First time using gels on the background

I purchased a pack of Elinchrom gels a couple of months ago. Yesterday was my first chance to try the gels. The couple I was shooting were wearing blue so I went with a blue gel on a black backdrop. I'm VERY pleased with the results and so were they!!

Looks nice. How much power did you have on the background strobe? I have problems where if I have enough light to make the color show, it washes out, if I lower the power I don't get enough color to show up on the background.

Mark Booth wrote in post #9653626
I purchased a pack of Elinchrom gels a couple of months ago. Yesterday was my first chance to try the gels. The couple I was shooting were wearing blue so I went with a blue gel on a black backdrop. I'm VERY pleased with the results and so were they!!

I experimented with a few of the other colors but, by far, I think the blue worked best. I think I'll be getting a few different shades of blue and maybe some lighter reds.

Mark

Very nice Mark. I like it a lot.

Thank you for the nice compliments!

Moose, I used three Elinchrom D-Lite 4s to light the shot. The background light was 8 feet from the backdrop on a boom about 8 feet high, angled down at the backdrop. The background light had a standard (8.25") reflector with a 30º grid and the blue gel. The couple was standing about 10 feet from the backdrop. The key light had a 24x32 soft box (with internal diffusion panel in place) and was positioned just to my left about 3-4 feet from the couple. I had the key light soft box rotated so the long side was horizontal. It was up about 7 feet and angled down toward the couple. The last D-Lite 4 was for the hair/separation light. It had a small soft box and was located behind the couple on my right (their left), also up about 7-8 feet, and angled down at the back of their heads.

Power: I had the background D-Lite cranked all the way up to 6.0 (400 watt seconds). With it set there and with the grid and the blue gel I was getting about f/8 at the center of the backdrop. The key light was giving me f/8 at the subject's chin and I had the hair light set at f/5.6 measured at the back of their head. I don't remember the Elinchrom power settings for the key light but the hair light was turned all the way down to 2.0 so f/5.6 was as low as I could make it without repositioning.

Canon 5D Mark II set at 125th/sec, f/8 and ISO 100. Lens was 24-105 f/4 at 73mm.

Oh... I also used a 42" disc reflector positioned down low to my right and angled up at the couple to add some fill to their left side.

The couple was a LOT of fun to shoot. They were very playful and I got many other great shots. I'll post a few more in a subsequent message.

Mark

Mark Booth wrote in post #9654094
Thank you for the nice compliments!

Moose, I used three Elinchrom D-Lite 4s to light the shot. The background light was 8 feet from the backdrop on a boom about 8 feet high, angled down at the backdrop. The background light had a standard (8.25") reflector with a 30º grid and the blue gel. The couple was standing about 10 feet from the backdrop. The key light had a 24x32 soft box (with internal diffusion panel in place) and was positioned just to my left about 3-4 feet from the couple. I had the key light soft box rotated so the long side was horizontal. It was up about 7 feet and angled down toward the couple. The last D-Lite 4 was for the hair/separation light. It had a small soft box and was located behind the couple on my right (their left), also up about 7-8 feet, and angled down at the back of their heads.

Power: I had the background D-Lite cranked all the way up to 6.0 (400 watt seconds). With it set there and with the grid and the blue gel I was getting about f/8 at the center of the backdrop. The key light was giving me f/8 at the subject's chin and I had the hair light set at f/5.6 measured at the back of their head. I don't remember the Elinchrom power settings for the key light but the hair light was turned all the way down to 2.0 so f/5.6 was as low as I could make it without repositioning.

Canon 5D Mark II set at 125th/sec, f/8 and ISO 100. Lens was 24-105 f/4 at 73mm.

Oh... I also used a 42" disc reflector positioned down low to my right and angled up at the couple to add some fill to their left side.

The couple was a LOT of fun to shoot. They were very playful and I got many other great shots. I'll post a few more in a subsequent message.

Mark

...Rain Man!! - I can't even remember the name of the model I shot yesterday let alone what height & power the lights were all at.

Nice job keeping the front lights off the background - most people using gels for the first time woudn't be able to get colours that saturated.

Thanks Hermes!

Here are some other shots of this fun-loving couple! (None of these have received any post-processing other than crop and copyright.)