*For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with David on Instagram and Twitter @DavidBergman. LATEST UPDATE: David opened up new IGTV episodes where you can ask him questions live! find out more at http://www.AskDavidBergman.com
Today we’re going to talk about using colored gels on your flash, to either correct the light, or for creative effects. Renown New York photographer David Bergman with AdoramaTV will share his techniques and best uses of colored gels when you are shooting out in field.
Mr Bergman shares: “Gels are really just little colored pieces of plastic you can put in front of your flash to change the color of the light that’s going through it. It boils down to really two different ways you can use colored gels. The first is to balance for the ambient light that’s in the room and the second is really to create cool effects.”
“All light has a temperature that’s measured in Kelvin and affects the color of the light. Our eyes and brain have the amazing ability to correct for that, so we see it as neutral, and you can also change the white balance in your camera to accomplish the same thing. However sometimes in mixed lighting situations, your camera sensor will have a hard time dealing with it. For example… if you’re in a room that’s lit only by tungsten light and your camera is set on daylight white balance, everything is going to look really warm, or orange. You can correct that by changing the white balance in your camera to Tungsten, which will cool everything down, making it look more neutral.”
“But what happens if you want to add a flash on to your subject in that same room. Well the flash is daylight balanced, so the light hitting in your subject is going to be unnaturally blue, while the background still looks okay. So this is the perfect time to pull out our good friend the colored gel. You can buy them in big sheets for studio lights but you can also cut them down to size for speed lights. Or buy them already pre-cut just make sure you attach them really tightly so that no white light leaks out around the side by putting a CTO, or color temperature orange gel in front of your flash, you’re essentially making the light in the flash match the background color.”
“Now that the whole scene is the same color, the tungsten white balance in your camera, will make everything look normal. Keep in mind that this also works the other direction – if you’re in a room with a lot of cool blue lights, you can put a CPD of color temperature blue gel on to neutralize that light, so everything looks more like our eyes really see it.”
“Lastly you can use color gels to create a million different creative effects, you could throw some light on your subject from the back to separate them from the background, you can also put any color you want back there, or light them from the front and make them look like an alien! The sky is the limit!”
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