When we are attempting to make something understood to people, sometimes we say we’re “trying to throw light on” the subject.
Photographically, we also endeavor to make something understood about the subject, whether a product we’re selling or a person we are making a portrait of. The best lights for indoor photography will allow us to throw light on a wide variety of subjects.
Are lights needed for indoor photography?
Natural light photography is a great wat to capture images indoors and outdoors, mastering this skill is essential for becoming a good photographer.
Artificial lighting is another skill that must be developed in order to become a good photographer. Natural light is not the answer to every situation. Even when using sunlight and window light, modifying the light in some way, perhaps with reflectors, is often necessary.
Therefore, in order to answer the question of are lights needed for indoor photography, the answer is a firm “Sometimes!”
Seriously, though, certain lighting techniques are virtually impossible to employ without some form of artificial lighting. Mastering the use of lights and reflectors and other modifiers will allow you as a photographer to explore all sorts of photographic styles and genres.
Some photographic genres that may benefit from good indoor lights:
- Portraiture
- Small Product
- Real Estate
- Glamour
- Flat Art
- Macro
- Videography
Artificial lighting can be either continuous lighting or strobes. Strobes may be on camera, off camera with TTL remote control, or manual but fully adjustable studio strobes. Continuous lighting may be LEDs or photo floods. All of the artificial lighting types could be powered either by A/C or batteries.
Of course, any lighting kits could be comprised of one or several of these types of components. The best lights for indoor photography can be any of these things, but they should first and foremost be both versatile and high quality.
How I found the best lights for indoor photography
The best lights for indoor photography will have a few things in common, but there is also a lot of room for variety in what is included in the lights and the lighting kits. Here are some things to look for:
- Continuous or strobes – Both are useful and both have built in advantages and disadvantages. For this review guide we will concentrate on continuous lights. Continuous lights can also double as lighting for videography
- Bulb type – A lot of the newer lights use LED bulbs, while others use photo flood incandescent bulbs or CFLs. There are plusses and minuses for the different types. Floods are often user replaceable and inexpensive, but they give off lots of heat. CFL bulbs use less energy and give off less heat. LEDs are even cooler and use the least energy, but they are seldom user replaceable.
- Battery or A/C powered – Most incandescent bulb lighting kits are A/C powered, meaning they require being plugged into a wall socket. LED kits come in either configuration. LED bulbs lower power usage make them more compatible with battery power than incandescent bulbs. Some may be both battery and plug in powered.
- Lumens – How bright is the light? Having the coolest features imaginable won’t be a benefit to a photographer looking for the best lights for indoor photography if the light isn’t bright enough in the first place.
- Adjustable power – Especially for the smaller, portable, battery powered kits, having the ability to adjust power levels is a desirable feature.
- Versatile kit components – Many of the best lights for indoor photography are assembled as full lighting kits. In addition to the lights themselves, other components such as light stands, umbrellas, softboxes, and reflectors add versatility to the lighting kit.
Top 5 Best Lights For Indoor Photography
1. Photography Photo Portrait Studio 600W Day Light Review
One of the most affordable light kits around, this light kit works for still photography and video. That’s one of the things I really like about continuous lighting. The setting up process is so easy, and I can switch into video mode without having to think about putting up a different lighting kit.
That’s what the best lights for indoor photography will do for you as a photographer. It may seem that adding another tool into our gear box is adding complication, but some tools make our jobs easier.
This kit consists of 3 lights with CFL (compact fluorescent) bulbs. Three light stands are included along with two umbrellas.
The newest generation of CFL bulbs are perfect for photographic and video use. Previously, any photographer who knew anything about color temperature and white balance would stay far away from using any sort of fluorescent bulb. This was because fluorescents had a very strange color tint to the light output. Because of how they were made, they produced a light with a sickly greenish-purple tint. Ew.
CFL bulbs are made from different materials and have color correct tinting in the glass to make their light output closer to daylight. Generally speaking, photographers consider color temps in the 5200K to 5600K color temps to be “daylight” color balance. The bulbs supplied in this kit are 6000K, so the light color temp will tend to be a little on the cool side of daylight.
Light output is 45w per bulb. This may seem a tad under powered, but it works for basic lighting configurations. Since the sockets are standard screw in type, you could change out bulbs for higher power, but these were adequate brightness for the most part.
Included in the kit are two white photo umbrellas. These soften the light quality, spread it out in a controlled manner, and their off white coloring adds a touch of warmth, which helps offset the coolness of the CFL bulbs.
There is no variable power control for the lights, so you will have to physically move the fill light in order to get the proper lighting ratio. Power is supplied is supplied by plugging directly into a wall outlet, there is no battery option. Cords were on the short side, so using a power strip would be a good idea.
All things considered, this is an impressive kit for the price. It costs only about as much as a higher MB memory card, making it an easy addition for anyone wanting to start using advanced lighting techniques for their indoor photography.
2. Neewer 2 Packs Dimmable Bi-Color 480 LED Video Light Review
Depending on where you shop, this kit will cost between about two to three times what the first one does. It’s definitely an upgrade, though, adding some nice features along with more power.
LED bulbs are used in these lights, providing the extra brightness we mentioned as well as making possible a couple of the nice features added to this kit. I would call these moderately bright. You’re not going to get cinema light brightness from LEDs or from a lamp of this compact size, but it is more than adequate for about 80 or 90% of what average users typically need.
Now to the features. A huge advantage this kit has is that the color temperature is variable. Using slightly warm and slightly cool bulbs, Neewer has added a control allowing going between 3200K to 5600K, and anywhere in between. 5600K is considered daylight, 3200K is standard tungsten film balance.
Speaking in practical terms, you can adjust from a warm to a cooler color temperature. Sure, if you shot in raw, you can make this adjustment in post processing, but it’s better to get it close to what you want or need in the shooting stage rather than in processing.
Power level, or brightness, is also adjustable. This means you can change light ratios without physically moving the lamps. Both the power level and color temp are changed by means of simple twist knobs.
Speaking of power, you can use these plugged into the wall socket or with batteries. The batteries are not included, so purchasing four Sony camcorder style batteries (two for each light) will pretty much double the cost of the kit.
When using A/C power, the cords are annoying short. With the light stands at full height, the cords don’t even reach the ground. Surprising to see this from Neewer as they generally catch on to the minor things that make lighting tools easy to use.
On battery power is where these lights really shine. (Puns are fun.) If using the larger option of the batteries, you can have these lights running at full brightness for 90 minutes. That makes this light kit a great option for location work.
The lamps are mounted in a versatile U-shaped bracket and fit on regular light stands. Two stands are included as are two carrying cases for the lights.
3. LED Video Light Kit with 2M Light Stand Review
While not quite as bright or adjustable as the Neewer listed above, this Samtian kit has two awesome differences going for it. One, it is slightly cheaper, and Two, it actually comes with a set of batteries, which makes it even less expensive.
Using LED bulbs, this kit is switchable between 3200K and 5500K color temperature, but not continuously variable. Brightness is also adjusted from 10% to 100% by means of push buttons on the back of the unit. Since this is a smaller light with fewer LEDs, maximum brightness is reduced but not by more than about 1 ½ stops compared to the Neewer.
Enough head to head, let’s put this light kit in the field. One of the first things to pay attention to is that there in no way to plug this into a wall socket. It is battery powered only. So, if you plan any extended time shoots, you need something else.
Battery life is pretty good. At full power, you will get close to 40 minutes from a full charge. Up to 90 minutes at reduced power levels. The ad copy claims longer life, maybe some photographers get better performance depending on usage. Batteries are simple to interchange, so it might be good practice to have extra batteries ready to use, just like we do with our cameras.
Kit comes with two lights, two stands, two batteries, filters, and a charger
4. Neewer 700W Professional Photography Softbox Review
A very bright but soft light is provided from this two light softbox kit.
A softbox is an extremely useful light modifier. It takes the brightness of the bulb or strobe inside it and spreads it out before emitting the light to the subject matter. A softbox is quite usable for portraits, small products, and vlogging.
Two daylight balanced high power CFL bulbs are used, one for each softbox. Since they are CFL, heat build up is not a big issue when using these for an extended period of time. The sockets for the bulbs are standard, so you can replace them as needed.
Included are two tall light stands. Thankfully, the power cord is nice and long for this light. Battery power is not an option.
Price is just a little bit higher than the first kit in this list, softboxes usually are a slightly more expensive than umbrellas.
5. Neewer Ring Light Kit: 55W 5500K Dimmable LED Ring Light Review
A ringlight is one of the best lights for indoor photography, depending of course on exactly what you’re shooting. Ringlights give virtually shadowless light, but that benefit is only seen if used for close up imaging. Used as regular light at portrait distances, for instance, it’s just a nice, round lamp.
One fun way to use a ringlight for portraits is to add a circular eye catchlight. That’s a really pleasing catchlight.
Used for close up work, this Neewer ringlight is very versatile. The large, 18” shoot through diameter allows for a lot of different camera and subject placements and distances. The LED lamps are very bright and the lamp has variable power settings.
A stand and color filters comes with this kit, which is reasonably priced at about the price of two high MB memory cards. A very nice bag is also included.