Anyone using LEDs for portraits?

[Ben Marks]

I recently saw this 1000 LED panel on sale at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Fancier-LED10...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1330904830&sr=1-1

and wondered whether anyone had any experience using them for portrait lighting?

Ben Marks

 

[doughowk]

You might check with Kirk Tuck at http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/ He recently published a book on LED lighting.

 

[Ben Marks]

Actually, it is Kirk's announcement of his new book that has me curious about actual practice. I just sent off a monoblock to be fixed; it had a short and would, once charged up, fire uncontrollably. With a bunch of slaved stobes, you can imagine the result: alien disco. I know Kirk thinks that the tech is both ready for prime time and the wave of the future. But what about the rest of y'all/

Ben Marks

 

[jp498]

Kinda cool there's a book on LED lighting!

I use a LED growlight panel http://www.ebay.com/itm/370526616178 to augment my other lights. It's a little cool for white balance, but that's not important for B&W. The Fancier panel would be a step up and I'd consider it if I needed more light or did color or video. That sort of stuff is used for news video all the time.

The photo below, on the left I used my LED panel and a CFL/aluminum dish. On the right (in front of the piano) I have a translucent umbrella up high with a white lighting flash just using the modeling light. No x-sync, so I had to stick with "hot" lights. 1/30s at f4 on iso400 8x10 film.

 

[rorye]

Similarly frustrated with strobes I recently started using Divalites, not LED but continous, flicker free and daylight balanced. I like them alot and the lower price point of the LEDs makes me want to look into them. Well, maybe not into them...

 

[photomy]

Similarly frustrated with strobes I recently started using Divalites, not LED but continous, flicker free and daylight balanced. I like them alot and the lower price point of the LEDs makes me want to look into them. Well, maybe not into them...

I am curious as to what it is about strobes that you find frustrating?

 

[rorye]

Perhaps frustrated is too strong a word, I have taken many images that I like very much with strobe, but after 20 years of being around bright popping lights my eyes are ready for something a bit gentler. As I've been concentrating on daylight shooting I find the extra little kick from the divas to be a help without overpowering the daylight. It's really just a nice change for me.

 

[zumbido]

I've started working with blue LEDs to light pinhole paper negative portraits, but that's not necessarily relevant to what you're talking about here.

 

[Shootar401]

I used a few of the lower end LED light sources for video work with a P2 camera. I noticed they don't look as nice as a good tungsten light source. It seems to me that they might not project a full spectrum, there seemed to be a dip around 4300K in all the models I've used.

Thats just my experience, YMMV

 

[wildbill]

we use them in the motion picture industry on a daily basis. We're talking about Lite Panels, or LEDZ though good light source. very efficient. I've also been using led light ribbon, cool stuff. oh, led ring lights too that you can buy on ebay as headlight gear for your car.