Using LED lights for Still Life

[CatherineA]

I have two Streamlight flashlights that use LED bulbs. I would like a continuous light source for indoor still life photography and have tried to adapt the light from these flashlights for this purpose. I have used coloured filters and modifiers to try to alter the harsh blue light to something more pleasing. So far I've only made lots of variations of ugly light.

I will continue to experiment but I am now wondering whether there is something in the nature of this particular light that means I'll never get a lovely light. Has anyone been successful with using flashlight LED lights for indoor work?

[DanK]

Many LED bulbs have poor spectral distributions. That is, if you plot the distribution of light by color temperature, there are spikes, valleys, and even gaps that shouldn't be there. That's why relatively precise bulbs can cost 3 or 4 times as much as the ones in most stores.

I have no idea about your particular flashlights, but flashlights generally don't have to be precise, so most manufacturers won't pay the money to give them accurate color rendition.

My suggestion is to do one of several things:

1. buy LED light kits from a reputable photography store and look for descriptions of color accuracy. The bulbs should have a CRI (color rendition index) of at least 90. the better ones will hit 95. Ideally, the R9 index should also meet these levels, but most manufacturers don't even provide that measurement.

2. You may be able to find specialty LED flashlights that have accurate color. Be prepared to pay a lot more.

3. If you are going to use lighting fixtures and want LED bulbs, splurge on high-end bulbs. For reflector bulbs, I use Soraa BR30 bulbs, which have CRI and R9 ratings of 95, when I want accuracy (for example, the lights in the room where I edit).

4. Use halogen lights. These are somewhat warm, but the color spectrum is good, and all you have to do is adjust the white balance. This is what I have been doing for studio macros, like flowers. I'll switch to dimmable LEDs at some point.

[CatherineA]

Thank you very much Dan. I will look into purchasing an LED kit from a photography store. I really appreciate knowing what to look for in these lights. I have been putting a lot and thought into the still life set ups and I want the light to help and not hinder me so this informationis great.

I suppose I won’t be able to use my modifiers on these lights but that can’t be helped at this point. Need to get a pleasing light first.

[xpatUSA]

Hello Catherine,

I use two 90W equivalent LED flood lights for table top work. I started with 5000K but they had a bit of a blue cast ...



... so now they're lighting up up my yard.

Their 3500K is much better, showing no cast to the eye:



I also leave a Philips overhead fluorescent tube on:

http://kronometric.org/phot/lighting...8-Brochure.pdf

There might be mutterings about mixed lighting but the fluorescent is relatively further away from the subject and contributes little to the exposure as measured by my lux-meter. I use Custom WB if color is important but AWB works well enough for camera equipment for sale.

Here's the rig in action:



The LED floods have diffusers built-in but I also use home-made tracing-paper diffusers to reduce specular highlights and to even out the subject illumination a bit.

Hope this helps rather than confuses.

My 1876 pocket watch taken with the rig:

[rpcrowe]

The advantage of continuous source (incandescent, LED. halogen, fluorescent) is just they they are continuous and WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).

The disadvantage to some of these sources is the varied spikes and valleys in heir color which makes it difficult to atain a correct white balance.

Incandescent or halogen bulbs have less of a problem with spikes but have a serious heat problem which could cause burns, fires or just make the photographer uncomfortable while shooting.

I enjoy using studio type strobes for virtually all photography. These can be had very inexpensively used on eBay and can be modified with various modifiers such as umbrellas and softboxes.

The studio strobes have a fairly constant color output and with the addition of a color target the white balance can be easily and accurately attained. The modeling lights will show you pretty much exactly what the flash exposure will look like.

However, one of the absolutely least expensive solutions is this fluorescent setup which will give you everything that you need for still life photography for about $40 U.S. Dollars. https://www.ebay.com/c/2300924988?iid=142155855598

I have a four fluorescent softbox which I use in my dog portraits combined with a small TT350S hotshoe flash bounced and modified with a Demb Flash Diffuser Pro.

Including a white balance target (or using the dogs white coat as my target) will provide pretty accurate white balance...

[CatherineA]

Thank you so much Ted! My light is very blue too. I appreciate knowing how you solved this problem and got your lighting. I think it works really well and, as you say, there is no cast. Thanks for posting the images.

[CatherineA]

Thank you for your reply Richard! And, thank you for the link to those fluorescent lights. I hadn’t been thinking about fluorescent lights but they sure do you give you a nice result and at a great price.

[rpcrowe]

Thank you for your reply Richard! And, thank you for the link to those fluorescent lights. I hadn’t been thinking about fluorescent lights but they sure do you give you a nice result and at a great price.

I shoot in RAW and use the Eyedropper tool in Adobe Camera RAW to adjust my white balance...

Almost all of these images were shot using the fluorescent softbox in combination with the bounced TT350S flash modified with a Demb Flash Diffuser Professional (www.dembflashproducts.com)...

https://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Pets/MAL...RNIA/i-hJv6KLC

I asked my wife to shoot this to show a member of our rescue group how to capture the images if she did not have a Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro. The plastic diffuser is O.K. but, the Demb Flash Diffuser Pro works better...



The light on the stand is the fluorescent softbox.

[CatherineA]

Thanks for this too Richard! I'm finally getting why people place their lights and reflectors where they do and why they use what modifiers. People on this site have been very generous with their time.