29. GELS AS SPECIAL EFFECTS FILTERS

Here’s a cheap trick that’s so incredibly simple it could change the world—well, probably not, but it could change your aesthetic sense. There’s an expensive faux lens that produces much the same effect as outlined here, and it’s been the darling of art photographers for some time. You, as the operator, are able to twist the lens off its axis to produce a wonderful bokeh surrounded by streaks of light that play off of the out-of-focus areas.

Here’s a simple way to play with much the same effect for a lot less coin.

If you have a subject in mind, let’s say purple flowers (because it’s what I shot to illustrate this), go to www.Rosco.com or your local camera store and order a sheet of gel in a color similar to what you wish to shoot. The sheets are large, 20×24 inches, and you won’t need more than ⅙ of one for most effects.

Images made with a longer lens will look much better than those made with a wide angle because you want the imperfections you’re about to engineer to the gel to be soft and out of focus. I prefer to shoot at my largest aperture (f/4 with the lens I used for these samples) because I think the extra softness imparts a romantic aura to the images.

I crumpled my piece of lavender gel into a series of soft, curvy shapes that made it difficult for the auto focus to lock on to my point of interest. I pre-focused before switching to manual focus. I wasn’t worried about not getting a properly focused image because I’d planned to shoot many frames, moving the gel between exposures as I tried to keep my primary point in focus.

Notice how the bokeh shifts and glows in the shadows.

Interesting specular highlights were caused by the sun’s reflection in the gel.

I usually shoot this trick wide open, but good things can happen at f/22.

I crumpled the gel more severely, squeezing in tightly creased edges. In brighter but late-afternoon light, I allowed a bit of sunlight to reflect off the edges of the gel. The specular highlights and short focus combined to create a beautiful result.

Should you be inclined to experiment, and I sincerely hope you are, try some images at your smallest aperture, f/22 for my lens. You will notice that focus drifts in and out, and that there’s a more complete sense of the structure of the background.

Roll or fold the gel to create layers of varying density.

Roll or fold over the gel until you have a multi-density selection. By manipulating the position of the various layers you’ll be able to keep some portion of the image “normal” while other parts lighten, darken, or change color somewhat. It’s possible to actually influence a viewer’s emotion with this technique.