Flash or Continuous led for A7

mustafa604 · May 5, 2016

I have a sony a7 with few lenses including 55 1.8 i want to give flash photography a try and do some portraits. i have zero knowledge on flash or led light or how to use them but i can learn.

The led light called rotolight neo i saw on jason lanier youtube. what is the difference between flash and led lights like rotolight neo? which is good to have for portraits? Any help will be much appreciated! Thanks

blue_skies · May 5, 2016

mustafa604 said:
I have a sony a7 with few lenses including 55 1.8 i want to give flash photography a try and do some portraits. i have zero knowledge on flash or led light or how to use them but i can learn.

The led light called rotolight neo i saw on jason lanier youtube. what is the difference between flash and led lights like rotolight neo? which is good to have for portraits? Any help will be much appreciated! Thanks

Led is for video? Use flash for most purposes, slave flash, angle flash, bounce flash, etc.

JALComputing · May 5, 2016

Continuous lighting lets you visualize the lighting before the shot. Flash lighting freezes most any subject movement. Studio flashes use both! They have built in lights to visualize the lighting and then you shoot the photo with the flash.

So if you had two continuous lights, you could place one light as the main and then the second as a fill. To get a 3:1 lighting ratio between the highlights and the shadows the main should be _twice_ as bright as the fill on the subject.

Two flashes and two bounce umbrellas will give a nice effect. So you can trigger the main flash with a cord and use a sensor slave to trigger the fill flash. Flash meters can be used to get a 2:1 flash ratio for a 3:1 highlight/fill ratio.

In both cases, a background light/flash can be added.

If you have one flash, you could try using a collapsable reflector for the fill.

Have fun,
Jeff

Abrak · May 5, 2016

While LEDs look bright because they are continuous, they actually provide a lot less light than a speed light. I use both with my photography. The Rotolight Neos are crazily overpriced and have a very low output. A Yongnuo YN300 LED will provide double the light at 20% of the cost.

mustafa604 · May 5, 2016

Do you have an examples like how the photos will look with Neos or Yongnuo Led or without both? Any videos or link you can point me to so i can learn more about it? Thanks

Abrak said:
While LEDs look bright because they are continuous, they actually provide a lot less light than a speed light. I use both with my photography. The Rotolight Neos are crazily overpriced and have a very low output. A Yongnuo YN300 LED will provide double the light at 20% of the cost.

--
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Tmarz · May 6, 2016

I have a few Neos, they only work in low light. I use them mostly in the dark to light something up, worked really good for cave pictures. You're better off getting a good flash.

Luis Gabriel Photography · May 6, 2016

mustafa604 said:
Do you have an examples like how the photos will look with Neos or Yongnuo Led or without both? Any videos or link you can point me to so i can learn more about it? Thanks

Abrak said:

While LEDs look bright because they are continuous, they actually provide a lot less light than a speed light. I use both with my photography. The Rotolight Neos are crazily overpriced and have a very low output. A Yongnuo YN300 LED will provide double the light at 20% of the cost.

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echolsphoto · May 6, 2016

Its easier to light something if you can see what the light is doing, so continuous lights are easier to set up and play with. Flash you can't tell what its doing until you have taken the picture and see it on the screen. Tungsten lights are cheap and bright, but also hot and a different color from daylight.

LincolnB · May 6, 2016

mustafa604 said:
I have a sony a7 with few lenses including 55 1.8 i want to give flash photography a try and do some portraits. i have zero knowledge on flash or led light or how to use them but i can learn.

The led light called rotolight neo i saw on jason lanier youtube. what is the difference between flash and led lights like rotolight neo? which is good to have for portraits? Any help will be much appreciated! Thanks

The led light would work well when you need a small diameter fill light. It will be unsatisfactory as a key light however. The fact that it has adjustable temperature means you can match it easily to the ambient light, such as tungsten or fluorescent etc.. However, if the ambient light is not strong enough to work as a key light then you're screwed. The LED light won't be powerful enough for most portrait work, not at 9 watts. A speedlight (flash) is orders of magnitude more powerful.

JALComputing · May 6, 2016

mustafa604 said:
I have a sony a7 with few lenses including 55 1.8 i want to give flash photography a try and do some portraits. i have zero knowledge on flash or led light or how to use them but i can learn.

The led light called rotolight neo i saw on jason lanier youtube. what is the difference between flash and led lights like rotolight neo? which is good to have for portraits? Any help will be much appreciated! Thanks

So for $90-$140 you can buy a pair of CFL portrait lights that put out 4050 lumens at 1 meter.

Jeff

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Flash or Continuous led for A7

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