SHOOTING STUDIO PORTRAITS WITH GELS

Today we’re going to get a little bit more complicated here and do something a little different. What about with gels? So we're going to set up two lights on a gray backdrop from BackgroundTown called Antique Paper. Gels are kind of an interesting thing. You've got to worry about things like saturation, and we'll talk a little bit about it because you want that vibrant color. You're not looking to lose color. The color of the background matters as well. Typically if you're using a white backdrop, you're going to see some of that color from the gels. On gray, you'll see some of the color, but not maybe as much as on a different color background. So, if I use a black background, color's going to look different than it would look on a white background. We just have to be aware of all these things as we're choosing colors. For today, I chose two lights. Your typical studio lights will work just fine.

Antique Paper

I went out to B&H and purchased these color gels. I bought a ton of colors of these gels and they come in 12”x12”, so one foot by one foot. Then I cut them into fours, which fits on almost all lights. Yes, there are much “sexier” light adapters for gels that all the companies make. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them. I do have them sporadically throughout my bag, but I find that because I'm in so many different scenarios, doing so many different things with so many different lights, now I’ve got to have adapters for each different type of light and it's kind of a pain in the ass. So these gels with some gaff tape are super inexpensive and it works. For example, I've got Profoto back there, but here's a Westcott light. Now, I can just take the same gel and call it a day. I don't have to go get another adapter or things like that. I don't know if I'd call that a hack, but I went out and bought these, which are very inexpensive all things considered and just use gaff tape. The ones that come from the manufacturers look sexier and they're built better, don't get me wrong. There is something that just feels flimsy with these gels, but it is what it is.

So, let's just say for argument's sake, you didn't have a gel on this light and you metered in at 5.6. Just know that when you put a gel on a light, you're going to lose power. It will be somewhere from a stop to a stop and a half of power every gel. And color, by the way, is different. It's tied to how thick the material is and things like that. So let's just fire the light meter right at her chin. I'm getting 4.0, and I'm going to work with that. So let's shoot this first one at F4. We're only going to have one color light. Let's see what that looks like.

Shooting With One Gel

We're going to add red. So I'm going with teal and red. I like that color combination. There’s no color on the background. Okay, so we've got that set to 4.0. Now what I want to do is right here on the side of Violet, I've got a bare bulb light. We will probably set this to the same power and then kind of season to taste. The power now is at five on the light. So we'll put this one at five and that should be able to fire right at the back of her head. And then, just because I don't want split light on Violet, I'm going to have her cheating towards that light. We've got that gray backdrop, which I think is good for the kind of the color setup we have here.

So we've got red and teal gels. We're using a 50 millimeter lens. This backdrop is called Antique Paper, and I really like the pattern on it. All right, so now as I'm looking at this, I like the red edge lights on her and I like what we're getting on her face. With the saturation, the more you overexpose your light, the more you're going to lose that color. One of the things you can do is shoot this at 5.0 even though I know the lights are metered into 4.0. So, watch what happens here. The colors should get a little deeper.

Shooting at f/4

Shooting at f/5

So notice now, those colors are a little deeper for us versus being overexposed. Something I like to do when I'm working is let's say I'm in Lightroom. And again, remember this is straight out of camera, so we will make some adjustments here. The lighting pattern on her doesn't really bother me. I love that she's wearing the white dress, but you're not going to get a perfect lighting pattern unless I move that light all the way behind her and just make it truly an edge light, which I don't want. I do want some light spill and things like that. But what I care most about for the record is what that light looks like on her face.

So just to show you what I would do, I would want to have color. Color's important to me. So I've got the color, and I'm under-exposed on camera. Remember the lights were metered in for 4.0, but I wanted deeper colors, so I shot it at 5.0. I'm about a half stop underexposed. Now in post production I can go into Lightroom, go into develop, get your brush, and just paint her face and lift exposure on her face. That's a little technique I do.

So we've got two lights in here, and we can start playing around with this. Maybe move this light a little more to the side of her. Now you're going to see a little bit more spill on her. This is what starts happening and I can't look you in the eye and tell you there's a right or wrong answer here. Some people love this stuff, and some people are like you're the worst photographer in the world.

So what I'm going to tell you with this kind of stuff, especially when you're using gels, is have fun. Experiment and mess around with the light. Do what is going to look good for you and your brand. My point is to season to taste. I'm not going to tell you if it's right or wrong. It's really what you like or don't like when it comes to gels. I think you can do a lot of cool things and be funky with it.

And again, focus on the backdrop. That backdrop has that kind of pattern to it where it's very neutral. Also, keep in mind I'm shooting at 5.6 here, but let's try to get down to 1.2 and see if that changes the way anything looks. I changed my ISO to 100 and both of the lights are at one. I like the way that background starts looking there, but you notice there's no blue showing up on her. At least not enough. I think there's too much ambient in the room, quite frankly. This is underexposed and the light's not going to go any lower. So, unless you're in a pitch black room, you're not going to be able to do this at that ISO. So I'm actually going to ISO low, which is ISO 50. Let’s take one more here and see what comes back.

I just like the milkiness of that at 1.2. I know a lot of portrait photographers who do studio work hate that look, but I just really do like it. I like the way the background goes soft and everything. It's kind of a favorite.

FINAL IMAGES

Settings: f/5 @ 1/200, ISO 200

Settings: f/1.2 @ 1/200, ISO 100

Settings: f/1.2 @ 1/200, ISO 50