Photo Answers

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- Andrew James

Andrew James

Andrew is a highly experienced writer and photographer – if you have a problem, he is here to help.

LED or flashgun?

Q Instead of buying a flashgun, could I get away with a cheaper LED light? George Poole

A A lot depends on what you are intending to illuminate. LED lighting has improved a lot in recent years; for simple ‘what you see is what you get’ lighting in a range of shooting situations, an LED can be all you need. LED is a lot more efficient than old-fashioned incandescent lighting, which is why it’s become so popular in domestic and workspace buildings. This popularity has spilled over into photography – and, more specifically, videography – which means there are lots of LED lights for photography and filming on the market.

While they’re useful, though, LEDs do not produce the amount of light that a flashgun can. If you compare a typical flashgun with a similarly sized LED unit, you’ll discover that the quick one-off burst of light emitted by a flashgun, even at its lowest power, will outgun an LED every time. LEDs can offer excellent continuous illumination, but they can’t compete with a flash’s instant power.

In situations where you need additional lighting and a fast shutter for a moving subject, the flashgun is your best option by far. However, if you are shooting still-life subjects where it doesn’t matter how long your exposure is, an LED is a really good option. Portraits are also possible with an LED, but again, you may find the shutter speeds available to you, even at wide apertures, are slow, so you’ll need to increase ISO to compensate.