How To Use Gels In Photography – A Phlearn Video Tutorial

Posted on April 18, 2014 by ShutterBug

How To Use Gels In Photography - A Phlearn Video Tutorial

Check out the full post at: http://phlearn.com/gels Change Up Your Lights Its very easy to mess up an image by using a gel too directly and by using too many…

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22 Responses to How To Use Gels In Photography – A Phlearn Video Tutorial

  1. ivapino says:
    April 18, 2014 at 10:31 pm

    Just in case and to complete the info in this very educational video, CTO
    and CTB are not color gels but color correction gels. The different is that
    CC gels are used not to color your lights, but to balance the color
    temperature between your bulb and your film (or the WB of your digital
    camera). This is the reason why they come in 8th, 1/4, 1/2 and full
    variety. For color gels, just look at the swash book from any manufacturer
    as Roscoe or Lee and check the Theatrical colors in it. These gels come
    instead in precise colors without any gradation (excepting for the Storaro
    line). Almost any photography rental house carries swash books and they are
    free. There are also color compensation gels (Plus Green and Minus Green)
    and those are the ones you use for instance, to take the green spike off
    the household fluorescent tubes or to ad a green spike to tungsten or
    daylight lamps in order to match the household fluorescent.

  2. Karl Johnston says:
    April 18, 2014 at 10:59 pm

    was hoping for a more informative video, saw your stuff on flickr and don’t
    really understand why there’s not more substance to this.. like this would
    be really good to learn how to do
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/aknacer/8658304307/

  3. loisa murray says:
    April 18, 2014 at 11:58 pm

    I have two or three backgrounds. I need to know how to use gels to change
    them to jeweled or pastel tones and shades.

  4. Ryuuken24 says:
    April 19, 2014 at 12:17 am

    You can do it for free. It’s called photoshop.

  5. Alex Valtchev says:
    April 19, 2014 at 12:52 am

    so many dumb comments, OMG. If you aren’t competent or a hater don’t waist
    time to other people reading your bullshit. The guy is not forcing his
    opinion, he is helping and asking question too. Gels aren’t use for
    matching color temperature only. Gels are used for all kind of creative
    purpose!

  6. JennyFTOL says:
    April 19, 2014 at 1:48 am

    Please let me know when you’re doing another vid on something you know
    little about so I can waste more my life. Thsnks!!

  7. Bruno Monteiro says:
    April 19, 2014 at 2:33 am

    portugal :D

  8. Ocinematique says:
    April 19, 2014 at 3:24 am

    With your english accent I couldn’t understand the name of the portuguese
    guy and I’m portuguese… googling I found out that you mean “Fernão de
    Magalhães” but in english you guys say “Ferdinand Magellan”… Ok, I
    got…. Anyway, nice tutorial.

  9. martinisbutik says:
    April 19, 2014 at 3:34 am

    To me the prime motivation for using gels is to match the flash’s white
    balance with the ambient light.

  10. Shamas Chaudhry says:
    April 19, 2014 at 4:22 am

    Hi Aaron, awesome vid, can you please let me know what lightstand/boom
    you’re using for the light with the CTO gel? THANKS! 🙂

  11. heipuntnl says:
    April 19, 2014 at 4:38 am

    Thanks for this one. How about the white balance on your portrait ( with
    the orange gel)? grtz from the Netherlands.

  12. User6327 says:
    April 19, 2014 at 5:09 am

    I was going to post this, but will just reinforce what you said here. We
    use gels to balance the ambient light in the room. If you have tungsten
    light sources in the room (say at a party, or some other indoor event
    you’re shooting) then you need to gel your flash to match. You can see
    un-experienced photographers shooting with an ungelled strobe in a room
    with incandescent lighting. Guess what? Your flash is color temperature for
    daylight. You’re now mixing light temperatures.

  13. jesse sharp says:
    April 19, 2014 at 5:50 am

    His arms are so hairy lol

  14. jessfoxx says:
    April 19, 2014 at 6:23 am

    I was expecting to learn something here…. lol you’re funny but this
    turned into a lack of knowledge on how to use them…

  15. one020508 says:
    April 19, 2014 at 6:50 am

    why so serious? =D cheer up buddy

  16. Jose Velazquez says:
    April 19, 2014 at 6:51 am

    great comment. can you answer me this? when i shoot outside at night using
    my camera mounted speedlight with a rogue flash bender it looks kinda
    crappy without alot of editing which i am trying to get away from. i want
    to get it as close as possible in camera so when i edit i can focus more on
    other details. so question is what gel could i put on my speedlight to
    match the ambience of the street lights with the flash. and then what do i
    use for my whitebalane

  17. panccio says:
    April 19, 2014 at 7:38 am

    very poor tutorial, and not funny at all. 🙁

  18. Kyle Goulden says:
    April 19, 2014 at 7:43 am

    To be honest, I disagree. While what you are saying is right and there
    should be some differentiation regarding what gels ascertain to. If you
    were searching for “Balancing Strobes with Ambient Light using Gels” you
    would find a whole collection of videos regarding what you are looking for.
    Technically he is right. Regarding “Gels are mainly used on strobes or
    flashes to balance color temp between mixed lighting” , to be honest, I
    havent not heard of that nearly as much as for color fun. 🙂

  19. isaac alvarez says:
    April 19, 2014 at 8:05 am

    I use gels on my images, you can check out how they turned out. I pretty
    much use them 90% of the time. You can check out my images at on my site.

  20. David Nutter says:
    April 19, 2014 at 8:51 am

    I like your videos, but honestly this is not even close to being a tutorial
    on who to use gels. For one thing it focuses mainly on the idea that people
    use gels for color effects which while true under certain circumstances
    such as background coloring etc. that is not the true use and reason we
    have gels. Gels are mainly used on strobes or flashes to balance color temp
    between mixed lighting. A room full of tungsten lights with a CTO on a
    flash, white balance tungsten will look natural.

  21. RonThePhotoGuy says:
    April 19, 2014 at 9:51 am

    I mostly use them to colour white seamless. Works pretty well but you have
    to keep the main lights off the background. Canon provided CTO gel and
    holder with the 600 EX RT. If you use it, the camera’s white balance is
    automatically set. The gel balances with incandescent light really well,
    but you lose the warmth of that light because it brings the scene back to
    daylight. This action suggests the manufacturers think gel should colour
    balance.

  22. David Nutter says:
    April 19, 2014 at 10:38 am

    Even though it’s dark outside the light spectrum is still considered
    daylight balance. If you take a shot at sunset with your camera WB set to
    daylight you still get the warm highlights and color from the Sun along
    with shadows. The daylight balance doesn’t remove that warm glow. At night
    time it’s the same principle. You set your camera to daylight WB (Sunny on
    some models) and put a CTO gel on your flash. A 1/2 cut CTO should do and
    match if the lights are warm and amber. More white..no gel.

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