Using light gel on a work light

Really depends on the gel and how you're going to use it. If it's a very dark one and you're clipping it right onto the fixture, it will probably burn after a while. Open face lights (which are basically what work lights are) are very hot. If it's diffusion, you'll probably be OK. If you take any sheet and stick it in a small flag frame and position it a foot or so from the light, you'll be fine.
 
Really depends on the gel and how you're going to use it. If it's a very dark one and you're clipping it right onto the fixture, it will probably burn after a while. Open face lights (which are basically what work lights are) are very hot. If it's diffusion, you'll probably be OK. If you take any sheet and stick it in a small flag frame and position it a foot or so from the light, you'll be fine.

Yeah, gotta second that. I use a lot of open face lights and when I gel them, I like to make a half tube of the gel so that it really doesn't come into contact with the light.
 
If you're doing stuff like CTB, watch it throughout the shoot for fading from the heat. I've got 1/2 CTBs that are almost clear after a couple hours in a 500 or 750 fresnel. Your color temp will most definitely change. Getting them 6-12" from the light's good practice. I've seen DIYers with no stands hang them from mic stand booms. (Mic stand + boom, $15 at guitar center)...

Use stingers & power strips to make it easy to kill 'em between takes.

I have professional (L&E, Altman, Colortran, etc) open face lights that are essentially work lights with proper barn doors, yokes and spuds - you can clip gels to the barn doors and curve them away from the heat.
 
Back
Top