LEE Filters 188 Cosmetic Effect Gel in Use

There are times when the light you use is either too hard, the wrong colour or both. On a recent test shoot with the lovely Amy, the light from my Elinchrom Ranger Quadra A head with a 26cm high efficiency reflector was both too cool and a tad hard on the shadow edges or penumbra.

To correct this I fixed a LEE Filters 188 pale amber warming effects gel with added frost, giving warm flash tones, a boost to Amy's already wonderful hair colour and taking the edge from the shadows.

Close-up from the first image with my white balance control image inset. The control image on the right was shot without the gel in place. The gel was then used for all the images during the session. 

During post-production I used the control image to set my white point and then applied those settings to the other images from the session. By doing this I get a true reflection of the filter colour.

Had I shot the control image with the coloured gel in place, when I set my white point in post-production the colour would have been neutralised, making use of the lighting filter pointless.

Lighting filters are both inexpensive and easy to carry around, especially the 10" x 12" sheets supplied by the main manufacturers in kits of popular types. LEE Filters 188 Cosmetic Highlight features in their Cosmetic Lighting Pack which includes filters to enhance skin tones in a variety of situations.

Lighting gels are very easy to fix to reflectors with small A clamps, wooden clothes pegs, or my favourite the Manfrotto 375 Multiclip aka Bowens BW-1826/A Black Multiclip which allows some separation from the light source which adds to the diffusion effect of the gel. When using hot lights without barn doors creates an air gap so the lights don't overheat and prevents the gel from melting.

LEE Filters are available from dealers worldwide.

Canon cameras, Elinchrom flash & LEE Filters are available from The Flash Centre. Email Simon Burfoot or call Brian Collier at the Birmingham branch.

If you're serious about your photographic lighting then maybe The LIGHT Side Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelightsidegroup/ will interest you. It's about all things to do with light and lighting. TLS is a closed group so someone will need to add you or you'll need to send a request to be added. It's a friendly group, with a degree of humour and some great photographers willing to share and contribute.