How To Use LED Lighting Panels For Filming?

At present, LED lighting panels are far more popular than they have ever been become. They are very simple to set up, efficient and convenient, some great reasons which have made them ideal for use in filmmaking also. They have a number of perks when it comes to shooting movies. The best thing about them is that they eliminate the need to use generators for capturing night scenes in dark environments. They need no more than a V-mount battery to operate. Moreover, they do not heat up quickly, which makes teardowns and adjustments easy. And sheet for LED lighting panels are also quite inexpensive, making maintenance less extensive.

However, there are certain things that need to be kept in mind while working with LED panels to shoot movies:

Modifier Is A Necessity :-

Just like any other source of light, LED panels do not provide visually pleasing results when directly focused on the subject. The raw light can impart a cheap look to any footage. That is why, using a modifier at all times is a must. Not only would it help to achieve the desired outcome, but also give a very professional touch to the movie.

Dimming Should Be Done With Care :-

Modern LED panels are also available in variants with brightness dimming controls. The feature is excellent and very useful for controlling the amount of light falling on subject. But sometimes, dimming may cause the LED panel to flicker, which can adversely affect the footage. The problem becomes more apparent at the time of editing the movie. Therefore, it is always advisable to run tests for determining the point up to which dimming is okay.

Mixing Colour Temperatures Is A No-No :-

Nowadays, we are witnessing the availability of LED panels with controls for mixing different colour temperatures between daylight and tungsten. However, inexperienced filmmakers often end up abusing this feature, only to shoot footage that ultimately does not match. Sometimes, even experienced professionals make this mistake and accidentally create inconsistent lighting throughout a piece. Thus, one must be careful enough to avoid colour temperature combinations when they are simply not required.

Using LED panels in filmmaking is highly beneficial to the work. But the perks can be reaped only when the panels are utilised in the right manner. Therefore, every filmmaker working frequently with LED lighting must make sure to follow the above mentioned guidelines for shooting brilliant and sharply detailed footage.