fronkis

Better indoor pictures by gelling your pop-up flash - for free

Do you hate using your camera’s pop-up flash as much as me?  I hate that blue color and shadow that it throws, so I rarely used the flash - until I found a cool trick.  You’ll need some supplies but they’re free.  Here’s how you do it:

1. Obtain a swatch book from Apollo Design. They make stage lighting gels. Go here and fill out the form and check the “Apollo Gel Swatch Book” box.  It’ll end up in your mailbox about a week or two later. It looks like this:
   
2. Next, find at least 1 white film canister. I think it’s Fuji that uses them.  You will likely want more than 1 so you can have a few colors ready to go instead of swapping them out of the same canister. You can usually get these little suckers for free at a place that processes film. Just ask.
   
3. As they say, “cut a hole in the box.” The slot you cut should be just large enough for your popup flash to fit through.  Make sure it’ll accomodate the flash enough to get it all the way in there as you don’t want any light squeaking out the bottom.  My Canon Rebel XT’s flash has a bit of a plastic lip on the lower edge of the flash which makes for a nice spot for the canister to “snap” onto and stay put. I was lucky enough that I didn’t need to cut all the way to the edge where the lid snaps on, keeping the canister’s rigidity.
   
4. Pick out a color from your gel samples. You want something that is close (if not exact) to the color of the lighting you’re taking the picture in.  It’ll likely be some shade of yellow or orange. But, feel free to experiment. You’ll get some neat effects by using an off the wall color. An empty canister is a great diffuser too, I’ve found.
   
5. Slide the gel into the canister so it curls around the inside like a strip of film would. You likely won’t need to trim it at all. These samples are the perfect size.  Next, plop the whole thing on your pop-up flash.
   
6. Give it a go!

Have no doubt that I have as much creativity in my body that will fit into a thimble. But, this is a neat trick a friend of mine told me to try.  He said “gel your flash” and poked around a bit and saw that people had done this.  I wish I thought of doing this earlier!