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
Shoot: Adding Warmth with Gels
But we're still stuck in this hotel room and maybe I only have these couple gels and I still got Godfrey and he's-- And my photo editor wants another shot, so we want to, like, off the cuff rip that out. Why don't you just come up, maybe you need to use the bathroom for something. We're just going to tweak the lights and get them right, right? He needs to check his voicemail, right? So, Chris, take that beauty dish off. Yeah, you got it. And would you mind just going back there and there's an orange light on a stand, just bringing it out over here? And Chris, you're just going to walk this light down the wall a little bit. Sure. Yeah. Chris will get this one out of the way. Walk it straight down. Okay, cool, yeah, you can just walk that one down the wall. We'll get this out of the way. Could you guys see all that? Was this blocking your whole shot? Could you see some of that? Okay. Alright, we're going to just rake that light down the wall the way we did yesterday. Yep. It'...
s not that close, though, Chris. Walk it out kind of where it was. Yep. Yep. A little bit more out. Straight down the wall this way. Cool. Alright. Oops, get that Chris? Just throw that black board so it's behind us there. Alright, great. So, a little bit of a different tape job, similar sort of gel, this is like more of a straw gel, it's a little bit different of a color, but I'm always real careful to tape them on there. Some people tape them on like this, right, and wrap them. I don't find that's the best way because the gel naturally wants to flatten itself out, right? So, I like little L-shaped pieces of tape like this, right? Keeps it flat. And generally, one thing you've got to be mindful of is these model lights get pretty hot, right? So they will melt your gels, so we should be keeping the model lights off whenever they're touching or right against because they'll melt your-- You know, God forbid you're renting some lights and you melt gels all over the modeling lights and people will be mad at you. Cool, so we're just trying to work with this very ordinary space and make it look a little bit cooler which is always a problem, always an issue. Alright. Godfrey, what's it like when you take the hat off? Come on over here for a second. Yeah, yeah, let's see that. Let's see that. Uh-huh, let's see that hair, look at those locks. Lovely. Alright, my man, can I just see you come right over here against the wall? I can take any questions as they come in, too. Just lean right back there. Cool, great. Alright. Key light's going to be this white light coming in from the side. I'm just going to rake this shadow over here, and this one I'm going to do some strange voodoo where I'm going to bounce it off this silver card on the floor. Could even be a light disk, but that's how we're going to roll with this. This one plugged in? Mhm. Okay, cool. We'll start with this light all by itself, if you could maybe read it, Chris, towards the light. Sure. Ready. 16:4. 16:4. You want to come down on that? Yeah, please, come down at least two and a half stops, something around eight-ish. So do you always double up the colors? Do you got the double on there? Yeah, I want accentuated colors so I'm going to double them up, you know? And to you guys looking, you know, when you're looking on this monitor here, it's just a little different than what's happening on our screen, you know? And you guys will get these pictures at the end of the day. I kind of have to let go of a little bit of what-- You know, it's looking great for the television audience, but for us, you know, you see the huge difference between the screen and that one, right? And you guys, you'll get some of these pictures, I hope, at the end of it we should give them to all you guys, you know, so you have it in your arsenal. Test. Yep. 8:9. But we'll get some softer colors, too. 8:9? Yep. Yep, come up to 11. Or 8:9's cool, 11, that's 11. You got it. Yep. Alright. Great. Cool, give me the straight profile right there. Beautiful. I'm just looking at the one light by itself right now. Yeah, I'm feeling that. Can you bring your head a little bit forward? Just look down? Yeah, just drop your head down towards the ground. Great. And bring your hands up, kind of do something mischievous with your hands in front of you. Right up here, just, like, cross them, yeah. Whatever looks good here. You're, like, scheming devilish things with your hand, mystical things, yes. Thank you. Yes, that's what we want, okay. Right on. Alright, I'm feeling that, alright. Because what I'm in, you have to remember, I'm stuck in this terrible hotel room, and I'm trying to give our man Godfrey some gravitas and mystery, right? That's what we're trying to do here, more cinema, more mood, right? So we like where that's heading. Now I'm going to just bring in this orange gel, see how we feel about it. Do you want to meter it? Yes, of course. Always. Always meter. We're trying to best practices, right? We use this light meter. Main light still F-11, I'm just trying to keep it F- all day, our main light, so that we're always like, "Oh, right, my main light's F-11." Nothing? Keep coming up. Okay. That's 1.4. Well, that's about 2. We'll call it 2. Alright. Now we're 2:6. Live with that. 2:6, 2:8, same ratio we started off with, like, how many stops difference is that? Can you tell me? Anybody tell me over there? Four. Four stops difference, yeah. So that's kind of where I like to roll with them. I like the deep shadow, but we're also bracketed, right? Alright, this is looking great. Bring your hands out a little bit flatter here. Right? Yeah, cool. That's great. Alright, sweet. Yep. And now we're really seeing the light and the texture of that wall, and can I just see this one? Yeah, gotta look at the screen. Make that full-screen for our audience here. This one right here? You guys see the difference there, right? Right? So, we're getting a lot of warm, nice colors in there, working with the shadows pretty cool. Could maybe come up one stop on this guy. Sure. Thanks, Chris. Yep. And you can turn your head up a little bit, Godfrey. Yep, chin a little bit that way, eyes to me. Yep, you can turn your head a little bit to me, too. Chin down a little bit, yeah. Looking great, man. Great. I think that's a little-- Ah, no. It looks diesel over here. Yeah. Diesel over here, I'm saying. Golden, nice, warm, right? So, let's-- Let's just mix it up a little bit even more, right? And I mean, this is not your typical situation where you bounce light off the floor, but it kind of works and creates a broad source, and that could just be one of your light disks, and this could literally be two speedlights, raw heads. We're not using any fancy modifiers here, right? And, you know, when we're just talking something simple as a-- Something simple as a brick wall, just raking that light, getting that texture across there, shooting it from an opposite angle's going to help you a lot. Alright. Thanks, Chris. Alright, so-- And we can very easily just swap out to a blue gel, whatever's bouncing on the floor right there, right?
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