Lighting gels

[mnat]

Since we love to share photos of our fish and corals, it can always be frustrating when we can't get a good picture of something we love. Lighting and cameras can obviously change the look of a coral very quickly and no matter how good you are at photoshop can't bring it back to normal. I have had very good luck shooting most of my fish and corals in my display with the LEDs, unfortunately for me I am terrible in the frag tank which of course has most of my nicest corals. For some reason, I can't get good shots under the T5s.

After joining a few groups on Facebook I saw a guy talking about lighting gels and he was posting amazing pics with just a cellphone, $20 clip on macro and a lighting gel. I reached out to him and ordered them, I figured what's the harm it was $5 shipped for a bunch of the gels. So I finally went down into the basement and shot these photos just with my Iphone and the the gels:

Control photo with no gel:

Gel:

Control photo with no gel:

Gel:

One extra just because:

 

[Empire]

There's someone on manhattan reefs that sells a pack of 4 for $2.50 shipped,

 

[jose7878]

Those are amazing pics with the lighting gel Mike. I struggle taking pics cause I can't get that balance to make my pics look clean enough to post. I think I'll be investing in those lighting gels.

 

[Zippy69]

Very, very clever. What a great idea.

 

[mnat]

I think it is the same dude, mark short. My pack had like 8 so not surprised with the price differential.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Wow! I'm impressed. Group buy!!!!


So help me out....do you use the gel in front of the camera or over the T5 lights? And would you use a different gel for, say T5s versus LEDs?

 

[mnat]

Wow! I'm impressed. Group buy!!!!


So help me out....do you use the gel in front of the camera or over the T5 lights? And would you use a different gel for, say T5s versus LEDs?

They are small only like an inch or so squared so they are just over the camera lens. There are like8 different color gels so I took pics with all of them and picked the three I liked the best. I would assume under different lighting different gels would work better but I did not try it yet with the LEDs.

 

[Empire]

I have something similar. I would like to see yours though. I use mine with my phone under LEDs:

 

[TanksNStuff]

Nice Mike! Those things really do work, huh? Do you know if they sell them for DSLR cameras too, like say for a Canon standard 18-55mm lens?

 

[Empire]

not to hijack your thread mike, but if you guys want to see what the gels look like with LEDs, this link will show you guys a bunch of before and after pictures. i am almost certain it is the same gel. if it is, I can ask the OP to ship me a bunch and distribute to you guys accordingly. mods, i apologize if this is not allowed.

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum...-i-have-solution-better-cell-phone-pic-s.html

 

[mnat]

Nice Mike! Those things really do work, huh? Do you know if they sell them for DSLR cameras too, like say for a Canon standard 18-55mm lens?

George, they are not big enough to cover a whole a DLSR lens. However, you can buy these gels on amazon which are much bigger and will easily fit over the camera. I ordered 2 through amazong so my next move will be to cut one down and see how it looks with my DSLR. The problem with amazon, is they have like a million colors so it is guess work and they are not as cheap (due to size).

 

[redfishbluefish]

For you SLR's, they sell filters that screw onto your lens. I used these type filters years ago with B&W film work.

 

[hcker99]

Based on Mike's recommendation I ordered a set from Mark Short on FB. Here are a couple pics under Ocean Revive LED's (50% blue, 10% white) taken with my Samsung Galaxy S4. Normally these pictures would be saturated in purple due to the UV but the orange filter seems to fix that issue.

 

[mnat]

Pics look really good, for $5 I think they are worth it.

 

[hcker99]

And these are under Ocean Revive LED's (100% blue 0% white). Still very blue (of course ) but it now allows other colors to be picked up were as before the pics would be entirely blue.

 

[MrsSmartyPants]

Back when I had my photography studio, I used to order "gel samples" from the manufacturers and they came in a book like paint/fabric samples. They were the PERFECT size for my flash (1"x2") and free with over 100 colors. That may be a good thing to try

 

[hcker99]

Pics look really good, for $5 I think they are worth it.

thx Mike. Now I'm trying to track down the same colors to use with a dslr

 

[mnat]

Doing the same thing.

 

[MrsSmartyPants]

I wonder if you couldn't bring them to B&H or even contact the manufacturers (Lee, Rosco, etc) and have them matched.

THESE are the swatch books I was talking about - they are the PERFECT size to fit over an external flash - so they will fit over a point & shoot lens and a phone lens - but I don't think they'll fit over a DSLR lens:


Swatchbook

 

[Alcohol120]

where can we buy the gels? is the link in the post above good?