Gels

Beyond CTB and CTO: How I Actually Use Creative Gels to Build a Shot
Studio Lighting

Beyond CTB and CTO: How I Actually Use Creative Gels to Build a Shot

The Gel Drawer Most Photographers Never Open Every lighting kit I’ve seen in a rental house has the same thing: a neat stack of CTO and CTB corrections at the front of the gel drawer, and then a mess of colors shoved behind them that nobody touches. Full CTO for tungsten matching. Half CTB for a cooler key. That’s where most photographers stop, and I understand why. Correction gels have a clear purpose.

Creative Gels for Studio Photography: The Ingredient That Changes Everything
Lighting

Creative Gels for Studio Photography: The Ingredient That Changes Everything

I’ve spent twenty years mixing light the way a chef mixes ingredients, and I can tell you this: most photographers treat gels like an afterthought. They’re not. Gels are the difference between competent work and compelling work. Think of gels as your most controllable variable. You can’t change the sun, but you can shape every photon in your studio. That precision is why I use gels on nearly every shoot.

Color Gels: Adding Creative Color to Your Portraits
Creative

Color Gels: Adding Creative Color to Your Portraits

Color gels transform white flash into colored light, opening a world of creative possibilities that neutral lighting can’t touch. From subtle color accents to full neon-drenched portraits, gels give you control over the color of light itself — not just what you can adjust in post-processing. Gels Basics Gels are thin sheets of colored transparent material (traditionally theatrical lighting gel) placed in front of a light source. They filter out certain wavelengths, transmitting only the desired color.

5 Beauty Lighting Setups From Soft to Bold: A Complete Behind-the-Scenes Breakdown
Studio Lighting

5 Beauty Lighting Setups From Soft to Bold: A Complete Behind-the-Scenes Breakdown

I recently watched this Westcott tutorial that walks through five completely different beauty lighting setups — all in one session, same model, progressing from soft natural looks to bold creative effects. It’s one of the best demonstrations I’ve seen of how much you can change a portrait just by rearranging light. Here’s my breakdown of each setup with the key takeaways. The Studio Setup The studio is loaded with Westcott gear — multiple softboxes of different sizes, a large parabolic umbrella, and several FJ-series strobes.