I thought it would be fun to play with colour gels today.
I have a 4 foot red backdrop that just about fitted against my office wall between my office table and drawers.
I am lighting it with a speedlite flash on the ground pointed up at 60 degrees with a white dome on it to soften the light. So that’s why you can see the gradient in the backdrop.
My main light is a beauty dish. It has a honeycomb centre with a soft white fabric on top of it.
It also has 3 full blue gels covering it and it is situated quite close to the face on camera right pointing slightly down.
My orange light is a soft box with the cover removed, with one full orange gel and an ND filter. I would like to have it slightly higher and further away from the subject, but truth be told, I have ran out of space in my office! I learned a few days ago that the best way to keep your children still while trying to photograph them and minimise the moaning was to bring a stool in for them to sit on. It doesn’t stop them trying to climb on the boom stands or pull down the backdrops but it does stop them bobbing up and down like a buoy in the ocean!
With Oisin’s image I just wanted him to look toward the blue light light so you had that wonderful transition from warm to cold light against a strong red backdrop. Normally, Its not a look I would photograph a 7yr old with but, I only have two models to work with for the next few weeks due to Covid19 and I am really interested in what style of images I can create in a tight space, with gear that can be transported anywhere.
I like that Oisin’s face is underexposed. I associate blue light like this with evenings and it just didn’t work as well when I increased the power on the blue light.
When it was Saoirse’s turn, I knew there was only one thing to do and that was for Saoirse to shake her head from side to side I made sure I was shooting at 250th of a second and I upped by exposure to 5.6 and set the lens to manual focus. I prefocussed and then Saoirse pretend she was moshing sideways..
Now, if only I could get Saoirse to let me brush her hair!
I wanted to add this image in case people think my kids are working under duress!
It is amazing how the blue gel transforms the image.
See how the light reacts differently when the head is turned towards the warm orange and then the cold blue
I think the results work really well even without a wind machine!
Distance from the backdrop to the speedlite was 40 cm with power set to 1/164
Distance from the subject to the blue and orange lights was approx 60 cm. The orange light is set to 1/32 while the blue light was 1/8th power.
