To create different colour effects in film, it doesn’t all have to be done in post; and coloured gels in lighting are one of the main ways to create lighting effects before you even shoot anything.
Fashion photography:
In fashion photography in particular, coloured gels are popular to use to enhance the mood of the images, and to draw attention to the clothing being shown.
Images taken using coloured gels.
These professional colour gels used are big rolls, that are usually taped to the studio lights, and sometimes doubled up to create a more vivid effect.
Colour Correction:
Coloured gels can also be used to aid colour correction without having to leave it until post production.
Modern cameras have pretty accurate built-in white balance settings, but there might be problems if you’re using multiple light sources. For example, using the tungsten white balance setting will be enough to correct the orange lighting that tungsten produces. However, if you add in flash, an overly cold and blue image might be produced as the flash fights with the tungsten lighting.
By adding an orange colour correction gel over your flash, will ensure that all your lighting is producing a tungsten cast and, using the tungsten white balance setting, you’ll be able to produce a neutrally balanced image.
Coloured gels in film:
Coloured gels are most popularly used for live events, art projects, photography, colour correcting LED light sources, but also in film.
They are using the same way, but most of the time in a more subtle way, so it affects the viewer psychologically to help tell a story.
However colour is subjective to the viewer, based off of peoples backgrounds, so how a certain colour makes you feel might not make someone else feel the same way.
Example of colour gels in film - how the mood can change.
Experimentation:
Images of the materials I used.
I don’t have any big studio lights, or coloured gels, or even a studio at this current moment in time, but I still wanted to try and test different lighting with the things I had.
To experiment, I used my phone to take the photos, my mums flashlight on her phone, a torch I found and some quality street wrappers.
Video of the process.
I found that the quality street wrappers acted in the same way as colour gels do, as when I placed the wrapper over the light I was using, it created the effect I wanted.
Some colours showed up a lot more vividly than others, so I experimented with different colour schemes, seeing which effects I could create with the colours I had.
I also found that the flashlight was a lot brighter than my mums phone light, so I had to move it further back so I didn’t create the effect of a spotlight almost.
Because I was holding the lights, I couldn’t take a photo of the set up, as I was also constantly changing the position of the light depending on whether or not the colour was bright/dark/vivid enough. Below shows two diagrams of the general set up I used.
Diagrams showing the set up of lighting.
One colour photos:
I took a lot of photos, all in the same pose but using different lights to see whether it really did create different effects/moods.
For these photos I used the phone flashlight.
One colour lighting work, from top to bottom: pink, blue, green, yellow, orange, red.
Each row shows a different colour of light, and as you can see, different colours were more vivid than others, and in my opinion the orange and pink light looked best.
As my subject is a character from The Lion King (which I have previously researched), the orange worked best as it emphasised Simba’s character and fits him best.
Two colour photos:
I then wanted to experiment with more than one colour, creating two tone colour effects, using some of the knowledge I have about colour theory and how different colours work well together but also just playing around with different colours I thought might look good.
Two colour lighting work.
Through experimentation, I would that there were some colour combinations that worked, and some that didn’t. My favourite was the orange/purple combination shown in image 6 and 8. I think if the blue gel was more vibrant, the classic teal/orange complimentary colour scheme would have worked really well too.
Conclusion:
Overall, I would definitely like to experiment with studio lights and actual subjects, to create stories using light, and to do this I do want to expand my knowledge on the subject and try to experiment more, finding different cinematographers to gain inspiration from. I think also practising with photography would be a way to get more experimental with this.
Something else I would also take into consideration if I was to do this again is to not place my subject next to a window/source of natural light, as I think the effect of the colour was hindered due to the fact I had natural light affecting my image.
References:
Noel, J (2017), The Beat, 6 Creative Ways To Enhance Your Next Film with Gels, Available at: https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/6-creative-ways-use-gels/ (Accessed 6/4/22)
Plumridge, J, Photzy, Mastering the Art of Gelled Lighting in Color Photography, Avaiable at: https://photzy.com/mastering-the-art-of-gelled-lighting-in-color-photography/ (Accessed 6/4/22)
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