LED light starter kit

[John Emery]

I just found an awesome video review showing a short filmed entirely with the YN 300 and YN 600. They also showed using a diffuser for softer light. Do you find yourself doing this?

Hi Dustin, I bought the YN 600 (partly because of that same video), but it has a huge flaw no one talks about enough... its fan is very noisy! A dealbreaker for interviews! That's why I bought the Aputures... they're completely silent, and that's when I realized the huge magenta color cast the Youngnuos had. But Lintelfilm said the new versions are cri95... so just make sure you avoid that fan.

"But you can't run that on a battery". True, but in the last 5 years of shooting, I've never shot an interview or a project where I needed battery lights - there's always been power within reach, and when I've needed light outdoors, 2000 lumens wouldn't even register on the sensor.

All depends on your style and what you do with that light. For interviews I mainly use soft light, so a powerful LED in a softbox does the job. And I would say I've needed the batteries 60% of the times I've shot something the last 5 years (try start asking for power sockets, and start connecting cables everywhere in the middle of a wedding), and it has made my life easier 99% of the times. When it comes to lumen/lux... The Excelvans 1040S are 10000 lux each, not too far from a classic 1K. And they're going for 199€ right now.

I've used plenty of gear these past years, and I can say LEDs make my day... All depends on your needs. But the days LEDs where seen as less "pro" have passed.

 

[Lintelfilm]

I just found an awesome video review showing a short filmed entirely with the YN 300 and YN 600. They also showed using a diffuser for softer light. Do you find yourself doing this?

Yeah I always diffuse. As I say I have a three-hotshoe umbrella holder - if I want a lot of light I put 3 lights and diffuse with an umbrella. I also have white diffusion gels that I peg onto the barn doors, which is smaller/neater than the umbrella setup but less diffused.

The YN600 fan makes a lot of noise - I'd go for two YN300 III's instead and just mount them together.

There's always a downside - lighting is a compromise. In this case it's lumens. A YN300 has less output than ONE 55w biax lamp. Not one fixture, but one tube (biax tube 2900 lumens, YN300 2280 lumens, according to their site). You'd need three of them to surpass one dual biax fixture.

I meant I see no downside to the YN-300 III as far as LED's go (not of LEDs in general). You can pay "a lot" of money for LEDs but - to my admitedly limited knowledge - these seem to compete with the best LED's for very little money.

[Lintelfilm]

Lintelfilm said the new versions are cri95... so just make sure you avoid that fan.

I need to look into a reliable way of testing their CRI. Can I do it with just a grey card?

[John Emery]

I need to look into a reliable way of testing their CRI. Can I do it with just a grey card?

I suppose you can use it as a reference, but I've never done it myself. I mainly trust my eyes when it comes to color... I just compare it to natural light (all my big lights are 5500k), or use my good old Canon dslr as a reference, and I do a skin tone test (my biggest obsession... skin tones). My older Yongnuo YN600 is clearly off, with a strong magenta cast. Now I use the Aputures as a reference (they all match perfectly), and when I bought the Excelvans I did a side by side comparison... and their light looks identical too. But like I wrote before, the problem is the warm filters, they don't match. So I'll just buy warm gels for both lights.

[Lintelfilm]

I suppose you can use it as a reference, but I've never done it myself. I mainly trust my eyes when it comes to color... I just compare it to natural light (all my big lights are 5500k), or use my good old Canon dslr as a reference, and I do a skin tone test (my biggest obsession... skin tones). My older Yongnuo YN600 is clearly off, with a strong magenta cast. Now I use the Aputures as a reference (they all match perfectly), and when I bought the Excelvans I did a side by side comparison... and their light looks identical too. But like I wrote before, the problem is the warm filters, they don't match. So I'll just buy warm gels for both lights.

Do you know is the YN600 rated at 5000K like the YN300, or 5500K like the YN300III?

Good point about the gels - I think I'll try that (the orange slot-in's for the YN's are weird. Very far from tungsten.

[John Emery]

Do you know is the YN600 rated at 5000K like the YN300, or 5500K like the YN300III?

Good point about the gels - I think I'll try that (the orange slot-in's for the YN's are weird. Very far from tungsten.

It's 5500K (just double checked). 

[ntblowz]

These were shot with Aperture 672W and S with umbrella

 

 

 

[M Carter]

I need to look into a reliable way of testing their CRI. Can I do it with just a grey card?

Not scientific, but will give you a good idea of what gels a light may need - you need a camera that shoots raw stills.

Shoot a gray card under the light - optimally a grayscale, if not, a professional black/grey/white card. Stick a human in there with it if you like.

Open the raw file in photoshop/etc - eyedropper the gray and look at the RGB readout; r, g and b will optimally be the same number. (IE, R144 G144 B144). In reality, within 3-5 digits or so. If they're off, play with the color temp (orange/blue) and tint (magenta/green silders) and see if you can get the numbers close. When you get them close with the sliders - within a couple points - look at how far you've pushed things. If you've moved the tint into magenta territory, re shoot with, say, 1/8 minus green and try again. You want to find a gel combo that gets the grays neutral as possible. At every step, check the whites and the blacks as well.

Shooting raw is best here, because you won't have the light's real color messed with by camera profiles. 

[Lintelfilm]

Thanks M Carter. I have a Lastolite WB/reflector thingy and my GH4 can do RAW or I may even try raw video on the BMPCC. If I can find the time I might do a video on these lights for others to judge for themselves.