Labeling gels and diffusion

[Matt Hingstman]

What's the best way to label gels and diffusion?

Trying to quickly grab that small roll of quarter O in a dark grip truck is getting increasingly frustrating and I'm interested to see what everyone else does.

 

For diffusion, I actually like the way we do it at one place I work. Full gets a "O", half "Ø", and quarter "(X)". It makes it easy to spot quick and from far away. But I haven't seen this tried anywhere else and I'm afraid of confusing people if I suddenly start doing it. Gel is a bit different.

 

When dealing with lesser-used colors, it's easy just to label it's Numeric listing (like "R65" for Rosco 65). But with CTB and CTO, writing out fractions like "1/4 CTB" can be difficult to read and writing the whole thing out, "Quarter CTB", seems excessive. And if you're using, say, straw, do you write out "Straw" or just "cts"? I like to use the "O" "Ø" and "(X)" for gels too, but again I'm afraid I'll confuse others.

 

I've seen it done differently on big and small budget projects. Is there a generally accepted way of doing this? Does anyone have a favorite way?

 

Thanks!

[Kevin Zanit]

All the bigger stuff I have been on has labeled color like this:

 

Full gets a "F" in permanent marker

Half gets a "H"

Quarter gets a "Q"

 

That said, most people working at a certain level are experienced enough to judge it by eye. Color is a bit harder, but diffusion such as Hampshire frost, opal, 250, 216, 1/2 grid, 1/4 grid, full grid are all pretty easy to tell.

[Michael Nash]

What Kevin said... It's pretty much industry standard.

[David Auner aac]

Hi Matt,

 

here in Austria we usually label it 1/1, 1/2, 1/4 and so forth. On CTB and CTO I never write out the color. People usually know that on their own. On diffusion it's standard to write the LEE filter number. Same goes for colors other than CTO/CTB.

 

Cheers, Dave

[Ralph Keyser]

I've seen both the 1/1, 1/2, 1/4 as well as the F, H, Q. Usually only on color, though I've seen it on diffusion in a few places as well.

Everyone refers to diffusion by the Lee numbers (216, 250, 251) even if it's Rosco gel.

Basically, I think it's fair to say there is no industry standard :) And, hey, why start now?