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Introduction |
***''Authors note: There are a few things I wish I did differently, in hindsight; mainly the use of the coffee table. This choice was far from ideal and I would strongly encourage you to use something with more depth (ideally, at least 18" in width with enough space for tools and/or an editing system as well). This is my biggest regret with this guide and I wish I fixed this before publishing :(. However, I am posting this now to make you aware of this mistake so you can correct it. Rewriting this guide is out of the question.''*** | | ***''Authors note: There are a few things I wish I did differently, in hindsight; mainly the use of the coffee table as this is far from ideal. This is easily corrected though: Measure your photo background with lights, use the width and length as your minimum "safe size" and add length or width as needed for other items (ex: a computer). The minimum safe distance I recommend is to use the photo background and tripod with a 1-2" space from the photo background as your minimum baseline. From here, you can add on as you like, but the photo space should be on the left to accommodate lighting without issues; everything else goes to the right; including the 2nd light.'' I am unable to add the needed corrections due to space setup complications.*** | | ***PLEASE READ: this guide does not cover how to configure lights like LED video lights from companies like SmallRig, Genaray, Meiki (and othersother brands); my goal with this guide is to provideshow how to setup a low-cost solution that outperforms 5V LED panels that are too dim to work effectivelysetup with significantly better performance. While quality dedicated photo/video LEDs are much better, these can easily costare expensive at ~$60 or more+ and somemany require a dedicated light standstands (~$20-38) or a tripod. ''While some of these work out to be cheaper upfront if you supply your own power adapter, the cost will addstill adds up if you need to buy an adapter as well as the lightboth.''***[br] | ***''UNLESS you score a deal on these panel lights from a photo studio, eBay (or a classified site), the cost to set these up tendsthey tend to be significantly more expensive. As such, this guide uses a different tradeoff wheresetup: 2 >90 CRI LED bulbs are used in place of paneland reflector lights. The downside is theseThese are not as good as a dedicated LED, but the setup isare much cheaper.''*** | | ***SOFTWARE WARNING: The software portion will likely age faster thanout in this guide first due to the nature of what software *''IS''*in general. If there is a version upgrade,Also, keep in mind there may be price and screenshot discrepancies if there is a version upgrade. If there are major changes, I do my will update this information on a "best effort" basis; though keep in mind if the cost to keep up with this but I can only do so muchfix it does not make sense it may not be updated.*** | | ***''WHAT IS THE CATCH? The catch is while this method isWhile cheaper, the performance is nowhere near as good as a 12-18V studio panel LED, particularly inregarding light spread orand CRI if you pick up a set of bulbs from a big box store*. The reason for this is the common minimum CRI for these panel lights isMost photo/video LED panels are 95+ CRI, even at the $25 and much more color-accurate but are priced to match outside of lights which do not include a 30 supply your ownpower supply like Mieke.price. You likely will not attain this with household LED bulbs, even at 5000k''***[br]
***''*Only an issue with big box stores. 90CRI bulbs are available but are not commonplace. Check the color temperature as these stores do not sell a lot of "daylight" bulbs compared to "Soft white" bulbs.''*** | | ***Note: This guide does not cover basic photography techniques due to space limitations the author has. Refer to deal with as there are already excellentthese existing resources. For this, refer to the following guides:*** | | | * ***[guide|38496|How to Take Awesome Photos|new_window=true]*** | | * ***[guide|95223|How to Take Awesome Smartphone Photos|new_window=true]*** | | * ***[guide|38497|How to Post-Process Pictures|new_window=true]*** | | * [link|https://about.ifixit.com/c/Photography|iFixit About|new_window=true] |
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