So, if you’ve ever worked in one of your local artist studios for rent or even have your own studio space from photography, you know that lighting is the key.
But sometimes, we want to manipulate the lighting for artistic purposes. And one method of doing so is using tools called gels. For those of you who are not familiar with gels, they are basically plastic-like sheets in different colors that are placed over and around lighting units to change the shade of the light produced in the photo.
Sounds simple right? Well, despite the simplicity, buying commercial gels can be pricey not to mention you may or may not be able to get the shades you really want. Making your own gels will cost you far less than buying them and assure you that you get the colors you want.
DIY gels - less that 50 cents each.
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- Commercial gels by Gary Fong – $14.95 for 4 pieces
Here’s how to do it:
1. Get yourself some transparencies from your local office supply store.
2. Use Photoshop or a similar photo editing program (if you don’t have one use the suggestion below) to open a new 8x1o file and simply make the file a box the color you want your gel to be.
3, If you don’t have adequate photo editing software, use a word processing program in which you can create an 8×10 box filled with color.
4. Save the files and take them on a CD or flash drive to any full-service copy shop.
5. Have the copy shop staff print them as color copies onto your transparencies.
All done!
Average cost – about 25-50 cents per gel, far below what you’ll pay if you buy therm outright.
