Flash gels are thin sheets of colored material that are placed over a flash unit to change the color of the light it produces. They are commonly made from heat-resistant polyester or similar materials, and they come in a wide range of colors for both corrective and creative lighting purposes. Flash gels can be mounted on the flash head using dedicated gel holders, Velcro straps, or even simple rubber bands. Many modern speedlights now come with built-in slots or accessories that allow for easy gel application.
The two primary categories of gels are color correction gels and creative effect gels. Color correction gels are used to balance the color temperature of the flash to match ambient light, while creative gels are used to alter the mood or tone of a photograph by adding color to the light source.
Flash gels are an essential part of a photographer’s lighting toolkit because they allow for more control over the final look of an image. When used thoughtfully, gels can eliminate color inconsistencies, enhance mood, or even transform a dull setting into something dynamic and visually compelling.
Why Photographers Use Gels
Photographers use gels for multiple reasons. One of the most common uses is to correct color temperature. Light sources like tungsten bulbs, fluorescent lights, and daylight all have different color temperatures. When multiple sources are present in a scene, they can cast mismatched tones on the subject, making white balance correction in post-processing more complicated. By using a gel to match the flash to the ambient light, the photographer ensures a more consistent and natural-looking image.
Another significant reason to use gels is for creative expression. Adding a splash of color behind a subject or changing the color of the main light can drastically alter the emotional tone of a photograph. For example, a blue gel might be used to simulate moonlight, while a red or orange gel can evoke warmth or passion.
Additionally, gels can be used to isolate subjects from the background. By changing the color temperature of the flash, photographers can draw attention to the subject while allowing the background to fall into cooler or warmer tones. This selective color treatment adds depth and impact to a photograph.
The Science Behind Gels and Light
Understanding how light and color temperature work is essential to using gels effectively. Every light source has a color temperature, measured in degrees Kelvin (K). For instance, candlelight is around 1500K and appears very warm or orange, while daylight is around 5500K and appears white or slightly blue. Fluorescent lights often range from 4000K to 5000K but can appear greenish due to their spectral composition.
Flashes are typically calibrated to daylight, which is around 5500K. If you shoot in an environment where the ambient light is tungsten (around 3200K), your flash-lit subject may appear unnaturally blue compared to the background unless a corrective gel is used. A CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel warms the flash to match tungsten light. Conversely, a CTB (Color Temperature Blue) gel can be used to cool the flash for matching bluish lighting.
Some environments, like office buildings, use fluorescent lighting that may have a greenish hue. In such cases, a green gel can be used on the flash, and then a magenta correction filter is applied during post-processing to neutralize the green tint. This approach maintains color consistency throughout the image.
Types of Flash Gels
There are numerous gels available, but they generally fall into two categories: corrective gels and creative gels.
Corrective gels are designed to match the color of your flash to the ambient lighting conditions. The most commonly used corrective gels include:
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1/4 CTO (Color Temperature Orange): Slightly warms the flash output
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1/2 CTO: Moderately warms the light
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Full CTO: Fully converts daylight-balanced flash to match tungsten light
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CTB (Color Temperature Blue): Converts tungsten light to daylight
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Plusgreen: Used to match flash to fluorescent lighting
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Minusgreen: Used to remove green cast in fluorescent lighting
Creative gels are used for artistic effects and can be virtually any color, including red, blue, purple, yellow, green, and even multicolored. These gels are used to add drama, mood, or a stylized look to a photo.
Choosing the right gel involves both technical understanding and creative vision. For subtle, natural results, corrective gels are the go-to option. For bold, imaginative images, creative gels offer endless possibilities.
When to Use Flash Gels
The decision to use flash gels should be based on both technical needs and artistic goals. If you're shooting in mixed lighting conditions, especially indoors where different types of artificial lights are present, using a corrective gel is often necessary. This helps avoid problems with uneven color tones on your subject's skin or background elements.
Flash gels also become important in storytelling and environmental portraits. Let’s say you're photographing a subject in front of a campfire. The fire emits warm, orange-toned light, but your flash is daylight balanced. Without a gel, your subject may appear cold and unnatural in comparison to the background. A CTO gel can harmonize your flash with the ambient firelight, resulting in a more natural and immersive image.
In event photography, particularly during wedding receptions or parties, ambient lighting can include everything from incandescent bulbs to colored LED lights. Using gels helps you match your flash to this lighting, ensuring that skin tones remain consistent and pleasing.
For creative purposes, gels can turn an ordinary setting into something visually captivating. A simple wall or background can be transformed using a colored gel placed on a flash aimed at the surface. This technique is especially useful in studio settings or controlled environments where you have time to experiment with lighting setups.
Equipment and Accessories for Gelling Your Flash
To use gels effectively, you'll need a few key accessories. Many modern flashes come with gel holders or built-in slots for gels. If yours doesn't, several third-party options are available, including Velcro-based systems, magnetic holders, and adhesive sleeves. Brands like Rogue and MagMod offer versatile solutions that are easy to use and compatible with most standard speedlights.
A basic gel kit will typically include a range of CTO and CTB gels, as well as creative colors like red, blue, and green. These kits are relatively inexpensive and are a worthwhile investment for any photographer looking to enhance their lighting skills.
Another important consideration is securing the gel properly to avoid light leaks or uneven coverage. Improper placement can lead to inconsistent color casts or hotspots, which can ruin an otherwise great shot. Ensure the gel is snugly attached and fully covers the flash head.
It's also useful to label your gels or keep a reference chart handy. Knowing the difference between a 1/4 CTO and a full CTO, or a light blue versus a deep blue gel, can save time and ensure more consistent results.
Gels and Flash Power
One aspect to keep in mind when using gels is that they slightly reduce the output of your flash. The denser the gel (especially with deep or saturated colors), the more light it will absorb. This can result in underexposed images if not accounted for. You may need to increase the power of your flash or adjust your camera settings to compensate.
Color correction gels like 1/4 or 1/2 CTO typically reduce light output only marginally. Creative gels, particularly those with bold hues, may absorb significantly more light. Some photographers meter their flash output with the gel applied to get a precise exposure reading, while others adjust based on experience and test shots.
It's also important to consider how the gel color interacts with your subject and environment. A bright red gel used as a key light can dramatically alter skin tones, which may or may not be desirable depending on the intent of the photograph.
Flash Positioning and Gel Usage
Positioning your flash correctly is just as important as choosing the right gel. The direction and angle of the light will determine how the colored light affects your subject and the overall scene. Whether you’re using your flash on-camera or off-camera, the placement can either enhance or detract from the effect you’re trying to achieve.
For subtle fill light, position the flash at a 45-degree angle to your subject with a mild gel like a 1/4 CTO. For dramatic rim lighting or background color changes, place the flash behind or to the side of your subject with a strong color gel.
If you're working outdoors during golden hour, adding a CTO gel to your flash can enhance the warmth of the scene and complement the natural sunlight. Indoors, matching your gel to the dominant ambient light source ensures that your subject doesn’t stand out awkwardly against the background due to mismatched color tones.
In creative portraits, you might position one gelled flash behind your subject to color the background, another with a different gel as a rim light, and a third un-gelled or color-balanced flash as the key light. This approach creates depth and separation while adding visual interest to your image.
Practice and Experimentation
As with any aspect of photography, mastering the use of gels takes time and practice. The best way to learn is to experiment with different gel colors, intensities, and lighting setups. Start with simple scenarios, such as adding a warm fill to a backlit subject, and gradually work your way into more complex lighting schemes.
Try photographing the same scene with and without gels, and compare the results. Pay attention to how different gels affect mood, contrast, and overall image balance. Over time, you’ll develop an intuitive understanding of which gels to use and when.
Many photographers find it helpful to shoot in manual mode when using gels. This provides complete control over exposure, flash power, and white balance, allowing for more consistent and predictable results.
Matching Flash to Ambient Light Using Gels
Why Matching Light Matters
When combining flash with ambient light, one of the most common challenges photographers face is mismatched color temperatures. If the flash is much cooler or warmer than the ambient light, it creates an unnatural look in your images—often with the subject looking one color and the background another.
Matching your flash to the ambient light helps maintain consistency in color across the frame, making the image appear natural and cohesive. This is especially important in portrait, event, and documentary photography, where accurate skin tones and atmosphere are essential.
If you're shooting in a room lit by tungsten bulbs (typically around 3200K), and your flash is daylight-balanced (around 5500K), you’ll get a mix of cool light on your subject and warm light in the background. Using a CTO gel on your flash shifts its color temperature closer to that of the room lighting, creating a harmonious blend.
Understanding White Balance and Color Temperature
White balance in your camera adjusts how colors are rendered based on the color temperature of the light. If you're using a flash with a gel to match ambient lighting, you'll also want to set your white balance accordingly.
Here’s a basic rundown of common light sources and their approximate color temperatures:
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Candlelight: 1500–2000K
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Tungsten bulbs: 2800–3200K
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Fluorescent lights: 4000–5000K (often greenish)
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Daylight (clear sky): 5200–6000K
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Shade or overcast: 6500–7500K
Matching your flash color to the ambient light allows you to set one consistent white balance in camera or post-processing. If you don’t use gels and mix color temperatures in your image, you’ll likely have to fix complex color shifts later in editing, which is often time-consuming and imperfect.
Using CTO and CTB Gels for Color Matching
The most frequently used gels for color matching are CTO (Color Temperature Orange) and CTB (Color Temperature Blue).
CTO Gels
CTO gels warm up your flash to match warmer light sources like tungsten bulbs or sunrise/sunset lighting. They come in different strengths:
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1/4 CTO: Warms the flash slightly. Good for subtly warming up skin tones or matching late-afternoon sunlight.
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1/2 CTO: Warmer than 1/4 CTO. Useful for balancing flash with warm incandescent or LED lights.
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Full CTO: Shifts the flash entirely to tungsten temperature (approx. 3200K).
Example Use:
You're shooting indoors at a wedding reception under tungsten lights. Using a full CTO gel on your flash allows you to set your camera’s white balance to 3200K. Now, both your flash and the ambient light will match, and skin tones will look natural.
CTB Gels
CTB gels cool down your flash or other light sources to match daylight or cooler conditions. They're less commonly used on flashes (which are already daylight-balanced), but can be used creatively or to match specific environments.
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1/4 CTB: Slight cooling effect.
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1/2 CTB: Moderate cooling.
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Full CTB: Converts 3200K light to approximately 5500K.
Example Use:
You’re using a tungsten-based continuous light but want to match it to daylight. You’d apply a full CTB to that light, not the flash. Alternatively, you might gel background lights to simulate cool skylight or add contrast in warm-toned scenes.
Working with Mixed Lighting Environments
Photographing in environments with multiple types of ambient lighting can be tricky. A room might have tungsten lights overhead, daylight streaming in from a window, and colored LED lights in the background. In such cases, you'll need to make creative decisions about which light source you want to match.
Here are a few strategies:
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Dominant Light Matching: Identify which ambient light source is dominant in the frame and match your flash to that.
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Selective Gelling: Use gels to match the flash to one source, then allow the other light sources to provide ambient mood. You can often turn those minor shifts into an artistic advantage.
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Background Separation: Use gels creatively to push the background into a distinct color range (e.g., using a CTO gel on the flash and letting daylight windows go blue for contrast).
In all cases, take test shots and review your results. Use your histogram and color preview if available. What matters is not perfect technical matching but achieving the right look for your creative intent.
Controlling White Balance in Camera
To take full advantage of gels, you should shoot in RAW and control white balance either in-camera or during post-processing.
Here are some in-camera settings that work well with gel use:
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Tungsten white balance (approx. 3200K): Use this if you’ve added a full CTO gel to your flash to match warm interior lights.
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Fluorescent white balance: Use this in greenish light environments and apply a green gel to your flash to match.
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Custom white balance: Take a photo of a neutral gray card under your lighting setup and use that as your WB reference. This is ideal for consistent, repeatable color.
RAW files allow you to change white balance in post without degrading image quality, but it's still better to get it right in-camera when possible so you can visualize your final result as you shoot.
Using Green and Magenta Gels for Fluorescent Lighting
Fluorescent lights often have a green tint due to their color spectrum. If you use a flash without correction in a fluorescent-lit environment, your subject may appear too magenta, while the background may appear green.
To correct this, use:
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Plusgreen gel: Adds green to the flash to match the greenish ambient light. Set your white balance to "Fluorescent" or correct in post with a magenta shift.
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Minusgreen gel: Used when the ambient light itself is too green, and you want to subtract that green cast. Sometimes used on continuous lights instead of flash.
This technique is commonly used in office photography, gymnasiums, and hospitals—anywhere fluorescent lighting dominates.
Matching Outdoor and Golden Hour Light
During golden hour, sunlight is significantly warmer than your flash. If you shoot portraits during this time without gelling your flash, your subject might appear too cool against a warm, glowing background.
Solution:
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Use a 1/2 or full CTO gel on your flash to warm it up and match the golden-hour ambient light.
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Set white balance to “Daylight” or adjust in post to preserve that warm, golden hue.
Similarly, if you’re shooting under a shaded area while the background is lit by sunlight, the color temperatures will differ. A warming gel can help harmonize your subject with the naturally lit surroundings.
Balancing Flash and Ambient for Mood
Sometimes, you might want to intentionally not match your flash to the ambient light. For example:
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Let ambient light go warm and add a cool gel to your flash for contrast.
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Use a blue or purple gel on your background light to create mood, while your key light remains neutral.
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Mix color temperatures intentionally to create a surreal or stylized image.
In this case, you’re not matching the flash to the ambient light but rather using the color contrast to drive a specific visual mood. This is popular in fashion photography, music videos, and stylized editorial work.
The key is intentionality—know what you’re trying to say or feel with the image and choose gels accordingly.
Practical Workflow: A Step-by-Step Guide
Here’s a simplified workflow for balancing flash and ambient using gels:
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Assess Ambient Light
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Identify the dominant light source.
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Estimate its color temperature.
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Decide whether you want to match it or contrast with it.
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Choose and Apply Gel
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Select a corrective gel (CTO, CTB, Plusgreen) if matching.
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Choose a creative color gel if aiming for contrast or artistic effect.
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Attach the gel securely to your flash.
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Set White Balance
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Use a matching white balance preset in-camera (Tungsten, Fluorescent, Daylight).
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Or shoot a gray card and set custom white balance.
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Or shoot RAW and adjust white balance in post.
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Adjust Exposure and Flash Power
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Take test shots.
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Compensate for any light loss from the gel by increasing flash power or adjusting camera settings.
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Fine-Tune and Shoot
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Review on camera screen or tethered device.
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Adjust position and intensity as needed.
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Capture your images.
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Post-Process Thoughtfully
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Use color temperature and tint sliders to fine-tune.
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Make selective color adjustments if needed.
Creative Uses of Gels in Photography
Adding Mood and Emotion with Color
Color profoundly affects how we interpret images. By using colored gels on your flash, you can tap into the psychology of color to convey specific emotions or moods. Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow tend to evoke feelings of passion, energy, warmth, or even tension, while cool colors like blue, green, and purple often bring a sense of calm, sadness, or mystery.
For example, casting a deep blue gel on a background can create a night-like or melancholic atmosphere. Adding a red or magenta rim light can introduce a sense of drama, intimacy, or intensity to a portrait. Using a combination of contrasting colors can create dynamic tension or highlight subjects in stylized, cinematic ways.
This approach is common in music photography, movie posters, and fashion editorials where mood is just as important as the subject itself. The key is using gels not as decoration, but as an extension of the visual story you're trying to tell.
Background Separation and Depth
One of the most practical and visually impactful ways to use gels is to color the background separately from the subject. By placing a gelled flash behind or to the side of your subject, pointed at a wall or backdrop, you can instantly transform the tone of the scene. A plain gray wall becomes vibrant blue, purple, or red depending on the gel used. This technique adds separation between subject and background, giving your images more dimension.
In studio portraiture, using colored backgrounds with gelled lights helps establish a controlled, consistent look. Even in environmental settings, you can use a gelled flash to splash color onto walls, floors, or other surfaces to lead the viewer’s eye or frame the subject creatively.
By keeping the main light neutral and only gelling the background light, you maintain accurate skin tones while introducing color elsewhere in the frame. This ensures your subject remains the visual anchor while the colors provide visual interest.
Color Harmony and Contrast
A powerful compositional tool in color photography is the use of complementary and analogous color schemes. Gels allow you to design your lighting to follow these principles intentionally.
Complementary colors, like blue and orange or red and green, create strong contrast and visual energy. You can light the subject with a warm gel and the background with a cool gel for maximum punch. This contrast makes the subject pop and brings a dynamic edge to your photo.
Analogous colors, such as red, orange, and yellow or blue, teal, and green, create more harmonious and smooth transitions. Using gels that fall within the same color family creates a more unified and tranquil image. These combinations are perfect for beauty, lifestyle, or romantic photography where softness is preferred.
The strategic use of color harmony and contrast not only enhances the visual appeal but also deepens the viewer’s emotional connection to the image.
Character and Narrative Lighting
Gels are also effective in character-driven or storytelling images. A single red rim light can suggest danger or intrigue. A green fill light might give a sci-fi or eerie tone. A blue key light could evoke sadness or introspection. In cinematic photography and video, these color cues are often used to communicate a character’s state of mind or environment.
For instance, if you're photographing a dancer or musician, you might use energetic colors like purple or gold to reflect their persona. A portrait of a mysterious figure could include deep blue and magenta lights to suggest moodiness or mystery.
The story doesn’t always need to be complex. Even simple narrative cues like contrasting warm light from a “window” and cool light from the “outside world” can make an image feel more immersive and believable. Gels become not just a tool for color but a storytelling element that subtly guides the viewer's emotional response.
Simulating Different Environments
Gels are not limited to artistic expression; they are also practical tools for simulating lighting conditions that may not be present. You can create the illusion of sunset, nightclub lighting, or moonlight by adjusting the color of your flash.
A CTO gel simulates the look of golden-hour sunlight. A CTB or light blue gel mimics moonlight. Bright purple, red, or green gels can simulate club or stage lighting. By adjusting your gels and flash position, you can build convincing environments even in a controlled studio.
This technique is useful in portrait sessions, music promos, product photography, and narrative work where access to a particular location or light condition is not possible. Gels offer flexibility and imagination, turning any location into something more visually compelling.
Balancing Gels with Colored Clothing or Props
When working with models or subjects dressed in specific colors, you can use gels to complement or contrast their wardrobe. If a subject is wearing a blue dress, adding a blue gel to the background or rim light enhances cohesion. Alternatively, lighting the background with a warm orange gel creates contrast that makes the subject stand out even more.
Props and wardrobe can also reflect or absorb colored light in interesting ways. Metallic fabrics, glass, and makeup often react to gels with shimmering or glowing effects. This opens up creative possibilities in fashion and beauty photography, where color can be both literal and symbolic.
By planning your gel use around your subject’s wardrobe and accessories, you create a more unified and intentional image that feels curated rather than improvised.
Combining Multiple Gels in One Scene
Advanced lighting setups often involve multiple flashes with different gels. One light might be the key, another a rim or hair light, and a third aimed at the background. Each light can be gelled differently, allowing you to sculpt the scene with color in three dimensions.
For example, you might use a full CTO gel on the key light for warmth, a blue gel on a rim light for contrast, and a magenta gel on the background for visual interest. This three-light setup creates a layered and cinematic look, with color playing a functional and aesthetic role.
When using multiple gels, careful control of spill and light direction is important. Use flags, grids, or snoots to control where each light lands, ensuring colors don’t blend undesirably. Color bleed between gels can be a problem if not managed, especially on shiny surfaces or skin.
Experimenting with different combinations is essential. Even small changes in color intensity, light angle, or placement can significantly affect the final image. Take your time to test and refine until you achieve the desired effect.
Post-Processing with Gel Photography
Shooting with gels gives you a strong foundation in-camera, but post-processing still plays a vital role. Sometimes the colors captured straight out of camera may need slight tweaks for brightness, saturation, or balance.
Editing software like Lightroom or Photoshop allows you to fine-tune the white balance, enhance the vibrancy of specific colors, or isolate color channels to reduce spill. You can also use HSL (Hue/Saturation/Luminance) sliders to adjust how each gel color interacts with the subject or environment.
However, try to avoid relying on post-processing to fix color mismatches caused by not using gels. Starting with accurate in-camera lighting saves time and preserves image quality.
Post-processing is also a chance to enhance the cinematic or artistic tone of the image. Split toning, selective color grading, or subtle vignetting can enhance the mood established by your gel lighting.
Telling Stories with Color
Ultimately, gels are about storytelling. Whether you're creating a mood, suggesting a time of day, highlighting a subject, or building a fantasy world, every color you introduce carries meaning.
Think of your use of gels as part of the visual language of your photography. What is the subject feeling? What should the viewer feel? What world are you inviting them into?
For personal projects, consider writing out a short narrative or emotional cue before the shoot, then choosing your gels to support that idea. For client work, ask about the brand or message behind the shoot. This ensures your color choices align with the intention behind the image.
The most powerful images often don’t use color randomly—they use it purposefully. With gels, you have the power to shape how your photos feel, not just how they look.
Using Gels in Lighting Setups: Practical Techniques & Recipes
One-Light Setup with Gels
A single light setup is the most accessible way to use gels, perfect for beginners or minimal shoots. You can place your flash with a colored gel slightly off to the side of your subject, using a softbox, umbrella, or bare flash depending on the desired look.
For example, placing a flash with a full CTO gel at a 45-degree angle can simulate sunset light on the face. If you want a moodier shot, angle the flash farther to the side and let one half of the face fall into shadow. Adjust flash power based on the mood: higher output for dramatic intensity, lower for subtle warmth.
This is a fantastic approach for portraits where simplicity and mood are key. It works well outdoors too, especially during golden hour when you want to enhance or match the ambient warmth.
Two-Light Setup: Subject and Background Separation
Adding a second light opens up more creative flexibility. You can use one light for the subject and a second, gelled flash for the background.
Place your key light with no gel (or just a warming gel for skin tones) to properly expose and light your subject. The second light is placed behind or to the side, aimed at the background wall, floor, or props, and fitted with a strong color gel like blue, magenta, or red.
This setup is great for headshots, fashion, or personal branding photography. It creates clean separation, making the subject pop while injecting color behind them for drama and visual interest. You can easily swap out gels on the background light to get different looks without changing your entire lighting rig.
Three-Light Setup: Cinematic Portrait Look
A classic three-light setup includes a key light, a rim light, and a background light—each serving a distinct function. Gels can be used on one, two, or all three lights depending on the creative direction.
Use a neutral or slightly warm key light on the face, a rim or hair light with a cool gel (like blue or teal) to add edge separation, and a bold color on the background (like purple or red). You now have three distinct visual layers working together: subject, outline, and background.
This setup creates a polished, cinematic look commonly seen in editorial, music, and creative portrait photography. Careful positioning and power balancing are critical to keep everything clean and intentional.
Cross-Gel Setup for Color Contrast
In this stylized setup, you place two gelled lights at opposing sides of the subject—one warm (CTO or red) and one cool (CTB or blue). These lights act as split lighting sources, creating a dual-tone effect across the face or body.
The key is to position them evenly and set their intensities to match, unless you want one side to dominate. This setup is great for creating mood, tension, or drama. It’s often used in movie posters, nightclub portraits, or futuristic themes.
You can also add a neutral fill light from the front to control shadows, or leave the setup hard-edged for graphic impact.
Gelled Backlight or Rim Light
Adding a colored rim light behind the subject is one of the easiest ways to make a photo stand out. Place a gelled flash at a 135-degree angle behind the subject, pointing toward their head or shoulders.
This creates a vibrant edge light that outlines the subject, especially effective when shooting against dark or neutral backgrounds. Rim lights work beautifully with bold colors like teal, magenta, or amber and instantly add dimension and polish to portraits, fashion, or dance photography.
To prevent spill onto the face or lens, use flags or grids to control the spread of the backlight.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Gels
Overpowering the Gel
Using too strong a flash power can cause the gel’s color to blow out or appear white. To maintain rich gel colors, lower the flash power slightly and increase ISO or aperture to compensate. Gels need controlled exposure to show their true color.
Gelling the Wrong Light
A common error is gelling your main light without adjusting white balance, leading to strange skin tones. If you gel your key light, you must also adjust your white balance to match. Alternatively, use gels only on background or accent lights and keep your key light neutral for skin accuracy.
Ignoring Color Spill
Gelled light often spills onto areas you didn’t intend, especially in small spaces or reflective surfaces. Use grids, snoots, or flags to shape and control where your colored light lands. Watch for unwanted color casts on skin or shiny objects.
Mixing Too Many Colors
While experimenting is good, too many competing colors can create visual confusion. Try to stick to one or two strong color elements and balance them with neutral tones. Think about how the colors support your subject and story.
Forgetting to Match or Contrast with the Environment
If your gel color doesn’t make sense within the context of the scene, it can feel artificial. Either match the scene’s natural tone (like using a warm gel in golden hour) or deliberately contrast with it for impact. Just make sure the choice feels intentional.
Lighting Recipes for Different Genres
Portraits (Natural Look)
Use a full CTO gel on flash, camera white balance set to tungsten. This adds warmth and realism. Works well in indoor settings or golden hour. Background stays neutral, subject appears warmly lit.
Beauty (Modern Clean)
Use a neutral white key light and a soft magenta or peach gel on a background light. Keep the face clean and natural while adding soft color in the back. Ideal for skincare, cosmetics, or editorial portraits.
Fashion (Bold and Cinematic)
Three-light setup: neutral key, teal gel rim light, magenta gel background. Adjust flash ratios to highlight clothing and create mood. Use v-flats or black flags to block unwanted bounce.
Product Photography
Use gels to isolate the product from the background. For tech products, use a cool blue or green gel on the background. Keep key light white for accurate product detail. For beauty or fashion products, try warm gels like pink or amber behind transparent props like perfume bottles.
Event and Dance
One key light with full CTO or amber gel from above. Background lit with two flashes—one blue, one purple—for nightclub feel. Keep ambient exposure low to control background intensity. Excellent for motion or energy shots.
Creative Self-Portraits
Use two opposing colored lights (e.g., red and blue) on either side of the face or body. Backlight with a third gel (like pink or green) for separation. Pose with expressive shadows. Create a surreal, pop-art-inspired look that breaks away from standard portrait rules.
Final Thoughts
Gels are far more than just colorful accessories for your flash—they're powerful tools that allow you to shape emotion, direct attention, and tell compelling visual stories. Whether you're working with a simple one-light setup or crafting complex, multi-colored scenes, the ability to control and manipulate color with intention sets your work apart.
The beauty of using gels is that they invite experimentation. You don’t need a massive budget or studio to start. With a few basic gels, some creativity, and an understanding of light, you can radically transform ordinary scenes into dynamic, professional, or even surreal compositions.
As you grow more confident with gels, you'll find yourself thinking more like a cinematographer—considering how color choices affect the mood, how different tones interact, and how light can become part of the subject itself rather than just a way to illuminate it.
A few final takeaways:
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Start simple, learn how one color impacts a scene, then build from there.
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Always think about the why behind your color choices—mood, emotion, brand, story.
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Combine color theory with technical control to create visually intentional images.
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Don’t be afraid to break rules or create your own looks—some of the best discoveries come from happy accidents.
Ultimately, gels give you creative control that extends far beyond standard lighting. They allow you to make photos that are not only well-lit, but felt—images that have energy, mood, and voice.
So grab your gels, start experimenting, and let color become a signature part of your visual storytelling.