Gel Color Selection

[TMR Design]

I would like to do a few things with the Roscolux gel swatches now that I've made my Gel holder for the 580EX (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/DIY Gel holder for a 580EX Speedlite Flash).

There are so many colors, many of which are in the same family and seem to replicate others depending on aperture set.

I was wondering if there is a standard set (or extended set that isn't too large) of basic colors that people use.

I would then like to take that color set and shoot white poster paper with the gels, using aperture to control the hue, going from f/2.8 down to f/16 in whole stops (f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16) to create a contact sheet with my own swatches showing how the gel actually looks in use, as opposed to what they look like when you just look at the gels, not in use. Obviously if I were to do every color that would be a lot of work and there would be what appears to be close duplication of many colors because of the variations created by using those different apertures. At first I tried going from f/2 down to f/22 but in all my experiments I found that there was no distinguishable difference between f/2 and f/2.8 (oddly sometimes f/2.8 looks darker than f/4), and f/16 and f/22 were almost black. I'm sure if there were other light contributing the brightness of the background then f/16 might not look so dark but f/22 on all colors was essentially black.

This is a sample of what I would like to create. This was just a test and a sample I did quickly.
_

[hammond_man]

This is really interesting. You are right to go with the cal colors. I'd just stick with those, especially if you want to be able to understand what is going on with the color. Rosco also has the Storaro collection, which has some very beautiful vibrant colors.

Tim

[Wilt]

Robert, the approach to use with these gels is to meter the gel projected onto the solid background (or thru the background for translucent shoot-thru), then have exposures no more than +2EV and -2EV bracketing that 0 point. Then you can adjust by moving the light, changing f/stop, or shutter speed (for constant light) or ISO in normal non-test circumstances to achieve the same result. The designation with f/stop seems quite ambigous unless you explain it to me. In general, this is the exercise that I had suggested, so that you can visualize the effect you want and know how to set your lighting and be able to achieve that visual appearance.

[TMR Design]

Hi Wilt,

I wasn't trying to meter anything. I think my post may have confused you. The only point in doing what I did was to give myself a point of reference if I was trying to do colored backgrounds using gels. This way I could see effect of the gel as a lens was opened up or stopped down.
I wanted to know if there was a set or group of basic colors used by photographers so I could see how these gels would look.
Perhaps I did not go about it correctly.

[Wilt]

Hi Wilt,

I wasn't trying to meter anything. I think my post may have confused you. The only point in doing what I did was to give myself a point of reference if I was trying to do colored backgrounds using gels. This way I could see effect of the gel as a lens was opened up or stopped down.
I wanted to know if there was a set or group of basic colors used by photographers so I could see how these gels would look.
Perhaps I did not go about it correctly.

Hi Robert, but f/stop is with reference to a particular level of lighting. And what if you did not have that level of lighting (e.g. you turned down your b/g light to 1/2 or 1/8 power), the f/stop numbers are meaningless. It is better to set a known reference (18% gray reading from meter) and then bracket around that. Then any power level you use is still referenced to a single standard.

[TMR Design]

Hi Robert, but f/stop is with reference to a particular level of lighting. And what if you did not have that level of lighting (e.g. you turned down your b/g light to 1/2 or 1/8 power, the f/stop numbers are meaningless. It is better to set a known refenced (18% grey reading from meter) and then bracket around that. Then any power level you use is still referenced to a single standard.


Yes Wilt, that does make perfect sense. Point taken and understood. :)

[DocFrankenstein]

It works best if you just go with the names.

If you want a firelight then there's gonna be a gel that sounds somewhat like firelight.

If you want moonlight, then there's a moonlight gel... if you're shooting with standard WB

they've done the thinking for you... in everything that hollywood movies cover.