Technique discussion - Using gels on people

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photochimp

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Carl Davis
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I tried using gels on a model a few days ago to get an affect that photographers such as Neil snape and Bruno Dayan achieve but I had no luck.

So any tips for using gels to keep the the image looking right but get nice edge lighting/colour tone.

I can link to examples but not sure if I'm allowed?

the affect is quite subtle sometimes but add a nice colour to the shadows etc

so is it the light ratios?
the angle of the lights?
the modifier used?

the image I tried basically looked like I got the WB wrong, which isnt the affect Im going for, I think it was largely down to the position of the lights, they were to direct to the model but I struggled to keep a balance between the lights.
anyway heres my test.

NSFW
http://www.photographybycarldavis.com/photos/841844365_JDpcQ-XL.jpg

I realise some of it will be coming from post work but I need to get it right in camera first.

hopefully this will be usefull to others?
 
I've only done a few shots like that but wasn't particularly happy with it myself. It was demonstrated at the Lencarta studio day. In the end I was standing in the way of the gel covered light to block it ! Would be interested to see some other examples of it as I do have a number of coloured gels to play with once my studio is finished.
 
I will be trying it again tonight so will post the results. I will be concentrating on the angle of the light to the subject.
I might even try it with 3 lights all using just a reflector dish so that I dont have to worry about the modifier changing things.
 
Not an easy question to help with, because it's a big subject and a lot of different ways of doing it, to get different effects.

Obviously, if you're using a broad lighting source then the light is going to hit pretty much everything, which will give the 'wrong colour balance' effect that you want to a avoid, so generally the gelled light should only play on a small part of your subject, which comes down to both positioning and the type of light shaper used to control just what the gelled light actually hits.

Then there's the colour of the gel. Something subtle ( a colour not very different to the colour of the subject) can sometimes not look like a gelled light at all, sometimes this may be exactly what you want but more than likely it will be the opposite of what you want, so 'unnatural' colours such as blues, greens, ******* amber often work better.

Then there's exposure. Dramatic overexposure, resulting in a bright halo effect, can work. So can dramatic under exposure, resulting in deeply saturated but fairly subtle colour. What usually doesn't work at all is 'balanced' exposure. But, like anything else, you need to experiment to find out what works for that particular subject, what works with whatever other lighting you're using for the subject, whatever works for the environment/background and whatever you happen to like.

Sorry if this is a bit vague and unhelpful, but it might help to get you moving in the right direction.
 
cowasaki said:
I've only done a few shots like that but wasn't particularly happy with it myself. It was demonstrated at the Lencarta studio day. In the end I was standing in the way of the gel covered light to block it ! Would be interested to see some other examples of it as I do have a number of coloured gels to play with once my studio is finished.
Click to expand...
If you didn't like the gel, why didn't you just take it off? Or turn off that light?:thinking:
 
thanks Garry, thats along the lines of what I was thinking so good to have it confirmed, definatly help cut down some of the testing.

I will probably start with one light make sure that Im getting the colour I want and the light just where I want it, switch that off and do it with the other. then add the main light and test, tweak. I can see my model getting very bored tonight :)
 
The Hotshoe Diairies by Joe McNally is a great read for this type of thing :)
 
photochimp said:
thanks Garry, thats along the lines of what I was thinking so good to have it confirmed, definatly help cut down some of the testing.

I will probably start with one light make sure that Im getting the colour I want and the light just where I want it, switch that off and do it with the other. then add the main light and test, tweak. I can see my model getting very bored tonight :)
Click to expand...
A lot of the testing can be done on still life subjects - in fact, although (or perhaps because) still life lighting is technically much more difficult than lighting people, it's a much better learning medium.
Here's one of my few SFW examples, far from subtle here as the idea was to emulate a club-type environment.
ed_quartey_gels.jpg

The blue gel in the rimlight position was several times brighter than any other lighting and the red gel on the face was at a pretty low level, just to add a bit of colour. It was honeycombed to avoid unwanted spill elsewhere
 
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