Gelled?

[bcummings88]

What is it and when would you use it?

[sybren]

Check Strobist ;-)

[inkista]

Gels are color filters--thin pieces of plastic--that you put over the light to change the color. You use them to add color to a scene, or to color-balance your flash with the ambient lighting so that white balancing doesn't become a mixed-light juggling act.

For example, if you're shooting under tungsten lighting, you add orange to your light so that when the tungsten white balance is applied to move everything more towards blue, the bits of your image that have flash illumination doesn't become overly blue (as they would if you hadn't made it all orange-y). If you're shooting under flourescent, you add green to your flash so it matches the color of the floruescent.

[bcummings88]

Well, that seems simple enough. I was thinking it was an actual gel. Silly term, I think. Thanks for the strobist site though, it's wonderful material.

[bhursey]

Originally Posted by bcummings88

Well, that seems simple enough. I was thinking it was an actual gel. Silly term, I think. Thanks for the strobist site though, it's wonderful material.

I though the same thing when I first got in photography I thought some one made a rubber gel like red and attached it to a flash.

This is an example of how a gel can go on a flash,

[Samanax]

Originally Posted by bcummings88

What is it and when would you use it?

This web page gives a pretty good explanation of gels.