5 ways to spice up your studio photo shoots using color gels

posted Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at 5:30 PM EDT

Photographer Elaine Torres wants to show us five ways to utilize color gels inside of a studio setting. She uses lights with color gels to accomplish five primary tasks during shooting, including using them as a main light, as a mixed main light, to color her background, as props and as a kicker light.

If you want to try color gels for yourself, you'll need at least one light, light modifiers, color gels themselves and light and dark backgrounds. When using any color gel, you may need to adjust your lighting power as color gels will decrease your light output, all else equal. This is particularly true when using dark gels, such as a blue filter, which can greatly reduce your light's output.