Using Gels
By Dan Richards
27 Jan 2009
Gels are basically a thin plastic film that you mount in front of your lens to give a different prospective of your shot. Cokin will tell you the gels cannot replace the specific filters for such as B&W, warming, and so on, but I often do just that with them, as well as modify my shots for a more artistic look.
Cokin gels use a two piece bracket, one being the cokin mount that fits on your lens, the other being the actual holder. A square plastic unit that snaps open and closed. Opening the holder allows you to place the desired gel inside, then close the holder over the edges.
Easy, but timely.
Using a light sepia outdoors will give you the same effect as a Warming filter, or indoors will give you an aged effect.
One of the nice things about the gels, is that you can buy multiple sets, and cut them for various shots. I will be doing a few this month for Valentine's portraits, by cutting a heart into a red gel. This is one of the many beauties of the gels, is you can let your imagination run wild and experiment with different ideas for shots with them. You are not limited to presets, but can make your own specialty filters for any type of shot.
But getting back to what I do the most with, it painting images with the gels. Surreal and engrossed shots become much easier off the lens with these little gems. And combining them with other filters like cross hairs, stars, or what ever you choose can create wonderful images. Even the removal of filters can be a much more creative shot. Removing your polarizer while using a gel can give you some nice effects when shooting architecture, sunsets, landscapes, and so on.
Various effects can be done to portraits as well, as mentioned earlier, using the light sepia, can create an aged effect for your shots. Playing with them, can allow you to expand your creativity, and your quality of shots.
Some of the colors have various properties that can bring out other colors that the eye does not see. Using the Grey gel on a sunset, brought out the sunset colors before they were even visible to the naked eye. Using the Light Sepia outdoors brings out more of the colors and much more deeper than they were with the eye. Using the red on B&W brings out much more detail in your image, while the light sepia softly eases the image making it less sharp, but more pronounced.
Using the deeper colors can create a surreal look, which is good when using or not using other filters.
If you have not tried the Gels, they are a wonderful and interesting addition to any Photographer's equipment.
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