Small Flash: Using Theatrical Gels for Small Flash with Bold Results

Step Two

Erik Valind

After picking a gel color and attaching it to a second small flash, which we aimed at the background, we got back to shooting. There was certainly color now, but not the rich, saturated colors I’d hoped for. The light was more white and pastel than bold and vibrant. And there’s a reason for this, as this “best practice” for saturated colors exists across the photo realm. If you’ve ever photographed someone in a white dress, or the sky on a bright day, you know how quickly the exposure can get blown out, causing you to lose all of the color data in those lost highlights. The same applies to our first attempt at using gels.