Straw Gel

Kevin Stiller · January 24, 2015

Hi all

Considering using Straw Gel on an upcoming short for a sunset look. I've never had the opportunity to see the way it looks on skin though. Does anyone have examples?

Thanks!

Stuart Brereton · January 25, 2015

I always prefer Straw (CTS) over CTO for late afternoon sunshine looks, although for actual sunset, CTO is essential. I think either look great on skin.

Kevin Stiller · January 25, 2015

Interesting. Thanks for the input Stuart! Seems like I'm just going to have to order some and test it myself :)

Edited January 25, 2015 by Kevin Stiller

Matthew Padraic Barr · January 27, 2015

It depends on the ethnicity of your subject as well.
If the individual has fair skin or light skin, the color added will read a lot more
on their face than if the skin already has an orange pigment as can be seen

in many of the more tan ethnic groups. Subjects with very dark skin often have
a blue pigment in their skin, which would make adding orange or straw much more
difficult. Every individual is so different, that it's always best to test before hand.
You may find adding 1/8 CTS will be enough, or that you need 1/4, 1/2, etc.

Also, I'm not sure straw will give you a sunset look. I would look into Coral.
A straw filter is more yellow and less red, coral has more red, which is more
like a sunset for the most part.

Another important consideration is the geography. On my last film, I was shooting
in Arizona which has a beautiful mixture of reds, oranges and violets at sunset.

I found that adding some red to the tungsten source yielded wonderful results.

I also used color grad filters to keep a constant color for the exterior shots for
multiple takes since the colors were fading as we were shooting.