flash gels

Hi folks
doing a bit of searching and reading on flash photography I came across mention of flash gels to correct the colour temperature of the flash to the ambient light.

I'm wondering about getting some of these (thanks for the link user anvh) http://flashgels.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1 but dont't fancy sticking velcro pads to my AF540FGZ, so I wondered if they could be used with this:

http://www.lovegroveconsulting.com/honl_speed_strap.aspx

anyone any experience, and are they really useful ? Application will be indoor photography, either bounced off ceiling or via umbrella or softbox.

thanks for all your useful tips and advice, much appreciated

have a look at This
Bit more expensive but does the same thing, i've recently bought one and pretty pleased with it. if you want a cheap option to see what there like the next edition of practical photographer is giving free gels away with it.

Other than that the link you provided will hold the gels in place for you.

This was taken with the diffuser with just the clear cap, i'll try over the next day or 2 if i get chance to do a load of comparisons and post them up to show you the different effects.

I went for Honl for the gells with the strap, it's more expensive but they said they will last longer so we will see.

If the lee filters fit the strap???
Simply measure it, I believe the flash is 3 inch wide and the gells are 5,5 inch so it looks like they will fit to me.

I really think gells are a must for strobists, I never thought they would be useful but I'm now very happy I bought a set 2 months ago.
Don't know how they behave with umbrellas or softbox though, I could try it with a umbrella if you want?

ps. did I gave you that link?

right done a few for you, did 1 with and 1 without the diffuser to show the difference in bounce diffuser and ceiling bounce, then 3 direct with different colours then 3 off camera to show diffent effects.

Clear diffuser on camera



No diffuser bounced off cieling.



Direct blue



direct yellow



Direct orange



Off camera blue



off camera yellow



and finally off camera orange



not the greatest shots but its late and i'm tired quickly done with no other lighting.
Hope this helps.

Looking at the above I'm wondering if you have really grasped the point about colour correction.

In a normal room or studio the flash will usually overide any residual ambient light especially if you are using diffusers ie. everything is lit by the flash. Set your camera white balance to 'flash' or 'daylight'.

A different situation would be a large area, lets say an indoor arena lit by tungsten but you need to use fill in flash, you would then set the camera white balance to tungsten and put the orange gel on your flashgun to correct its colour to the ambient light.

In both cases there would be no colour cast which is kind of the point of the filters.

Another example could be shooting in a room with windows in shot, your are using tungsten lighting in the room which would make outdoors very blue. In this case you would staple very large orange filters to the window frames to correct the outdoor light.

I was demonstrating the diffuser that i linked. I wasn't demonstrating colour correcection or anything else just wanted to show how they changed the colour and the diffence in intensity when its away from the camera. at 11 oclock at night with no other lighting and just in my kitchen it was the best i could do to show someone who was asking questions how effective the diffent coloured domes can be.

I personal use it for portraits and my lighting is all daylight bulbs so if anything the different colourd domes will be used to change background colours.

I want to say the same thing like Ken last night but you had put so much effort into it that I'm sure bladerunneruk would appreciate the effort.

This is where you go wrong, bladerunneruk didn't asked for that but he asked about colour corrections gells and how if anyone has any experience, either bounced off ceiling, via umbrella or softbox.

When I'm shooting family photos indoors I also use the flash but I don't turn off so I need to adjust the colour of my flash to the lighting of the lamps and then colour correction gells are very handy.
Indoors I've now standard 1/4 GTO on my flash and when it gets darker 1/2 GTO this most of the time works quite well.

I agree with what your saying but like i said, i offered an alternative and just showed him the "basic" results with what i had withought setting up studio. i did want to just show the different effects and also how strong the colours come out.

Ah okay, sorry for the misunderstanding, I did find the comparison interesting though.
Do you think you could use gells with the clear diffuser?

I still need to test what kind of effect a gell have on an umbrella.

i'm sure if you can get gels big enough you could pop it on the top before you put the dome on, i'll look out see what i can find.
i have a lot of testing to do with the diffuser yet will let you know the results when i get chance to set up and test it all out

Yep they are, got my copy on saturday morning with 3 gels, red orange and blue

Not being into flash photography (yet) could someone explain to me why you would use gels rather than changing the colour temperature in your raw converter?

Because the colour temperature in your RAW converter effects all the lighting

The problem is that if you're indoors under tungsten lighting (orange) and your flash is daylight (blue) then you've a problem because you've two different colours of light and you can't change the colour temperature of just one light in PP.

Now there are also creative options to think of.

Here, look at this http://lightingmods.blogspot.com/2007/12/flash-gels-for-correcting-color.html

3 colours of gel won't do you much good for correcting because you're missing the 1/2 and 1/4 coloured ones and you need those when you shoot under mixed conditions.

Very interesting. It looks a bit complicated, is getting the balance between the different light sources guesswork or can you get some sort of colour temerature meter to measure the the colour temperature in different parts of a scene? I guess with digital it's possible to review your results straight away, must be a nighmare with film! The only flash I have experimented with is using slave flashes, which as I only have two fixed-output slaves is largely a matter of experimentation.