I hope this is the right place for this topic. Anyways, I was just wondering if any of you use an LED light panel for you photography. If so, do you like it better than using an off camera flash?

I've been wanting to try one of those dimmable versions myself.

we did our last zivity shoot using a hand-held fluorescent shop light to get some light up into the face. it wasn't the most beautiful light ever but it worked. i know how to use flash but would much rather not have to deal with it, partly because then i have to use my 5DMKII instead of the fuji x-pro1 (although i suppose my old-style pwizards might work with the fuji).

when using flash normally i just do it on camera with a rogue flashbender. off-camera can get fussy although light on a stick can be fun if you have an assistant. but i've had the worst time with triggering reliably.

if you have more money than brains check out the ICE light:
http://www.theicelight.com/

While they are best for video, they can be used in lower light levels for still work.

I have used them in scientific work, in the right environments.

I use a 12x12 and it is usually for video on weddings.  But I also use for photo as more of a fill light to balance light in front of windows.  I have a cheap goled but it does have a sony v battery (costs more than the light itself) so I don't have to look for plugs.  It is ok but if you want great colour you should look up the CRI number.  That number tells how well it makes the full rainbow of colours.  My led is kinda green so I have to add a magenta filter to it.  That being said  I set it up on the darker side of the room when the bride and groom get ready.  It saved my ass a few times from having to do the bride is well exposed and everything behind is white.  Also the sony battery only good for 2 hours.  don't go crazy with it.

I recently used one in a photoshoot that I did for a real-estate agent. Tripod mounted camera with long exposures. Used it as an accent light, and in a couple of cases, to have some light outside a window.

I've used them quite a bit and also similar powered hot lights that aren't LED.

I like it quite a bit, but sometimes they're not bright enough, and portable power can be an issue in a way that's not with a flash.


If you go the direction of an LED light, avoid the dual temperature versions. Most do that by having two sets of LEDs, so you're always at half power.

Daylight requires more output to match than tungsten, so the move is to get a light where 100% of the LEDs are daylight balanced and then gel them to match tungsten where the power loss won't be as big a deal.


I just got an adapter that will allow me to mount a 1x1 on a monopod. Lately I've been shooting with a hand held light, so that I can adjust to every position the model moves to. That's much easier to do with a constant source than with a flash because you can see the changes your making in real time.

I have used them for video and it was great. For still work with certain applications (closeup work shallow dof in studio) they are nice. The big issues tend to be cost and that they are obviously more work and than say studio flashes. For still work they are not as a flexible system.

I hate the vs nonsense because it more of using the right tool for the job. It is like a hammer vs a screwdriver. It depends on what you are doing.

Usually when you see this question it means that someone is trying find something less intimidating than flash. To be blunt continuous lighting is just as difficult as strobe. If you have issues with strobe then you most likely will have issues with continuous. Light is light.

I'm not a 'normal' photographer in the least. I live like an artist in a building that is my studios. Recently I added LED lights to the many and varied lights that I have. I have hot lights of all sorts and I have flash fully at my disposal. I also know how and what to do with all of this gear. I have the type of studio that most photographers just go ga-ga over.

I said I am NOT a regular photographer but I do love lighting and I use it in vary dynamic ways. Th3e LEDs I am working with are the consumer type pieces. Light bulbs that screw into mounts; these I string like big Christmas lights from cheap Leventon sockets that attaché by biting into a  dual strand of electric cord (zip line, 10 gage). Then they get strung up at about ten feet in the air. I will wire three together and put these in a two pound coffee can (they are cool and so the white diffuser top can be placed over the front but the standard fresnel lens gotten from an electric house or pool supply fit in the cove of some coffee cans). Mostly I string the socketed lights up and have three locations in the studios set up. I will string some 15 to 20 above.

I have used the garden path lights that have plastic sticks to anchor these into the ground so I mount six of these on a piece of 1X2 wood stock and plug these into a power tap mounted on the wood. This is attached to any lighting stand by Pony Clamps (3202, get at Home Depot or Lows). Perfect strip light and I use them on the ground as a kicker to raise the bottom light in the image.

I will often add a conventional hot light just off the lens axes as the main light for a set. The LEDs give me a nice top light much like natural sky light outdoors and I never worry about hair lights.

At first I had a stogy attitude to the lights but discovered that it is vary nice to work with. I got the bulbs from Home Depot, they were selling on cards two for $7 and I just decided to buy them and try the things out. It was s upper great idea in the end. They have a plastic frosted cover, and yet I have found that they are quite directional in there effects. I can easily gel them as well with a loose wrap around gel held o with a rubber band. The bulbs can easily be moved from one set of mounts to another set up if you like. I had occasion to move over a dozen to a location where the lines were strung up behind the rafters of a storage area and I use this to do sessions in a room that would be less that easily lighted by any other method. I just leave the string of zip lines and the sockets thee and move the bulbs. I even used a set of zip lines and sockets out side in the garden area to do work outdoors.

I love theater and doing sets for my work. If you look at my work you will see many diverse uses of lighting, some continuous and some flash. The one with the woman resting atop the fish in the garden was with the camera set for tungsten white balance and a 1K light close to her and at about sunset with the rest of the environment illuminated by daylight. The color is garish but that is what I wanted to set the sensation of odd color.

Indeed, there is no good nor correct lighting gear or use, it is about what you visualize and what you do to get there. When asked, I tell photographers to go work with a gaffer on a theater project. You can learn a lot from them on ways to get what you want. But the real people to speak with are the lighting designers. They are the ones who take the ideas the sense of the play and translate this into a vision and then a practical design for the presentation. They love to have some one show the interest in what they do and why they do hat they do. I learned a lot from these people. So experiment and play with different looks and ideas. The notion of any thing being right or correct is just plain limiting and takes the fun out of what you do.

I have a 64 LED on camera version. They are super cheap so it's worth getting to to  have. It doesn't work well for dark nightclubs, etc. because sometimes people get pissy when I shine a high beam in their face.


This was with the LED.

For a start the main disadvantage with LEDs is that they don't have a strobe, i.e. flash.

and really this goes back to the old arguement of continous vs flash. The arguement of which in general flash wins.

As others have pointed out continous is what you need for video.

I'll also add that weather for video or for specialist photography use cheap LEDs are crap. Expensives ones are brilliant, but for the price you are paying for good ones you may as well just do it properly and get flash.

There's a really exciting new development: LED-based studio flash that can also work as a continuous light for video:

http://www.ledlightcube.co.uk

I think they're already starting to become available in Aus/US, and Bowens are bringing them to the UK sometime soon.

Best of both worlds, and superior in a number of ways to traditional flash. But these first versions only have the power of a speedlight I think.

I have a small Yongnuo 122 LED light they are only good for video but dun think is good for photography.

For me, shooting with leds is like shooting an off balance modeling light!!

You cant control the spread of the light and the white balance is hard to control. Also not enough power. cant do the high speed sync or to freeze action at all!!

I have a good sized LED light that puts out a ton of light. I personally like it better than my flash because I can turn it on and adjust the dial to the amount of light I want then set up my camera in Manual to get the image I want. its really easy to then just pump up the light more or adjust the angle before taking another picture. I want to know what the images are going to look like without having to take a picture like you have to do with flash. Far fewer test shots.