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Microstock Photography Forum - General => Newbie Discussion => Topic started by: Cosphoto on June 27, 2016, 18:20

Title: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: Cosphoto on June 27, 2016, 18:20
Hello,

I am putting together a small home studio which I plan to use to shoot for microstock amongst other things. It's a very small room (10ft x 6.5ft). I have two monolights and my experience so far using them in this room is that the room turns into an oven in no time. I have also recently discovered that replacement flashbulbs and light-modifiers are no longer available for these monolights.

As well as considering buying new monolights, I have also been considering the alternative of investing in a L.E.D continuous light setup. Aside from the advantage of LEDs running much cooler, I am also drawn to the advantage of seeing the effect of the light in real time as well as the option of using the lights for video. Obviously I would be using Daylight balanced lights with high CRI ratings.

My questions are these?

1) Are photographs lit with high CRI rated L.E.D lights still likely to fail quality control with the microstock agencies?

2) Are there any of you out there using L.E.D lights for studio-based microstock work? If so what is your experience?

Title: Re: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: PhotoBomb on June 27, 2016, 18:23
light is light - as long as you have your white balance correct it doesn't matter what kind of light you use.
Title: Re: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: Mr Nobody on June 27, 2016, 19:01
FYI

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2012/04/led-lighting-for-photography-kirk-tuck.html (http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2012/04/led-lighting-for-photography-kirk-tuck.html)


http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3164333 (http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3164333)


Title: Re: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: Yay Images Billionaire on June 28, 2016, 01:21
I occasionally use my LED video lights to shoot when I'm too lazy to change lights. My observations:
1. There is a noticeable difference in the quality of light between the LED lights and my Elinchroms.
2. Buyers don't seem to care about the difference above.
Title: Re: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: alno on June 28, 2016, 03:22
light is light - as long as you have your white balance correct it doesn't matter what kind of light you use.

Not exactly. You'll never pull out colors in post from sodium street light shooting for example. That's because of low CRI, color rendering index.
Title: Re: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: MxR on June 28, 2016, 05:09
I have cool leds photos in shutter.... Offset....getty...
Title: Re: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: Cosphoto on June 28, 2016, 06:19
I have cool leds photos in shutter.... Offset....getty...

Just to clarify - when you say "cool" are you referring to the colour temp of the lights? What lights are you using?
Title: Re: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on June 28, 2016, 07:00
light is light - as long as you have your white balance correct it doesn't matter what kind of light you use.

Right.  As long as the end result looks good, it doesn't matter the source.  Heck, you could just get some LEDs from your home improvement store and use those.
Title: Re: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: etudiante_rapide on June 28, 2016, 07:58
light is light - as long as you have your white balance correct it doesn't matter what kind of light you use.

Not exactly. You'll never pull out colors in post from sodium street light shooting for example. That's because of low CRI, color rendering index.

well said Irina, same for fluorescent those things that flicker. not forgeting color cast of the walls too.
Title: Re: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: JPSDK on June 28, 2016, 10:31
bad things can happen with a picture with an offset quality of light and a camera induced WB.
In other  words  you loose wavelengths, meaning colour depth, when you  play too much with leds and camera wb.
Title: Re: L.E.D Continuous lighting for Microstock?
Post by: Benozaur on June 28, 2016, 11:09
bad things can happen with a picture with an offset quality of light and a camera induced WB.
In other  words  you loose wavelengths, meaning colour depth, when you  play too much with leds and camera wb.

True, LED lights generally don't project the full spectrum of light from ultraviolet to infrared like a tungsten bulb would, hence the CRI ratings. 98% CRI means that 2% of the light spectrum projected is inaccurate. This shouldn't be too much of a problem though because if the image looks good - then it is good plain and simple.
I use LED lighting for video with no problems, energy efficient and a lot cooler than tungsten\halogen\par etc...