Off camera flash and gels

Hi guys I'm after some advice I currently have a 550d and I'm looking for a speedlite either the jessops 360afd or yongnuo 580ii now the jessops is a ttl flash so better In that respect but the yongnuo is higher in spec also am I best off with a wireless receiver or a ttl hotshoe wire for the jessops speedlite, basically Iv seen a photo in a magazine and trying to do similar stuff it was a strawberry splashing on a spoon of milk with a bright red background, in the comments the photographer said they used a red gel ,so it got me thinking . Also how is this accomplished ? By aiming the speed light at a white background with said gel on , is that how it works

Thanks and sorry for the rambling on

Yes, you are essentially shooting red light at something.

It's generally easier to shoot a colour on a black or dark background than doing it on white, you get better colour saturation that way - but basically, experiment, it's fun...

Yongnuo do couple wich have E-ttl capability, but not sure how they compare with the Jessops.

Look for Yn-468, YN-468II or YN-565.
I haven't seen YN-580II is this a typo for YN-560II, like you said the YN560II isn't E-TTL.
I own 550D and YN-468 and am happy with its quality/perfomance and features so far....wireless TTL is not possible as in some of the higher end canon gear (may be able to get Wireless triggers with E-ttl but I haven't looked into this as an option yet) I have two leads to enable off camera E-ttl Flash, a short OC-E3 and lastolite 3m. Can't tell you how these perform in practice because I have yet not had a need to use them so they have only been tested to ensure they function...

HTH

Talbot_sunbeam : thanks didn't even think about black just presumed white background as the gels show up light in colour and very clean .

Birderman: was a typo so yeah 560ii not 580 lol i looked at the 468 briefly might double check it if you reckon it's half decent . Also yeah I meant wireless non ttl reciever .

Thanks guys