{"id":2077,"date":"2017-02-11T07:30:50","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T07:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.garfnet.org.uk\/cms\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2025-03-12T13:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T13:21:13","slug":"cheap-but-effective-continuous-studio-lighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garfnet.org.uk\/cms\/2017\/02\/11\/cheap-but-effective-continuous-studio-lighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheap but effective continuous studio lighting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For continuous lighting, one needs a light source that has good colour balance, uses power efficiently, is reasonably robust and does not present a health or fire risk. I am also a tightwad<\/i> – interested primarily in “bangs per buck”. Whilst I love new technology, I am not prepared to pay silly money for it.<\/p>\n

Choices<\/h2>\n

Incandescent bulbs are power hungry and get very hot. Hot enough to set fire to soft-boxes or cause serious burn injury to one’s models. CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) is better in terms of power efficiency but the big CFL’s are flimsy, cumbersome and very easily damaged. And they deteriorate rapidly. Every time you switch one on, you wipe tens or even hundreds of hours from its useful service life. Even if you don’t keep switching them on-and-off,  they deteriorate with age. And they take up to ten minutes to warm up and reach peak brightness. When they physically break, they have nasty sharp edges.They also contain small amounts of mercury, which is highly toxic.<\/p>\n

\"Sellers<\/a>
Sellers picture of daylight LED lighting cluster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That leaves a new and rapidly developing technology: daylight LED (light emitting diode). These have come a long way over the last few years. And some LED products are significantly better better and longer lived than others. After a quite a lot of research I invested in a box-load of these…<\/p>\n

They cost the princely sum of around \u00a36 each. And they are simply fantastic. The E27 variety fits standard E27 (27mm Edison screw) holders. The addition of \u00a31 adaptors makes them fit a standard B22 bayonet too. They are also designed to swivel <\/i>so you can get the light exactly where you want it. I use the “big” 13 watt “day white” (6000 Kelvin) variant. These particuler units have 60 x “5050 SMD” (5mm x 5mm surface mounted device) LED chips each containing three sub-LED’s. All of which seem of a fairly uniform quality and colour temperature. There are a variety of sizes and power outputs, but for photography I would recommend the 13 watt variety. They are available from various eBay sellers, e.g.<\/p>\n