Lighting for Video: LEDs

What is LED lighting and how does it differ from traditional lighting methods? Should you consider LED lights for your video productions? In this video tutorial we’ll answer these questions and more!

More and more, LED lights are making their way into video shoots. They’re relatively inexpensive, lightweight/portable and require little power. In this tutorial I show you a few examples of popular LED lighting instruments, and how you can make the best use of them on set.

LED lighting instruments are made up of a bank of small LED lights (sometimes over 1,000 per panel). They’re known for being a highly efficient form of lighting, with some LED panels running soley on battery power. This, coupled with the fact they are usually quite lighweight, make them ideal for ‘run and gun’ or ‘one man band’ shoots.

There is one ‘gotcha’ for LED lights that you need to watch out for. Although LED panels will often last for 1,000s of hours, the color will shift over time (this is especially true for lower cost LED lights). To remedy this try applying some minus green filtration to the front of the light to offset the color shift.

LED lighting technology is getting better and cheaper all the time, so expect to see more and more pros adopting LEDs in their production work.