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| One of my favorite backgrounds is gray! Sounds rather unexciting doesn't it! It looks great for those head shots you are asked to take of the mayor, or an attorney, or a physician, but what about senior portraits? Use a gel to spice it up a bit! Rosco sells gels as does a number of other manufacturers. What is a gel? A photographic gel is a heat resistant piece of clear plastic that you simply place in front of your background light and it will change the color of the light emitted and as a result change the color of the background. If you put a red gel on a red background the background gets REAL BRIGHT red, same with blue or green or whatever. For a more subtle look, I like ti use a gray background. All of the images below were taken on the exact same gray background. This first image shows the gray background with just a "white" flash unit on it (in other words no gel.) |
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| Same background but with a blue gel with the flash unit at full power. |
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| Same background same gel, but the flash was at 1/2 power instead of full power. |
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| Green gel, everything else as before. |
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| Finally a red gel at 1/2 power. Red can be overpowering, so be careful when using it. |
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