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View Full Version : I gelled my flash for the first time...


jamiewexler
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:11
Last week I went on a little shopping spree at Adorama and cleared a few small things off of my wish list. $300 later...:lol:

Anyway, one of the things I have been wanting to experiment with was gelling my flash in tungsten lit rooms to more closely match the color temp of my flash to the color temp of the room and avoid the orange bacgrounds that result from the flash having a different color temp than the flash.

Since the flash outputs light at the same color as the sun (or thereabout), and tungsten bulbs at a much warmer temperature, the only way to match to two is to make the flash the same color as the bulbs.

So I bought a big sheet of CTO gel from Adorama, and cut it into strips small enough to tape to the front of the flash head. I added the gel, then set the WB to the tungsten setting.

This was my result (both jpeg straight out of the camera):
http://www.jamisonwexler.com/images/Patti&Chris1302.jpg

The color from the flash now neutralized the color cast of the tungsten lights...but is is better?

Not sure that I really like it. To cold and sterile, and the light on the bride is not as warm, and slightly red. It also eats up flash power like nobody's business.

I ended up adding back a bit of warmth in PS to come upt with this:
http://i.pbase.com/o6/30/516430/1/79672335.WVn4iRFO.PattyChrisP17.jpg


I just wanted to share an experiment that didn't go totally as planned...rather than just posting my best stuff all of the time. I still plan to work with more gels, I might just try a 1/2 CTO to lessen the yellow background without completely sterilizing it...

sblais
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:23
I just wanted to share an experiment that didn't go totally as planned...rather than just posting my best stuff all of the time. I still plan to work with more gels, I might just try a 1/2 CTO to lessen the yellow background without completely sterilizing it...

Thanks for sharing! I was actually going to propose to use a gel with half the temperature difference to keep a bit more mood. But it will impact the WB of the bride though...

Let's all sit and wait for Curtis to jump in on this one... We just need a post from Kathy and he'll be here in no time! :lol:

Curtis N
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:25
I can't get the second pic to show up. No big deal though. The gelled shot from the first image looks a little pinkish. It could just need a slight tint adjustment.

I use gels a lot, including outdoors. It adds some warmth to subject's skin without making backgrounds look yellow.

I think the problem here is not in your use of the gel but in finding the best WB setting to match up with it. For most shots of people, I find increasing the color temp with my RAW converter (above the "technically correct" color temp) about 500K really helps the skin tones without noticeably throwing off the rest of the colors. It's pretty quick and easy if you shoot RAW. This is not exclusive to gelled flash, more of a habit for improving skin tones in any lighting.

If you're shooting JPEG and your CTO gel combined with Tungsten setting isn't giving you the desired results, you may want to use the "K" WB setting at maybe 3500K or whatever you find most pleasing.

You might be interested in this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=218280)where the use of gels was illustrated and discussed.

Grace
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:35
whats a gel? Better yet what is WB? Is this something I should be concerned about? JPEG and CTO, "K" WB and 3500, all these new things have my head spinning, I'm not sure I'm following?!

jamiewexler
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:37
That's a great thread Curtis. I have had a yellow sto-fen forever, which I use to warm up my flash a bit for outdoor portraits. I've heard from a friend that it's about 1/2 CTO, so I'm going to try it out at about 3300K next time I get the chance. I'll also try your suggestion of 3500K, to see if that gives me a more pleasing out of camera experience...

(I have the 2nd photo hosted on PBase - usually a refresh will make it appear)

sblais
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:40
Gel: piece of colored plastic
WB: white balance
K: Kelvin, a measure of the temperature of a color (Blue: cold, red: hot) (btw, Kelvin is also a regular temperature unit)

In flash photography, you have two colors: the ambient lights (tungsten, fluorescents, etc) and the flash. If you set your white balance to that of the flash, the tungsten lights (for example) will look very yellow. A gel helps changing the color of the flash to match that of the ambient lighting.

Grace
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:41
:) he he please tell me you knew I was kidding:)

sblais
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:43
:) he he please tell me you knew I was kidding:)
he he please tell me you knew I was kidding :lol:

EDIT: you were either kidding or still under medication after your operation (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=3302195&postcount=8)! :p

Grace
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:44
I was scared..I thought OH, NO, my covers blown! :)

Grace
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:45
Sorry Jamie, I'm on a hijacking streak today :)

Curtis N
1st of June 2007 (Fri), 11:55
Let's all sit and wait for Curtis to jump in on this one... We just need a post from Kathy and he'll be here in no time! :lol:Hmm...
Seems like the stalker has become the stalkee in this thread. :eek: