Adding a flash of colour to your portraits

Difficulty level: intermediate

Time taken: 90 minutes

When we think of adding colour gels to a portrait, those flashy, rainbow-coloured gel portraits where the sitter is drenched in a colour or a mixture of colours, may immediately come to mind. This changes the skin tone and adds drama, making for a beautiful image.

However, gels can also be used to create a subtle splash or dash of coloured light on your subject. This approach gives you the option of creating portraits with an added dimension. Using coloured light is always a fun way to experiment and see how light hits the subject. Combining colour with a bare flash light gives you the