Great breakdown. I shoot both LEDs and flashes, and I've found that LEDs are useful in a much wider variety of situations, but there are some things you can only really do with flashes. My general rule: I use LEDs to create ambient light, I use flashes to sculpt light.
So you use led to create specific light patterns or colors and use flash for main?? very interesting. Do you have insta to see your work maybe a behind the scene scenario. thank you.
Great way to break it down! Also I would add another reason for constant lights... the pupil gets smaller to adapt to the light and you get more iris in your portraits... when using flash the eye doesn't have enough time to adapt and you get a more dilated pupil which is ok, but I prefer to see more of the color in the eye than just a big pupil with color around the edge
Fantastic explanation. Pound for pound it isn't even close for stills. Especially if you ever take pictures outside. Or want to use super duper modifiers with multiple layers of diffusion. Or need your light source farther away. You gotta have the power. If you are doing stills and want to "see what you are doing" then get strobes and take 1,000 pictures. After that, you will be able to both "see" and also enjoy all of the versatility that power provides. And will always provide.
Long story short I did a portrait shoot about a week ago and my flash was giving me a s*** ton of trouble. I had a beauty light with me. It was one of the circular LED Amazon brand Beauty lights from a company called Neewer... so in a pinch I pulled that out ran an extension cord because it was dark out at this point and we were in the backyard on a little Bridge. I actually got some amazing shots! And the catch light in the eyes was just beautiful. These pictures were flawless. Except for the hint of acne on one of my subjects chin which I photoshopped out later. But I have no issues using LED lights. I actually did just a little fun Halloween shoot with my daughter a year ago and my camera office room.. and those pictures came out phenomenal. I get complimented on those constantly. In my opinion I believe gliding and sliding and if you're using it properly you're going to get great results.
Another thing is that with constant light the pupils of the eye become very small and you get to see the color of the persons eye in a fuller way. It’s same reason to use the modeling light during portraits....with flash
Even indoors ambient light can sometimes throw off the color balance between the shadows and highlights. You can have green cast light coming from one direction and neutral balance light coming from another direction. The best way to guarantee that all ambient light is eliminated is to go with flash or strobe.
Appreciate this video. Gives a good overview and I had been wondering about this, esp. given all the progress that has been made with LEDs in the last 5 years.
I also notice that with flash the pupils don’t have time to react and are wider generally, so more attractive. This depends on the direction and set-up if using LED course, but another thing to consider.
Flash every time for me. ... well unless i'm doing video. Flash will always beat out LED/continuous for stills in my opinion, you can just do more with it.
For me personally, in general: if I'm lighting an individual subject, I much prefer flashes, but if I'm lighting an entire scene I'm more likely to use a mix of flashes and constant lights. Plus, constant lights are useful if you need to keep shutter speeds *faster* than your camera's flash sync speed...but they'd need to be hella bright to be useful....
Also when it matters flash is a full spectrum light so you can get more accurate color reproduction. Even the best LED lights do not give a true full spectrum of light.
Color Rendering Index is an important feature of continuous lighting. Did the flash have LED modeling lamps, and did they affect the color of the shots taken with the LED lighting. I doubt that modeling LEDs have the high CRI of those used for taking. She looks a bit magenta in the LED shots in this video.
Hola amigo gracias por tu vídeo es muy ilustrativo muy buen vídeo, pero creo que el angulo del flash y de la luz led con respecto a la modelo eran totalmente diferentes en tus pruebas y por eso obtuviste resultados inconsistentes y con lamparas de led de buena calidad siempre puedes regular la intensidad y usar filtros para obtener el mismo resultado siempre que estés en condiciones controladas. de estudio por lo demás gran trabajo el que haces con tus vídeos felicitaciones y saludos cordiales.
I guess one benefit of LED would be what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Could be useful if you are inexperienced with lighting, or if you are collaborating with other creatives about the look of an issue. I’d probably go for video LEDs just because I do very little flash/photography these days.
Can you mix flash and led light. For different color nuaces ect. Flash for main and led for creating shadows etc. Would love to see a video about this.
You can use either constant light or flash to accomplish that. You just need to overexpose it (if you want to eliminate all detail) by a stop and a half or so over your subject. I show some of that here: facebook.com/watch/?v=2475772755799796
Thanks for the excellent breakdown. Are there portable LED lights that you can take outdoors and don't require mains, or is a speedlight always better for that sort of situation? I'm trying to figure out what kind of light I should get next and which would be more versatile if I can only choose one at the moment.
John Leigh Since you get less power, you definitely have to crank your ISO up. How high depends on a lot of factors so impossible for me to say exactly where you should be.
I shot a small concert last month and the concert lights were ALED stage lights. I use a Canon EOS R and had it set in Silent shooting mode. I had a problem where my images had banding issues which I believe was due to the war the camera "dumps" the data from the image sensor and the way the LED light controlled brightness (pulse-modulated??) Is this correct os did I do something else wrong?? (was NOT due to HSS as I was not using a flash). LSO -- if my assumption is correct, do LED studio lights control brightness by pulse modulating the voltage to the LED?
What about Z9-will it suffer from using LED lights from flickering or banding due to the lack of the mechanical shooter? What about Rotolight Neo2 or AEOS- which are LED+flash?
If I would buy an expensive flash I would look into strobes that aren’t tied to the camera system. Is there any strobes that support TTL for both Canon and Panasonic, or do you need to give up TTL flashes that aren’t system dependent?
Most strobes, as opposed to speedlights, aren't camera specific. The Profoto lights in the video will work with multiple camera brands by simply buying a brand specific trigger(Air Remote in Profoto terms). Adorama's Flashpoint brand strobes work the same way, universal lights/brand specific triggers, as well as being controllable by their camera specific speedlights.
As Jimmy says below, you do need a brand specific trigger to use more advance functions like TTL because it has to talk the same “language” as the camera.
For on camera flash, I like to stick with the Canon flashes: adorama.rfvk.net/LqzQo For off camera / studio strobes, I use the Orlit gear: adorama.rfvk.net/x307R
I wish you would have addressed the part of the question about "they seem to only travel a short distance". Unless the questioner is comparing apples and oranges with a powerful strobe vs. a lower power LED, light of the same brightness travels the same distance... that's physics.
True that light of the same brightness does travel the same distance, but as I said in the video, even a small, inexpensive flash will usually give you more power (and distance) than a comparable LED.
The main reason to get flash is power?? 10th of a second??? What?! Get modern camera that can go high ISO without any quality issues and just buy LED panels.. there will be more then enough light
Sorry @t:1:35 I think to indicate that we'll get the idea when you've left on the modelling light when shooting with the led souce is not quite good enough (professional) if the modelling light had any impact (fill). So, I recommend you ditch this video and do it professionally.
Patrick Montgomery The modeling light does have some impact, but it’s very similar to shooting with an LED because it’s just another constant light source. So it’s was a two light portrait (the LED key and underpowered modeling light as fill) instead of one light as I did with the flash.
This is a stupid comparison. If you want power, get a high power LED. Profoto is top quality equipment, it should have been compared against something on a similar level. (Aputure, ARRI, Dedolight, Hive, K5600, Mole-Richardson, etc...) Also, what about using the same modifier?
Juan Diosdado As I say in the video, even an inexpensive flash can overpower a very bright LED. I know this wasn’t exactly apples to apples, but I wanted to give a general idea of the primary differences between the two. Thanks for watching and for taking the time to comment.
Isn't this a comparison between shooting with an LED light and shooting with a flash and an LED light? It really doesn't answer the question posed by video title - Flash vs LED You definitely get more power from a flash if you leave all the other lights on!! An utterly baffling video now that I've watched it again.
95 Sub-Zero Actually the flash is so much more powerful than any of the constant lights in the room (the LED or the overheads in the studio) that they do not effect my exposure in any way. If I turned off the flash and shot at the same settings, the frame would be completely black.
@@DavidBergmanPhoto Yes, the flash burst is a lot brighter but if you're making a comparison between the two, you can't use both light sources versus just one source! The LED alone was still bright enough to just about get a tight shot at 1/10th sec, f5.6 and 100 ISO. I'm not here to argue but this is a flawed comparison!
Great breakdown. I shoot both LEDs and flashes, and I've found that LEDs are useful in a much wider variety of situations, but there are some things you can only really do with flashes.
My general rule: I use LEDs to create ambient light, I use flashes to sculpt light.
So you use led to create specific light patterns or colors and use flash for main?? very interesting. Do you have insta to see your work maybe a behind the scene scenario. thank you.
Great way to break it down! Also I would add another reason for constant lights... the pupil gets smaller to adapt to the light and you get more iris in your portraits... when using flash the eye doesn't have enough time to adapt and you get a more dilated pupil which is ok, but I prefer to see more of the color in the eye than just a big pupil with color around the edge
Sergio Gutiérrez Good point!
Fantastic explanation.
Pound for pound it isn't even close for stills. Especially if you ever take pictures outside. Or want to use super duper modifiers with multiple layers of diffusion. Or need your light source farther away. You gotta have the power.
If you are doing stills and want to "see what you are doing" then get strobes and take 1,000 pictures. After that, you will be able to both "see" and also enjoy all of the versatility that power provides. And will always provide.
Agreed
Long story short I did a portrait shoot about a week ago and my flash was giving me a s*** ton of trouble. I had a beauty light with me. It was one of the circular LED Amazon brand Beauty lights from a company called Neewer... so in a pinch I pulled that out ran an extension cord because it was dark out at this point and we were in the backyard on a little Bridge. I actually got some amazing shots! And the catch light in the eyes was just beautiful. These pictures were flawless. Except for the hint of acne on one of my subjects chin which I photoshopped out later. But I have no issues using LED lights. I actually did just a little fun Halloween shoot with my daughter a year ago and my camera office room.. and those pictures came out phenomenal. I get complimented on those constantly. In my opinion I believe gliding and sliding and if you're using it properly you're going to get great results.
Another thing is that with constant light the pupils of the eye become very small and you get to see the color of the persons eye in a fuller way. It’s same reason to use the modeling light during portraits....with flash
Good tip!
Great video, David. You broke the LED vs Flash question down to all the basics. Thanks.
Even indoors ambient light can sometimes throw off the color balance between the shadows and highlights. You can have green cast light coming from one direction and neutral balance light coming from another direction. The best way to guarantee that all ambient light is eliminated is to go with flash or strobe.
Appreciate this video. Gives a good overview and I had been wondering about this, esp. given all the progress that has been made with LEDs in the last 5 years.
I also notice that with flash the pupils don’t have time to react and are wider generally, so more attractive. This depends on the direction and set-up if using LED course, but another thing to consider.
Great explanation. I was just explaining these differences to a friend the other day, but I believe you did it a bit more concisely. Thanks!
Flash every time for me. ... well unless i'm doing video.
Flash will always beat out LED/continuous for stills in my opinion, you can just do more with it.
For me personally, in general: if I'm lighting an individual subject, I much prefer flashes, but if I'm lighting an entire scene I'm more likely to use a mix of flashes and constant lights.
Plus, constant lights are useful if you need to keep shutter speeds *faster* than your camera's flash sync speed...but they'd need to be hella bright to be useful....
@@bencushwa8902 what constants do you use?
Another great tutorial David. Thanks!
Great comparison and conclusion .
solid presentation, thanks
Awesome video! Beautiful images as well
Also when it matters flash is a full spectrum light so you can get more accurate color reproduction. Even the best LED lights do not give a true full spectrum of light.
Color Rendering Index is an important feature of continuous lighting. Did the flash have LED modeling lamps, and did they affect the color of the shots taken with the LED lighting. I doubt that modeling LEDs have the high CRI of those used for taking. She looks a bit magenta in the LED shots in this video.
Hola amigo gracias por tu vídeo es muy ilustrativo muy buen vídeo, pero creo que el angulo del flash y de la luz led con respecto a la modelo eran totalmente diferentes en tus pruebas y por eso obtuviste resultados inconsistentes y con lamparas de led de buena calidad siempre puedes regular la intensidad y usar filtros para obtener el mismo resultado siempre que estés en condiciones controladas. de estudio por lo demás gran trabajo el que haces con tus vídeos felicitaciones y saludos cordiales.
Another great video!
Great information
I guess one benefit of LED would be what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Could be useful if you are inexperienced with lighting, or if you are collaborating with other creatives about the look of an issue.
I’d probably go for video LEDs just because I do very little flash/photography these days.
Really good content. Explained very well at a great pace. Double impressed if that was 1st take
That was take 2. :)
@@DavidBergmanPhoto haha - well thanks for the honesty
This was really well explained. Thanks very much!
it also depends on how powerful the LED constant light is.. I've never had a situation where a light storm 600d wasn't enough
Can you mix flash and led light. For different color nuaces ect. Flash for main and led for creating shadows etc. Would love to see a video about this.
Thank you, you were very helpful
Nice vd thanks
Aputure 300D II. You´re welcome!
What about using led to illuminate my backdrop to help take some wrinkles out?
You can use either constant light or flash to accomplish that. You just need to overexpose it (if you want to eliminate all detail) by a stop and a half or so over your subject. I show some of that here: facebook.com/watch/?v=2475772755799796
Thanks for the excellent breakdown. Are there portable LED lights that you can take outdoors and don't require mains, or is a speedlight always better for that sort of situation? I'm trying to figure out what kind of light I should get next and which would be more versatile if I can only choose one at the moment.
thanks for sharing - with th LED light you have there I did wonder what ISO you would need to use rather than aperture if your lens only goes to 4.5
John Leigh Since you get less power, you definitely have to crank your ISO up. How high depends on a lot of factors so impossible for me to say exactly where you should be.
In case i want to take a portrait with my android smartphone then led is the only way to light my subject
I shot a small concert last month and the concert lights were ALED stage lights. I use a Canon EOS R and had it set in Silent shooting mode. I had a problem where my images had banding issues which I believe was due to the war the camera "dumps" the data from the image sensor and the way the LED light controlled brightness (pulse-modulated??) Is this correct os did I do something else wrong?? (was NOT due to HSS as I was not using a flash). LSO -- if my assumption is correct, do LED studio lights control brightness by pulse modulating the voltage to the LED?
what if a 600w LED vs 600w Flash, which you do you perfer?
What about Z9-will it suffer from using LED lights from flickering or banding due to the lack of the mechanical shooter? What about Rotolight Neo2 or AEOS- which are LED+flash?
I believe Rotolights are flicker free; not sure about other brands.
If I would buy an expensive flash I would look into strobes that aren’t tied to the camera system. Is there any strobes that support TTL for both Canon and Panasonic, or do you need to give up TTL flashes that aren’t system dependent?
Most strobes, as opposed to speedlights, aren't camera specific. The Profoto lights in the video will work with multiple camera brands by simply buying a brand specific trigger(Air Remote in Profoto terms). Adorama's Flashpoint brand strobes work the same way, universal lights/brand specific triggers, as well as being controllable by their camera specific speedlights.
As Jimmy says below, you do need a brand specific trigger to use more advance functions like TTL because it has to talk the same “language” as the camera.
Great video, what flash and remote would recommend for around the $260-400 (£200-300) to go on the EOS R. Thanks
For on camera flash, I like to stick with the Canon flashes: adorama.rfvk.net/LqzQo
For off camera / studio strobes, I use the Orlit gear: adorama.rfvk.net/x307R
I wish you would have addressed the part of the question about "they seem to only travel a short distance". Unless the questioner is comparing apples and oranges with a powerful strobe vs. a lower power LED, light of the same brightness travels the same distance... that's physics.
True that light of the same brightness does travel the same distance, but as I said in the video, even a small, inexpensive flash will usually give you more power (and distance) than a comparable LED.
@@DavidBergmanPhoto Fair point David. Great video!
Speed kills Del..
But great info, thanks!
That’s some major league hand waving.
The main reason to get flash is power?? 10th of a second??? What?! Get modern camera that can go high ISO without any quality issues and just buy LED panels.. there will be more then enough light
Sorry @t:1:35 I think to indicate that we'll get the idea when you've left on the modelling light when shooting with the led souce is not quite good enough (professional) if the modelling light had any impact (fill). So, I recommend you ditch this video and do it professionally.
Patrick Montgomery The modeling light does have some impact, but it’s very similar to shooting with an LED because it’s just another constant light source. So it’s was a two light portrait (the LED key and underpowered modeling light as fill) instead of one light as I did with the flash.
This is a stupid comparison. If you want power, get a high power LED. Profoto is top quality equipment, it should have been compared against something on a similar level. (Aputure, ARRI, Dedolight, Hive, K5600, Mole-Richardson, etc...) Also, what about using the same modifier?
Juan Diosdado As I say in the video, even an inexpensive flash can overpower a very bright LED. I know this wasn’t exactly apples to apples, but I wanted to give a general idea of the primary differences between the two. Thanks for watching and for taking the time to comment.
Isn't this a comparison between shooting with an LED light and shooting with a flash and an LED light?
It really doesn't answer the question posed by video title - Flash vs LED
You definitely get more power from a flash if you leave all the other lights on!! An utterly baffling video now that I've watched it again.
95 Sub-Zero Actually the flash is so much more powerful than any of the constant lights in the room (the LED or the overheads in the studio) that they do not effect my exposure in any way. If I turned off the flash and shot at the same settings, the frame would be completely black.
@@DavidBergmanPhoto
Yes, the flash burst is a lot brighter but if you're making a comparison between the two, you can't use both light sources versus just one source!
The LED alone was still bright enough to just about get a tight shot at 1/10th sec, f5.6 and 100 ISO.
I'm not here to argue but this is a flawed comparison!
They don't look at all similar.
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the items in your store are much too expansive!
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