Using Gels to Get That SI Look

SCOTT KELBY

There’s a very cool trick you can do using just a yellow gel that I learned from Sports Illustrated photographer Dave Black when he and I were teaching a class out in San Francisco. When you try it, you’ll see it has that SI look you see in a lot of outdoor sports portraits. It actually requires you to do two things: (1) First, you set the white balance on your camera to Tungsten (it’s one of your camera’s built-in white balance presets, and it makes your whole photo look very blue—well, at least it does if you’re shooting outdoors), then (2) pop a yellow gel onto your flash (see the tip on the previous page to find out if you already have them or where to get them). That’s it. Now, you want to shoot this near dusk, so the background sky is dark and moody. The Tungsten white balance setting makes the sky look moody and blue, but the yellow light (from the gel on your flash) hits your subject with a warm light. It’s a very clever combo that is easy to achieve, and lots of pros are using this style today because, well...it’s really cool (no pun intended, but I wish it had been).