Help me figure out barn doors and gels!

February 23, 2008 10:55 AM

Tell me everything you know about barn doors and gels for light kits!

So! I just scored my dream photography job and I started last week. The guy before me left a light kit similar to this one (although I'm not sure if it has the background reflector). Along with that is a set of barn doors and gels. I can work with the light kit alright, but I've never used barn doors or gels. I'm looking for resources (web, book, video, etc.) or your collective knowledge on how to use them! Thanks, Mefites!

posted by rinosaur to media & arts (8 comments total)

My first job out of college was with the ad department of a large department store. PArt of the job included directing studio photography for product shots. Mostly table-top setups.

Barn doors are used to mold and focus the light. Say you want to project a long, thin shaft of light across a tabletop setup. Close the barn doors a bit. They're very versatile. And they get hotter than hell, so watch yourself.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:40 AM on February 23

check out strobist.blogspot.com, you'll be able to find a lot of basic information on this stuff.

Gels are used for two things (well, at least two things). One is to put a color cast on the light. Like, say, red. Or any other color. The other is to match two different colors of light. If you have a tungsten light (light bulb), it's going to be orange in relation to your light kit (strobes/flash is generally considered clear but is blue in relationship to tungsten). So you'd either gel your tungsten lights with a blue gel, or more likely, use some sort of CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel on your flashes.

Barn doors basically block the flash from falling on areas of your photograph. You can focus on a certain subject, or block light falling on the backdrop.

What kind of job did you land, btw?
posted by sully75 at 1:25 PM on February 23

More geared towards off camera lighting with flash, but there's a heck of a lot of good information on Strobist about light modification etc. May not be directly relevant to your studio lights setup but I'm sure a lot of the knowledge is perfectly applicable.
posted by BishopsLoveScifi at 1:40 PM on February 23

Gels: if you have the appropriate swatch book, you should be able to find out whether they're color-correction (as above) or just straight color. The companies I've worked with are Lee, Gam and Rosco(lux/lene) Here's a Lee swatch book to give you an idea what you're looking for. Get close by eyeball, then hold your sample gel and your match up to a light to check and make sure they're the same.
posted by Orb2069 at 3:09 PM on February 23

You can use gels to match existing light sources like tungsten or fluorescents or you can use them for special effects to get color contrasts. It depends on the kit you have to what you can do. Barndoors can be useful on location to prevent light spill and lens flare. Obviously if the lights are aiming towards your camera, you can use the barn doors to prevent the light from shining into the lens. If you have the lights near a colored wall you can use the barn doors to prevent light from bouncing off the wall and screwing up colors on your subject.

I'd say experiment with the kit with a few different situations to see what it can do for you. Web or book resources won't help you too much for specific situations or your setup. Just get a friend and go to a typical location to play around. You will learn much more with hands on experience than by reading about someone else's opinions. Make sure you keep notes and sketches of your setups so that you can analyze the results to know what works and what does not. I always keep a notebook with information about my shoots and ideas.
posted by JJ86 at 4:25 PM on February 23

Thanks for the help so far!

Sully: I'm the university photographer for a private college in Philadelphia, and couldn't be happier at the moment! (hurray for free masters degrees!)
posted by rinosaur at 9:21 PM on February 23

Jeesh...sounds good. How'd you get the job? Do you have a photographic background?
posted by sully75 at 4:10 AM on February 24

yep, a photojournalism degree from a school without a lighting class :(
posted by rinosaur at 10:53 AM on July 30