Gel question

[Jason Reimer]

Hi guys, first question I've posted in ages, but here goes. I have an idea in my head for a shot where I'd like to have a predominantly blue tone, with my subject lit with a few small, snooted lights picking out some contours and details with some slightly warmer than normal, amber to straw-ish light, so that there's a nice contrast of very cool and somewhat warm colors in the frame. Getting the blue is the easy part; if I shoot it digitally, I'd just do something simple like use a tungsten white balance and shoot during the latter part of the day, or better yet have a bit of overcast. If I shot film on one of my medium or large format cameras, I'd just use an 81 filter of some grade to "correct" my daylight-balanced film for tungsten. The part I'm trying to figure out is exactly what to gel the tungsten lights with so that I get the right amount of warmth. What I definitely don't want is anyone looking like they just got a spray-on tan :)

So, what would you guys suggest?

[Brian Drysdale]

Much of this is personal taste, but you could correct your lights so that they give less than your full daylight colour temperature. A 1/4 CTO of warmth is quite subtle or if you want a bit more yellow a straw, for a stronger effect 1/2 CTO. It can be a matter of just testing and seeing what you like.

[Matthew Parnell]

Also check out CT Straw for warming. Comes in the usual correction values (1/8 to Full I think) and warms up and gives as the name suggests a hint of straw.

[Jason Reimer]

Cool, that's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for! I'll probably buy a few to test, as you suggested. Thank you gentlemen.