LIGHTING GEAR
SMALLER LEDS THE LIGHT BRIGADE! Forget carting around big, heavy kit. These portable options are prepped to lighten your load
L ighting is one thing that canmake a real difference to your movies. But there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Larger sources, such as LED light banks, are made for soft, flattering illumination, while smaller light sources are more suited to contrasty, hard-edged effects, making them equally suitable as hair lights or background lights. A smart filmmaker has all their bases covered. Nowadays, lighting is dominated by LEDs – these are bright, yet quiet. Most can be adjusted to provide different colour temperatures. They come in all shapes and sizes, with the smaller ones managing without ballast packs for power. While it’s often not practical to set up lighting for run-and-gun work, a bit of kick from an LED can give a real lift to your
Many video lights have a colour temperature dialled in. RGBWW lights even change colours, toggling a full RGB colour spectrumusing a dial. As mains-powered lights flicker at 50Hz in the UK and Europe, and 60Hz in the US, you have to be careful to set a shutter speed that doesn’t clash to avoid a nasty flickering on screen. But many LED video lights are designed not to flicker, removing these shutter speed restrictions. While certain large LEDs have fans to keep them cool, this poses a problem for interviews, because a decent mic picks up the noise. Battery-powered, smaller LEDs mitigate this problem. To ensure your work reaps the benefits of quality lighting, we’ve assembled the portable options worth your investment.
shots, especially close to the subject. That’s where small LED lights can prove useful. Some are designed to sit on top of the camera’s hot shoe, andmany can even be powered from your cinema camera’s battery using a D-Tap connection. Even the smaller units can provide enough light to enhance standards greatly. If light levels are low, an on-camera LED provides enough light to give a real lift to a close-up subject. Even on a bright day, it reduces contrast and adds some catchlights to a subject’s eyes. Some on-camera lights can be quite large and, as they are often close to the subject, relatively flattering. This type of LED is also effective on a small, lightweight stand, providing some directionality and modelling to the light.
ROTOLIGHT NEO 2 rotolight.com
British lighting company Rotolight may be known for larger light panels, but more portable, smaller units are also available. Priced at £200/$249, the NEO 2 is the smallest, and proves ideal for on- or off-camera use. It works as an adjustable light panel, using bi-colour LEDs for continuous light, while also boasting built-in, high-speed flash with zero recycle time for stills. Its receiver works perfectly with the Rotolight HSS transmitter, made by Elinchrom to suit most cameras. The NEO 2 houses two sets of LEDs – one daylight-balanced and one tungsten – enabling you to dial in the colour temperature as you like. The flicker-free light output is 2000 lux at about a metre, providing a decent amount of light,
RIGHT The Rotolight NEO 2 can be used with gels and a flash transmitter when shooting stills
With a diameter of 145mm/5.7in, it’s a relatively soft light source in close, and the light quality is directional and crisp. To modify even further, Rotolight offers optional extras, such as a soft box. The unit comes with full and medium diffusers, cosmetic peach skin tone diffusion, as well as 1/8 magenta and coloured gels, offering plenty of ways to tweak colour. On the back of the panel, there’s a large, bright LED display with control knobs that adjust the intensity and colour temperature of the light between 3150-6300K. Pushing the knobs enters the menus, where you can access lots of settings, such as flash duration.
especially indoors or outdoors in gloomy conditions. Accurate colours are ensured by a 96CRI rating. It also has a range of built-in special effects, such as fire, lightning, police lights, strobing and TV flicker. The NEO 2 has three 1/4in threaded sockets around its circumference, so it can be attached to rigs, or even have barn doors fixed to it. It runs on AA batteries, but can also be powered by D-Tap or mains.
“The NEO 2 houses two sets of LEDS, enabling you to dial in the colour temperature as you like”
42
PRO MOVIEMAKER
Powered by FlippingBook