Prophotonut

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• 1. Catherine Monfils  |  December 31st, 2009 at 5:15 pm

  Here are my 3 favourite colours Damien:
  LC20 – natural colour: beige
  LC32 – nice purple
  LC36 – shades of blue
  It will be interesting to see how to integrate these colours in natural environments/sets. x

• 2. Paul Gallagher  |  December 31st, 2009 at 5:32 pm

  LC23, LC13, LC10, LC20 are my favourite colours.
  The way you have them lit you are really getting 3 shades from each Gel on the background.
  I love the separation from the background in them all and the colours I have picked above are not distracting in any way from the subject.

• 3. Helen Spendlove-Hilder  |  December 31st, 2009 at 5:34 pm

  LC45

  LC44

  LC38

  struggling to choose just three, but these would be an interesting set to try out.

• 4. Chris  |  December 31st, 2009 at 5:41 pm

  LC01
  LC08
  LC20

• 5. Nick  |  December 31st, 2009 at 9:39 pm

  LC01
  LC20
  LC36

• 6. Neil  |  January 1st, 2010 at 4:45 pm

  Great colour choices Damien.

  What’s happening in LC18, is that a piece of diffusion material she’s holding up and has that been used to affect the background of that 4th shot?

• 7. Rick  |  January 1st, 2010 at 6:43 pm

  LC12
  LC14
  LC16
  LC22
  LC30
  LC32
  LC34
  LC39
  LC40

• 8. damien  |  January 1st, 2010 at 10:19 pm

  Hi Neil, LC18 is a diffused gel. I showed the shot of the gel so you could see the diffusion and also the colour of the background without the gel.

  Diffused gels soften the light and are often used in follow spots on stage to light principal actors. I find they reduce shadows from flaws in paper background rolls.

  Cheers, Damien.

• 9. damien  |  January 1st, 2010 at 10:31 pm

  Here are my favourites within this set of pictures of Henri. Each skin tone, fabric or mood requirement will suit different gels so this is by no means exhaustive. Remember this is a subjective process as can be seen by the variety of choices made so far.

  LC06 used high key and in mid tone.
  LC08 Big favourite of mine used high key.
  LC17 used high key and mid tone.
  LC20 Big favourite of mine at all tonal values.
  LC22 Works well in mid tone.
  LC30 Is fabulous used dark in low key pictures.
  LC32 is another big favourite at all tonal values.
  LC36 looks good at all shades too.
  LC38 is one of the best gels used mid tone and dark.

  I could see some colours would be ideal for shots of children while some others would suit politicians or judges. Making the right choice for the picture is the key to success with gels as it is with choosing a paint colour for a room.

  Damien.

• 10. George  |  January 2nd, 2010 at 1:17 am

  This is great. Have you any tips for using gels on Speedlites? I always seem to get a white hotspot with them. Getting a rich colour seems difficult without finding a really dark filter.

  Cheers.

• 11. damien  |  January 3rd, 2010 at 1:41 am

  Hi George, Speedlights are no different to studio flashes. They are capable of evenly illuminating a background. It might be that you are using too light a background. It doesn’t work on white.

  Regards, Damien.

• 12. Fergus Morley  |  January 3rd, 2010 at 2:23 pm

  Apart from being a fab set of pictures I can get great posing ideas from these. No doubt a combination of phtotographer & model working well together. Great stuff.

• 13. damien  |  January 4th, 2010 at 11:53 am

  Hi Fergus, It is often more important that your model exhibits excellent acting skills rather than fabulous looks alone. This was Henri’s first ever photo shoot. Luckily she has oodles of both attributes. Have a great 2010, Damien.

• 14. Fergus Morley  |  January 4th, 2010 at 6:19 pm

  you’re right Damien. I recently did some pictures for a local theatre training course. some of the poses, never mind the facial expressions, were fantastic.

• 15. AlexSnaps  |  January 12th, 2010 at 12:06 am

  A great series and love your style a lot. I havent seen more useful website for an ages. All the advise that you share with us is highly valuable and appreciated accordingly.
  I have one question though. I am just starting out in studio photography and i have built a studio in small living room. I have a grey background and i want to use gels to alter its color. Which reflector do you use for this purpose and what is the distance from background to light and from light to model, also how much space is left for you to take shots lets say with 50mm (waist level portrait)

• 16. dave cooke  |  January 23rd, 2010 at 9:55 pm

  I love the combiation print with all the different colors but in an individual print I love grey or white it is so much more classy

• 17. Mahbub Khan  |  February 3rd, 2010 at 6:44 pm

  Damien,

  Whilst surfing the net today, happened to come across your site. Of course it was promptly bookmarked. A great site with bags of useful information.

  The gels…….well I love them all. I can see a use for every colour. Just need to get myself a bowens fit wide reflector to take advantage of the gels and to buy the gels too!!

  Keep up the good work and I’ll be visiting here more often now.

• 18. damien  |  February 7th, 2010 at 12:34 am

  Hi Alex,

  Thanks for your kind words. Your 3 questions are not easy to answer. You need a wide angle reflector on your lamp – at least 60 degree. Maybe you are asking about the Triflector in front of the model. I didn’t use a 50mm lens, and my Studio is 7m x 6m. Take a look at this post for more info.

  Regards, Damien.

• 19. damien  |  February 7th, 2010 at 12:37 am

  Hi Mahbub and Dave.

  You are both very welcome. Keep popping back and don’t forget to rummage in the archives.

  Regards, Damien.

• 20. Rollin McCarty  |  February 24th, 2010 at 4:02 am

  I read your book “The Complete Guide to Professional Wedding Photography” last year. I found you yesterday on Twitter, then found your blog. I am totally impressed by how you use colored gels to change to color of your background. It sure beats my awkward method of changing the 9 foot paper roll every time I wanted to change the background color! Thank you for sharing your lighting setup. Great Blog!
  Rollin

• 21. damien  |  February 26th, 2010 at 12:03 am

  Hi Rollin,

  Welcome to Prophotonut. Thank you for your kind words about my book. Dig deep in the blog archives for more valuable feature length articles. Cheers, Damien.

• 22. Pete Barnes  |  February 27th, 2010 at 10:31 am

  Hi Damien,

  Just got your gels yesterday, love them, it’s a great collection, Looks like I’ll have to be getting a triflector now! the home made ones are just too fiddly. Love the shots you did with them and the blog in general. Thanks again

  Pete

• 23. damien  |  February 27th, 2010 at 11:05 am

  Hi Pete, When buying a triflector get the one that The Flash Centre sells. I’ve had mine for 15 years and it’s still working well.

• 24. Gerry French  |  March 4th, 2010 at 6:27 pm

  These colors look fantastic. My question is if I want more of a circle behind the subject with darker coners, more like a vignette, do I reduce power on the backlight, reposition the backlight or a little of both.

• 25. damien  |  March 5th, 2010 at 7:23 pm

  Hi Gerry, Use a tighter reflector on the flash or place it nearer to the wall. If you place the flash nearer to the wall it increases the distance and angle ratio from centre to edge of illumination giving you the desired effect. Cheers, Damien.

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