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Introduction |
***PLEASE READ: this guide is not meant to cover all possibilities for photo lighting, or even about setting up quality panel lights made by companies like Meiki, SmallRig or Genaray. UNLESS you get a good deal on surplus lights, odds are you will pay ~$50-60 for these lights; sometimes less if the power adapter is not included, but if you do not have a compatible adapter the price can addadds back up. These lights are not economical for small 5V ~700-1,000-1,500 lumen panels as thethey are too dim and inefficiency spread their light spread is ineffective oroutput. This can be kind of resolved with 4 but it defeats the voltage is too low to be useful and youpurpose of cheap lights as 4 will need to purchase 4 which canoften cost nearly as much as 2 large panel lightspremium panels from a trusted name.*** | | ***In short: unless you get a very, very good deal on surplus lights used from a clearing house or a photo/video studio wants to offload, you will need to spend at least $120 to get a pair of good LED panels, plus the cost forof stands (~$39). Unless you can justify this, the cost can be on the high side for occasional use. As a result of the cost issuesissue being a major deal-breaking flaw for manydeal breaker (in addition to cheap Amazon/eBay LED panels being too weakdim to be usefuleffective), this guide uses a different tradeoff: Rather than usingInstead of dim and ineffective LED panels which are too dim, a pair of high-quality (preferably >90+ CRI) LED bulbs can also be used in place. While still far from perfect, the end result is still significantly better even as a compromise.*** | | ***Remember: THESE BULBS WILL NOT OUTPERFORM PROPER STUDIO LIGHTS AS THE CRI WILL BE LOWER; MANY. A PROPER STUDIO LIGHTS ARELIGHT WILL BE 95+ CRI; THESE AMEATUR SETUPS WILL NEVER MATCH THIS. As such,This cannot be done cheaply if the person lookingat the amateur level, photo can tell it willand tradeoffs like visible signs of subpar light quality may be obviouspresent. However, this guide also does not target those this audience (who are sensitive about this type of thing (and alsoalso often run professional cameras as well asand high-end lenses). Even with the CRI tradeoff, this method still results in far better overall light output compared to other low-cost lighting options which anyone. While good surplus lighting can easily take advantage of,be purchased used all day long for very little if you look this is not always the case.like photo studio surplus*** |
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