gelling lights

[thartley]

Is there a set distance that gels should be placed from your light source? There are more variables here than I could imagine probably, but just wondering. My brother does still photography and I've borrowed his lights. He used some super bright halogen lights he got at Homey De Pot (Home Depot) and I am trying to rig a way to gel them by making a frame out of pvc. Just dont know how far they should be placed from the light source. If anyone has better ideas about how I can gel lights, please tell.

Thanks...

 

[Barry_S]

Re: gelling lights

There needs to be some air space between the light and the gel to allow heat to dissipate.  It's usually easy to clip a gel to barndoors and it prevents the gel from frying.  Unfortunately work lights don't have barndoors, but you can probably improvise by clipping the gel in an open tube form to the front of the light.  Whatever you do, don't make a frame that holds the gel flat against the surface of the light--especially a plastic frame.  You could also try screwing some aluminum brackets into the lights so you can clip the gels to them.