Alright, so I’ve been wanting to share this for a bit. You know how it is, you see all these slick photos online, and you think, “How do they even do that?” For the longest time, I was wrestling with flash. Sometimes it worked, sometimes my photos looked like a crime scene, all harsh shadows and blown-out highlights. It was a bit of a lottery, to be honest.
I was getting pretty fed up, especially when trying to shoot some small product stuff for my own little projects. Fiddling with flash settings, taking a shot, checking, fiddling again… it felt like I was spending more time guessing than actually shooting. Plus, I kinda wanted to dip my toes into making some simple videos, and obviously, flash wasn’t going to cut it there.
My First Brush with Continuous Light
So, I started looking around, reading up on what other folks were doing. That’s when I stumbled onto continuous lighting. The idea sounded brilliant, almost too simple: the light stays on, so what you see is what you get. No more guessing games, or so I hoped. It felt like a revelation compared to the pop-flash-pray method I was often stuck with.
My first step was, well, not very glamorous. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money right off the bat. So, I dug out an old desk lamp, one of those bendy ones. I thought, “Hey, light is light, right?” Oh boy, was I wrong. I pointed it at a book I wanted to photograph. The light was weak, had this weird yellowish tinge, and cast super harsh, ugly shadows. The photo looked, frankly, terrible. It was a bit of a “d’oh!” moment. This wasn’t going to be as easy as just flipping a switch.
Getting Slightly More Serious (and Spending a Little Cash)
Okay, so the desk lamp was a bust. I realized I needed something a bit more… intentional. I decided to invest in a couple of basic LED panels. Nothing fancy, mind you, just some entry-level ones that came with small stands and some diffusion material – that thin white fabric thingy. I figured two would give me more options than one.
When they arrived, I eagerly set them up. My first attempt was just pointing both directly at my subject, an old camera I wanted to get a nice shot of. It was brighter, for sure. But it still looked kinda flat. All the interesting shapes and textures of the camera were just… washed out. It was better than the desk lamp, but still not what I was aiming for. I almost felt like giving up and going back to the confusing world of flash, but I’d already bought the gear, so I pushed on.
The Fiddling and Learning Phase
This is where the real work, and honestly, the fun, began. I started moving the lights around.
- First, I tried just one light, moving it to the side. Boom! Shadows appeared, giving the camera some depth. That was a good start.
- Then, I brought in the second light, but turned its power way down. I used it to just gently fill in some of the darkest shadows, so they weren’t completely black. That made a big difference.
- I also started playing with the diffusion panels that came with the lights. Putting that fabric in front of the LEDs really softened the light. It was less like a spotlight and more like a soft glow. This was key!
- Then I messed with height. Light from above, light from the side, light slightly from the back. Each position changed the look dramatically.
It was a lot of trial and error. I’d move a light, take a test shot on my phone (quicker than getting the main camera out every time), look at it, and move something again. My living room looked like a mad scientist’s lab for a few evenings, with cables and stands everywhere. My cat was very confused but also intrigued by all the new warm spots to sit near.
One thing I quickly learned was the importance of white balance. My camera’s auto white balance got really confused sometimes with the LEDs. So I had to learn how to set a custom white balance, or at least pick the right preset. That alone made my colors look way more natural.
Seeing the Light (Literally!)
After a few sessions of just messing around, things started to click. I wasn’t just pointing lights anymore; I was thinking about where I wanted shadows, where I wanted highlights. I started to understand how to shape the light to make things look interesting, to bring out textures. It was incredibly satisfying to move a light just a few inches and see the immediate impact on the subject, right there before my eyes.
I took some photos of that old camera, some fruit, even tried a simple self-portrait (which was hilarious to set up). They weren’t magazine-cover quality, not by a long shot, but they were miles better than my earlier attempts. They had a certain mood, a deliberate feel to them that was missing before. And the best part? I could see exactly what I was doing, in real-time. No more praying to the flash gods.
So yeah, that’s been my journey into continuous lighting so far. It’s definitely a different way of working compared to flash. It might not be as powerful for freezing super-fast action, but for the kind of still life and controlled shooting I was doing, it felt much more intuitive. It’s a bit like painting with light, and I’m definitely going to keep practicing and see what else I can do with it. It made photography feel more hands-on and less like a technical exam.
