Digital Photography Hacks

Light Painting and Colored Gels

With an inexpensive swatch book of theater lighting gels, some nightlight bulbs, and a couple of LED flashlights, you can create ethereal color effects. And the best part is that you don’t need Photoshop or even a computer.

Yes, you can manipulate photos in just about every way imaginable in Photoshop. But what if you don’t like Photoshop, don’t feel that comfortable with your image-editing skills, or just want to try something new? Alternatively, you can manipulate the picture as you actually capture it with the camera. Working with light painting and colored gels, such as the ones shown in Figure 3-10, is a great way to experiment with this type of creative shooting.

Figure 3-10. Crystal with colored gel

I use quartz crystals for my example because they’re fun to manipulate with light, but just about any translucent or reflective subject has potential. My tools include theater lighting gels, nightlights, a photographer’s light box, colored bulbs, and LED flashlights. One of my favorite combinations for experimentation is a regular nightlight bulb shining through Roscolux theater gels. For US$3.50 at Rose’s Theatrical Supply (http://www.theatricalshop.com/rosesweb/gels.htm), you can get a Roscolux Swatch Book that contains a sample of every gel in their collection.

For the crystal shots, I made a custom light stand out of a six-inch length of 2” 4” wood. ...