Make your colours pop

Placing gels

When it comes to placing a colour gel over your light source, be sure not to leave any gaps around the edges. If you’re using a studio flash it’s best to leave the modelling light off, as it can melt the gel. Often it’s easier to simply remove the modelling bulb, as this makes it simpler to place the gel over the flash bulb.

Colour combinations

If you want to combine two or more gels, choose colours that are complementary. If you look at a standard colour wheel, the colours opposite one another will work in harmony, so go for a red/green combo, or blue/orange. Think about how the colour can work with your subject’s clothes, too.

Setting flash power

Gels tend to reduce the power of the light source by around a stop or two, so you’ll need to increase your flash power accordingly. Some gels will be more dense than others. If you find the colours look too weak, try reducing your flash power and open your aperture to compensate.

Hard and soft lights

For hard light, we leave the gelled flash bulb bare. For a softer, more diffuse light we can fit our gel inside a softbox or beauty dish, or bounce off a white board like this. The bare light tends to produce more saturated colours, while the softbox will weaken the effects of the gel but produce softer light.