20 Best Lights For Studio Photography (2023 Updated)

I have been searching for a worthy addition to my relatively small airline check-able equipment package. I carry a Joker 400 and a couple of Dedo lights as well as a few odd Lowell Omnis. I had auditioned an Intellitech x100, which I so very much wanted that beautifully constructed instrument to be my go to little light, but no.

It wasn’t enough output to justify the weight and clunky dongle power supply/controller. It didn’t have enough oomph to really be a key light for an interview set up, which is a lot of what I find myself doing these days.

Also, It’s focus feature really didn’t concentrate the beam very much, and was more of a variable snoot. I next looked at this Amaran 200x. It is less weight, half the price, and twice the output of the Intellitech, and it is now my new little go to light.

It has plenty of output to be the interview key light in a variety of circumstances. Paired with the Aputure Light Dome II 36, It is a terrific portrait/interview light. Very, very quiet. I just did four days in a studio, and there was never even a thought about sound.

Keep in mind, that it does not come with a case, but I am packing it with other gear anyway. Also, it is made of plastic, so it will have to be packed with some mindfulness, and won’t survive just tossed on the truck.

For me that is a perfectly fine trade off. All in all more than happy with this light after two weeks of work.

Howdy! Yeah, I read all ’em fancy reviews. Even looked at the Amaran 200x to compliment my other Apurture lights. (specifically to work with my spotlight mount https://www. bhphotovideo. com/c/product/1476274-REG/aputure_spotlight_26_set_spotlight_mount_set_with.

html and the what not. ) Despite all the readin’ & self learnin’ I come to realize I had no idea how little I really knew about this portable little monochromatic tool. till I pulled her out of the box and plugged her in and then, BOOM! To say I was blown away would be right un-gentleman like.

You might say it shined a light on my self-admitted ignorance (see what I did there?) So much power and control with such robust yet durable simplicity, made me blush. Oh wait we were at 2700k (I simply looked blush).

Quick adjust to 5500 and I was glowing from ear to ear! Look at you! How smart you look under all that light! Wait. what. confused? Go on now and get you some!.

although I am not a professional photographer. actually far from it. The kit i purchased is more than adequate for my needs, and can only comment on your services and policies. Two of the three bulbs were no good and you only offered a 15% refund instead of replacements, furthermore I had to research where to purchase the replacement bulbs.

For this I am not sure if I would purchase from you again. however all other aspects of experience was very good. ease of placing order = 4. 5 processing and shipping of order = 5 packing = 4. 5 product =.

I was a little weary when I first ordered but when I received the item I was impressed. For the price this was a great deal. Served me well for an outside family gathering photo shoot. I only used the 2 umbrellas with speedlights.

The stands were small enough to be out of the way and the umbrella provided nice soft lighting at a 15 foot distance.

You should use LED lights instead of CFLS other than that, I loved the product.

My son wanted this for his YouTube videos that he makes. He loved the product. Just what he was looking for. I wanted to get him this for Christmas. I thought I waited too late to order and was going to tell him that he was going to get one but it would be after Christmas.

I didn’t have to tell him that. The company got this to me in plenty of time before Christmas. Nice!! Would definitely recommend the product and the company.

It’s amazing how much solid construction can be packed into a small bag that could even easily fit in a large suitcase. This is not a flimsy lightbox like so many others I have set up. It provides brilliant, controllable light resulting in some fine phtoos.

There were two problems, one surmountable, the other not: Assembly instructions are terrible and markedly inadequate. I would gladly have paid an additional $0. 05 to add some pages to the tiny instruction pamphlet.

Fortunately, a couple YouTube videos helped circumvent the disappointing instructions. The other problem is the inadequate mechanism for holding the background roll in place. With everything else so solid, why should I have to use tape to help the supplied clamp hold onto the background.

That will make disassembly and reassembly a continuing problem. The manufacturers must have been aware of this and their having done nothing to rectify it is disappointing. Furthermore, the supplied black background is far too reflective resulting in a photograph showing a gray, not black background.

Otherwise, I’m happy with the purchase.

The quality is exactly what I expect for appr. 50; materials are lightweight, but sufficiently stable. The lights can be installed quit easily and be taken on a trip or stored away lightly. I was delighted by having so much more light on the photo work and actually positively surprised by the difference the lights make for the photo quality.

With a normal mobile phone from 2016 I was able to make photos a professional should not be ashamed of. I likes that the lights each come with 4 light bulbs of each 45W. That in total is 45W more than 1x135W.

An advantage is also that they can be switched on and off in pairs. I recommend them for the price.

For a beginner level, the product is perfect. Even more so, if you’re pro. It simply does the job. Each light as four light bulbs and you can use two or four at the same time. The only issue I had with it was the need to change the plugs because it came with American plugs.

Not that hard to solve. Packaging was less than perfect but did not affect the equipment. Some of the boxes were open, some others tore but, again, no issue with the equipment.

If you’re looking for a product like this look no further. I did all the searching, and read all the reviews already. So, save you time and put your order in. I settled on this item, and am one very happy customer.

They ship in time, everything they advertise you will get, very affordable price, well made, and EVERYTHING WORKS.

This product was easy and quick to assemble. For the price, it’s great. LED lighting systems are so expensive and would be really nice space savers. This makes for a nice alternative, however. This doesn’t come with sandbags.

In case anyone else thought it did. haha. Also, the white covers that came to cover the boxes weren’t all made the same size. Only 1 of the 3 fit. They sent me a replacement of the entire order and then I need to return the other.

It’d be cheaper to just mail two white covers, but I’m sure that’s hard to orchestrate. They did it quickly and without charging me anything extra. I’ll add pictures to this when they send me working parts.

Works good for intended purpose. Lightweight construction probably won’t stand up to any misuse. As long as you’re careful and don’t plan on traveling with, it performs, good value for the money, but not pro level quality.

I use two 8 ft. LED stripe lights on the left and right side from Lowes that are set up for behind subject lighting on Westcott Green & Blue Screen. This 500W LED kit was perfect for lighting the front of subjects when wanting a shadow free image.

Makes keying easier in post production because subject is consumed in LED lighting. Though I was interested in the 700W system, the 500W has enough luminance than I’ll ever need. The remote was easy to set up and worked great for experimenting in real time to determine what light level works best during video demo.

Working with Final Cut Pro X, I could then determine what level of front lighting worked best. For a $136 you real can’t beat this purchase. The case, 2 stands, 2 umbrellas get you 3/4 there. The lights have an estimated rating of 20,000 hrs with cooling fans built in that run from a remote.

2 umbrellas work great for defusing and spreading the light evenly. No halo in iris like circular lighting gives. So if youre not in need of a bi-color system and just want a good clean LED lighting system to help control shadows for keying purposes, then I believe this could work for you.

It does however come with a warm and cooling lens for other purposes, but the daylight-balanced works best for clean keying. Happy filming.

I LOVE these lights. There is a caveat to this, though. For context, I am a twitch streamer who was looking to get serious about the production value of my stream, and that meant having a static, properly colour balanced two point light setup.

I WAS just using my room’s yellow overhead lamp and my desk lamp to do chroma keying, and had to make some terrible adjustments for the chroma key to work. These lights and their stands manage to be surprisingly maneuverable and compact, even though they sport the umbrellas, and while I don’t know if I’d trust their sturdiness taking them out and about, they are PERFECT for an office setup, where they’ll largely be static.

The bulbs are the perfect colour, incredible compact, and run VERY cool, but. THE BULBS HAVE FANS INSIDE OF THEM. THIS is what people are talking about when they comment about a whine from the bulbs; there is a very small fan in each bulb that keeps the LEDs from overheating the circuitry (even though relatively speaking to other bulbs they’re incredibly cool even after hours of use).

The problem is that the fans are very small, and so have to spin at relatively high speeds to accomplish any real cooling. I did not see any way to open and replace these fans, and wouldn’t trust myself to; besides, there would be no alternatives at that size anyways.

I use an AT2020USB microphone, and honestly just turned down the gain on my mic. Keeping oneself positioned properly with their microphone will mean that turning down gain almost eliminates room noise while maintaining great audio, but be warned; you DO NOT want to purchase these for shooting films.

These will be a nightmare to your editors. unless you like redubbing literally every shot these are used for in post.

Godox E300 Flash Head I bought the Godox E300 Flash Head to replace a couple of Canon flashes that I have been using for macro photography. The main reason for the purchase was because the Canon flashes are simply too expensive in batteries.

B&H shipped the unit fast as always. I was impressed with the quality of the Godox E300 for the price. The unit does have an internal fan that runs very quiet. At the default Power Level of 1. 0, the recharge cycle time is virtually instant.

Although it doesn’t state on the website, the unit that I received also included a Sync Cord. PROS: – Excellent price. – Runs on AC Power. – Plenty of features. – Bright and fast. – Quiet cooling fan.

– Beep mode when ready. – Modeling lamp. CONS: – The light stand shaft on the E300 is too short to fit correctly onto any of my 5/8 stud light stands. The bottom of the short shaft sits at the 5/8 stud’s indent area, so the E300 leans to the side.

To fix this I cut the top off of one of the light stand studs so that the stud is 5/8 along its entire length. – I couldn’t find any replacement flash tubes or modeling lamps on B&H or elsewhere.

This small mono light works pretty well. I purchased it to use as a hair light/background light. At $110. I feel it’s pretty good and does the job. But if you have a small space to shoot in a few of these would work for a complete portrait set up.

The light is easy to adjust, has an optical slave or can be fired with a sync cord or radio receiver. It has a modeling lamp and beep ready sound signal, (which can be turned off). The quality so far seems very reasonable; the only exception being its mount is a little jiggly no matter how much you tighten it (but don’t try to over tighten because that would not be wise).

So if you need a small mono light this unit is good for not a lot of money.

I have only used them a couple times to test them out. By them, I mean I bought two. They will work perfect our composites as well as other indoor photo shoots.

I liked the look of this when it arrived recently and immediately ordered the focus attachment as well. I had it sitting on a light stand for a while without putting it to use. Later when I wanted to tilt it slightly, it would not stay in position, however much it was tightened with the supplied wrench.

Sometimes when almost fully tightened the nut briefly engages but very soon it just flops on the mounting bracket. This was also the case when I tried it with another nut of the same size. It seems the fault is in the thread of the mounting bolt.

Very frustrating.

I love this light. I just happened to be searching for such a light when I found out it just came out. Currently the time of writing this review it’s now unavailable (12/18/19) Not sure why. Did I get the first and only batch? Strange.

All the accessories is really where it’s at which I bought all of them, the gels, flags, the 85mm lens adapter. The flexibility you have with this light is just simply amazing. It’s extremely small and also very bright for it’s size.

One draw back is the fact it drops from 30W to 10W when using battery power so it a lot less bright when on battery and this is for sure noticeable. With a light like this you for sure want the freedom of portability to that’s a little bit of a hit but all the shoots I’ve used it on so far I’ve had power outlet close by so hasn’t been a problem.

Other concerns others had voiced on review sites is that it’s fan is too loud. I have not encountered that at all during my recordings.

I have been using camera’s for years, having many years experience with 35 mm’s. Some years ago, I began using digital versions, but had kept my old flash handle, so that I did not have to hand a heavy flash off the top of a camera body.

This also decreases the likelihood of red-eye. And I had tried various ways to fit a new flash to the handle, but never had a satisfactory answer. Even looked online but was not successful, until I came across these.

Its simple and strong – which is what I was looking for. Not really sure why they have two in a package but suppose it might be useful. If your still using your flash on top of a camera, really consider moving it to a handle – and with this device you have that option.

I needed something to attach my digital recorder to the top of my camera so that I could get better audio when making videos. This little device worked perfectly. Unlike some similar products, this is made entirely of metal and is well machined and well crafted.

The bottom plate fits securely into the camera’s hot shoe and screws down tightly. The top bolt then fits into the tripod hole at the rear of the digital recorder and also screws down tightly. When everything is put together, the camera and recorder feel like a single unit.

Very easy to use and offered at a great price. I highly recommend this product.

I feel like the ones that left bad reviews on this product just happen to have bad luck. I received this product and it came with everything exactly as detailed. It came with instructions on how to properly set everything up.

It works amazingly. The light is perfect for videos and photos. Specially if you are a YouTube this the one product you need.

Save yourself the headache and get a Forza 200! Even a GVM is a more reliable brand. I bought a VL150 in January and was really excited about it. I wish I had the same experience as these other bots but I didn’t.

Out of the box, the light would flicker and turn off, for me to turn on again. This dance would happen a few times in a full day’s shoot. The controller was the culprit. My 3rd time using it, it would just not turn on at all.

I reached out to their customer service since it was still under manufacturer’s warranty and they basically told me to just go ahead and buy a replacement controller. They had no intentions of honoring their manufacturer’s warranty.

Godox represents everything that is awful when it comes to business etiquette, quality control, and customer care!.

My husband bought me one of these so I could use this for our vlogs. We did store pick-up at the Flowood, MS store. Picked it up. Drove the hour home just to find out they sold us a used light that has broken and missing parts.

My question is is this a normal practice for the Flowood, MS store? We will be returning the light for another one, but buyer beware if you do store pick-up from this store. I mean you are selling a vlogging tool and did not think you would be called out? You are lucky I am not posting this on social media! The light ring itself worked.

It is bright enough for vlogging in a small room. It will work fine for someone starting out or if you need extra lighting.

For the price at the time of purchase, I expected this product to be built with integrity. The stand does not fully tighten thus its prone to slide down on certain surfaces. In addition the ring light joint angle does not remain stationary in a locked position.

My initial setup did not require much angulation therefore I did not come across this problem initially. I wish I had done a more thorough assessment because I would have returned this otherwise. Perhaps I received a faulty product just by unfortunate luck, however I cannot recommend this given my personal experience.

The light on this has been a joy to use! The luminosity and the color temperature adjustments are fantastic! The stand is too cheap and flimsy for my liking, so I mounted the light to a sturdier stand.

I wish the power pack was built into the light instead of halfway down the power cords. It’s often in the way and often comes unplugged. I wish say that for vloggers that might set this light up in one spot and use it over and over, it’s a great value.

Very controllable.

My kiddo and I are messing around with YouTube vids. Nothing too serious just for fun so didn’t want to spend too much. This is a great starter set. Super easy to put together, everything came packaged really well.

It’s good equipment but isn’t heavy duty professional level stuff so don’t throw it around in the back of your car or put too much weight or stress on the metal. But it’s all easy to adjust and light so it’s nice and quick to move from room to room for lighting needs.

I use this at home and it’s easy to use and move around, but I also wouldn’t feel embarrassed taking it to a gig if I was a pro(which I am not), the bulbs are bright enough for my purpose but I will probably replace them with LED’s down the road.

The backdrops are ok, a little thin but I needed the frame for green screen anyways so wasn’t worried so much about the black and white options. Arrived fast.

This is a better deal then I was expecting. It is a Zenith product. Well constructed and quite efficient. Metal construction, and easy to assemble, and easy to take down. All the lights, a boom, a backdrop, and an easy carry-all duffel bag, all for one great price.

Thank you.

I had my reservations. I read all of the reviews, but thought ya never know for sure until you try it. The quality is much better, way better than I expected. Super impressed with the care in packaging.

Great starter kit. Only two things I didn’t like: 2 of the bulbs flicker, and everything doesn’t fit in the case they include. Other than that, I’ll definitely buy from them, again.

It looks like an affordable and flexible complement tube light to the bigger brothers (the TL60 which I also have). Pretty light weight. Not as strong in power as the TL60, so only useful as hair light, or maybe product light to create an accent.

The app works fine with it, except for the Gel options which doesn?t work, and the music effect (probably doesn?t have a mic in it). Overall is a inexpensive and flexible tube light to have around.