The Problem with LEDs

Donate & Support

I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

||

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

Many of you already know that I’ve been heavily invested in LEDs for a couple of years now. In fact, apart from the occasional niche speedlight setup, I’ve not used flash for a single shoot in well over a year. During that time, I’ve reviewed scores of incredible LEDs, all touting features simply not possible with flash. So, you’ve all heard me praising the benefits of LEDs, but as with anything in life, there are always tradeoffs.

No one product is perfect at everything, and LEDs are no different. So, if you’re a strobist and thinking of jumping in with LEDs, what are some limitations or quirks of LEDs you need to be aware of?

Power

This is the elephant in the room, and to be fair, this is the question I get asked the most: “Are LEDs powerful enough?” This is, of course, subjective, and the answer is very much contingent on what you’re going to be shooting. For me, 90% of my work is done in a controlled studio environment or at least on locations where I can cover or block unwanted light. So for me, yes, LEDs are absolutely more than powerful enough for what I need. But let’s be real, LEDs are nowhere near as powerful as most strobes.

One common misconception is that a 500Ws strobe (flash) is the same as a 500W LED. It’s an easy mistake to make, and I think some brands may even lean into that misunderstanding on occasion. But the key is to remember that flashes are measured in watt-seconds, not continuous watts or draw like LED lights.

One gives you a very intense light for a fraction of a second, and the other is a continuous power output. A 500Ws flash can deliver hundreds of thousands of lumens, whereas a 500W LED may only reach 50-75,000 lumens.

Or in non-nerd speak, a 500Ws strobe at 2m (6.5ft) reads 1/125th second, ISO 100 and just under f22. A 500W LED at the same distance is 1/125th second, ISO 100 and just under f8.

I just went next door to the studio to test this myself, so variables like room size, brand, modifier used, etc., will affect the results slightly, but it does illustrate the power gap between these two units.

Click to enlarge: On the left is the 500Ws strobe set to full power. On the right is a 500W LED set to full power. You simply cannot compare the two 500W/s in terms of power as the flash is around 3 stops brighter than the LED.

With a 500Ws strobe being around 3 stops brighter than a 500W LED, the difference is certainly noticeable, and if you think that doesn’t seem like much, remember that every stop of light is double the amount of light, so that’s like the difference between a 125Ws strobe and a 1000Ws strobe. The instantaneous power output of flash is extremely bright, and if you think your work needs that extra power, there really is no substitute.

Client Comfort

I’ve just spoken about the power output differences between flash and LED, and some of you may be thinking that LEDs are getting brighter all the time and that maybe it’s just worth waiting until LEDs are powerful enough to compete with flash. I’ve no doubt that LEDs will get more powerful, but the practicality of that brightness also needs to be considered.

Think about a client sitting in front of a 500W LED. I just went into the studio to test it and, yeah, you definitely know you’re sitting in front of a bright light at full power! It’d be pretty miserable for extended periods, so I really wouldn’t want to subject a client to anything much brighter than that for extended periods.

Flash has none of that client discomfort, as the bright flash is only on for a fraction of a second. In fact, before the shot is taken, all the client sees is a very dim (by comparison) modelling lamp, and this can have more impact on the final shot than just the client's comfort.

Remember, our eyes do their best to limit harsh brightness by constricting our pupils into a tiny dot. Conversely, in dim lighting, pupils dilate to let in as much light as possible, and it is widely believed that these dilated pupils are perceived as more attractive for several reasons.

Click to enlarge: In the images above, you have the continuous bright light of an LED on the left and the very small pupil as a result. On the right, you have the dilated pupil of the eye taking in the much dimmer light of the strobes modelling bulb. When the flash fires, we capture an image of the eye before the pupil has time to constrict, yielding a beautifully large pupil.

Many portrait photographers will actively seek these dilated pupils in their work as they believe the final image shows their subject in the best possible way. Bright LED lights make these dilated pupils almost impossible to capture, whereas this look is relatively easy to achieve with flash.

Freezing Motion

This is another major factor that may well impact the type of work you produce. I’ve spoken about flash durations in the past and how, no matter what your shutter speed is set to, the subject, when being captured by flash, is actually frozen by the flash duration of ~1/4000th of a second and not your actual shutter speed choice. So, even if your shutter speed is 1/250th second, the subject is captured at ~1/4000th.

This is not the case with LEDs. With LEDs, your subject is always captured based on your shutter speed.

Click to enlarge: My Bowens XMT strobes actually showed you the flash duration, depending on the power you were using. At its lowest 2.0 power, the flash duration was actually 1/10,309th sec, compared to 1/222th sec at full power. When using flash, it’s not your shutter speed that dictates the amount of visible motion in the shot.

So if you’re someone who shoots a lot of fast-moving subjects like children and dancers, maybe even fast-moving clothing and hair, and you’ve been doing so with a shutter speed of 1/250th with flash, you may not get the exact same results with LEDs. Remember that although your camera was set to 1/250th of a second, the flash was actually freezing them at ~1/4000th.

Click to enlarge: I’d encourage you to click this image and view it full screen. If you look closely, you can see a ton of movement in this shot, especially in the hair. This image was taken at 1/15th of a second, and it’s simply not possible to capture this type of energy and sense of motion in a shot while using flash.

Again, this is very dependent on the work that you do, but even slight blurring in hair and clothes can have an impact on the final image, especially if you’re someone who shoots for composites. Masking and cutting out subjects with crisp, sharp hair and clothes is far easier than masking out moving objects with slightly blurred, feathered edges.

Chromatic Adaptation

This topic is a little more niche and may not affect your work as much as it affects mine. If you’re not familiar with ‘chromatic adaptation’, it refers to our eyes' natural ability to white-balance and colour-correct the world around us. Most people don’t tend to see the rich orange dawn and sunset, as our eyes try to balance them out so we see the world in a more uniform tone. This ability is so strong, however, that we can often be tricked or fooled by it and because it happens so subtly and gradually, many of us aren't even aware of it happening.

Why is this a bad thing? When I used to shoot with flash in the studio, I’d typically have some ‘house lights’ on, or the normal ceiling lights most rooms have. The flashes had coloured gels, but the modelling bulbs weren't bright enough to overpower the room's overall colour. This meant the client's eyes weren't adjusting to the coloured gels and remained neutral due to the overhead studio lights. That way, when I fired a shot and showed them the resulting brightly coloured flash image, they loved what they saw.

With LEDs, I need to be far more mindful of chromatic adaptation affecting the client's eyes, as the bright, very colourful LEDs are always on and overpowering the room colour. This is a very nerdy topic that I’ve covered in more detail in the past, but if the room is bright blue due to the LEDs, our eyes will try to neutralise that so that when the client sees the resulting image with their ‘neutralised’ eyes, the shot doesn't look anywhere near as blue as they had hoped.

I covered this in a little more detail in a video cut from one of my previous livestreams. It shows some examples of chromatic adaptation at work and how companies can use it in interesting ways. Take a look at the video below to learn more.

This is a very real problem and one that needs a little experience and confidence to overcome, because remember, it's not just the client's eyes getting fooled, it's yours too. Like I say, this is a very real factor that needs to be addressed. Ever notice why the ceilings in rooms are always white, even if the walls are painted a certain colour? Interior design uses the ceiling as a neutral ‘anchor’, and our eyes use it as a point of reference to colour the surrounding walls. Paint the ceiling the same colour as the walls, and our eyes will adapt to it, and the room's walls will lose their visible colour value as a result.

Brightly coloured LED shoots lack a white ceiling as a neutral reference point, and this can skew colour perception for the client and us. Faith in the hue values and Kelvin settings on our cameras is enough for us experienced photographers, but you may have to convince the client that you need to take them outside to a well-lit neutral-coloured room and show them the final images; otherwise, you’ll never achieve the specific blue colour they're after.

As a final note on this, I’m not talking hypotheticals here, and I genuinely do have to either take clients out of the room to a more neutral-coloured space or give their eyes time to adjust to the room with the house lights back on. I’ll leave it up to you as to whether you want to try and explain chromatic adaptation to your clients, but just be warned that this is a fairly esoteric concept to many, and you're probably just far better off just turning the house lights on, and then taking your time on purpose before showing the clients the images. But, be warned, if you’re tethering and the client is looking at the shots as they come in and chromatic adaptation has taken hold, you’ll find it tough to explain the problem beyond ‘trust me bro’.

Speed and Safety

I spent well over a decade working in studios with cables crisscrossing and spider-webbing the floor. It’s a problem I didn’t know I had, as I’d never known anything else. So when I got some battery-powered strobes, I had no idea how much faster and easier it was to avoid all those cables on the floor. Not to mention, cableless strobes are infinitely safer, without the risk of clients or models tripping over unsecured cables, which can result in, at best, having to buy a new light, and, at worst, them getting hurt and suing you.

It’s kind of ironic then that I only had this quality of life for a few short years before I brought all the cables back into the studio when I switched everything over to LEDs.

Sure, there are many battery-powered LED lights that run without cables. But for studio shooters who need the extra power, nearly all the LEDs over 100W will need to be plugged in. Yes, there are options for attaching battery packs, but if you’re in the studio shooting for many hours, it’s just easier to keep them plugged in rather than switching batteries in and out all the time.

With this cable issue in mind, I actively seek out LEDs that don't require additional cables to the control box or ballast. This box often needs to be secured, and the cables will need to be tidied away or, ideally, taped down on a busy set. All this takes time, and if you don’t have that time to spare, just popping a single battery-powered monoblock strobe on a stand and shooting is a very desirable alternative.

Click to enlarge: I spent years dealing with flash cables until I finally got my battery-powered strobes. And then, all the cables came back with the more powerful LEDs. Cables aren't just an inconvenience; they can be a safety issue too. With this in mind, I try to avoid the additional cables that LEDs with external control boxes come with, as the studio can look like a spiderweb very quickly once you have several lights set up.

Banding

I’ve left this point until last, as it’s not an issue that arises with all LEDs and in all shots, but if this banding issue does appear in your images, it can be utterly devastating, and the reason it's so devastating is that you may well not notice it until it's far too late.

So what is this ‘banding’ issue? The technology in LED lights is a little different from that of many other lights you may be used to, as most lights are simply either on or off. However, some LEDs operate a little differently, and some cheaper or early LEDs essentially turn on and off very rapidly, thereby flickering. This flicker is so fast that our eyes don't notice it, but our cameras can, especially when you're shooting at higher shutter speeds.

*Click to enlarge: The above images are taken with the same LED light, the only difference between these two shots, is the shutter speed used.*

This flickering or frequency of LEDs is measured in Hertz and indicates how many times per second they turn on and off. Now, you may have looked at the images above and been shocked by how bad the flicker is and the resulting rainbow banding, but I’m sure most of us would spot that in a photoshoot. And I agree, the images above are among the worst I’ve ever seen in terms of banding, but sadly, they can often be far more subtle, and consequently, far more damaging than that, as they may well go undetected while shooting.

*Click to enlarge: This is the same image taken at 1/4000th sec, the only difference is that I’ve sharpened the image on the right in post.*

Take a look at the image above. This is the same image on both the left and right; the only difference is that I sharpened the right version in post. At first glance, you may not have spotted that banding on the left, and remember, this is a white wall that makes it far easier to see. But once you’ve wrapped the shoot and got home, sharpening these images reveals an ugly effect that is almost impossible to fix.

The LED flicker issue and the resulting image banding are a whole article in their own right, so I won't get too sidetracked by the boring technical details here. The quick version is that this banding mainly appears on old or cheaper LED lights. That said, some of the tests I’ve shown you here are from reputable brands. The other very important factor is that the banding only really shows itself when shooting at fast shutter speeds or when the LED light is set to a very low power, and combining fast shutter speeds with low-powered, cheaper LEDs is all but guaranteed to produce a hideous banding effect.

But this flickering and subsequent banding isn't a new problem; in fact, it could be argued to be a feature in some situations. After all, it's one of the reasons why LEDs are so cheap for us to run at home in our house lights. Many of them flicker faster than our human eyes can detect, thereby reducing the power they consume and the heat they produce.

Sadly, this is also why I think some people get chronic headaches from certain lights, while other people don't. Some people, sadly, can see the flicker, which causes huge strain on their eyes and brains. In fact, this happened to my wife until I checked her work LED lights and switched them out for better bulbs, which has now fixed the headache problem for her.

As I mentioned, the flickering and banding is a huge can of worms that I find odd more people aren't talking about, but in short, I’d urge you to invest in some very good LEDs if you’re thinking about shooting at faster shutter speeds, as some of the good ones have absolutely zero flicker at any shutter speed and power output.

If you’re interested in more information about this banding issue, take a look at my livestream cut, which covers my findings in more detail.

LEDs Vs Flash and Me

Click to enlarge: LEDs do have some caveats, especially for those of us used to certain features already present in flash. But with features like their millions of colours that I can fine-tune at will, the pros far outweigh the cons for me.

Ultimately, the limitations of LEDs I’ve outlined above are only limitations if they affect you and your work. In fact, I’ve noted the continuous light and the inability to freeze motion as limitations, but for my work, I see them as positives. I’m no longer limited to every shot being frozen at 1/4000th of a second, and I like that I can use my shutter speed for creative control again. But your mileage may vary. The power output doesn't affect me as I simply close the curtains and carry on shooting if the sun comes out. I’m not overly concerned with dilated pupils in my work, so I’m fine with the brighter lights on set. Now that I’m aware of the chromatic adaptation problem, I work around it by showing the clients their images in a neutrally lit room. The cables everywhere can be a pain, but I worked with the problem for many years before, and I can work with it again now. Lastly, I use high-quality LEDs and rarely shoot above 1/125th of a second, so banding is not a concern for me either.

Click to enlarge: The comparatively low power of LEDs vs flash can be an issue, but again, the benefits like having unique-shaped LED lights like tubes, more than outweigh the fact that I have to shoot at ISO 400 instead of ISO 100 with flash.

No single lighting solution is perfect for every scenario. Yes, there are certainly some downsides to working with LEDs, especially if you’re someone who is used to working with flash. But for me, the millions of colours, the Kelvin and saturation sliders, the ease of colour matching, and the ability to use all my old vintage film cameras in the studio again far outweigh these downsides.

Donate & Support

I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

||

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

JHP Livestreams…

I livestream every other Tuesday night via YouTube and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. Jake Hicks Photography - YouTube

All of my more advanced lighting classes are now available online!

||

All of my more advanced lighting classes are now available online! ||

LEARN MORE ABOUT MY ONLINE WORKSHOPS

Godox Spotlight - ML-SP LED Projection Review

Donate & Support

I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

||

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

I’ve reviewed scores of these modifiers over the years. From the early days of the original Bowens Universal Spot Attachment back in 2014, to the subsequent eBay Optical Spot knock-offs and 3rd party copies, all the way up to the far more modern and sophisticated, albeit monstrous, projection attachments. But now, in this new era of more powerful LEDs in smaller packages, we’re seeing a new wave of spotlight attachments. Sure, they’re a lot smaller and more compact, but are they any good?

Disclaimer: Godox sent me this product for review. They are not paying me for this review, and all my opinions are my own.

*One thing that is immediately obvious with the Godox ML-SP LED Projection unit, is just how small it is! Surely it can’t hold its own against far bigger spotlights.*

What are Spotlight modifiers?

So what are these spotlight modifiers I’m referring to? If you’ve never seen or used them before, they are hard-light modifiers that shine a very controlled spot of light onto your subject or background. What makes these modifiers different to other hard light modifiers, like grids and snoots, for example, is their ability to focus that spot of light, and they do this via an actual lens at the front of the modifier.

The focusable spot of light has many uses and benefits. Firstly, there is zero spill of light anywhere except where it’s pointed, and secondly, we can now apply gobos to that focused light.

*Neil Osman faking moonlight through trees. The branches are the gobo that casts shadows on the scene.*

What’s a gobo?

Gobo is short for go-between and refers to an element placed between the light and the subject/background. Back in the early days of cinema, you’d place whole tree branches in front of the light to get that dappled light effect, but today, with these more modern tools, we can make gobos that replicate that same look via a small metal disk with holes laser cut into it.

The metal disk or gobo is then placed in the spotlight modifier, and by focusing the lens at the front, we can control the dappled light pattern wherever we want.

Of course, with this new technology, we can not only replicate tree branches but almost anything we want, and today there are scores and scores of gobos, including everything from company logos to stars, spots, geometric patterns, and, of course, the obligatory window blinds.

The Good, the Bad and the Worse

I established at the start that there are now a lot of these spotlight modifiers available today, and now that we know what these spotlights are supposed to do, what makes one spotlight bad and another one good?

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve reviewed scores of these modifiers in the past, and the reason I keep being sent them for review is that I use them all the time in my work. Sure, you may not know that I’ve used one in a shot, but you don’t always have to use these spotlights with a gobo in place. These spotlights can create a truly beautiful hard light that is hard to beat with any other type of modifier. But perhaps I should rephrase that statement: ‘good’ spotlight modifiers create truly beautiful hard light, as sadly not all spotlights are created equal. So what makes one good and one bad?

Spotlight Trifecta

Light Spread - How wide can we spread the light in any given area?
Vignetting - How much light do we lose towards the edges of the spotlight?
Brightness - How much light is lost as it passes through the spotlight?

Whenever I review any of these spotlights, I consider these three factors crucial to determining whether the spotlight is viable. So let’s take a look at the brand new ‘Godox-Mount LED Projection ML-SP’ and see how it fares.

Godox-Mount LED Projection ML-SP

First off, what’s included? Thankfully, it comes in its own padded carry case. This may not seem like a big deal, but when packing for a shoot, it’s very handy to have everything all ready to go in its own pack so that you're not hunting around for the accessories and gobos that go with it before you leave.

Inside, we have the spotlight itself, the lens (typically already attached -more on that below), the gobo holder, the colour frame (gel holder), some gobos and the instructions.

The Lens

This will be the most important aspect of any spotlight attachment, and the new Godox one here is no different. This lens pretty much dictates all three aspects of the Spotlight Trifecta I mentioned above, and you should be careful about which lens you choose when purchasing. Yes, you can purchase different lenses later on, but be sure to get the right lens for you and your work first.

The Godox-Mount LED Projection ML-SP can take any of the three available lenses: 19°, 36°, or 50°. I opted for the 50° as that’s the widest lens, and I’ll explain that in a moment. Remember, these lenses are measured in beam angle, not in mm, unlike other lenses.

*You can choose from 3 lens choices. The 19°, 36°, or 50°. I opted for the widest one at 50°.*

What lens should you choose?

The 50° lens is the widest, which means it spreads the circle of light over the widest area at the shortest distance. For much of my work, I work in smaller sets, on location or even in home studios. So, to spread the light over a wide area in a small studio is perfect for me. But, if you need this spot to be further away from that subject or background, then you’ll need to be mindful of how much that spotlight will spread. For example, let's say you shoot a lot of film sets and you’re shooting wide sets where you absolutely cannot have the lights and lightstands in shot. Instead, you’ll need to move your spotlight much farther away from the talent; therefore, a 36° or 19° lens may be better for you and your work.

*Choosing the right spotlight lens for your work is crucial.*

Are there any downsides to the wider lens?

An argument can be made that it’s also possible to channel and flag the light from the wider lens using the inbuilt blades. Thereby making the wider lens the best choice for all scenarios. Although this is technically true, you can indeed cut the light down into a very small spot or slice with the internal blades, the wider lens will result in less power reaching the target. That wider lens is designed to spread the power of the light over a wider area, so when we cut that light down, you ultimately have less light at the target than if you used a longer, more focused lens to begin with.

TL;DR: If you shoot in home studios or smaller locations like offices. I recommend the 50° lens. If you’re planning to shoot in wider sets and place the light farther away from the talent, go for the 19° or 36° lens.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that, like many other spotlights, this one comes with a Canon EF mount as standard. In theory, you can, of course, use any Canon EF lens on this spotlight, but just be warned that those lenses are not specifically designed for this spotlight and, as such, will likely not offer you great results. Remember, most Canon lenses are designed to focus light entering the lens, whereas the lenses on this spotlight are specifically designed to focus light leaving the lens.

*The ML-SP will accept EF-mount lenses although keep in mind that the lenses designed for the ML-SP will provide the best results.*

Focusing

Another unique aspect of this spotlight is how it focuses the light and, more importantly, its gobos. Nearly every other spotlight I’ve tested uses the same focus method. A push-and-pull focusing method that requires you to move the entire lens barrel closer to or farther away using a thumbscrew to tighten it off. This is painfully inaccurate and, in most cases, extremely ineffective. Remember, these lenses are designed to be as bright as possible on the modifier, which means they have an insanely shallow depth of field, making it very tricky to get your gobo pin-sharp. Once again, though, Godox has solved this issue by allowing you to fine-tune the spotlight's focus via a highly accurate, friction-based rotating lens, making pin-sharp focus extremely easy.

The Gobos

Nearly all of these spotlights come with a mini pack of gobos to get you started. As I stated earlier, there are hundreds to choose from if you need something specific, but this pack covers 10 different options to get you started.

*Included with the ML-SP is a selection of 10 gobos. (The ones in blue just haven’t had their protective film removed)*

Colour Frame

This is simply a frame held to the front of the spotlight with a thumbscrew on the side. In a world of RGB LEDs, it’s unlikely you’ll need this. But if you’re one of those crazy people who only buy daylight LED lights and not RGB ones, you could, of course, use this gel holder to secure your little squares of vintage gels like the Victorian squire that you are.

*You likely won’t need this gel holder, but it’s nice to have.*

Gobo Holder

This is the tool you actually place your gobo into before lowering it into your spotlight. At first glance, this seems like a standard gobo holder, but there are actually a couple of unique and fairly clever design choices here that bear further inspection.

Firstly, most gobo holders are simply two sheets of metal, often hinged at the bottom. You simply drop your gobo between the two sheets of metal and drop it into the spotlight. There’s nothing overly wrong with this design, and it does the job, but there are a couple of annoying things that can happen when you do this. Firstly, and most importantly, that hinge doesn’t always stay closed, which can leave a gap at the top of the spotlight where you've dropped the gobo. As you may well imagine, this gap is now letting out light, and in some extreme cases, I've had to cover it with a cloth because it was bouncing light around the set. This holder is not hinged; in fact, it's a disk that you have to unscrew, drop your gobo into and then screw back in place. This means the entire gobo holder is now one enclosed unit when placed into the spotlight, thereby eliminating any chance of light spilling out.

*The design of the gobo holder means that there is almost no light at all being lost or escaping the gobo slot.*

This screw-in disk approach also has another benefit: it keeps the gobo extremely flat and flush against the holder. This, in turn, results in an extremely crisp gobo shadow when focused. Why is this a big deal? Remember when I said that other gobo holders were hinged? Well, those don't always keep the gobo inside, flush against the holder, and this results in a gobo that is almost impossible to focus from edge to edge. Essentially, these spotlights aim to push as much light as possible out, and as a result, the lens they use has an EXTREMELY shallow depth of field. So, if your gobo isn't set perfectly flush against the holder inside, you may get the top of the gobo in focus on the wall, but the bottom of the gobo will be out of focus. This problem is exacerbated the smaller the spotlight gets, so Godox have come up with a very clever solution, as I’m sure a hinged holder would plague a small spotlight like this one.

The only downside of this screw-in holder is getting the gobo into just the right position before you screw it into place… but Godox have already thought about that, and they have a solution to that other very annoying gobo issue that I’ll discuss below.

Unique Rotating Barrel

This spotlight has a very unique feature that I've actually never seen before on another spotlight unit, and that’s the fact that the front of the entire unit spins. Yes, the entire front element spins, and it even has degree markings on the barrel to show you exact angles.

Why is this useful?

Firstly, the issue of a wonky gobo is incredibly annoying. If you’ve never used a gobo in one of these units before, you need to know to place the gobo upside down and back to front, as the lens will flip and reverse the design. So with that new orientation in mind, you also need to make sure its level…. once flipped and inverted! Consequently, you rarely get it perfect the first time, and you often need to remove the holder, slightly rotate the gobo and try again. But with this new ML-SP unit, you don’t need to worry about the rotation of the gobo in the holder, as you can just spin the barrel once it's in place and adjust it later.

*The barrel of the ML-SP can be rotated. This is actually more useful than you may think.*

Blade Adjustments

If I’m being honest, I don’t typically use gobos very often; instead, I use these spotlights to cut slices of light across the background or the model. Instead of using a gobo with a slice in it, I often opt for the spotlight’s internal blades to craft a slice of light. This is easy to do, and you simply bring them together to get the size of slice you want. The issue comes when you want to angle that slice, for example, place that slice of light at 45 degrees across the wall behind the model. This seems simple enough, but these blades are typically designed to go up and down and from side to side. The slot housing the blades doesn't often allow you to angle them at extreme angles, and even if you can, you can often lose light in the corners as a consequence.

But this isn’t a problem with Godox’s new rotating barrel. Simply place the blades together at right angles to maximise the spread of light, and then rotate the whole barrel afterwards to the desired angle.

This is one of those features you didn’t know you needed until you have it.

*One of the benefits of the rotating barrel, is the ability to cast slices of light at any angle.*

The Shots

Let me show you a recent shoot where I used the spotlight and the blade-angle feature in the background.

Click on any of the images above to fit them to your screen.

If you’re interested in seeing the rest of that shoot as well as lighting diagrams and a breakdown of how it was shot, take a look at my recent review of the Godox LiteWafer to learn more.

LiteWafer UP150R LED Panel Review

Trifecta Test

We’ve seen the features of this new Godox Projection unit, but no matter how good they are, I assure you they’re all completely mute if the unit fails the trifecta test. Features are nice to have, but light quality is always the most important part of any modifier.

Light Spread

Just a reminder: I have the 50° lens, the widest available for this unit.

At 2m I was able to get a spot of around 2m in diameter across my white backdrop. And for scale against the other images, it's worth remembering that my backdrop is 2m wide.

Spoiler Alert: But that’s extremely good!

I won't be naming any names here, but let's look at the competition with their widest available lenses attached.

Firstly, yes, I have a lot of spotlights, and no, this isn’t all of them. As I mentioned above, remember that this backdrop is 2m wide, and you can see that none of these reaches the edges of it like the ML-SP above did. Again, this is a remarkable spread of light from the ML-SP for such a small unit.

Vignetting

This is a way to describe how dark the edges of the spot are compared to the centre of the spot, and you can liken this to a hot-spot from other modifiers. As lenses have gotten better and these spotlights have gotten more advanced, so have the lenses attached to them. For me, the cleaner the edge-to-edge brightness, the better, as dealing with an exposure range across the light on a wall or subject can be problematic.

Firslty lets take a look at the edges of the spot from our ML-SP. Note that to make it easier to see any variance in the exposure across the spot, all of these images are underexposed by one stop.

*Above is the ML-SP under-exposed by one stop to show any vignetting towards the edges.*

If you’re new to these spotlight modifiers and not sure what you’re looking at or for, note that this one is very good. It’s almost the same exposure at the centre as it is at the edges. It’s also worth highlighting that this hot-spot effect is more pronounced in wider-lens spots. Therefore, the bigger the spot, the more noticeable the vignetting towards the edges becomes. So again, a spot of this size with minimal vignetting is excellent.

Below, I‘ll share some competition spotlights for comparison.

Above, you can see how the vignetting compares across a wide range of spotlights. Most show far brighter centres than edge,s and only one is excellent down there in the bottom left, but that one is very expensive and a colossal unit with a lens on it almost the same size as the entire ML-SP.

Brightness

This speaks to how much light is lost as it passes through the spotlight. This is often highly dependent on the lens, and those spotlights that use actual camera lenses tend to lose a tremendous amount of light due to all the elements and aperture leaves inside them. The ML-SP lens, on the other hand, is very clean and has very little inside it to limit the light.

For context, I’m using the Godox ML100R LED with the spotlight, which is a 100W LED.

Note that the light and spotlight are 2m away from the background. The light was set to 100% power, and the resulting exposure was ISO 400 / Shutter Speed 1/125th / f2.8 ½.

Without the spotlight attached, the ML100R at full power at 2m away gets ISO 400 / Shutter Speed 1/125th / f5.6.

TL;DR The spotlight loses around 1.5 stops of light. In my experience, this is pretty good, as some of these spotlight and lens combos can lose as much as 3 or 4 stops of power. The 1.5 stops of light loss is certainly manageable.

Other Factors

Size

The body of the ML-SP is very small and far smaller than any other spotlight I've tested. This is excellent if you're someone on the go, or working by yourself and cant carry a ton of kit. Plus, this may not be a modifer you use all the time, with this being so small, you would feel fine to bring it along ‘just in case’.

Weight

The ML-SP may be small, but it certainly isn’t lightweight. This is good and bad, of course, because the reason why it’s heavy is due to the entire unit being made of metal, and it all feels incredibly well-made. But that comes at a cost and at over 2 ½ ibs / 2.2kgs, you’ll certainly know it’s in your bag.

Compatability

I’m referring to what this spotlight will actually attach to. What light can we actually shine through it? Remember, the smaller size of this unit means it isn’t your standard Bowens S-fit modifier; instead, it uses the Godox proprietary mount that is seemingly only the ML series of COB lights. At this time, there are only a handful of lights, and the brightest among them are a 100W full-colour ML100R and a 150W ML150Bi. This could be an issue for some, as it most likely means you will have to buy a light along with the ML-SP. The other consideration here is power. At this time, the brightest full colour ML series light is only 100W. Is that enough power for your work? I’ve shot with this unit a couple of times now, and I will say that due to the large spread of light you get from this spotlight, you don't need to put it so far away from the subject, and therefore, you don't need as much light to operate it. That said, my ISO was still at 400. Can you make this work for you and your work?

What about conversions?

Although converting S-fit modifers to ML Series lights is very easy, and I was sent one of the adapters, going the other way is not so simple. For example, in this instance, we want the ML-SP to fit onto an S-fit light. To my knowledge, and I did a little research of my own, I cannot find any adapter that turns ML modifiers into S-fit lights. Maybe this changes in the future, but typically it's easier to scale up than to scale down. If that converter exists, do please let me know, as Id love to try this spotlight on a larger, more powerful light myself.

*The ML-SP spotlight uses a Godox propriety mount which means it can only be attached to other Godox ML series lights.*

In Conclusion

Overall, this is an excellent spotlight and arguably one of the best I’ve ever tested, especially when you consider its very small size.

The Pros

Very small unit and far smaller than any other spotlight I’ve tested.
Huge spot size in small spaces, and this is even more impressive when you consider how small the unit itself is.
Very clean edge-to-edge brightness with very minimal vignetting.
I love the lens and how easy it is to focus compared to other spots with a push-and-pull knob system that is very tricky to use accurately.
Clever gobo holder that ensures the gobos are always flush to the unit and keeps them focused across their entirety.
A rotating barrel that allows for easy slices of light with the internal blades at any angle.

The Cons

The spotlight is small, but it’s far from lightweight. At over a kilo, you certainly know when you’ve packed it.
Limited compatibility with other lights. At this time, the ML-SP only works with other ML lights; the brightest they get is 100W.

Final Thoughts

There are many pros to this spotlight and very few cons. Sadly, those few cons are its compatibility with other lights; more importantly, the power of light it can be used with is limited.

It’s very rare that I would recommend this, but if you’re someone like me who uses spotlights in their work a lot, and you’re somebody who works in tighter spaces a lot of the time, like offices or home studios, I honestly think this spotlight warrants the additional purchase of a light just to use it. Granted, that light is only 100W, but given the size and spread of the spotlight, and how clean the resulting light is, I think having a light dedicated solely to this spotlight is actually worth it.

Products Used

For transparency, as I mentioned at the top, this is not a sponsored post, nor am I being paid. Godox sent me the items to test and leave my feedback, and as such, none of the links below is affiliated links, and I do not make any money on clicks. The links will take you to Essential Photo here in the UK. They’re good guys, and I’ve worked with them in the past. By all means, source the best store in your own region.

ML-SP Series Godox-Mount Projection Attachment Kit For Godox ML-Series (ML-SP19/ML-SP36/ML-SP50)

Essential Photo Website Link

ML100R Compact Portable RGB LED Video Light With ML-L15 Lens Reflector

Essential Photo Website Link

BG02 95W5 Battery Grip By Godox

Essential Photo Website Link

Donate & Support

I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

||

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

JHP Livestreams…

All of my more advanced lighting classes are now available online!

||

All of my more advanced lighting classes are now available online! ||

LEARN MORE ABOUT MY ONLINE WORKSHOPS

Godox LiteWafer UP150R LED Panel - Unfinished?

Donate & Support

I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

||

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

This isn’t Godox’s first LED panel, far from it, plus Godox is extremely versed in all manner of LED lights at this point. I’ve also been very fortunate to test several of these LEDs from Godox in all shapes and sizes over the years, so I was pretty confident this new unit would produce some beautiful-looking light. But what I wasn’t expecting, was to be disappointed by a few other aspects of this light.

Disclaimer: Godox sent me this product for review. They are not paying me for this review and all my opinions are my own. - Make the most of this one, as after this review, I may not get asked again!

Note that the LiteWafer UP150R comes in a padded zip case, and everything you need to start shooting is inside.

As I mentioned, this LiteWafer UP150R isn’t Godox’s first LED panel, but it’s probably their most professional in terms of light quality. Godox has its FL series of panels, which, although good, doesn’t have the same high colour quality as these new units. The FL series niche is as flexible lightweight panels, and as such, the LED grouping on those is very spread out, and they aren't as bright as a result (yes, they make a 200 as well as the 100, but that’s simply 2x 100w side by side).

*On the left you have the older Godox panel. This was the flexible FL100 and on the right you have the solid UP150 LiteWafer.*

So when Godox announced their LED panel touting a brighter, more colour-accurate light, I was keen to see what it could do. The new LiteWafer UP150R is, of course, half a stop brighter than the FP100Rs (or so it appears on paper. In reality, this new panel is actually much brighter, but more on that later.) It is also a solid panel and not flexible like the FLs, and far sturdier by comparison.

Size & Weight

It should go without saying, but as with any LED panel, this one is incredibly thin and fairly lightweight.

Height = 13.94" (35.4CM)
Length = 26.77” (67.9CM)
Width/Thickness = 0.95” (2.4CM)
Weight = 7.05 lb (3.2kg)

Brightness

It’s worth reiterating again here, but if you’re a flash photographer coming to LEDs for the first time, you’d be forgiven for being a little confused when it comes to power outputs. With flash, it was pretty easy. A 500W is brighter than a 250W strobe, and everybody clearly understood and accepted that. LEDs are a little trickier and have a bit more nuance, especially when companies tend to lean into the confusion, too.

The confusion comes from the fact that flashes are measured in watt-seconds, not continuous watts or draw like LED lights. I’ll cover this in more detail another time, but the other core factor that throws people off is how that power is distributed. Nearly every flash ever made produces light via a single, relatively small flash tube. LED panels like the ones we're looking at here today do the opposite. They generate brightness on the target by using a large number of tiny points of light spread over a larger area. So, although some LED panels claim to be quite bright, in reality, they are just larger and produce more volume of light. Remember, the FL200 is just two FL100 panels side by side; it's not a panel that is twice as bright.

Why am I explaining all of this? Just be thankful that I’m not covering why single points of light, like flash power, drop off differently than panels do because the inverse square law doesn't apply to them. The reason I’m highlighting this here is to hopefully encourage you to start looking at lux outputs at specific distances from specific lights. I’ll caveat that by saying this is only really important with panels, with LED COB lights, they produce light from a single point, like a flash, so they are far easier to compare.

If lux values are new to you, then it’s simply the actual amount of light in lumens that reaches a surface and is not based on the power draw of the light nor the watt-seconds of the light.

Edit: I’m reading this back, and I appreciate that this all sounds very complicated; sadly, there is no other way to explain it. TL;DR If you're comparing single-point lights (LED COB lights), you can confidently rely on the fact that a 500W light will always be brighter than a 300W light. If it’s panels like the ones I’m looking at here, you just need to remember that size plays a huge role in the light's overall brightness.

The point?

All this to say that this value of light measurement is very useful with panels, as the LEDs on the panels themselves can modify the light as it leaves the source, and the LiteWafer UP150R does exactly that. So, although you read this panel's power as 150, with the lenses covering all the separate LEDs on this panel, it can produce much brighter light.

If we take a closer look at the LEDs laid across the panel, we can see they are all covered by those dome-like mini lenses. It's elements like this in LED panels that can drastically affect the power output, over simply looking at the number on the box.

If we look at the lux on the older FL100 LED panel, we'll see it’s significantly lower.

FL100 - LUX at 1m = 3,300
UP150R - LUX at 1m = 20,400

To be clear, this data is taken from the Godow website, as I don’t have access to the older FL100 to test it myself, but even if there’s a little ‘rounding’ involved here, it should illustrate my point that when it comes to panel outputs, we simply can't look at the number on the tin.

Real Talk

Nerd-numbers are great, but they mean a little less to those of us who actually use the lights day to day in the studio. So what does all that lux, light drop-off, LED lenses, and inverse-square laws actually translate to when we pick up the camera?

At 1m, with the UP150R at 100% power, set to 5600K, I got ISO 100 - Shutter Speed 1/125th - f8

That’s very respectable, and that will typically be more than bright enough for what most of us do, especially as many of us like to shoot wide-open apertures in the studio, and if you were shooting at f1.4, for example, you’d have to adjust your shutter speed all the way up to 1/4000th of a second.

Features

Now that we’ve gotten the brightness and power questions out of the way, as I know that’s what I get asked the most, what are some of the other features of this new LED panel?

LED lights have all had similar-ish features for a long time now, and that’s not a bad thing, but I doubt you’ll find any surprises here on the LiteWafer UP150R either. You have your CRT mode, the HSI mode and RGBW mode, the gels mode and of course, no LED would be complete without those lighting effects (FX) like police lights and campfires.

As I said, it's all pretty standard for RGB LEDs these days, and it has been for a while now. That said, there is one menu that may be new to some of you, and that’s the ‘Curve’ menu up there. This relates to the ‘dimming curves’ on the light and is really only relevant to videographers and not of much use to us photographers, as it controls how smoothly the light will dim at the bottom end or how bright it gets at the top end. Mostly, this is used for a clean, very smooth fade to black, since the typical linear curve most of us use can be jarring. Again, nice to have the option, but not particularly useful for us photographers. Note: You'll notice the type of dimming curve you're using at the top of the menu on nearly every screen. This is a nice touch, so you don't forget to change the curve back and wonder why your light is giving you odd values.

Actually Using the Light

So far, I’ve jumped ahead to inform you of the core areas most of us are interested in. How bright is it? And what can it do? With that covered, let’s rewind a second and talk about the process of actually using this light and how it performs on set.

Unboxing and Setting Up

I’ll cover what’s included with the unit and what options you have when using the light. The light itself is controlled via an external control box. That box is plugged into the wall and the panel itself, and now you have a control box you can hang from the stand to adjust the light, even if it's mounted up high and out of reach. Both the power cable and the cable connecting the panel to the control box are generously long, and each comes with velcro ties to keep them tidy when not in use.

You also have a couple of options for how you use your panel.

You simply set the bare panel on the stand. No diffusion. No control. - Not my recommendation, but you could.
Attach either of the two levels of diffusion to the panel, but don’t control the light.
Attach the included softbox to the panel, then choose whether to add diffusion to it. This would give you some control of the light and offer you a more specular final look.
Attach the softbox, then attach your choice of diffusion to it.
Lastly, attach the softbox, attach the diffusion, and then finally add the softbox grid that comes included.

One last feature with how you set this all up is how you stow the panel when not in use. With the softbox and diffusion attached, you can fold in the sides and then fold down the top and bottom panels. The whole unit can then be Velcro’d shut via tabs on the sides. I don’t think it’s designed to be folded away with the grid attached, but I do it with mine, and it’s fine. It even goes back in its box with the softbox and grid attached when its velcro’d down.

Concerns

As I’m talking about the setup and unit itself, now is probably a good time to go over a couple of my concerns with this unit. When it comes to attaching this panel to a lightstand, you first need to attach a pin to the back of the unit via an included bracket. It’s not overly complicated, of course, but with 4 lugs that need to be attached to the panel itself, it will only go on one way. So, although a little fiddly, this is fine, although some indicators or lines to line up the plate and panel would have helped.

The real concern comes when you try to attach that pin to the bracket that Godox has supplied to ultimately attach the light to a stand. The bracket does not seem purpose-built for that task, and as such, when you insert the long pin into the bracket, the whole light now hangs down at a concerning angle. Again, this is due to the hole for the pin being far larger than the pin itself, resulting in significant movement of the pin within the sheath.

It’s this very loose fit of the pin in the bracket that had me concerned, and I spent some time just checking that I’d somehow not missed something, as it really didn’t seem an appropriate attachment for the task at hand at all.

*One of the very real concerns with this new panel, was the bracket that attaches it to the stand. It simply didn’t seem safe.*

In fact, my concern about this bracket and attachment pin was such that I simply opted not to risk the light on the stand above the model when I shot with it. An LED panel like this is not simply to be used as a softbox in front of the model, and I would regularly use a panel such as this above a model as a hair-light or even top-light, and the bracket and attachment system that Godox has supplied with this light simply doesn't seem robust enough to do that. Certainly not with any confidence anyway.

As a result, I simply used the panel with a C-stand grip instead of the supplied bracket for the entire shoot.

*Sadly, I found the supplied bracket so loose that I wasn’t comfortable using it above my model, so I opted for a far more supportive alternative instead.*

I will just add that I find this somewhat surprising from Godox. They’ve been in this game for a little while now, and they have scores of exceptional lights under their belts at this point, so to make a seemingly obvious and fairly concerning error like this when it comes to the attachment is surprising. And I don’t think this is just me being unfair or overly harsh. The attachment point is a big deal because the unit is not lightweight and needs proper support. Yes, I understand why that pin needs to be so long, as it gives the light room to tilt down without getting in its own way, but there are far better ways to do this, and several other companies have already solved this issue. So again, it’s surprising to see Godox fumble this one, and I actually have every expectation that this will be updated and adjusted very quickly.

Shooting with the LiteWafer

As you’d expect from a Godox light like this, the light itself performed well, and I used it in a variety of setups during the shoots as both a key from the side and above, plus I also used it as a hair light and a fill, so this light is very versatile in what it does. Below, I’ll share some results from a recent shoot where I used the panel from the side in a vertical orientation and from above the model in a horizontal orientation.

Model: Kelly Klein

Camera Settings

Camera - Nikon D850 / Fuji GFX50 II
Lens - 50mm/63mm
Shutter Speed - 1/125th
Aperture - f2.8
ISO - 400
Kelvin - ~4500K
Focal Length - 50/63mm

Kit Used

Godox LiteWafer UP150R
Godox ML100R (100W LED Light)
Godox ML-SP (Projection Attachment)
Godox BG02 (battery grip)
Large Softbox

Colours & Kelvin

As I’m sure is very apparent by now, this light offers millions of colours via the onboard colour modes, and its colour consistency puts it among the best LEDs on the market. For the curious among you, the UP150R has a TLCI of ~98 and a CRI of ~97. As I said, very high, and even more colour-accurate than Godox’s previous panel lights.

True Kelvin Scales

I do have to add that there seems to be a shift in the industry regarding how Kelvin values are recorded in these RGB lights. If you’re not aware, RGB lights have multiple chips, each of which turns on to display a different colour, and when viewed as a whole, these chips combine to create any colour we need.

As you can see in the image above, the surface of the LED panel is covered with a variety of chips that, when combined, produce the colour we need. You have your RGB chip, and then you have your cool- and warm-Kelvin chips. When in Kelvin (CRT) mode, the RGB chips aren’t typically on. In reality, many brands occasionally add a little green to give more realistic skin tones, and maybe some blue at the top end as well.

In recent years, when a brand releases a new line of LED lights, they will often offer an RGB version and a Daylight (Kelvin) version light. If you’ve been paying attention, you may have also noticed that the daylight version has a Kelvin range that is strangely far smaller than the full RGB version of the light.

Here’s an example

Daylight Head: Kelvin 2800K-6500K
RGB Head: Kelvin 1800K-10000K

So how is that possible? How can the dedicated Kelvin head have a smaller Kelvin range than the RGB head? The answer is that they can ‘simulate’ low and high Kelvin values using the RGB chips in conjunction with the Kelvin chips. So when the RGB head's Kelvin dips below 2800K, the RGB (namely R & G mixed to create orange) turns on and starts to take over.

Is this a big deal?

No, not really, as most photographers won’t notice the Kelvin being off slightly, even though I've certainly noticed some green in low ‘Kelvins’ from certain RGB heads. Couple this with the fact that we can white-balance fairly well in post and colour-grade the final image, and the difference when the extreme Kelvins are off is negligible. That said, I would still prefer brands to be honest about where their actual true Kelvin chips start and end, and I’d encourage you to keep an eye on those figures, as Godox is far from the only brand that does this.

Closing Comments

Overall, this is a great light, and LEDs being where they are today in terms of quality, you’d certainly expect that from Godox. Millions of colours to choose from and a very wide Kelvin range to play with, even if the extremes of that range aren’t truly Kelvin colours. You have a few useful colour modes on the light, as well as the usual FX modes for specific video looks, too.

The controls are good, and I like that they've switched from a dial button to a dial that can be pressed in from the side. This stops all of the mis-presses that used to happen on other units. The screen on the control box is also full-colour, which is very cool. Many of them, surprisingly, aren't, and it's nice to see them here.

*Dangling a control box on a cord rather than clamping it to the stand is not only annoying but also invariably causes it to swing around, making the screen unviewable when shooting.*

I have to add that I’m not a fan of the dangling control box on a bit of bungee cord. What are we doing with that? Since when did we think that wouldn't be incredibly annoying to have dangling and clattering about from a stand? The norm up until now has been a control box that is attached to the stand via a clamp. This can often be removed if needed. Instead, Godox has opted for a cheap bit of rope in this instance, and it's extremely annoying as it not only clatters about when you move the stand up and down, but it invariably hangs to one side, and now I can’t see the power of the light when I look over at it. Obviously, this is to save money, but it's an annoyance I’d rather not see become the norm from Godox.

Of course, annoyances and minor gripes aside, I can work around them. One thing that I sadly couldn't justify working around when using this light on a shoot, was my safety concerns with that attachment clamp.

Again, I’m surprised by Godox for this, and I can’t help but feel like this light was rushed out and not finished, as this isn't like them at all. The clamp does not seem purpose-built for this panel at all, and it appears to have been pulled off and repurposed from another unit.

The light and the pin are hanging at a very awkward angle, and the pin's collar is so loose that it feels unstable. To this end, it simply feels very unsafe. Sure, there’s minimal risk if you just plan on using this panel on a stand in front of a model. If it falls off, you only damage the light. But panels like this, especially now that they are becoming so low-profile and lightweight, are perfect solutions for hair lights and top lights, and, as I said earlier, I honestly did not feel in any way comfortable hanging that light above my model on the day. So much so, in fact, that I felt I had to swap out the included bracket for one of my own.

I’ve laboured this bracket point above, so I won't repeat myself, but I feel like this shouldn't be the case. This isn't a new problem, and many other brands have their own solutions to it, many of which are industry standard. Again, I’m surprised Godox let this through quality control, and I’d be very surprised if we didn't see a new update to this panel with that bracket concern fixed.

I hope Godox takes this feedback on board, and that I haven't sullied any relationships by posting this. With something as important as talent safety under these lights, we simply cannot take any chances, and I’m sure they will address this bracket issue extremely quickly. I certainly don’t like writing a review like this either, as it’s not my job, I don’t get paid, so it brings me no joy to write a piece on a product I simply cant recommend.

But do stay tuned, as this is not the only product Godox has sent me, and I was fortunate enough to test a few new items that genuinely blew me away. Their new blow-up tube produces a beautiful light, and, for a modifier that you can essentially carry in your pocket, that’s pretty incredible. Plus, I was sent a baby projector that uses gobos (I used it on the shoot above to create the slice of light behind the model), and trust me, this thing is insanely good for its size! So like I said, stay tuned as we have far better, more pleasurable reviews to come!

Products Used

For transparency, as I mentioned at the top, this is not a sponsored post, nor am I being paid. Godox sent me the items to test and leave my feedback, and as such, none of the links below is affiliated links, and I do not make any money on clicks. The links will take you to Essential Photo here in the UK. They’re good guys, and I’ve worked with them in the past. By all means, source the best store in your own region.

LiteWafer UP150R Ultra-Slim Full-Colour RGB LED Light Panel K1 Kit

Essential Photo Website Link

ML100R Compact Portable RGB LED Video Light With ML-L15 Lens Reflector

Essential Photo Website Link

ML-SP Series Godox-Mount Projection Attachment Kit For Godox ML-Series (ML-SP19/ML-SP36/ML-SP50)

Essential Photo Website Link

BG02 95W5 Battery Grip By Godox

Essential Photo Website Link

Donate & Support

I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

||

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

JHP Livestreams…

All of my more advanced lighting classes are now available online!

||

All of my more advanced lighting classes are now available online! ||

LEARN MORE ABOUT MY ONLINE WORKSHOPS

A New Generation of Lights

Donate & Support

I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

||

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

For many of us, flash is our tool of choice. It’s a tried-and-tested instrument that is like an extension of ourselves. We use them every day, and they can tackle every lighting problem we throw at them. So if flash has everything covered, why am I so excited about LEDs?

Preface: I was recently commissioned by Profoto to produce four campaigns to demonstrate the power and creative potential of their new L600C/D LED heads. The videos and articles on those shoots have already been released (article here: 4 Photoshoots with the new Profoto L600C LED ), but Profoto also asked me to write a second article on my thoughts surrounding LED lighitng, coming from someone who has spent over 2 decades shooting with flash. Below is that second article in full, and you can also read it (in three parts) on the Profoto website here: A New Generation of Lights

Worth the wait?

It’s no secret that Profoto is a little late to the LED party. Many lighting brands have brought several LEDs to market in recent years, so what’s so special about Profoto’s latest offering? Is it worth the wait?

I’d actually been aware that Profoto had been working on a secret LED project for a little while now, so to say I was excited to see what they’d come up with would be an understatement. Thankfully, I was not disappointed. Earlier in 2025, Profoto announced two new cinema lights, but these were different to their previous movie-light-monsters. Their new L600D and L600C were noticeably more compact, and these heads seemed far better suited to hybrid work. Sure, these lights could absolutely hold their own on any TV and film set, but they were also small enough to be used in photo studios without the need for a small team just to get one head on a stand!

For clarity, the L600D is the daylight LED head. Yes, it still has the colossal Kelvin range, but it’s not got the full RGB spectrum the L600C has. For anyone who’s seen my work before, I’m sure you can guess which light I was excited about testing, and yes, the L600C is the head I finally got to play with recently.

If you’re curious to see the results from that campaign, and my initial thoughts on the L600C, then you can find all the details on that shoot here: 4 Photoshoots with the new Profoto L600C LED

***The new Profoto L600C/D LED light can take any of the 100+ Profoto lighting modifiers.***

I don’t need any more lights, right?

So, with the Profoto LED prologue out of the way, why am I excited about these new lights and LEDs in general? For context, I’ve been shooting with flash since the late nineties. Flash is absolutely an extension of my arm at this point, so when LEDs were introduced to me by several lighting brands, I was hesitant to say the least. I already have more flashes than I’ll ever need. Flash does everything I want it to, so I don’t need LEDs as well, right?

This was my first mistake. LEDs aren’t simply ‘just another light’; they really do add something unique to my work over flash, it’s just that I didn't know it yet.

I’d argue many photographers are guilty of making that same assumption. “My current lights are fine, I don’t need to replace them.” This is true, and I didn’t replace my flashes with LEDs. I still have my flashes, and I can easily shoot with them alongside my new LEDs. You have to remember that LEDs have come a very long way in recent years. These new 600W Profoto LED heads are seriously bright. These aren’t the crappy 4W LEDs of years ago, and these new LEDs can easily keep up with and work alongside your current flashes without needing to equip your strobes with welding glass first.

Again, I feel it’s worth reiterating the fact that these new LEDs can work alongside your current flashes. This isn’t a DSLR-to-mirrorless situation, where you had to sell all your old lenses and start again. You can add LEDs to your current lighting lineup one light at a time if you’d like, and then simply introduce LEDs into your setups as you would your older flashes.

Are there any benefits to shooting with LEDs?

This is the part that I’d initially overlooked. Can LEDs really offer me anything different or unique compared to my flashes? It’s here that I have to avoid sounding like a car salesman, but I’d urge you to look at LEDs with their ‘benefits’ in mind and not just their ‘features’.

Sure, it’s very easy for me to sit here and list off the L600C’s features. The industry-leading TLCI 99 offers unrivalled colour consistency. It’s 16 million+ colour choices, offering more colours than you could ever need. The liquid cooling in the head eliminates the annoying control box and power brick from dangling around the stand. Flicker-free 16-bit dimming offers flawless control… and this very comprehensive feature list goes on and on, and I can outline the key ones at the end. But these are the features of the light. How do these features of LEDs actually benefit us, photographers?

I’m happy with my flash. Aren’t I?

I know for a fact that you’ve all experienced this at some point. That thing you never thought you needed until you had it. Heated car seats. Non-stick baking trays. Dishwashers. And for us old folk, autofocus. These are solutions to problems we didn’t know we had, and this new generation of LED lights is doing precisely that.

For well over a decade, I had a few packs of coloured gels with a good mix of colours that I could gaffertape to my flashes. I was good with that. I had some colour temperature gels that I would somehow smother my softbox with. I was good with that. I had a tungsten modelling bulb that wasn't the same colour as my flash, and it melted my gels. But I was good with that.

We’ve been dealing with these inconveniences for so long that we’ve actually forgotten they were a problem.

I don’t need to be a professional salesperson here to demonstrate how LEDs immediately eliminate those ‘inconveniences’.

But if you’re someone who's happy with manual-focus lenses and melting your coloured gels, can LEDs offer you or your work anything unique? This is the part that I find fascinating about LEDs. They really can offer us some unique properties that flash simply can’t and most of them, I’d never even thought of until I started playing with them.

***These new Profoto L600C and L600D LED heads are incredibly quick and easy to set up, thanks in large part to their lack of an annoying control box or power brick dangling from the stand!***

Are Hybrid Shooters the New Photographers?

Many of you know that LEDs are great for hybrid shooters who shoot stills and video. I’ve been a professional photographer for a very long time, but I don’t shoot video. I never have. I don’t have video anywhere on my site. I don’t advertise or promote it. Yet, I still get asked to shoot video. I’ve managed to avoid it so far, as it doesn't interest me, but clients still ask for it.

Thankfully, I’m established, and if I play my cards right, I could probably skate through the rest of my career without having to shoot portrait orientation videos of a group shot or edit a 15-second reel of a 3-day photoshoot. But I’m old. Do you think a young person entering the industry today will be so lucky? Not a chance. The next generation of photographers will absolutely have to shoot video as well as stills. So, do you think a new photographer will purchase two sets of lights? One set of flashes for stills and one set of LEDs for video? I know you know the answer.

Breathing Portraits

So are there any benefits to these new ‘video’ lights for us still shooters? One aspect of flash that I’d forgotten about is that it always freezes the subject stock-still in razor-sharp clarity. You can’t dial that back. No matter what shutter speed you use, a flash typically records the scene at around 1/4000th of a second. You can’t capture someone ‘kinda still’ with flash. This is no longer the case with LEDs, and finally, us studio shooters can dust off the shutter speed dial on our cameras and start to use it as a creative tool and not just a technical one.

Trigger Warning: I’m about to lose some of you, so I apologise, but I’ve started to shoot some studio portraits at 1/30th and even 1/15th of a second!

For those of you still reading and with my studio-lighting heresy aside, these far longer shutter speeds, in conjunction with the continuous LED lights, allow for the subject to come alive in a portrait. In a time when many photographers use the same camera from the same brand, modern photography can start to look a little homogeneous. Couple this with generational distrust of imagery thanks to AI, and this very modern, clinical look to images can leave people cold when they view them. To be clear, there is absolutely a time and place for very polished and pristine photos where we can see the DNA in every pore of the subject’s skin, but if you’re after something with a little more story to it, a very slight sense of movement to the image can give it a little extra life.

Image shot with LED lighting only and with a camera shutter speed of 1/15th of a second. No, not everything is pin-sharp, but continuous lighting from LEDs does allow us to capture a little more motion and story in our images, as the shutter speed can once again be used as a creative tool.

The portrait above was shot at 1/15th of a second. Yes, there is some movement in the image, and no, the eyes aren’t pin-sharp due to some slight movement, but that all adds to the image's story. The hair in this shot has even more motion to it, and the image as a whole feels a lot more alive, and dare I say ‘cinematic’, than if I’d shot it with a flash at 1/4000th of a second. Again, there is a time and a place for this, and I certainly don’t shoot all my shots 1/15th of a second, but LEDs and their continuous light now give me options that I simply didn’t have before.

Unique Colours

Don’t panic, I’m not claiming LEDs have invented any new colours, but with their advanced interface and the way they seamlessly switch to different colours instantly, they can offer some truly unique colour-looks that simply aren’t possible with flash.

In the images above, I’m using a pre-programmed LED colour effect to seamlessly change the colours during a long exposure, and you can see the varying colours being displayed on the background. This technique of using the looping LED colour effects during long exposures has a ton of scope, and its possibilities are still largely unexplored. I’m certainly looking forward to delving deeper into these new LED effects.

Kelvin as a creative tool

For those of us who’ve been shooting for a little while, we’re probably pretty familiar with the Kelvin range and how to use it to ‘correct’ some of the lighting issues we might encounter. One of the biggest surprises for me with LEDs was just how much I use the Kelvin range on these new heads. Sure, we had colour temperature gels with flash before, but they were fairly limiting. Yes, we had 1/4, 1/2, and full CTO (colour temperature orange) and CTB (colour temperature blue) gels before, but they were nowhere near as flexible or as comprehensive as a simple Kelvin slider on nearly all modern LEDs. Plus, those gels were a nightmare to use on larger modifiers and gelling a 4ft octa with a CTO was not only time-consuming and costly, but also a massive pain in the ass.

Now with LEDs, you simply turn a dial, and in seconds, you have whatever Kelvin your heart desires. And this is something I utilise on nearly EVERY photoshoot I do. You can spot a flash shot a mile away, as it's often the base 5500K, and every shot looks the same because of it. Now, if you want to tell more of a story with your subject or scene, you can choose a Kelvin colour to match the tone. Warm up the key for a more organic and natural look, or cool it down for a more industrial and colder look. The Kelvin slider on LEDs is a great example of a tool I never thought I needed, and now I use it on nearly every shoot.

***Having the ability to so quickly and easily adjust the Kelvin of your lights, allows you to use Kelvin as a creative tool, not just a corrective one.***

In the image above, I’m using an LED to light the model's face, and you can see it's set to a very warm Kelvin. The other blue tones you see in this shot are actually daylight, and I’m using a combination of extremely warm Kelvin to contrast the colder daylight, then balancing it in-camera via the white balance. Firstly, yes, you can use these powerful modern LEDs outside in conjunction with daylight, and second, this setup takes seconds to achieve thanks to the convenience of the onboard Kelvin slider. It’s also worth noting that the new Profoto L600C/D lets you crank the Kelvin range to the proverbial 11! Most modern LEDs have a Kelvin range of 3000K to 6500K. But thanks to Profoto’s unique triple-white chip technology, their new LEDs have a staggering Kelvin range of 2000K to 15000K! This vast range allows for some truly beautiful colour temperature contrasts, and you can see me playing with those extremes in colour in my recent shoot with the L600C.

Saturation is now a choice, not a given

The idea of colour saturation as a creative choice at the point of capture is a new one to many. Historically, we’d have coloured gels on our lights, sure, but for the most part, those gels would be very saturated. In most coloured-gel shots you’ve seen in recent years, the colours are vibrant, and the saturation is cranked to the max. Yes, there were softer, pastel gels you could purchase to achieve a more subtle colour, but they were limited, offered a very delicate colour and were tricky to use because of it. Today, one of the most powerful tools a modern RGB LED has is its saturation slider, yet almost nobody uses it. So, again, if you want those beautifully soft and delicate pastel colours, LED lights make it infinitely easier to achieve.

***Having the ability to adjust the saturation of all your colours instantly, is a great example of a feature that I never I knew I needed until I had it.***

In the editorial above, the styling called for the model to be bathed in softer, pastel tones so as not to drown out the outfit. The saturation slider on the RGB LEDs lets you achieve this look instantly and enables you to make precise adjustments to get the tone you need.

Incredible colour control

I loved coloured gels. In fact, for those who are aware of my work, I have sold hundreds, if not thousands, of my personal gel packs over the years. If anyone was invested in gels, it was me. But the creative in me is sadly stronger than the businessman, and I simply couldn't resist the pull of millions of colours these new RGB LEDs offer.

Even at the peak of my coloured-gel career, I probably only had and used around 15 or 20 colours! Today, nearly every RGB LED on the market has infinitely more colours than that, and the best ones now tout over 16 million! But do we really need that many colours? Well, no…. until you do.

One of the core aspects of any good colour image is harmony and balance. No image contains just a single colour, and so the job is often about choosing the best colours to go together. Sometimes you're using colour theory to do this, and other times you're simply matching colours to styling and backgrounds. It’s this last part that can make gelled lighitng tricky. After all, it’s unlikely you have the specific green gel to match the model's green leather shoes, or the exact pink gel to match the cyberpunk backdrop. This is where those 16 million colours become invaluable, as they allow you to finetune and select the exact tone and saturation of the light to match whatever you’re photographing. So no, you don't need all 16 million colours… until you do.

***Matching colours on set has never been easier. Not only do you have every colour imaginable at your fingertips, but you can also see how they look in real-time thanks to LED.***

In the shoot above, I had to match the model's pink-coloured light to the background's pink colour. With RGB LEDs, this is extremely easy to do. Plus, since this is continuous light, it's just as easy as turning the colour dial until the colours match. With gels, this is infinitely harder to do, as you’re having to balance Kelvin differences between the background and foreground, plus the modelling bulb showing you the actual colour will often be a different colour to the flash bulb that will ultimately fire and display the final colour! Can you start to see why LEDs are becoming more than just a convenience now?

Portrait captured with the ‘vintage’ Pentax 6×7 from the 1970s, on Kodak Portra 100. This image was taken outdoors with 2 LED lights, and thanks to LED lights no longer needing to sync with our cameras, it’s never been easier to shoot analogue film portraits.

Pre-Vintage… Relics?

Ready to feel really old? Believe it or not, there are young adults today who not only don’t know the difference between an A-to-Z and a Yellow Pages, but also refer to early-2000s digital cameras as ‘vintage’.

If you recall, there was a brief window in time when point-and-shoot digital cameras took over from analogue film cameras. It was a digital gold rush, with camera manufacturers like Sony, Nikon, and Canon leapfrogging one another with their latest releases. Every few months, a new model would hit the market, each one touting more megapixels, more digital zoom and larger screens than their competitors. Of course, this all but came to a grinding halt when Apple announced the iPhone in 2007. Steve Jobs put a camera in everyone’s pocket almost overnight, and with it, the battle for consumer-level pocket digital cameras lost its momentum. It’s this fleeting window in time when digital point-and-shoot cameras were in the limelight, and, shockingly, it's these early digital cameras that the TikTok generation now refers to as ‘vintage cameras’. Thankfully, you and I know differently. We know that the real vintage cameras are the ones that aren’t digital at all. The real vintage cameras are the ones that took almost infinite patience, a lot of confusion and tears, and most of all, an awful lot of money wasted on film.

So with all that in mind, I’m sure you’ll all be overjoyed to hear that it’s now once again time to gird your wallets in preparation for the new analogue resurgence thanks to LEDs. That’s right, now that LED lights are powerful enough, we can use them with our old vintage cameras without the excuse that we can’t sync our strobes to the old tech! You’re welcome.

Joking aside, I have genuinely been enjoying shooting with some of my old film cameras again, thanks to LED lighting. No, syncing flashes to old cameras wasn't impossible, but even with the old leaf shutters, plenty of misfires happened, and if you recall, every misfire costs you money. LEDs have thankfully made my film photography far more consistent and, dare I say it, far more enjoyable.

The Best of Both

Much of what I’ve discussed above highlights some extremely functional benefits to working with LEDs. Some of them are truly unique to LEDs in general, but there is one final feature found only on this brand-new Profoto L600C LED light.

It’s a truly remarkable feature and one that has the potential to be fundamentally game-changing to photography.

***The new Profoto L600C and L600D LED heads can both be used in continuous or flash mode and they can even shoot both simultaneously.***

The L600C Can Flash

At first, it may not make sense as to why I think this is such a big deal. After all, I’ve just spent all my time up until this point telling you that you no longer need flash, only to turn around and tell you that flash is a game-changer.

To be clear, the Profoto L600D can flash as well; it’s just that it only flashes in its vast Kelvin range. It’s the L600C that can flash in all 16 million+ colours, which is what makes this light so impressive. Yes, we’ve had other LED lights dabble in flash in the past, but the L600C is, to my knowledge, the only LED light in the world that can flash in full RGB and is modifiable. Yes, you can benefit from all the features I’ve listed so far, and you can do it all with any of the 100+ lighting modifiers Profoto has to offer. You want pastel colours in your beauty dish? Done. You want your extreme 15000K in a softbox? Done. You want your RGB flash in a hard-light spot? Done.

Flash is far from dead, and there are still many benefits to be had from flash. The only difference now is that between the new L600C and L600D, you can have the best of both worlds. You can have all of those incredible colours and Kelvin options, but you can do all of that with the flash function on these LED heads as well.

It’s worth noting that I’m using the term ‘flash’ generally here. These lights don’t contain any xenon tubes or anything; they are simply synthesising the very short pulse of light we are familiar with seeing when using strobes. The tech and nuance of these brand-new LED pulses is an entire article in its own right, and I’ve gushed over these lights long enough already. But I will leave you with a couple of final benefits to consider before I let you go.

LED lights like these Profoto L600D/C are now getting very bright. So bright in fact, that it would get uncomfortable pretty quickly if you were a model sitting in front of them for extended periods at max power. The flash feature instantly negates that discomfort, as you can now have the modelling light set low while the actual image is taken with a far brighter flash (pulse). This is also useful if you’re after those larger, more flattering dilated pupils in the final image, too.

Long Exposure Flash Photography…. all in one light!

For those familiar with my work, you’ll no doubt have seen some of my long exposure photography. The very unique and very creative process of long exposure photography has always fascinated me, as it’s one of the very few visual mediums that we can’t see with our eyes, yet we can capture it with our cameras. We can’t even capture long exposure in the same way with video.

In the past, long-exposure photography combined with frozen imagery was a real pain. You often needed a great number of lights to achieve it, and you’d invariably melt a stack of coloured gels in the process. Now, with these new Profoto L600C/Ds, you can do it all with a single light and in a single frame.

Historically, this technique was a real pain to set up, but now it’s never been easier. It’s my hope that the versatility of these incredible new lights inspires a new generation of photographers to get creative with long exposure photography once again.

So, was it worth the wait?

I mentioned at the top that Profoto are arriving pretty late to the LED party. Many other lighting manufacturers have already brought several LEDs to market, so are Profoto simply here to throw their proverbial LED hat in the ring? Are they simply making just another LED light just because everyone else has?

Definitely not. The Profoto L600C and L600D LEDs are absolute powerhouses that dominate in every aspect of their class. I’ve listed many of their incredible benefits above, and I’ll list the features below for you to look at yourself, but so much of what these lights offer simply can’t be found anywhere else.

You’ll have to see which of the benefits and features resonate with you, but finally having the ability to flash in any imaginable colour and with any lighting modifier is an absolute game-changer for me and my work. Couple that with the saturation sliders, a vast Kelvin range and all from a very familiar monoblock style head with no annoying control box dangling from the stand, and I’m sold!

Profoto L600C - Features

Compact, all-in-one light without ballast for faster setup and easy portability.
HydroCTech™ liquid cooling system for quiet, efficient performance in a lightweight housing.
Weighs just 6.1 kg (13.4 lbs) — setting a new standard for power-to-weight ratio.
Powerful 600W Core-6™ RGBWWW LED engine delivering precise CCT control 2000-15000K, and outstanding colour rendering( TLCI 99).
Optional light modes with 16 million colour selections and over 300 preset gels.
Flicker-free 16-bit dimming from 0.1% to 100% for seamless precision control.
Native Profoto mount and umbrella holder compatible with over 100 light shapers.
Flexible connectivity via built-in DMX, Timo-Two CRMX, Bluetooth, and Profoto Air.
Profoto Air flash mode enabling HSS flash with 16 million colours and no recycle time.

You can find the L600C on the official Profoto website here: Profoto L600C (600W)

And the Profoto L600D on the official Profoto website here: Profoto L600D (600W)

Donate & Support

I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

||

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

JHP Livestreams…

All of my more advanced lighting classes are now available online!

||

All of my more advanced lighting classes are now available online! ||

LEARN MORE ABOUT MY ONLINE WORKSHOPS

4 Photoshoots with the new Profoto L600C LED

Donate & Support

I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

||

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

I recently had the opportunity to work with Profoto's brand-new LED lights. I’ve been working with strobes for over 20 years and only recently started using LED lights in my work, but LED lights have come a very long way in recent years, so I was extremely excited to see what these new heads from Profoto could do.

I’d never used these new lights before, but I’d read the very comprehensive specs sheet and long list of features, so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to test and play with. Below, I’ll share 4 photoshoots that I believe tested several key aspects of the new L600C LED lights. Take a look and see how the light faired in these 4 very different setups.

Preface: I will mention here that I was commissioned by Profoto to create these 4 campaigns with the new L600C LED lights. I was then asked to share my thoughts regarding the lights on their website. If you’d like a more concise version of the article I’m sharing below, you can find it on the Profoto website here: 4 Photoshoot with the new Profoto L600C LED

If you’re unfamiliar with the new L600C & L600D LED heads, that’s totally understandable. I’ll be sharing another hefty article on here soon that goes over my thoughts about these incredible new lights. If you’d like to learn more about the new lights from the Profoto website, you can do so here. The Full Colour L600C & The Daylight L600D

The 4 Photo Shoots

1. Huge Kelvin Range

The new L600C (the full-colour RGB LED head) and the new L600D (the daylight-only version) are extremely feature-rich. Both heads tout a triple white chip that gives them a truly colossal Kelvin range from 2000K to 15000K, and although I’ve used a lot of Kelvin shifts in my work in the past, I was keen to see just how much colour contrast I could achieve with this huge new range.

2. A LOT of colours

The L600C sports over 16 million colours, and although I love my coloured gels, even I only had around 20 colours for my strobes in the past. So, with all these extra colours at my fingertips, I was eager to see what I could pull from these new LED heads.

3. Continuous & Flash

One very interesting feature of these new lights is their ability to flash as well as run in continuous mode. To be clear, this isn't a ‘flash’ in the traditional sense. They don't have any xenon bulbs, but the heads can pulse the LED for a very short duration, thereby simulating a flash. This LED pulse doesn’t have anything like the power output of a traditional xenon flash, and although I’ve not tested the flash capabilities of the L600C/D extensively yet, I’m pretty sure the duration of the pulse is nowhere near as fast as the extremely fast flash durations that are typically as short as 1/4000th of a second.

The fact that the L600C/D can pulse like this is a pretty unique feature for LEDs, and to my knowledge, the L600C is the only LED in the world that can flash in any of its 16 million+ colours, and it can do so with any of the Profoto light-shaping tools attached. This feature alone is a game-changer for me, so I was extremely excited to try it out.

4. Environmental Lighting

Lastly, I wanted to quickly see how these LEDs would integrate into environmental lighitng. As we know, LEDs are great for video, but with these heads being 600w, they are more than bright enough for us photographers to use as well. That said, adjusting the power of LEDs to work alongside other lighting you may find in the surrounding scene for a more environmental shot is extremely easy. Often, ambient light on location is much dimmer than flash, so it can be tricky to mix the two. This felt like a great opportunity to test the new heads alongside some environmental lights I found at the studio.

The Setups

First Setup - The Kelvin Push

Camera Settings

Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - 85mm 1.4
Shutter Speed - 1/400th
Aperture - f1.4
ISO - 200
Kelvin - 4000K
Focal Length - 85mm

Kit Used

Profoto L600C x2
Profoto 4’ Octa Silver
Profoto Umbrella Deep White XL

The Breakdown

I’ll start with one of the easier setups, since it's actually pretty simple and very quick to set up: all you need are two lights and a couple of standard lighting modifiers. I’m using two L600Cs, but since we’re only using Kelvin colours here, you could just as easily achieve this setup with the L600Ds instead. -The L600Ds are the daylight equivalent of the full-colour L600C.

Start by placing a large softbox behind the model. I’m using a Profoto 4’ Octa Silver here. It’s this light behind the model that we want to shine the very warm light, so set the Kelvin to a low value. I’m using the L600D’s base 2000K here.

Next, you want to place another large light behind yourself. I’m using the Profoto Umbrella Deep White XL here. I will add that this giant umbrella produces a truly gorgeous wraparound light, and it’s immediately obvious as soon as you open it up and turn it on. It’s this light that you want to set at a contrasting Kelvin colour. For me, I wanted to test the extremes of Kelvin these new heads could offer, so I set this L600C to its maximum Kelvin of 15000K in stark contrast to the other light at 2000K.

That really is it. You’re almost done. All you need to do now is set your camera up and start shooting. Of course, the trick here is to set your camera to a Kelvin (white balance) value that you’re happy with. I’d suggest starting with a value somewhere in the middle. That way, the Kelvin from behind the model will shine through as orange, and the colour and the Kelvin from behind you will shine through as a slightly cooler blue colour.

Continuous & Flash: When I was shooting this set, I had both the L600C heads set to flash mode. They were in continuous mode the whole time, so I could see what each light was doing and focus the camera, but when the shutter was released, the L600Cs would flash. I shot like this primarily to make life a little easier on the model. Directly in front of her was a huge umbrella, and had the full brightness of that light been bearing down on her the whole time, it would have gotten pretty uncomfortable, pretty quickly. By setting the L600C continuous light to low and the flash to high, I can capture a bright image without annoying the model in the process.

Second Setup - Max Colour Set

Camera Settings

Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - 85mm 1.4
Shutter Speed - 1/125th
Aperture - f1.4
ISO - 200
Kelvin - 5300K
Focal Length - 85mm

Kit Used

Profoto L600C x3
Profoto B20
Profoto Umbrella Deep White XL
Profoto Umbrella Deep White L
Profoto Spot Small

The Breakdown

Now, I know it seems as though I’ve cranked up the difficulty with this next one, but remember, although we now have four lights on set, every light has its job, and as long as you know what each of them should be doing, you’ll be fine. We’ll start with our key, which in this case is the big blue light to my right.

The large blue light is the L600C with the Profoto Umbrella Deep White XL attached. This light will flood most of the set, but it’s angled to limit the light-spill on the background.

Next, I’ll place another L600C behind the model and to my left. This light has the Profoto Umbrella Deep White L and is set to a bright pink colour.

The third L600C light on our model is positioned off to camera right, set to a rich orange colour and has the Profoto Spot Small attached. The reason I’m using the Spot Small here is due to the unique way in which it modifies the light. This spot produces a very hard, very controllable light that can be positioned exactly where you want it on set without fear of the light spilling anywhere apart from where you point it.

Lastly, I’m using the Profoto B20 behind the model to light the background. This is actually a Profoto flash, but it’s very small and is far easier to hide behind the model than the larger L600C. Sadly, I didn’t have the convenience of simply choosing the perfect orange colour from a sea of options as I would on the L600C, but instead I had to strap the orange gel I had to the B20 with a couple of strips of gaffer's tape. It’s worth noting here just how easy it is to work seamlessly with both LED lights and strobe units in the same shot, too.

Third Setup - LEDs that Flash

Camera Settings

Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - 85mm 1.4
Shutter Speed - 1/2 Second
Aperture - f4.5
ISO - 30
Kelvin - 4500K
Focal Length - 85mm

Kit Used

Profoto L600C x2
Profoto B20
Profoto Umbrella Deep White XL
Profoto Softlight Reflector White
Medium (6ft x 6ft) Scrim

The Breakdown

It’s here that things start to get a little more creative: in this set, we’re going to mix flash with continuous light in the form of a long exposure image. You may have noticed in the camera settings above that my camera’s shutter speed is set to 1/2 second. It’s during this half-second that the creativity happens, as it's here that we can start creating unique-looking imagery.

To start, let’s get the key light in place. For this shot, that’s the Profoto B20 flash with the Profoto Softlight Reflector White attached. This is positioned above the model’s head and angled down, leaving enough room for me to shoot underneath it. Although it’s obvious that this B20 will be flashing, it’s worth noting that I didn't have the modelling light on for this unit.

Next, we can add the large light behind me in the form of the L600C with the Profoto Umbrella Deep White XL attached. This light is set to a cool blue colour, and the LED light is also set to flash mode. It’s worth noting that I also had this light on continuously. It was set extremely low so as not to affect the image too much, but it did help a lot with the whole ‘focusing in the dark’ issue.

Lastly, we can add our third and final light, positioned behind the model and pointed back toward the white background. I’ve also placed a white scrim between the model and the light to help soften any hotspoting that can occur when using lights close to the background like this. Note that this third light is set to a cool Kelvin value and is set to continuous mode only.

So, to clarify what’s going on in the shot. The light above the model is flashing as soon as I press the shutter. This light captures a frozen image of the model in the frame. Behind me, the big blue umbrella with the L600C is also flashing, and that is also capturing a clean, frozen image of the model. Lastly, the light behind the model is always on, so when I press the shutter and the camera captures light for that 1/2 second, it’s seeing that bright white background behind the model and because I’m not shooting on a tripod, any movement I create with the camera during that time, is displayed as that blue ghosting effect around the edge of the model.

Fourth Setup - Environmental Lighting - Cinematic Set

Camera Settings

Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - 85mm 1.4
Shutter Speed - 1/125th
Aperture - f1.4
ISO - 125
Kelvin - 4000K
Focal Length - 85mm

Kit Used

Profoto L600C x3
Profoto Umbrella Deep White XL
Profoto Softlight Reflector White
Profoto Zoom Reflector White

The Breakdown

The whole premise of this setup was to incorporate the scene and its lighting into the final image. Most studio lighting starts with a blank black canvas, and you add lights from there. With environmental lighting, you often want to add to what’s already there. One of the biggest problems with this is that you rarely have any control over the lights you’re working with. Take this set, for example, I have two globe-style lights above and behind the model. I can’t control the power of those lights in any way, nor can I control their colour. This setup was about seeing how I could work in conjunction with the environment's lights, not simply overpower them and wash them out.

Firstly, you want to work out the exposure values and colours you're working with on set. So, before I turned on any of my lights, I took a few frames of the scene. From here, I was able to start adding my own lights. To begin with, I brought in my L600C with the Profoto Softlight Reflector White attached. This would act as my keylight on the model and was positioned to my right and angled down. As with a lot of my work, I’m always looking for ways to introduce colour, and you may have noticed my Kelvin is already fairly cool, which enables me to show some colour contrast from the lights. For example, my key-light was set very cool, and you can see that on the model's skin.

The second L600C light was set to camera right, with a simple Profoto Zoom Reflector White attached. This modifier allows for a large spill of light quite quickly, but due to its small size, it also produces a very hard light. This was set to a far warmer Kelvin, and you can see that very rich yellow colour flooding the scene from camera right.

Lastly, I added the final L600C with the big Profoto Umbrella Deep White XL attached. This was set to a low power so as not to dominate the scene, but I did want it to eliminate any heavy shadow areas that might be distracting. Again, this was set to a warmer Kelvin value.

Closing Comments

It should be very apparent that these four setups are all extremely different from one another. I shot from clean Kelvin looks to full-colour looks; I mixed flash and continuous for long-exposure shots; and, lastly, I quickly set up an environmental scene at the back of the studio. It’s worth noting that I shot all four of these setups alongside a film crew that was filming the whole thing. And they weren’t just a fly-on-the-wall documentary crew either; every setup had to be broken down and explained through talking-to-the-camera segments, and plenty of B-roll shots were captured as well. We did all this in a single day.

This isn’t me trying to flex; I just want to highlight how quick and easy these LED heads are to work with. I’m not struggling with huge LED lights and their accompanying power-bricks and control boxes. I’m not struggling to gaffer-tape a CTO gel to my softbox. I’m not struggling to set up multiple lights for both flash and continuous lighitng. We got all of this done in a day, and much of that is thanks to how easy and convenient these new L600 LED heads are.

The new L600D and L600C are a best-of-both solution to so many of my shoots. They have the ease of use that millions of colours and a vast Kelvin range offer over faffing with gels, they are very quick and easy to use, thanks to their single monobloc design that many strobists like me are used to, their 600w of power is more than enough power for most studio shoots and I think I was only using them at between 30% and 50% power for many of the shots on the day.

Plus, these new LED heads can flash, and they can do so with all the conveniences and benefits that LEDs offer, like all the colours and Kelvin settings, and, more importantly, they can do all this whilst accepting any of the Profoto light-shaping tools. Meaning it's just as easy to shoot with all these lighting benefits with softlight, like a softbox, or a hardlight, like a spot. This convenience, flexibility, and power are an industry first, though I can see it quickly becoming an industry standard for how comprehensive these new lights are.

To learn more about the new Profoto L600C & L600D, head over to the Profoto website.

The L600C - Full Colour 600w LED Light

>> Profoto Website Direct Link

The L600D - Daylight 600w LED Light

>> Profoto Website Direct Link

Donate & Support

I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

||

PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

JHP Livestreams…

All of my more advanced lighting classes are now available online!

||

All of my more advanced lighting classes are now available online! ||

LEARN MORE ABOUT MY ONLINE WORKSHOPS