Mounting flash gels on a 580EX II, for anyone who's interested..

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Recently I got to the point where I was really noticing the discrepency in the colour temperatures between flash and ambient light on some shoots.

I decided it was time to get some flash gels, and thanks to Flash in the Pan ended up sourcing some from here :thumbs:

I already have a Sto-Fen diffuser, wanted to keep using this and don't much like most of the common approaches to fitting gels to flash heads (velcro, tape, rubber bands etc) so sought another, simple solution.

I ended up cutting the gel sheets to fit inside the Sto-Fen, using a sheet of clear plastic of some description (from a CD case ;)) to sit inside the diffuser in front of the gel(s) and prevent them falling forwards and becoming mis-aligned.

A nice tidy and cheap solution that's served me well so far :thumbs:

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Neat solution.

I mostly use flash outside where the stofen justs wastes light so I just put a smidge of sticky back velcro on each end of the gel and a bit on the flash head.

Also, I got my gels by phoning Lee and asking for a sample pack. I offered to pay but they sent them free of charge.
 
That's a nice neat approach :)

I rarely use my stofen now, and having a mix of 430 and 580 and nissin flashes means they tend to get chucked in whatever order they come out of the bag. I love the Honl speedstrap aproach myself as it fits any flash and doesn't leave marks. Grids, snoots and gels all interchange between flashes.
 
great ideas thanks
 
Cheers people - good to see some other neat solutions too :)
 
Nigey said:
I just pull out the wide angle flash diffuser and stick it behind there????
Click to expand...

Be careful with that idea !!!!

You'll reduce the directionality of the light beam because the flash will zoom out to 14mm and the heat generated in the flash can melt the gel onto the flash lens because there's no air gap.
 
digitalfailure said:
Be careful with that idea !!!!

You'll reduce the directionality of the light beam because the flash will zoom out to 14mm and the heat generated in the flash can melt the gel onto the flash lens because there's no air gap.
Click to expand...

I do take your points, yes, it does tend to melt them if I use them at full power but I very rarely run them at full power. I have never really had a problem with the directional lighting at 14mm though. Examples for you.

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thats a neat idea, i had tried the velcro and tape methods with limited sucess as it often leaks unfiltered light out of the sides. i have a Sto-fen and some filters, but never thought of combining them, i will definitely bear this in mind. Thanks :)
 
Nigey said:
I do take your points, yes, it does tend to melt them if I use them at full power but I very rarely run them at full power. I have never really had a problem with the directional lighting at 14mm though. Examples for you.
Click to expand...

In that type if lighting when the background is washed with colour wide angle is what you need, I like to zoom the flash to 105mm and use grids and snoots with the gels too to control the areas that are lit.
 
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