Spekular – versatile continuous lighting kit
I use a range of continuous lighting in the studio – it is essential for video of course, but even for stills, it is sometimes easier to work with continuous lighting than flash. When the Spekular LED lights (B&H / Amazon) hit the market, they caught my eye. What makes them unusual is that the kit comes as 4 LED bars which can be hooked up as a panel, or in any number of shapes up to 8 bars. The Spekular website shows some of the options. This kind of flexibility makes it a versatile continuous lighting kit.
I have other LED panels that I have been using on location and in the studio, and I love them. But for a larger light source, I have to rely on the Spiderlite continuous lights, which aren’t as powerful as I sometimes need them to be. That diffuser panel eats up a lot of light. Hence my interest in this new Spekular set – it is very bright! Now, all this versatility in how you can configure the strips, and the power of the light, don’t mean much unless the lights have a high quality of light, i.e., can deliver a pure white. The Spekular is guaranteed to be 94+ CRI and 96+ TLCI. This is also discussed in a previous article on buying a video light for Photography & Video.
For a first test in the studio, I set three of the kits up as large hexagonal lights:
Camera settings & photo gear used during this photo session
- 1/200 @ f/4 @ 800 ISO
- Nikon D5 (B&H / Amazon)
- Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H / Amazon)
- (3x) Spekular core kits (B&H / Amazon)
Being spread out as hexagons turned these into relatively large light sources, even though they aren’t a singular panel of light. Consider this as if the light comes from a larger area now, instead of a narrower strip.
Using this as a ring-light, you can imagine already that the catch-light in the eye would be hexagonal. Interesting.
You can purchase the Spekular kit via these affiliate links
- Spekular LED light – core kit (B&H / Amazon)
- Spekular expansion kit (B&H / Amazon)
- Spekular star adapter (B&H / Amazon)
- Spekular battery (B&H / Amazon)
Summary
So far I am impressed with these lights, and the concept behind them – the multiple ways you can configure them in. Ultimately, I think that using them as a panel, or as a ring light would be the most useful (and common) ways of setting these up. More to come – I hope to have a longer review up shortly.
Related articles
- Buying a video light for Photography & Video
- Portraits with continuous lighting – Westcott Spiderlites
- Continuous lighting – Westcott Spiderlite TD6
- Lighting for a small commercial video shoot
- More articles on using continuous lighting
I realise that the shape of catchlights are a personal preference, but to me it seems almost ‘alien’ like when the catchlight are ‘lines’ instead of a solid block / circle. My eye is immediately drawn to the different catchlight instead of looking at the whole headshot.
Thanks for the review Niel
I also think the catchlight might throw some people off. Yet, Peter Hurley has a signature lighting style with the square Kinos that give a similar square highlight in the eye.
It’s certainly a very interesting setup, being able to create rings and other shapes. But surely a ring like that should have a difference in light from a softbox? Being so big it would be different from a ring light?
Even when the full, four soft box ‘square’ is visible in Peter Hurley’s work (which quite surprisingly isn’t that often) I still think it’s much less “alien”. Perhap just because this is fairly unique…?
Love your work, Neil.
I have always thought ringlight catchlights were off-putting – they are completely unnatural. It is unfortunate because the quality of light is fantastic. Love-hate relationship ;-)
Well, the beauty of this versatile lighting kit is that you don’t have to use it as a ring-light!
Wow, these are so cool!! I love how you can change the shape of the light, I’m sold! lol.