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video clip – using LED video light for photography

May 25, 2011

video clip – using LED video light for photography

Regular visitors to the this website will know that I favor video lights for dramatic portraits. The what-you-see-is-what-you-get nature of it, makes it really easy to get interesting light on your subjects. But it does need some finessing in how you position it for portraits.

Meeting up with Anelisa, one of my favorite models, Jessica and I created this video clip to show exactly how I use the video light for portraits. It also explains my starting point in choosing the direction of light, and also shows how I direct Anelisa during the shoot.

using LED video light for photography by Neil van Niekerk on Vimeo.

As a side-note: during the first part of the shoot, my assistant-with-an-attitude, Jessica, was holding up the video light. For the latter part of the shoot, I used a light-stand, as can be seen in the clip.

About the video light itself – there is a huge variety of LED video lights available on the market. The unit that I used in this clip, is the LitePanels MicroPro (B&H). There are less expensive options available as well – check out the B&H and Amazon links – but I like the Litepanels unit because I feel it gives me a more neutral color that is easily edited for great skin tones.The gel kit that comes with it, allows you to also have it balanced for Incandescent / Tungsten, or warmer than Daylight.

more articles on using video light for photography.

technical details about the video clip itself:

sound recorded via Sennheiser G2 wireless microphone system
video clip edited in iMovie ’11
music for the video clip provided by Triple Scoop Music

Equipment used for the HD video:
Canon 5D mk II (B&H)
Canon 24-105mm f4L IS (B&H)

Equipment used for the stills photography:
Nikon D3; Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H)
LitePanels MicroPro LED video light

photography books by Neil vN

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29 Comments »

Fantastic video. Loved it. Thank you for taking the time to put it together. A huge help for me as I begin to explore off-camera lighting.

Comment by Matt — May 25, 2011 @ 7:54 pm
WOW, Neil it as been said before but let me be the scratch record who says it again, YOU ROCK!!!

This is an amazing tutorial and your model did a really great job, thanks for taking the time to give back. :)

Comment by Adrian — May 25, 2011 @ 8:31 pm
Another great tutorial video. Informative!

Comment by Stephen — May 25, 2011 @ 10:19 pm
Great video, Niel. Thank you! It is very helpful to see how great photographers work. Btw I just love how you mix left and right…makes me feel I’m not alone ;)
K

Comment by Katarina Souto Mera — May 26, 2011 @ 2:21 am
I have had a life-long problem distinguishing left from right, without first having to think about it. (This even got a mention in the corrections to my first book.)

It was just made worse here because my left is her right. You’d think that my tendency to confuse left & right would’ve balanced out here to the correct instruction, but unfortunately not.

This is also why I mention in the article on posing your subject, that a visual instruction is better, showing your subject how to pose by having them mirror your movements. But it is more difficult with a Nikon D3 and 70-200mm in your hands. Oh well, it made Anelisa laugh.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — May 26, 2011 @ 2:34 am
Funny is as I was watching it and you were saying “bring your left arm to the play” I was like “..but why she is not moving her left arm up??” and then I realised that she WAS bringing her LEFT arm up! :)) I am with you, Niel!

Comment by Katarina Souto Mera — May 26, 2011 @ 3:01 am
Very interesting and useful tutorial. Thanks for sharing.

Comment by Jesús Antón — May 26, 2011 @ 3:26 am
Neil video tutorial is fantastic. Help us much, especially about the direction of models. In fact one day you could post a video on the basic tips about the direction of models would be a beautiful experience to receive instructions from a master of photography.

Paulo Leonardo – São Paulo – Brazil

Comment by Paulo Leonardo — May 26, 2011 @ 6:04 am
Another great video!
I guess that because the video light is daylight balanced, you have Daylight selected on your camera ? or do you use Auto WB?

Thank you for sharing.

Comment by William Ng — May 26, 2011 @ 1:55 pm
For the stills camera (Nikon D3), I set the WB to Daylight. But I did touch it up as part of my normal RAW workflow.

The video clip was shot with the Canon 5D mk II, and the WB was set to 5600K. We judged this to give us good skin tones, going by the LCD preview.

Anyway, I wouldn’t normally use AWB, although, in using a RAW worflow, it isn’t of much importance in the end.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — May 26, 2011 @ 1:59 pm
Neil, thanks for another very informative article. If you have an assistant, is’nt the Lowel light more flexible and powerful, it is dimmable , focusable and more power.Battery power is one issue. On the website of BH they say that bascor battery life with this is 1 hour if used continously.
I am thinking of buying this light but debating. Another point is if it is very dark and you want the video light to overpower , wont the Lowel light be preferred.
Can you please share some thoughts on that.
Thanks.
-MP

Comment by MP Singh — May 26, 2011 @ 5:40 pm
Check out my comparative review between the Lowel ID-light and Litepanels MicroPro LED video light and the Dedolight.

The Lowel ID-light is really nice and comes ahead in the comparison. Great light. But the LED video light is faster to use and more compact.

I have both. But the LED video light sees more use since I can easily slip it into my camera bag. Great for use at a wedding for some romantic portraits.

But for a boudoir photo session, I will definitely take the Lowel ID-light along.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — May 26, 2011 @ 5:48 pm
thanx for the video

Comment by briand — May 26, 2011 @ 11:09 pm
I tried some cheaper LED lights, I wasn’t quite happy. Neil, you are right recommending good quality lights. Thanks for all your clips, always so useful!

Comment by fotografii aniversari — May 27, 2011 @ 4:45 am
Thanks for the clarification Neil.
I recently watched a DVD by Doug Gordon, Shooting Weddings with a Video light, the Video light that he sells seems good to but is priced around $500 now :-(
- MP

Comment by MP Singh — May 27, 2011 @ 3:58 pm
I use a battery used in alarm systems to power my lowel light for my videography.
A 50 WATT rated bulb runs for 45 minutes. a lot better than the 15 minutes you stated. How long using double a batteries does the micro pro run ?? What do define as ” for ever “

Comment by ron lemish — May 28, 2011 @ 10:57 am
PS. you are speaking a lot slower than the vegas video.. almost down to normal and you are much easier to understand even with your modified American accent ;-)

Comment by ron lemish — May 28, 2011 @ 11:00 am
I thought it was obvious that I defined forever as “far longer than your entire photo-shoot, but you have a spare set of batteries anyway”.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — May 28, 2011 @ 12:25 pm
what an awesome demonstration, very helpful instruction as always.

Comment by sheri j — May 29, 2011 @ 7:41 pm
Great video again Neil!
The guidelines are excellent for directing model on studio, specially concerning the direction of the light.
By the way, do you see a tendency for wedding photographers using more LED lights?
Cheers!

Comment by Hugo Carlone — June 2, 2011 @ 1:07 am
Hi Neil

Nice video. May I ask if you u normally set your LED light exposure 1-2stops more than ambient or according 2your lens & camera capability?

Another is if you use black foam do you set your camera to matrix metering or some other like center etc?

Thanx in Advance! :-)

Comment by aung — June 12, 2011 @ 10:14 am
Great video Niel, very helpful

Comment by Tony Sale — December 29, 2011 @ 6:05 am
Hi Neil – the use of video lights fascinates me – but it seems as if it could be used only for one or two people – what do you do for larger groups, like the entire bridal party? Many thanks

Comment by Lindie — March 3, 2012 @ 10:18 am
flash

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — March 10, 2012 @ 10:16 pm
I have used continuous light in the past, but not LED video lights. Along with being very hot, the continuous lights seemed to not put out as much light as I would have thought. So shutter speed was pretty slow unless using higher ISO settings. What settings were you using for aperture, shutter, and ISO on the shoot with the LED video lights? Also, is there any good way to determine how much light a particular unit will put out? I don’t see anything in the specifications that seem to be very useful for actual light output.

P.S. Loved the video….

Comment by Rusty — May 10, 2012 @ 4:21 pm
Rusty .. all the linked articles mention the specific camera settings.

The video lights aren’t very bright compared to flash. But then, there isn’t much to match the power of flash if you look at the size of a speedlight vs output.

There isn’t really a way to state the brightness of an LED light, and it doesn’t seem like manufacturers even want to mention an equivalent brightness or Lumens value.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — May 10, 2012 @ 10:16 pm
Great shot and light. I’m currently thinking of using LED because of all your fine examples and blog posts. One question though: can you use this LED for full body portraits? Can the light go that broad or wide?

Thanks Neil.

Comment by Kris — November 25, 2012 @ 8:01 am
You could, but then you’d have to move the light further away … at which it becomes a pin-point light-source, and harder / more contrasty.

The power also drops off considerably then. (Think of the Inverse Square Law.)

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — November 25, 2012 @ 10:31 am
Ok, I see. But couldn’t you stack two of them together to have a vertical panel, so you can lit full body? Then again, maybe it would produce too much light for your models and it would become uncomfortable for them? What do you think of this? Thanks for sharing your experience with us!

Comment by Kris — November 26, 2012 @ 6:24 am