Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Say your on location and shooting with Alien bees Using say a softbox/beauty dish etc .. How do you gel them? I understand if the reflector was on them its easy to attach but without how would you attach them? Or is this a noob question?

Thanks,

Tyler

There are a few ways of gelling a softbox. If your softbox has an internal baffle, you can attach the gel to the baffle with tape, clothespins or bulldog clips etc. If you don't have an inner baffle, you can attach the gel to the inside walls of the softbox making sure it doesn't make contact with the strobe bulb.

If you have wide rolls of gel, you can attach them to the external face of the softbox. If your gel isn't wide enough to cover the entire face of the softbox, you can use a stronger gel and attach it to the middle and let the light blend.

Hmm,After I posted I Wasn't sure if it is ever even done (Gelling softboxes) But I could see it being important in rare situations for colour correction... Is there any places to get large sheets of Cto and ctb Gels? Or would it just be Aliens bees "Warming Gels"

Thanks Carlton,

No probs. You can run down to Henrys (limited selection) or bite the bullet and hit Vistek for a larger selection.

I seem to recall Headshots having a variety of gels as well.... I've seen people tape gels (using gaffer tape) in front of lights- works fine. I don't think that would work so well with soft-boxes...

Ahh, good call on Headshots.

ive taped gel sheets inside modifiers.

Got sheets at Vistek. Probably pricey but i haven't gotten many of them.

Note: you won't be using gels with softboxes for colour correction since ambient won't come into play .. the exception would be outdoors but then you don't have to colour correct anyway since you are dealing with ugly incandescent or flourescent lighting.

Typically you use them with smaller flashes when ambient comes into play and you want to colour correct the ambient.

For creative purposes that's a different story.

You don't colour correct when using softboxes? Say your shooting indoors on location with strobes and you use ambient light to light the scene?

I guess it depends how big your softbox is but typically very little ambient is involved when using a large softbox. I guess if you are talking about the small(ish) softboxes that are in the market now it does and can apply.

Typically, in studio you are trying to control any and all light on your model(s) so ambient is completely shut out. But if you are going more for environmental shot indoors and using strobes to complement the ambient then yes, colour correcting can apply.

hi there,

this shop actually sometimes are cheaper than vistek...they are more for video but they also have very decent photography equipment

http://dvshop.ca/lighting/gels.html

for massive sheets, this one has more selection...never been there, but it was highly recommended for me to visit...tell me if you ever go there

http://www.sourceshop.com/product.asp?pid=383

have fun