Info on gels

[ChrisTX]

What's a good resource on using gels with flashes? I really want to learn how to use them with the different types of indoor lighting.

[DigMe]

Joe McNally uses gels heavily with his flashes and has definitely influenced me in that regard. If you read any of his books you will learn something about them. I've read the first two and am currently reading his third (just out). I found his first, The Moment it Clicks, in my local library. I mostly use gels for matching or simulating warm sunlight in outdoor shots.

brad

[DigMe]

Shoulda included this also to get you started:
Strobist: Lighting 101: Using Gels to Correct Light

brad

[ChrisTX]

Thanks. I'll start with that.

[Dobick]

The two most simple gel usages are CTO and CTB.

CTO is "color transition orange" and you can get it in various steps like 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and full. It takes a daylight colored light and "transitions" it to a specific color temperature, so for instance the Full CTO would take a 5600K light source and make it into a 2750K source which should match tungsten lighting.

CTB is just the opposite or "Color Transition Blue". If you have tungsten accent lights in a shot and you want to bring them up to match your flash unit, you could wrap the bulbs with the CTB gels so that they are the same color temperature.

Another very effective tool is to put the camera in flourescent lighting white balance, and then wrap a light green filter around your flash unit. That will match your flash to the flourescent lighting and produce very nice results.