Here’s a great tip I got from watching some grips quickly change gels on some frames. In the past, when you removed an old gel or diffusion material you always had the mess of the sticky material. Either the 2-sided tape, or the foam stuff from 3M double stick, which ever material was used it was a challenge. I was observing some grips used the following technique and it was fast.

This is a standard 18″x24″ frame.

Frame 1

The first thing you want to do is apply Blue Painters Tape around the entire frame.

Blue Tape

Here you can see I’m using 1″ wide Blue Painters Tape around the frame.

2sided tape

Next, I apply Double Sided Tape on top of the Blue Painters Tape. I’m using Double Sided Tape because the majority of you can find it at any store. Usually grips will use Butyle, it is a sticky tape often referred to as snot tape. You have felt it stuck on cards or in a magazine before. Now, you set the edge of your gel or diffusion material on one edge of the frame and evenly roll out the material until you have it spread over the whole frame, pull tautly and press down onto the Double Sided Tape.

Gelled

Trim it up and you’re done.

Done

Remember when you’re done with your shoot you can easily pull it off the frame with the Blue Painters Tape. It leaves no mess or residue.

Clean, fast and efficient! That’s how we roll in my studio.

Thank you for your time and reading my post.

That’s a wrap, fade to black.