Are LED Photography Lights Ready for Primetime?

LED lighting for photographers is here to stay. In my opinion - LED photography lights are definitely the way of the future and offer us so much potential that we haven't even begun to think of yet. I've been having fun shooting with these LED photography lights from Specular Savage Universal, Smith Victor, Paul C Buff and Yongnuo. In this video I'll share my closing thoughts on LED lighting for photography and of course I'll take you behind the scenes for another shoot using ALL of the LED lights that I reviewed.

First up we looked at Spekular from Spiffy Gear. This is a modular lighting system with a 94+ CRI, 5600k color temperature and 1,500 lumens of light per section. Sold as a set of four you have 6,000 lumens of dimmable, configurable light to work with.

Then I showed you the Edge Lit Pro LED Panels from Savage Universal. These ultra thin 12" x 9" panels are blendable from 3200k to 5500k which makes it very easy to use these lights mixed in with other ambient light. They have a CRI of 95 and they output 1,677 lumens at three feet.

In my last video, I showed you the Smith Victor CooLED series - the 20 , 50 and 100 as well as their brand new 19" Bi-Color Ringlight. The CooLed lights with a CRI in the mid 80's are designed like and function like studio strobes and accept modifiers like softboxes and umbrellas. The 19" ringlight has a CRI of 95 and outputs 6000 lumens of light with adjustable color temperature from 3000k up to 5500k.

The setups that you see in this video are shot on Savage Universal seamless paper backgrounds. I also use a Photoflex Medium LiteDome softbox, a Tether Tools TetherBLOCK and Tether Tools cables for shooting tethered to my Nikon D810 and Capture One Pro software for this studio lighting tutorial.

I do encourage you to pay close attention to LED lighting even if you aren't planning on owning any yet, and if you are just starting out - I would encourage you to consider LED lights because of the simplicity of using them and the fact that it is much easier to learn the subtleties of lighting with continuous light then it is with a flash.

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FTC Disclosure: Smith-Victor/ ProMarkBrands / Savage Universal / Spiffy Gear / TetherBLOCK provided the equipment shown in this video. No sponsors have paid to be included or mentioned, and all words and opinions are my own.

#ledlights #ledlighting #joeedelman

[triciahagerty]

This series was invaluable. Thank you Joe!

[avpjon]

Great series! Thank you for all of your research, hard work and for creating entertaining, informational videos!

[briannarveson]

Thanks for the series, very educational and enjoyable

[websurfer]

Thanks for your efforts Joe. Good Stuff.

[mac]

I really enjoyed this video series, thank you Joe!!

[kirkdarling]

Having used the CooLED 100 lights for a couple of years now, I find that that "mid-80s CRI" amounts to muted reds that are apparent as slightly muted dark skin tones. I just juice up the red gain in my Canon cameras a bit to accommodate. Getting a slightly more accurate light costs at least twice as much.

[Zam]

Joe. Absolutely love this information. I am currently doing headshots for a football team and I want to use some LED lights to do the rim lighting behind them in the exact way that you did for the model in the last section of the video. Did you have a problem with any haze from the light spilling back into the camera using the backlit LED's? I usually use grids on a small softbox to prevent that but I noticed you didnt have any grids or flags. Which LED lights would you suggest for the rim lighting?

[BigDanASMR]

I have 2 of those yn 360w they are amazing lights. The only part is they are kinda flimsy at the mounting point. But for the price they are awesome

[Grant_Seymour_]

LOL! Some of the lights you mentioned are absurdly priced for what you receive and what they can do. I appreciate you, politely, raising this point, Joe.

[fadingflash]

Hi Joe, Do you pay these models to experiment technique on, and/or sell the shots for various applications ? or are they paying you for head shots ?
My 2 car garage shop is in the planning phase of a photo studio transformation .
And when I've finally got floor and lighting plan out of my head that's been buried in articles, and laid out I will have to direct my energies into the lighting and the subjects that will become part of the art...i guess I'm asking, do you market these models you've shown us here or are you providing a service to a client that wants to be portrayed in a certain way or light ?
Thanks for the time you put in to these jam packed presentations...

[halimj]

Bismillah

Wow your work is stunning! Thanks for the great videos. What do you think of the Fiilex p100? Are there better value alternatives?

[danielcrotty]

I’ve been highly curious about the Aputure continuous LED lights like their C120D and C300D. They are a bit pricey ($650-$1, 000), But they have a lot of power a high CRI. I could probably buy 3 Digibees for that price, but the LEDs can also be used for video and offer that WYSIWYG advantage. Thoughts?

[scottlewis]

I am very curious... having watched all the videos in this series... and the mention of light painting in this video (something I want to try)... could you use one of the Spekular lights as a light painting wand?

[jmez]

I subbed because he said overpriced gear like wescott