What do you use for gels on a background light?

[GerrySiegel]

<p>I have a home studio shot coming up in two weeks. I want to experiment with a light on the black background and also the stormy gray background. My background light source will be an old 400 Watt Photogenic Portamaster on a stand with modeling light, no filter holder on that just the small aluminum reflector. I suppose I will clip it on, not sure.<br /> What would be a low cost way to find colored gels to play around with. And <em>what colors</em> are likely to be good to accent behind very dark hair..<br /> I was wondering if anything besides theatrical gels might work, and be safe and available in small quantities? Any ideas, thanks..gs</p>

[tim_ludwig2]

<p>Walmart and Kmart used to have clear colored plastic theme folders in their school supply sections that worked quite well as long as they were at least a couple of inches from any heat source. If not there, maybe at an office supply store. I think they were well under $1.00 each and came in several colors like a rather thick gel.</p>

[john_a5]

<p>Generally you will find filters for lights at a place that caters to the film industry and/or the theater industry. Look up theater supply or Grip houses in your area. Call the local theater, even if just a local theater group, and find out where they get their lighting and gels. Gels come in sheets about 20x24 and were about $5-6 for a sheet as I remember(I have so many that I haven't needed to buy any for maybe 10 years or so)--you can even buy polarized gels, although they are a bit more expensive. Rosco is the primary supplier for these filters, so if you check their websites you might find a supply house near you.</p>

[marlon]

<p>Polarized gels are iffy to play around with... they get really hot (in my experience). The gel sheets are about $5-6 as John said and you should be able to find them easily online or at your photography store if they sell lighting gear.</p>

<p>I have the fancy gel adapter for my Alien Bees but usually I don't even use it and just clip the gel to my reflector using alligator clips. <br>

As per what colours look good... it's very highly subjective. What colour clothing will your subject be wearing? What is the mood of the shoot? Red or blue is always a good place to start. I sometimes use pinks and purples. You can also try different colours on coloured backgrounds... a magenta gel on a purple background gives cool results.</p>

[pbalko]

<p>I picked up the <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/44688-REG/Rosco_RS8525_Color_Effects_Kit.html">Rosco 10x12" Color Effect Kit</a> @ B&H. Fifteen gels for under $30 with shipping. I use gaffers tape to attach to my AB reflector, but I'm thinking Marlon's alligator clip is a better idea.</p>

[GerrySiegel]

<p>Thanks all for you input. We do have a theater supply place I see, couple listed, so I will call tomorrow. No pro photo shop here for years, never really made rent when it was open.... The B and H pack sounds great too...wrong timing re B and H but hey.... That size 20" X 24" will keep me for ten years too, John. (BTW the price of paradise is no free shipping gratuity, I am always looking at shipping and it aint getting cheaper, better I wait to batch my orders to B and H)<br /> I am thinking orange or amber and purple for a start. I might even consider some office supply covers like you said too...I do worry about flame, the quartz 150 W model lights are durn warm... I have an old ancient ROSCO sampler pack somewhere, now I think on it, to examine. Plus I have a bunch of small Sears clips which ought to hold a section on.</p>

[pbalko]

<p>Gerry, I didn't realize that was you asking or I would have added "YSMV."</p>

[john_a5]

<p>Just to mention something sort of funny, regarding the hot thing. I bought some Speedotron Black line heads for special situations, a 4800w/s and a 2400 w/s. For much of my early career in commercial photography I used colored gels a lot. One day I was testing my Speedo's and put a gel over the front of the light, in a standard reflector. I popped the flash to take a reading and after it appeared that the color wasn't as intense. I looked at the light and it had blown a perfectly round hole in the gel the exact size of the flash tube--the edges were melted into a sort of lip. Being a bit shocked, I tried it again, same result. I ended up having to get black reflector housings so that I could use those lights with gels.</p>

<p>You aren't probably going to have that issue with your lights, but I wouldn't use anything other than a gel made for the use, you might walk away from your studio and forget the lights are on and not have one when you come back.</p>

[GerrySiegel]

<p>I called our ATTCO theater supply. They carry <em>some</em> ROSCO gels in 20" X 24" sheets. With tax about $8.00 per sheet, so i will get a couple, something like orange and violet, and I want to see if the ROSCO makes a diffusion filter for my fill light, probably not. Background light gelling is just something to play around with.....I know that it may need to match the model attire, but I will need to wait for the B and H kit to get fancier and that will have to wait until I need a few more goodies to make up a USPS Priority mail order...<br /> Otherwise, my challenge I want to drop the fill by a stop from key light and I expect that the only way to do it will be to drape a white fabric in front of the front panel. My front two lights are powered by a small Norman 404 power supply which does not have ratio control for the two LH 500 lights, an inconvenience of sorts. (There was an extra cost add on ratio gizmo by Norman but unit long out of production AFAIK, my pack says "Burbank", ha....)<br /> Not a biggie. This is not a pay job, a light test experiment only for mostly fun and games. ...<br /> Apropos of nothing, I just logged on to Photek re my bgrnd stand maker and found out Photek says no longer can supply Background in a Bag velour fabric....bummer, they say "the mills here have closed." Another nail in US manufacture.<br /> I have a black velour plastic material sheet I got years ago from- remember them guys-, Edmund Scientific, and was just thinking of ordering a nicer hemmed black velour Bgrnd in Bag. Not available, none available...(Moral: Do not wait if you think you need something, they may go out of business, bad for the mill workers as well as the studio photogs who like Photek products)...gs<br>

Alternative speculation. Maybe the B in Bag fabrics are actually from China and they found out they outgas Sulfur Dioxide or lead compounds...nah that can't be. gs</p>

[studio460]

<p>Gerry:</p>

<p>Filmtools in Burbank, California, carries most Lee gels in sheets, in-stock. Anything they don't have in stock, they can get from directly from Lee, often, same-day, two at most. Lee has become more commonly stocked in Hollywood over the years than Rosco for whatever reason. In Lee, the three most commonly used diffusion gels are (from most-dense to least-dense) '216,' '250,' and "opal." '216' resembles old-fashioned tissue paper or Vellum, and is quite dense. It's great for diffusing sources, but reduces transmittance by quite a bit. '250' is about half as dense and is also quite popular. Opal is so slight a diffusion, its usefulness tends to be more limited. Lee also makes a clear heat-shield gel. These help keep deep-colored gels (which absorb more heat) from melting. In ENG/EFP lighting for televison, we rarely use colored gels on backlights. However some prefer 1/2 CTB, while others prefer 1/2 CTO on backlights. Personally, I think backlights look best "white," but of course, feel free to experiment with whatever colors you like on your shoot. If I had to choose a color for a backlight, I would probably go blue-ish.</p>

[GerrySiegel]

<p>Thanks Ralph. I will play a little next week with the ROSCO orange and the violet I bought. And I can alway double up or combine the two... I expect I will go settle to a plain non gel light more my style but having fun.... I did my metering today w orange for a trial but I recall,from way back course, that the backlight value scientifically if one is scientific is best metered from camera position in reflective meter mode. With the portrait subject measured in incident handheld meter mode as usual. And there was a formula and even a hand wheel calculator ratio of back to on subject, but I forget now. So it will be more like trial and error, what else is new:-). No matter. Again, thanks for all your input. Especially the last item, Ralph, on " white" and if not "white" then bluish part of the spectrum. Now the next thing is do models prefer gels. ( Do gentlemen prefer blondes...and so on etc.)<br /> The theater supply, btw, was all out of light diffusion filters. She said they are a come and go item and they all done went.. waiting for the next boat.Such is this market. They do try.</p>

[GerrySiegel]

<p>Light kit wise, I have been looking at a barn door filter combo for 5" reflectors from B and H. Has a handy filter slot. And also kits for more money for color effect filters... About 75 bucks plus shipping for the frame and barn doors. I am not sure if I need barn doors. I guess the complete studio, home or otherwise, will have barn doors on lights. I know I can get black aluminum foil as some suggest. Ah. Something else to think about if I were in business. And am not, happily.</p>

[studio460]

<p>Gerry, a popular technique in television lighting, as opposed to the traditional "hair light," is to position the backlight lower, and have the backlight hit the hair, side of the face, and the shoulder. Also, I've switched from using Fresnels (e.g., Arri 150W), to soft sources for backlights, in my case, a KinoFlo two-bank Barfly fluorescent unit. As far as intensity goes, it's simply a matter of taste. I've gone anywhere from about the same intensity of the key, to a little more or a little less. Intensity will also vary according to hair color. But that's TV. Still portraits may require different aesthetic decisions.</p>

[studio460]

<p>Also, try searching "expendable supply" or "grip expendables" in your local directories. Since there's a fair amount of film/TV production in Hawaii, there's likely a fairly well-equipped lighting rental facility somewhere on Oahu, which will also have an expendable supply sales office (which will stock gels).</p>

[studio460]

<p>Barn doors are typically used for focusable lights, such as Fresnels. For studio strobes, you may be better served by using traditional lighting control techniques and tools such as flags or pieces of Foamcore to restrict light. What also works quite effectively for controlling stray light are honeycomb grids. We use grids in our soft sources nearly 100% of the time to keep light off the background. The most commonly used grid we typically use is 60-degrees. Also, inserting gels into gel frames can sometimes put the gel too close to the source, and may cause melting of the gels (we usually clip gels to the outside of the doors).</p>