcro. You add pieces of velcro either side of the flash head, and pieces of velcro at either end of the flash gel. The flash gel then bends over the head of the flash, attaching at either side with the velcro. I wasn’t sure whether to include this or not, but seeing as I shot it, I thought I’d share the images here and if any of you find it interesting or useful, then this is a clever little technique to play with. Place two lights either side of the white sheet and point them up towards the low ceiling above. These two lights should have open dish reflectors attached to them so that we can spread the light over the ceiling as much as possible.Being made of plastic, flash gels are pretty durable. They don't tear easily, and while they can get scratched or fold marks, these don't affect the lighting.

CTO gels and CTB gels? What’s the difference between using CTO gels and CTB gels?

The CTO was oriented towards a white reflector for a soft and diffused light so the skin could have a orange under tone The first gel I want to talk about is color temperature blue. This gel, shortened to CTB, is primarily used to cool down warm incandescent lights so they appear closer to white light which reads around 5000k. They can be placed direct over or around your light source to help cool the color or warm hot lights. My favorite brand of gels are those made by Rosco and I prefer the #3204 1/2 CTB gel for most occasions. Now review all the test shots in your post-processing software. You can readily see the differences between the un-gelled flash and the respective gels in the Red, Green and Blue histograms. Similar colors may vary between different companies' formulations – for example, many have a color named " bastard amber", but the transmitted color spectrum may be different. For this reason it is often misleading to refer to gel colors by name. Even a familiar color name, like Steel Blue, transmits widely differing colored light in each manufacturer's line.Almost every color manufacturer today uses either polycarbonate or polyester to manufacture their gels. Even today's gels can burn out (to lighten in color starting in the center) easily, rendering them useless. To help combat this, high-temperature materials – polyester having the highest melting point of 480°F (249°C) – can be used to help prolong the life in high-heat output lighting instruments. As instrument design improves, it has become a selling point on many lights to have as little heat radiating from the front of the fixture as possible to help prevent burn-through, and help keep the stage and actors cooler during performances. Viper_'Magenta'_Filter". www.cinematography.net. Archived from the original on 9 December 2006 . Retrieved 12 January 2022. Thankfully though, in todays setup I will be showing you how to mix coloured gels with incredible ease, in fact it’s so easy, we’ll only be using one light to do it!