Lessons
Class Introduction
05:21 2Color Theory
10:11 3Shoot: Introducing Gels
17:37 4Shoot: Adding Warmth with Gels
08:30 5Shoot: Dual Colored Shadow
06:43 6Shoot: Gelling Background Color
18:04 7Combining Light Sources Overview
06:48 8Shoot: Light Shaping Tools
22:36Shoot: Red Gel on Red Background
12:04 10Shoot: Grid Spot, Defining Color
07:54 11Gradient Color Overview
04:36 12Shoot: Creating Gradient Color
29:47 13Shoot: Split Gels, Warm and Cool Color
25:54 14Long Exposure Overview
03:37 15Test Shoot: Long Exposure with Gels
28:42 16Shoot: Long Exposure with Gels
12:47 17Critique
28:39Lesson Info
Gradient Color Overview
This is where we're at, we're gonna work with a little bit of the different color harmony, different color scheme, we're gonna work with something like this today. This part of this afternoon, I think it's a little more pastel-y, a little bit more, I don't know, you had some concerns about just work with primaries all the time and them kind of competing with eachother, you know, I think this is kind of a different sort of look so we're gonna, Yesterday we did a little of it again, but we're gonna work with gradient on the background, where we just create that little bit of glow, easy again, the inverse square law, and just how light behaves, how it moves light to dark, over-lighting parts, the background, under-lighting other parts, exploring some different color palates, as I mentioned, and we're gonna learn how to get the most saturated colors, all day we've been talking about that, just how to wrap the gels, 100%, how to make sure there's no white leaks in our lights, and, you know,...
just some good practices and etiquettes, Right on, this is a quick diagram I drew of the set, you know, just got one back light right here, creating a glow, kind of coming up from the back. Our main light's a 20 degree grid with a yellow and a boom, so we got one 20 degree grid light in this part of his face, just coming down and raking it, right? Now we can see there's two more lights, right, I got a little blue one, skimming, this is my sort of teal-y gel I got coming in from the side, and a magenta beady dish on a grid just kinda raking it to the sides, so, you know, definitely works well for this character, we'll see how it works for Godfried, right? (laughter) You know? Might be a good move, might be a bad move, we might have to re-work the whole thing, We don't know. We have to see how it feels. And again, it's like I can't really teach you how to light, but I think the process of setting up the lights, looking up the lights, seeing how I build a shot is what's most informative, right? This is what we worked with last time. And I think we accomplished a similar sort of effect. And, am I going the wrong way? Oh yeah, we're just talking about the keys to saturated gels, right on. So choose your colors wisely. You know I think that's, you know, look for deep saturated gels, you know, if they're soft and they're pastel-y, or they're very thin, they're not gonna give you the colors you want, they're not gonna give you a rich blue, you're not gonna get a rich blue if it's a thin blue. Right? The angle of the light, we've been working with that all day, really raking the lights, keeping them off the backgrounds, casting deep shadows in the shot, and realizing that gels are gonna kinda live where the shadows are, and if there are no shadows in the shot, no money, no honey, the gels aren't gonna be there. Right? So we're working always with the inverse square law, I think we started our lessons yesterday with that, and that's the crux to all this stuff, without knowing how that light behaves, how it moves from light to dark, how it falls off, we can't really do this process, right? So you kinda gotta master that inverse square law, and get it to work for you. And we're always completely covering our modifiers, watching out for white spillage, and bracketing with exposure, we saw earlier how that blue really got effected when we bracketed that exposure. Right? So, you know these are the same shot. Right? Just a little bit of different in the exposure, different bracket in it, you know, a little bit lighter here, a little bit darker there, so don't be afraid to bracket when you're shooting this sort of stuff, you'll see me do it all day. Right on, and this is just a little kiss of green into the shot, a little warm light in the back, and some more examples of this, you know? Question there? (unclear voice) - Oh, no. Okay. I thought I knew that man Okay. George Clinton. Yep. So, this is just a two-color set, you know, like even on the set we're working with today, there's room for some quick improvisations, where we'll just turn off some lights, turn on some lights, where we see that, you know? And this was sort of my inspiration for the blind shot, which was an available light shot, but this was what got my juices going with just a kiss of red in the back. This artist's name is Blood Raw, so it made sense to put a little red gel, his name was Blood Raw, right? Uh-huh Was that natural lighting from the left? There was natural lighting coming in from the left, so that's just hard sunlight coming in from the side, and this, you know the vertical blinds, right? So that's about the hardest, pointiest source you can get, and the sun's always gonna do that for us, certain times of the day.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Vitamin Dee
Great class if you're wanting to learn how to work with gels! This class will take you through the process step by step as you build your shooting playbook. I enjoyed Clay's honest and simple approach. Clay and his assistant, Chris, make a great team as they show how gels work and show you what not to do. They make learning fun!
Magda Mazur
I really enjoyed the course and have learned a few new techniques. Every photographer is a different artist, and I do not try to judge them by the way they proceed, but by the knowledge they have, use, and are able to teach. Clay and Chris have great teamwork and a lot of fun with this.
Doug Richardson
I found Clay's classes and teaching style worked very well for me. For example, Clay's method of first testing one light in a multiple light set-up and the adding the other lights one-by-one was great. I recommend this class for anyone working to add different lighting styles to their work.
Student Work
Related Classes
Lighting