Jill Morgan Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 Do any of you use LED Shoe mount lights when taking night photos? I was considering getting one, but not sure if they are more tuned to video than stills. Are they effective? If so, what ones are the best? I know some are dimmable and some are not. Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert M Estall Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 I've got a couple of the little Manfroto ones which I picked up at a very special offer, otherwise I would have gone for a much cheaper brand. They are NOT VERY POWERFUL so dimmable is not a feature likely to be useful unless you are wanting to use them for close-up work. The light is a little cool, but you can fix that later. I guess video is their main attraction but unless you have several, you wont be able to illuminate much of a range. They do stay cool which is handy, and don't gobble batteries in minutes like modelling lights on the bigger flash units. Buy a couple of cheap ones and see how you get on is my suggestion. And bulk buy batteries, mine warns against using lithium ones suggesting they might overheat. You are going to knacker a set of batteries in about half an hour which soon passes unless you shoot quickly and switch off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dlmphotog Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 What type of night photos are you talking about? photos of people? landscapes? buildings? In general a continuous light source like an LED panel is mostly used for video and are not as powerful as a strobe/flash used for still work. You can get a cheap manual flash that would work great for people that has a range up 10-15 feet. Or if your subject is static and you have your camera on a tripod you could use a long (30 sec +) exposure and “paint” your subject with light using either strobes or a powerful continuous light source like an LED flashlight. Above I used a small pocket flash with a green gel to light the tree. I set the camera on BULB and walked up and flashed the tree several times as I walked around it. Camera was on a tripod Above I used a powerful LED flashlight to "paint" the waterfall. Camera was on a tripod Above I used a TTL dedicated flash on camera and a Pocket Wizard to trigger remote flash behind tower. Camera was hand held. You have lots of choices depending on your subject and creative vision. Hope this helps, David L. Moore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted September 10, 2013 Author Share Posted September 10, 2013 Thanks for the feedback. Probably won't get one, especially if the burn up batteries. Probably go for a really good flash. But I do do some video, so that maybe I could cross over with the LED unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.