Diving into off-camera flash photography opens up a world of exciting, new and creative possibilities. Besides giving you the option to shape and control the light in your image with a flash unit, you can also use colored gels to modify the color of your scene to add either a subtle creative touch or a more dramatic impact. Flash gels allow you to create accurate colors--and can also help you capture stunning, unique results.
Discover how to use flash gels, fast. How to use flash gels with speedlight flash & other lights to match flash with ambient lighting, add creative color, or soften the lighting. Colored lighting filters, or gels are often used on flashes (speedlights) used for accent or background lights to create color effects, or to provide color correction to balance the color temperature of the flash to the ambient light.
Rogue Flash Gels Color Effects Gels Colored lighting filters, or gels, are often used on accent or background lights to spice up an image with color. For example, attach a Smokey Pink gel to your rim light, Oklahoma Yellow to your fill light, or Deep Purple to your gridded background light to add mood or drama to your image. That's when the idea of incorporating colored gels into my flash photography struck me.
With a camera in hand and a heart full of curiosity, I embarked on a quest to explore the magic that these little gel wonders could bring to my shots. Color Gel Photography: 10 DIY Ideas Using Colored Cellophane To help you start with flash photography and color gels, you can try your camera flash first. Check if you like it, and then try different gels on external flash units.
The gels can even be stored on the flash, out of the way, when not in use. To give you a better idea of how gels can affect light, I tested them out in a few different configurations when using the orange gels for incandescent (indoor) light. Of course, you can also use your gels and your off camera flash creatively to dramatically alter a scene.
In the following example, the shot on the left shows the true color of the wall (gray). In the shot on the right, I added a purple gel to my off camera flash (positioned behind my son and pointing at the wall to create a hot spot on the wall and therefore a vignette) to shift the color of. Be prepared to adjust your flash power or ISO to compensate for the light loss.
Start simple: If you're new to gels, start with one color effect or one color correction gel at a time. This helps you understand how gels interact with your scene without complicating things.