Using Correction Gels with On Camera Flash

Correction gels can be useful for balancing out the colour of ambient lighting in a room. They can also be used for more advanced creative lighting techniques. 

Correction gels can make choosing the correct white balance settings a little confusing. Orange gels, or Colour Temperature Orange (CTOs), make the light from your flash warmer and are used to match the colour of the flash to tungsten light sources, while Plus Green gels give your flash a green tint to match them to fluorescent lights.

These gels don’t always need to be used when shooting in mixed lighting conditions, however they are useful for providing a more consistent look throughout the scene and making the light on your subject and background more closely match. When using a CTO or Plus Green, adjustments need to be made manually to your white balance to compensate for the change in the colour of your flash’s light.