Why shoot with constant light
I recently had the opportunity to work in the studio with some awesome models and a talented makeup artist. The challenge was that instead of flash, I would only work with continuous LED lights. This was a bit out of my comfort zone.
-
Soft light
The light was amazingly soft when used with the softboxes. No wonder this is the go-to light for baby photographers!
The bigger the softbox the bigger and softer the spread of the light was.
The sections where shadow meets light were better graduated and more flattering. The soft light gave a much more natural light feeling to the image.
-
Hard Light
The LED lights are a lot softer than the flashlights yes, however when using the LED with a Beauty dish or snoot I could get contrasty dramatic portraits as well.
So I was not restricted to just soft light. I used optical snoots and gobos and the portraits I got were amazing.
3. No flashing
This is something that does let people ponder. Is flash safe for babies and people with epilepsy? I have had shoots with people in the studio with flash with epilepsy and have photographed many babies with flash, and have never had an incident thank goodness!
But if you are primarily a baby photographer the LED lights are a must-buy, my biggest challenge with photographing babies was that they would wake because of the flashing.
The bonus here is you don’t need triggers and receivers to use with your lights.
4. What you see is what you get
This was probably the best part! I can set the lights, look at my model and see where the light falls on her face and I knew exactly that is what the image would look like.
Yes, you still need to juggle your setting on your camera, but this was by far so much easier than using flash!
I used RGB LED lights in conjunction with the other LEDs and I could immediately see where the colours fell on my model.
5. No flash recycling time
If you shoot with flash, you know you have to give the flash a bit of time to recycle otherwise the flash starts heating up and the heat protection kicks in and you need to wait for the flash to cool down.
With LED lights you have none of that, so continuous shooting is possible and you won’t miss a beat.
6. Video
You can shoot videos with LEDs! I decided to make a little video with my cellphone.
If you shoot video and want to do photography as well, this light setup is perfect for you!
If you find working with flash very technical, the LED lights are a safe choice.
As a strobist photographer, I can honestly say I would invest in LEDs.
Beautiful quality of light and the absolute delight, of how easy it was working with the setup.
The Godox range of LED lights has the Bowens mount adapter which makes them interchangeable with the Studio Strobe modifiers.
