What is the best LED studio lightings for RGB control?

wilt

wilt

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Steven
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I'm thinking of getting a couple of studio RGB lights for photography and very very rarely video.
I'd be shooting still life, pet/people portraits and macro.

I've been looking at the Godox LA300R or the SL300R.

Does anyone use constant RGB lighting in the studio that could recommend lights?
 
Your question reminds me of something published many years ago, in "Punch" I believe.

Question: What is your advice for gentlemen contemplating matrimony?

Answer: Don't.

What's is your advice for people thinking of buying continuous lighting for still photography?

Answer: Don't.

Please see https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/led-lights-or-flash.152/
 
Garry Edwards said:
Your question reminds me of something published many years ago, in "Punch" I believe.

Question: What is your advice for gentlemen contemplating matrimony?

Answer: Don't.

What's is your advice for people thinking of buying continuous lighting for still photography?

Answer: Don't.

Please see https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/led-lights-or-flash.152/
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It was out of laziness, that I was looking at them.
I currently use the original AD600 and gelling them isn't easy, changing is also a pain in the arse.
I'll maybe I'll pick up a few AD300Pro's as they look easier to gel.
 
wilt said:
It was out of laziness, that I was looking at them.
I currently use the original AD600 and gelling them isn't easy, changing is also a pain in the arse.
I'll maybe I'll pick up a few AD300Pro's as they look easier to gel.
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:) There's nothing wrong with being lazy, and I have a lifetime of experience of laziness.

What's difficult about gelling any flash head?
 
The bulb sticks out into the softbox, getting a gel fixed inside the softbox and covering the light output by the bulb. Then un-doing all that to change, especially if up high or ceiling mounted.
I liked the idea of changing the background colour very easily with a RGB LED too.
 
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wilt said:
The bulb sticks out into the softbox, getting a gel fixed inside the softbox and covering the light output by the bulb. Then un-doing all that to change, especially if up high or ceiling mounted.
I liked the idea of changing the background colour very easily with a RGB LED too.
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OK, that makes sense. My standard gel attachment method on softboxes is to stick it over the front with masking tape, which doesn't leave any messy residue, and as long as it's big enough that's all that's needed. I've only ever bought gels in the full-sheet size, 21 x 48 inches (53cm x 122cm), or rolls, and I never cut them so they last literally for ever. Colour changes shouldn't be needed too often, after all there are only 3 primary colours, and the depth of colour is adjusted via power, not by changing to a pastel shade - e.g. if you want a pastel pink one then use a red one and turn the power up, and of course turn the power down if you want a really intense red, and if you want a non-primary colour then you combine 2 gels - for some reason the sellers never seem to mention that only 3 are ever needed:(
 
wilt said:
The bulb sticks out into the softbox, getting a gel fixed inside the softbox and covering the light output by the bulb. Then un-doing all that to change, especially if up high or ceiling mounted.
I liked the idea of changing the background colour very easily with a RGB LED too.
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Make hats.

Cut a rectangle of gel out (see the template in the Insta post below) and form a cylinder around the glass dome. Seal it with Sellotape. Fold the end over and tape down. You can then pull the hat off the dome and push it back on at any time. Make hats for all the colours you need. You can then attach any modifier - and swap the hats out with a soft box still attached - just using the flaps around the flash head.

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CsRc8FWs5yR/?img_index=2
 
Yes, that's an effective and ingenious method for cc gels:)
But you do, from memory, like complicated solutions . . . I remember a shoot where you used hand-modified clothes pegs to fix gels, I'll stick to sticky tape. Like me, it's simple :exit:
 
Garry Edwards said:
Yes, that's an effective and ingenious method for cc gels:)
But you do, from memory, like complicated solutions . . . I remember a shoot where you used hand-modified clothes pegs to fix gels, I'll stick to sticky tape. Like me, it's simple :exit:
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Yeah - I just use the hats these days - gel at the source and then it doesn't matter what modifier you put on it :) I make bigger hats for the 600SFs too. I use the C74's* to hold the scatter gels to barn doors on Fresnel spots - but that's about it tbh.

C74 - reversed C47 - Hollywood term for a clothes peg. Some ill-informed people say they are called C47's because they come in packs of 47. This is clearly nonsense - clothes pegs come in packs of 50. The C47 (or DC3) was a general purpose aircraft, and I think they are named after that.
 
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Scooter said:
Make hats.

Cut a rectangle of gel out (see the template in the Insta post below) and form a cylinder around the glass dome. Seal it with Sellotape. Fold the end over and tape down. You can then pull the hat off the dome and push it back on at any time. Make hats for all the colours you need. You can then attach any modifier - and swap the hats out with a soft box still attached - just using the flaps around the flash head.

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CsRc8FWs5yR/?img_index=2
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I take it the holes being covered don't have an adverse effect? Also does the Sellotape hold up with full power pops, it doesn't burn/melt?
 
wilt said:
I take it the holes being covered don't have an adverse effect? Also does the Sellotape hold up with full power pops, it doesn't burn/melt?
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It's never had an adverse effect. I don't typically use the (Halogen) modelling bulbs on the SF600 heads when I do this, however even then, the worst that can happen is a tiny amount of the gel sticks to the glass. This can be removed easily with some acetone. On the AD600 of course, the modelling light is an LED and generates a lot less heat. Maybe if you absolutely punished the light at full power for an extended period it might cause the overheat protection to kick in earlier - but for all practical purposes, it s not a problem.

Sellotape is pretty robust it seems! Very occasionally - I get a gel hat that comes unstuck, or tears and I think I make more about once a year. Like Garry, I only buy the gels in large sheets and as these hats are quite small, even for the larger SF600 heads, the sheets last a long time.

Rosco gel catalogue at Stage Depot

Lighting Gels / Lighting Filter Colours | Stage Depot

Range of lighting gel to buy online, manufactured from the finest polymeric materials, for modern studio and theatre lighting
stagedepot.co.uk stagedepot.co.uk

Rosco and Lee both use the same numbering system.
 
wilt said:
Thanks for that. On a side note, your images are amazing on the Instagram link for the top hats. I had to follow.
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Oh Thank you Steven - I have started to post more images to Instagram, however it is still really annoying :P
 
I can never see the word Sellotape without being reminded of a practical experiment in my physics degree course entitled 'The Birefringence of Sellotape'. It centred around the fact that Sellotape has birefringent properties like cerain crystals and polarises light passing through it (at certain angles). I remember well the fun we all had (!) measuring the polarisation of beams of light shone through glass plates covered in Sellotape. I hope this doesn't have consequences for your lighting set-ups!
 
David_Mug said:
I can never see the word Sellotape without being reminded of a practical experiment in my physics degree course entitled 'The Birefringence of Sellotape'. It centred around the fact that Sellotape has birefringent properties like cerain crystals and polarises light passing through it (at certain angles). I remember well the fun we all had (!) measuring the polarisation of beams of light shone through glass plates covered in Sellotape. I hope this doesn't have consequences for your lighting set-ups!
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haha it doesn't seem to affect anything :) Just looked through a bit of wide sellotape at the (already polarised ) light from my computer screen at various angles and it don't appear to do anything - but then it's not genuine Sellotape :)
 
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