A few weeks ago I bought a couple of LED lights for my photography. In this article I will write about the reasoning for my purchase and also about my first experience with this light.
Over the last two years I got more and more immersed into photography. And as I started shooting portrait I realized that being able to influence the light I am working with became a more and more important wish.
Natural light is great, but being able to shape the light according to my own needs appeared very tempting to me. And that is the point. By using artificial light you are able to shape light, to mold it, to play with its features and not only to utilize it but to turn it into an essential additional tool of your photography.
I was dreaming of a light source that was easy to use, not too big or clunky and of course not too expensive. I want to be able to take the light with me, like a torch, but still easier to use and more adjustable. I don’t shoot in studios, so I need something that I can easily take with me. I had the idea of enhancing my street photography with artificial lighting, so the light source should also easily fit into my little street photography bag.
Here come some general thoughts about the use of artificial light in photography. And I have to admit that I’m talking from the standpoint of someone who does not have a lot of experience with strobes and flashlights.
I actually never understood why photographers accept or even like lighting solutions with flash lights or strobes where they can’t see directly the results of their lighting activity. I don’t have the phantasy nor the patience to wait for the first picture that gives me hints as to how to change the position of my model or how to change the lighting set up in order to get the results that I want. I want to see the effect of my light on my object and then shoot what I see. I also want to be able to move together with my light around my model or object. (I will describe this a little more when I’m talking about the use of my lights.) For that reason I clearly prefer lighting solutions with continuous light. Maybe by dismissing strobes I’m missing something elementary in photography, please let me know in case I do.
In the past years lighting in photography changed massively. LED lights took over photography because they have indeed many advantages. LED light is cold, you don’t have to struggle with the heat that previous lighting solutions emitted. LED also uses far less power which means that battery driven lights last much longer with one charge. And very recently manufacturers of LED lights reduced the size of the lights a lot so that transportability improved hugely.
So there we are. It’s available now. I took a look at the internet and compared LED lighting solutions from different manufacturers. Eventually I decided to choose the Litra Pro LED light. They are small enough to fit easily into the pockets of your trousers and they have the advantage that you can change the color of the light from 3000 Calvin to up to 6000 Calvin. Of course you can change the light intensity. That goes in 5% increments. Maximum output is 1200 lumen which is pretty bright. All changes can be done via an app on your iPhone so that you don’t need to walk to and fro your light to make adjustments. Very handy.
With maximum output the battery should last 45 minutes, with minimum output up to 10 hours. Until now I never needed maximum light. I am usually ok with between 10 ans 25% output which gives me hours of durability. I have not used them yet to brighten up faces or objects against the sun. It will be interesting to see if they are strong enough for that purpose.
Here is the link to their website in case you are interested. https://litra.com/
And now I’m realizing that this article is becoming quite long. I will stop here and post the second part that describes my way of using the lights and my first experiences a little later in just a few days.