There are many distinct ways to use gels. They include:
- Colour correction in mixed light
- Background Colour shifting
- Adding backgrounds
- General creative use
- Adding warmth
Type 5 is easy. Like here:
Nelson, NV, 2010
Indeed the sun was setting, so we have beautiful “Golden Hour” light. But Yasmeen is in the shadow of a mountain, so she is not lit by this great light. She is on fact hardly lit at all.
Solution: I use a flash. On camera. Now she is lit. But I gel that flash with a CTO (Colour Temperature Orange) gel. Now it looks as though she, too, is lit by that setting sun light we like so much. And because I use the ultra convenient Honl photo gels, sdlapping on that gel takes less than a second.
The solution: a cool shot, where otherwise there would be no shot at all.
Hi Michael —
What, may I ask, is that in the background? Wreckage of some sort?
Intriguing setting for a photograph.
Yup: an airplane wreck! The hamlet of Nelson, NV has a location full of old stuff, perfect for shoots.