Bring Your Still Life Photography to the Next Level With Gels

Colors are very important in a composition and should be considered at the moment of capture. When shooting in still life, for example, gels can bring a good shot to the next level as Dustin Dolby from Workphlo shows us in this video.

Creating world-class product photography doesn’t mean you must own all of the latest and greatest gear. Brian Rodgers demonstrated it in our full in-depth tutorial and so has Dolby on his YouTube channel over the past couple of months. The video above is no exception, and you’ll learn how to create a great shot even if you don’t have studio lights or if you own only a single speedlight.

The tutorial goes over the capture process with a couple of tips regarding lighting and the use of gels. In the demonstration image, the gel indeed makes the picture and gives you a good idea of how essential colors can be in a well-composed shot. The use of gel doesn’t have to make things more complicated, and as you can see here, it’s very straightforward. It’d become more technical if you were to mix more light sources or different gels.

After learning about the capture process, sit back and see how Dolby edits the image very quickly. One of the used methods is not extremely clean, but it does the job, and it proves that retouching is also about the final use. If your image is going to be used in a small format, why spend hours on it? Learning about simple and efficient methods is essential, even if they are not the most conventional.

Dolby has created a lot of exceptional content to learn from on his YouTube channel, and if you are looking to learn more about still life or lighting in general, consider spending a bit of time watching his videos.