Choosing the right gel for your desired effect
Rosco is a leading manufacturer of lighting gel, offering hundreds of filters, each with their own unique properties for achieving different effects and colours. With so much choice and variety in shades of colour, it can be difficult to know the best one for the job. In our guide below we offer a selection of the most commonly used lighting gels for a range of applications. From dimming to diffusing light, lighting gels for warming and cooling LEDs, a selection of primary colour gels and the most popular colours from both the Rosco E-Colour+ range and the high temperature Supergel range for lighting building and architectural installs.
The most popular lighting gel colours
This guide is split into sections containing a list of the most popular lighting gels for the most commonly sought after light and colour effects in theatre, film & TV, photography, install and domestic use cases - all in stock and ready to dispatch for speedy UK delivery.
Where possible, we have included two colours in the swatches below.
Top left: colour of light effect. *
Bottom right: colour of gel sheet. **
Diffusion & Frost Filters for softening
Diffusers and frost effect gels are used to soften and reduce the harshness of light.
Diffusion gels are most commonly used for softening lights and are essential for photography. Designed for use with studio lighting panels and very useful in theatre, diffusion gels can be used to soften harsh edges and convert light produced from a direct, shadow-producing source to a softer illumination with gradual transitions (similar to light on a cloudy day). These gels can also be used to hide skin imperfections during close-up filming, such as in interviews and portraiture in photography, and manage lighting hot spots when shooting shiny objects, such as glasses, eyes, windows, cars and sweat.
Lightest to heaviest (diffusion effect)
Lightest to heaviest (frost effect)
Neutral Density Filters for dimming
Neutral Density gels, or ND filters, are used to reduce the overall transmission or dim light.
Designed for reducing the intensity of the light equally without altering the colour, they allow lighting designers to manage brightness within specific areas without changing a lighting fixture focus or dimming electronically. ND filters are measured in photo stops, with 1 stop being roughly equal to half the light transmission from the source light. The larger the ND number, the greater the reduction in light.
Lightest to heaviest (dimming effect)
Orange & Amber Filters for warming colour temperature
Colour Temperature Orange (CTO) and Colour Temperature Straw lighting gels are used to warm the colour temperature of light.
CTO and straws are the most commonly used gels for warming up, or adjusting the colour temperature, of light from a cool, blueish-white source to a more pleasant and natural white. These orange, amber or yellow-tinted gels convert daylight-balanced white light (5600K) to warmer tungsten-like glows. The strength of the gel chosen will affect the strength of the effect. Commonly used in film and television production and photography, but also popularly implemented into office spaces and around the home for warming newer LED fittings. If you are looking to warm up LED lights, please check out our Guide for Warming Up Domestic LED Lights.
Lightest to heaviest (warming effect)
Lightest to heaviest (warming effect)
Blue Filters for cooling colour temperature
Colour Temperature Blue lighting gels, or CTB filters, are used to cool the colour temperature of light.
Using a blue lighting gel, specifically a CTB filter, will raise the colour temperature of a warm, orange or yellow-white source (similar to the light produced by tungsten bulbs) to appear cooler, closer to white or daylight. Cooling lighting is a fundamental technique used in theatre and film & TV to match different coloured light sources, change the apparent time of day, or creating specific moods. CTB gels can also be added to tungsten lights when large volumes of ambient daylight are present to ensure an even mix of natural and artificial light; reducing the jarring mix of orange and blue light within a scene.
Lightest to heaviest (cooling effect)
Brown Filters for true, rich browns
Below are our most popular browns and sodiums, used to produce brown light and mimic high contrast, amber street lighting for exterior scenes on stage.
Mixing the colour brown from an LED light fixture can be very challenging to near impossible. RGB LED fixtures use additive colour mixing, increasing the values of red, green and blue to achieve a specific colour. As you increase those values, both the light and colour tint get brighter. This presents a challenge as brown is a dark orange colour, requiring a black value to be achieved, which is impossible with additive LED colour mixing. Therefore the most reliable way to achieve a brown colour effect is to use a lighting gel, which is a subtractive process of adjusting the colour of a light source, by filtering out unwanted wavelengths of the light spectrum and allowing only the desired colours to pass through.
Colour Filters for colour effects - Primaries
Our most popular primary colour lighting gels and frequently used alternative colours for vibrant colour effects.
Lighting gels can be used for a range of different applications, from providing coloured lighting within theatres to creating immersive lighting for themed entertainment, altering the colour of domestic lighting and lighting up buildings. Primarily designed to be used with gel frames on theatrical lighting fixtures, they can also be used with a range of domestic lighting fittings though the application of these gels may vary per lighting fixture.
Colour Filters for colour effects - Popular alternative colours
Popular High Temperature Filters for hot theatre lights
Rosco Supergel is a range of gels specified for use under hot theatre lights. Below are our most popular high temperature lighting gels.
High-temperature lighting gels are designed to work with studio and theatrical lighting that can often get extremely hot. While working identically to the Rosco E-Colour+ range, they are worlds apart in their heat-resistant properties. Standard lighting gels, when used under high wattage lighting fixtures, such as 1K or 2K fresnels, may discolour, turn brittle or soften under heat. High-temperature gels reduce this by offering much higher operating temperatures.
* Colours shown in the top left corner are hex colour codes picked from photographs of true gel colours from either a Rosco DMG MIXBOOK Digital Swatchbook, or, the gel sheet used under typical studio lighting, projected onto a white backdrop.
** Colours shown in the bottom right corner are hex colour codes picked from white balanced photographs of the physical lighting gel.
Please note that the colour filter samples shown on this website are the closest possible display colours and should be used as a guide only. Colour swatch sample books are available and are recommended for exact colour matching. Technical gels, which are designed to soften or dim light with no colour effect, cannot be replicated using display colours.
Looking for a colour not listed here?
Check out our full range of lighting gels via our dedicated lighting gel page, including the full range of both the E-Colour+ and Supergel sheets and rolls from Rosco.