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The must have tool for color addicts – the Rosco MixBook

Color.  Such an important tool to help bring a time, place, or even emotions into an image.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have something that makes working with color easier? Inside this little package is a new tool by Rosco called “Mixbook“. To help creators pre-visualize gel and LED colors.

Essentially Rosco has digitized the old gel swatch books, as you can see in my reenactment of a Rosco scientist at work. Note the old gels from my swatch book flying around as the new Mixbook arises from the smokey pot.

Rosco’s MIXBOOK is the “world’s first” digital gel swatchbook

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Gel and lighting manufacturer Rosco has released the MIXBOOK. They say that it is the “world’s first digital swatchbook”. If you don’t know what swatchbooks are, the physical Rosco gel swatchbooks are essentially sample books of the different gels and materials that Rosco makes.

But as LED lighting has become more popular, and particularly coloured LEDs, demands have changed. Rosco’s MIXBOOK digital swatchbook is essentially the digital LED equivalent of the original gel swatchbooks. It’s a handheld LED unit (although it has a 1/4-20″ socket, too) that can create just about any colour of light you can imagine.

Rosco’s new MIX LED panels eliminate casts and can be any colour you want

Last year, lighting gel company, Rosco acquired LED lighting specialists DMG Lumière. Although only founded in 2014, DMG Lumière was quickly recognised for its innovative products for film, television and broadcast. We all knew at the time that this would be an interesting mix of companies and talent that would probably go on to produce something quite special. Now, it seems, they have.

The Rosco MIX, is a new colour changing LED panel based on DMG Lumière’s previous form factors. What makes these special though, is that unlike traditional bicolour, RGB or RGBW LED panels, these contain six differently coloured LEDs to produce a wide array of colours. Famous for their high-quality lighting gels, Rosco’s new light won’t even need them.

How I Created This Dark Themed Belgian Medieval Photograph

Every photographer knows what it’s like to get an idea for a photograph and then struggle to figure out how to execute the shot that’s in their head.

In this case, the idea belonged to photographer Andy Van den Eynde who imagined a heroic band of torch-bearing Gauls venturing into the Belgian forest on a misty, cloudy evening. The challenges came in the form of execution as Andy asked himself questions like “how do I create that glow from the fiery torches?” And “how do I get that dark blue sky during an afternoon photo shoot?”

Andy was kind enough to invite Frank Lambrechts to visit behind the scenes of the photo shoot as he brought his idea to life. While he was there, he got to see how Andy used several Rosco products to enhance his shot. Here is how he did it:

How Rosco Makes Their Famous Swatchbooks

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If you are using hotshoe strobe, you are probably familiar with the Rosco Swatchbook. At roughly 7 US Dollars this wonderful swatch book let you gel your strobe to any possible color. If you are lucky, you can get one from your local cine or photography store, but even if not, it is still a good purchase. (Way, way back, giving it away for free almost collapsed Rosco samples plan when thousands of photographers asked for a free sample. They solved this huge demand with the Strobist Gel Pack, which got an update about a year ago).

[Photokina 2014] Rosco Updates Strobist Gel Pack To Be Bigger, Better and More Organized

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A few years back Rosco were faced with a problem. With the rise of off camera flash use, many photographers discovered the free Rosco sample gel pack. What began as a service for studio owners and stage managers, soon turned into an “unlimited” supply of gel packs for photographer. Of course being a business Rosco could not continue and supply the world with free gels (impacting both their own operation and creating a shortage with paying customers). Rosco dealt with this situation pretty cleverly, creating the Strobist Gel Pack along with David Hobby. It was a very cool kit at a very affordable (~$10) price. It was one of those things that never left my camera bag (we did a short fun review here) we reviewed it here (and here).

While the kit was a great solution to a real problem, it was not a polished product. And this is what Rosco are fixing today. We met Frank Lambrechts, product manager for Rosco and he explains the change for us. Rosco Gel Packs are what strobist kit what might have been Rosco had more time to think about a solution rather than being overwhelmed by demand and needing to come up with a quick solution to satisfy the market.

Creative Gel Cheat Sheet + Giveaway

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After reviewing the Rosco Strobist gel collection, I just had to take it for an intense spin.

Since one of the main uses I see for this kit is the ability to color objects and backgrounds for creative effects, I did a little matrix of colors. (I am a computer geek, I know).

As with all the other cheat sheets on the site, I will go through the idea, the setup and end with a creative commons statement. Unlike the other cheat sheets, we are also going to have a Rosco Strobist gel collection giveaway. That stuff is near the end of the post.

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