Ghetto Style Portrait Lighting with LEDs
You don’t own an external flash. You can’t afford one anytime soon. Are you held back in your photographic technique and unable to take dynamic studio style portraits?
Not hardly.
While external lighting is vital for professional portrait and wedding photographers, there is a way to fudge external lighting. When you need just a little bit of fill or dynamic range to make your portraits stand out, there’s a simple solution at your finger tips:
The LED
The LED [Light Emitting Device] can be purchased at literally any store which sells sporting goods. Found most commonly among camping gear, these LEDs range around $10-$25. Depending on cost, you can control how much light your LED transmits by 1-6 light streams or more.
Using an LED, you must think in terms of two concepts:
1. Output: How many strobes are you using on your LED? One light stream, or all six? Obviously, 1 light stream will be more gentle in it’s illumination and 6 could be quite harsh.
2. Distance: How close is your light to your subject? The closer your light is to your subject, the brighter your subject will be illuminated. Take a few steps back, the light power will decrease.
Two LEDs will give you quite a bit of artistic ability. Whether you want to use the LED as mere fill light, or you want to create a type of studio shot like the one above, the LEDs can equip you with a number of fun options. They are light, they are durable, and the batteries generally last a while. The single down side of using LED lights is the fact that you may need an assistant to help if you use more than one.
For this shot, I really wanted to mimic a studio shot with some sweet lighting. I didn’t have my external flashes on hand but I did have two LEDs in my camera bag. In about 2 minutes, the above shot was created. Here’s how:
- The piano studio was very dim, lit by a single window on the right side. I pulled the curtain open ever so slightly [mostly to get a little more light on my subjects face].
- The main LED was directed with full light streams just off to the side of the camera, about six feet in front of my subject.
- The second LED acted as a slight fill on the far left with only half the light streams on, and spaced at a four foot angle above my subject.
- Camera was directly in front of my subject, balanced on the edge of the piano.
In post processing, I deepened the blacks and added a little additional fill for contrast.
LED portraits are casual, non threatening, and a blast. Wether you own a pair of external speed-lights or other kind of flashes, creating portraits with LEDs is a great way to go artistic and have some fun in the process.
Tags: LEDs, Light, lighting, Portraits
39 Responses to “Ghetto Style Portrait Lighting with LEDs” - Add Yours
July 4th, 2009 at 12:53 am
The LED [Light Emitting Device] , wait what? LED, light emitting diode!
July 4th, 2009 at 12:59 am
Yes, just wanted to say the same thing DIP already pointed to….
July 4th, 2009 at 1:16 am
I’m a HUGE fan of using ’strips’ of light, and I just can’t believe I never thought of using a strong LED lighting for it :D
What a great idea, thank you so much!
Until now, I had to ‘find’ such strips by looking for natural light – http://www.ilanbresler.com/2009/03/stop.html
July 4th, 2009 at 2:38 am
I bought new reading lamps from ikea yesterday. The minute i turned them on, I knew I had a solution for my DIY home studio lighting dilemma!
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/10128748
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/10128734
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/20128724
I highly recommend them, both as reading lamps and as portrait lighting. The flexible arms on these things are fairly sturdy, and the LEDs produce a nice, bright spotlight. I might actually run to ikea soon and buy a couple more of the table lamp model.
July 4th, 2009 at 2:49 am
LED (Light Emitting Diode) not Device
July 4th, 2009 at 2:58 am
i second the diode comment. Get your terminology right.
What you are refering to are led flash lights or torches. They give a really white light, untill recently they were quite expensive but thier prices have dropped recently.
You could probably glue a nut onto one to use on a tripod.
July 4th, 2009 at 3:15 am
Yea aren’t they Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)? The device is an LED Headlamp, which can be bought in many places but best to check out the selection at outdoor stores.
The cool thing about LEDs is not only their size, but their power consumption, you can also get them in different colours.
July 4th, 2009 at 3:31 am
Oh this is awsome!!! thank you I would have never thought of going this route. Did you have someone hold the lights?
July 4th, 2009 at 4:25 am
LED means Light emiting DIODE not Device
July 4th, 2009 at 5:14 am
nice work! thanks for the clarification about the “Diodes”, i had no idea but thanks for the clarification….
Nice article DPS!
July 4th, 2009 at 7:44 am
We often use LED fixtures in our set designs. For those with a bit more in their pocket that want to seriously be able to play with light and color (with no heat, and low cost), check this out: http://www.colorkinetics.com/
July 4th, 2009 at 11:24 am
FYI, L.E.D. stands for light emitting diode not device.
July 4th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Great post. The new header for my blog was made by me holding a desk lamp in one hand and holding it out to the side whilst my partner took the photo. I then Photoshopped the crap out of it to add posterization and contrast.
July 4th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Ummm… the title of this article is a little off color, no?
“Ghetto style” has a pretty negative connotation that could easily be avoided by rewording as “inexpensive.”
Let’s get with it, folks.
July 6th, 2009 at 6:10 am
I’ve never thought of this before, sounds like fun. So what am I doing sitting here, where did I put that camping gear!!!
July 6th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Thanks Christina. I’ve seen the flashlight models and thought they may not be very versatile. But this headgear model with light stream control will be in my camera bag soon! I may even pick up a couple of the flashlight models also. You never know.
July 7th, 2009 at 4:51 am
I like the idea! I don’t think I would have thought of using these and I even own at least one I use for hunting.
I don’t think the title is bad or negative. If anything it’s just a description. I think some people get to wrapped up in being offended. A lot of the time the same people that will take offense to what someone else says will normally be the same one that doesn’t care if people get offended by what they say. Life is to short to worry about little things like “Ghetto Style” in a title. The last time I checked, we have no guarantee not to be offended.
Any Way…. Thanks for the Idea!!!
July 7th, 2009 at 5:30 am
plus leds are great for “drawing” on bulb
July 8th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Not so useful an example as the window provides the bulk of the light. Can you post a photo taken without the LEDs? They both seem to be very subtle fills.
Thank you.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:39 am
Amazing LEDssss… I would like to have it. May be in the near furture ;)
July 10th, 2009 at 3:53 am
I’ve been experimenting with non-flash artificial lighting shots lately – since I do not have an external flash (yet). Here are two pictures that I took using Tikka Plus headlamps and even one that included using an iPhone ;)
Dark Knight
Happy Camper
I think they both turned out pretty well. I’d actually like to do a series of non-flash artificial lighting shots…it is pretty fun.
July 10th, 2009 at 5:00 am
OMG! Offended by Ghetto! Come on people! Get over it! Should it have been titled “Economically Disadvantaged Urban Area Portrait Lighting”? No, my liberal overly sensitive facile friend! Ghetto works just fine. Nice idea! I often thought about taking a trip to Radio Shack and putting something together with many LED’s mounted in some sort of enclosure. I figured I could jury-rig or jerry-rig something together. OMG did I offend all the people named Jerry? Sorry if i did!
July 10th, 2009 at 5:06 am
The article never mentioned HOW TO MOUNT the lights.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Fun article on LED lighting.
BTW, LED stands for Light Emitting Diode.
Ian
July 10th, 2009 at 8:50 am
The title confused me a bit, I was expecting some kind of grunge lighting or something similar. If not for the offense it may cause (Yes, people ARE in fact allowed to be offended.) confusion as to what the lighting will actually do. In any case, nice article. Actual LED’s, those little diodes, make for fantastic lighting sources if you have a small amount of electrical skill. The precise colors and level of lighting they provide is great for a lot of things photo-oriented. (For anyone still shooting film in addition to digital, they make wonderfully bright and perfect safe safelights)
July 10th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Well, Steve, whilst I agree that so-called ‘Political Correctness’ has gone mad, I do think the word ‘ghetto’ has certain connotations and is offensive if misused, as it is here, even in the UK, where the word has been adopted in recent decades. If the writer meant ‘urban’, then he should have said urban. If he meant ‘gritty’, then he should have said gritty.
The error with Device instead of Diode is inexcusable. Don’t guess – check your facts!
I read this blog in the hope of gaining inspiration, and I’ll certainly be checking my local outdoor shops for LEDs like these, and giving it a go if they are really cheap as I don’t always have room for my Speedlite in my kit bag. But as others have said, the examples here are not strong. I’d like to see something that couldn’t have been done just as easily with the window light and a couple of home made reflectors of different sizes.
Maybe my knowledge of photography is already ahead of digital-photography-sturgeon (see what I did there …), but I’m all for total immersion and will look for new ideas anywhere. I’d thought of using other LED-based lighting in other ways, but not this type, so thanks for the idea.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:20 am
It’s interesting that most of the comments about this article either want to play semantics, by correcting the use of the word “device” instead of “diode”, or comment on the use of the word “ghetto” in the title. I wonder how many of the people that rushed to tell us it’s a diode actually read all the other comments before them. Yes, people have a right to be offended, just as I have the right to be offended by the insanity of political correctness that criticises the use of the word “ghetto”.
I also have one of these LED devices that emit light, :-), and I carry it with me in my backpack all the time in case I get stuck in the dark somewhere, but I use it mainly when I go out at night taking photos. I have used it to take still life photos, it’s great for painting with light, and I’ve also played with using it for taking shots of a mannequin that serves as my main model. I recently bought a “work torch” that works on LED’s and it’s also great, it has a small circular pattern of LED’s on one end, and a strip of LED’s down one side, and each can be lit separately so it works either as a torch or a broader light, like a fluoro fitting. Got it at Bunnings. Another excellent photo light.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:57 am
LED means Light emiting DIODE not Devicex101
lolololol
so what does LED mean? I’m a slow learner, I didn’t get the correction the 1st 100 times! lololo
but seriously, i bought a 28 light LED and was thinking how awesome a topic it would make… BAM! here it is…
good show DPS, good show…
July 10th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Hey, LED dudette…<>
Brilliant. Thanks for enlightening me! (<;
http://digital-photography-school.com/ghetto-style-portrait-lighting-with-leds#ixzz0KorougRe&D
July 10th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Big deal about an error on terms. Everyone gets the point being made about LED’s.
Here’s something you can try. When you want mood lighting, try finding color LED’s. This really works great for all kinds of shots. (Halloween time maybe?)
When you setup for a shot-in-the-dark using bulb, try flashing, pointing, etc. one or several colored LED’s around the subject. You will be surprised to find the wide variety of outcomes. If you want a stronger color just expose the color for a longer time.
For what it matters, this is something I’ve been playing around with for some 40-50 years. It just gets expensive when using film. LoL
Back before the LED days I used colored tungsten lighting, (Christmas light bulbs. Sort-of-like pocket studio lighting!)
Here’s another tip! While using camera bulb setting, you can cover the lens with your hand, or a piece of cardboard, etc., point the camera in another direction, then remove the cover from the lens for another exposure. This can be repeated a bunch of times or not whenever you think you’ve got the image you what. Pentax added multi exposure ability, (9 shots max), on their K10D and K20D, then Olympus, (4 shots max).
July 10th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
On the LED lighting, what kind of white balance would you use?
July 11th, 2009 at 4:43 am
Whats the Big Deal about the LED as Diode and not Device thing.
This is not a technical article on LEDs. He’s trying to tell about an interesting way of lighting your subject using LEDs. So lets not lose focus on what he’s trying to tell, Photography & Lighting NOT LED Technical Specifics.
Great tip DPS. Keep them coming Device or Diode doesn’t matter.
July 11th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Ok Ok…enough of the LED correction….my gosh we ALL make mistakes…Great idea BTW….
July 11th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
This a wonderful idea – does any one have any ideas which led lights are best to purchase?, and what are the best ways to set them up for portraits.
July 11th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Michael Ervin: Until you get used to it, I’d suggest just setting your camera on auto WB.
LED can be had in virtually any color you can think of. The main reason LED lighting is so energy efficient is because only a very small portion of the wavelength is emitted contrary to tungsten bulbs where approximately the entire wavelength is being emitted. You’ll also note that tungsten bulbs give off allot of heat where LED generally gives off only a small amount if any noticeable amount at all.
Most LED’s are a single color or a small amount of the spectrum. White colored LED segments are similar to your TV where the three “primary colors” make it up. The heat is also only from those three LED’s in one segment.
*(If you increase the voltage/amps, please be careful. They can burn skin. Should you increase it more, the life either shortens allot, burn out on the spot, or explodes. That could make a tiny plastic or glass projectile go flying around the room. Don’t ask how I know this! LoL)
July 12th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Yes I also love those Little Electronic Doofers (LED) for painting light. Have a headlamop with a few options of how many to have on or a small torch. Great article. Hey Darren, I’m guessing you will never make that LED goof again ;-))…Cheers..R
October 24th, 2009 at 1:20 am
She did it again…
October 25th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Nice thought. Creative. Thanks to the previous commenter for the Ikea links. I’ll use them.
One thing to note is that LEDs, even the newish “white” LEDs, have kind of a spiky color spectrum and are subject to metameric failure (I’m sure the all of the “Hey, ‘D’ is for ‘Diode’, idiot” commenters know what that means, but for the rest of us it means colors might not look the same in your image as they did in the real world).
Works great for monochromatic post processing and will give good artistic effects as well, but don’t expect faithful color all the time.
peachey
October 30th, 2009 at 1:37 am
This is ghetto.
Leave a Reply