Choosing Between Flash and LED for Photography: Which Is Right for You?

[@alantuttphotography]

You reminded me of some of the benefits of flash over LED. The more I get into doing videos, the more I like the idea of standardizing on LEDs, but as you pointed out so well, it still pays to have a few flashes in the mix.

[@robhallphoto]

I really wish I could adopt a single system as well. Would certainly clean up my space. Maybe one day.

[@BipolarCourage]

I was actually wondering about LED when I saw a photographer use a flash as a fill in outdoor full sun. Thanks for explaining the differences.

[@jimmyhinAK]

As a hobbyist and someone with gear acquisition syndrome I have collected strobes and led lights and use them all and agree with your pro and cons.

[@lowerleftside]

Saving this video to share with those that don’t get it.

[@robhallphoto]

Haha, my favorite videos I make are the ones that spare me a lot of future typing!

[@sabyfoz538]

As a wedding photographer, I enjoy sticking to portable led panels because I'm also shooting wedding videos simultaneously and my most favorite light in this scenario is the Godox LC500R stick light. I don't have to waste so much time that usually goes into setting up flash inside a softbox. But that's just when I'm shooting indoors or evening/night shoot. If its during the day, only my Godox AD300pro does the job to lower the ambient sunlight. Meaning no matter how good the leds get, Speedlights and flashes will always have their place

[@eternalincantation]

how many watts is the lx500r?

[@smithcon]

Would love to see a video on the hybrid led flashes.

[@robhallphoto]

Will do! Thanks for the response.

[@jasonpooler7043]

I'm a part time wedding photographer & videographer. One tool I keep in my bag is the ad200 pro with the led round head. I've found when I'm working with a team shooting photo & video (specifically for speeches) using this light to focus on the speech giver helps us both since the photographer can sync their flash to it and it will fire while still keeping the constant light source for the videographer.

[@duaneconliffe2869]

Thank you for this great video! I would like to see your video about hybrid LED/Flash lighting, especially Rotolights.

[@Photomeike]

While I will always value flash over LED for anything photography wise. I also understand the benefits and the ease of use that LED’s provide (what you see is what you get). So what that being said sometimes I use the Bi color LED modeling lamp on my Profoto B10’s for some detail shots at my weddings. I love that feature!

[@robhallphoto]

Absolutely. Last time I did ring shots was 300 Pro modeling lamp as well. Rather than gel / ND a flash down to the low light of a candlelit reception, I just flipped the temp to 3200 and had a breeze manually focusing.

[@gentlegnt]

This video is SO priceless!! Nit a lot of drawn out blah...blah.. That other KZbinrs go into just to themselves talk and give less content than you. This really helps me to understand why when using effects dark color gels, I have so much difficulty getting the desired effects. Lights are just TOO weak compared to my Ad200 or Godox 600. LED's van be good for right project...but less controllable (must have a gridded aodtbox for more output direction control like a strobe in a softbox, but then again, output is much less, etc. The AEIS 2 by Rotolight is appealing for a Runway shoot for me because of the no recycle time it would give me, ans costant light for focusing prioe to shooting. BUt then again,, would that AEOS2 give me the freeze option I would get from a freeze effect with it?? I would like to see you do a demo of that for us. Runway models walking and freezing motion with an AEOS 2 vs a traditional strobe.

[@robhallphoto]

While I haven’t actually used the Aeos 2 to comment on its output and how I think it can handle a specific scenario, I can lend one insight with certainty about a shortfall of hybrid LED flash (like Rotolight). There’s a fundamental problem with LED flash and freezing action. And that is, the shorter your flash duration, the less light you get. This is true of IGBT strobes as well - the more you drop the output the shorter your flash duration gets. But the low-brightness starting point of LED flash makes it far more restrictive. You can imagine, if your Rotolight has a fixed peak brightness in Flash mode, the duration of that brightness also affects how much light the camera sensor sees. As you shorten the duration of light, you reduce the overall brightness. If it’s duration is 1/1000s, it will be 1/10th as bright vs a duration of 1/100th. One might think they can get around it by cranking their shutter speed, but the same thing happens. The moment your shutter speed is less time than the flash duration you begin reducing the total brightness that makes it to the sensor. So no matter what you do, the more demanding the action freezing is, the more light you’re going to lose with a hybrid flash system. This quickly eats away at their effectiveness.

[@paz09]

NOW you tell me, after having bought several Godox ML-60bis, and winning a Nanlite FS-150 at the B&H show last week! Oh well! I note the differences, and the difficulties. But there are some times when it works well. I do like being able to see what you will get. And it can make for a very moody shoot. I did one over the weekend with some Westcott lights and a dancer/model. Yes, one could see the movement when dancing, but the shutter speed was still fast enough that her face was sharp in most of the pictures; and when she was just posing, the lighting was almost like a noir movie--lots of shadows and highlights. Sure, it can be done with flash, but I found the constant lights very effective over all.

[@WaltherLigtvoet]

Nice video, just recently discovered your channel, loving it sofar... Would love to see more info about the hybrid led flashes btw

[@nickstersss]

I missed you Rob, welcome back!

[@HumanLearningTech]

Excellent presentation and explanations of each. I'm mostly a speed light shooter and recently got a couple 200 watt video lights, been seeing how massive the difference is between these lights especially with that low wattage lol.

[@WilsonSilverthorne]

I’d be up for a hybrid LED video. I currently use the FL-150 with my Godox spot light and it works okay as a flash. But it really excels at having the lowest LED power to aim the spot without blinding my model and then over charge the LED for a strobe flash. It’s pretty good at up to about f/5.6 - f/8 at normal ISO. It’s a good work around not being able to mount larger strobes to the Godox spotlight due to the bowens mounting cavity shallow depth into the spot. Thanks for the great content.

[@dallasroberts3206]

Great video! I think once a photographer wraps their head around flash there's no question which way to go. YOU... have taught ne a lot over the last few years so many thanks!

[@robhallphoto]

Happy to do it!

[@trulsdirio]

I like LED for product photography, as I can do focus bracketing with no second thoughts, can switch to video immediately and can do with longer shutter speeds. Also being a mft shooter, I can get away with much larger apertures for the same depth of field, which also helps.

[@MultiGaspasser]

Excellent discussion, extremely complete and well thought out. Thanks.

[@robhallphoto]

Thrilled to hear this as I actually recorded this a second time for greater brevity and better examples!

[@52701970]

Great topic. I would like to see a follow up video of the hybrid light like the roto lights neo

[@garyadams5201]

Great Video Mr. Hall!

[@007PJG]

Thank for the video it answers some questions I had about purchasing continues lights

[@SFCRen]

Great video covering the reality of the "this versus that" of the two options.

[@LMActionsports]

So i do a ton of outdoor portraits. And i love using HSS to get the background exposed correctly. And i use just about every watt strobe all the way up to the flashpoint ad1200 pro for action shots for my sports portraits. I followed one of my favorite photographers and my decided to jump on the bandwagon and try out the Rotolight systems. I bought a couple neon 2’s and the aeos. I like them because they also did strobe mode. But came to realize they are not strong enough or powerful enough on those sunny days. They are great for indoor, and truly amazing for video. But they sit in the bag when it comes to my outdoor portraits. And one thing that came to my attention Multiple times is my clients don’t like the LED shining in their face constantly if they had a choice of LED or a strobe. Great video as always.

[@robhallphoto]

Yeah one area that people say Rotolights work well for is wedding receptions. I would never go LED on a dance floor because it’s so distracting to the guest experience. Some would argue that flash has the same issue, but the significantly shorter flash duration makes it far less visible / distracting.

[@LMActionsports]

@@robhallphoto oh my goodness I couldn’t even imagine turning LED lights on at a wedding on the dance floor, people would be mad. Obviously, there is already LED lights on the dance floor set up by the DJ that goes in sync with the music. But turning on your own LEDs to get a good picture sorry I couldn’t do that. I prefer having two speedlights and key positions that has the best background, that’s not so distracting and every time the wedding couple turns into those key positions that’s when I take my photos with the speedlights. I guess I was expecting more power from the rotolight aeos. But I would need to get a rotolight titan to do high speed sync for outdoor portraits. and my ad600’s or ad1200 pro gets the job done without the pricetag of a titan. i am not knockin g rotolight, i still use them for video and when i setup a mobile studio for school prom, i use the aeos to give me more light to focus on the couples.

[@officialtiimo]

I would absolutely love to see a video on hybrid LED lighting

[@robhallphoto]

Coming soon!

[@jphdznr]

Thanks for putting this all so succinctly and clearly. Makes a lot of sense out of some foggy areas for me. Thank you. Meanwhile, I would love to see more on hybrid lighting. Thanks! 😊

[@robhallphoto]

I appreciate this response as I did this video twice just to trim it down and make it more clear! Definitely looks like there’s interest in the hybrid discussion so I will try to get that together soon.

[@johnleighdesigns]

Very nicely presented I enjoyed hearing your thoughts and findings in relation to my setups and experiences. Im a portrait an fashion shooter also doing product shots and Im mainly using speedlites at my home based small studio. Whilst I own reasonable budget LED lights I still find in my setups that the power and size of speedlites suits the work and without having to darken down the room. Having said that I want to explore more with LEDs particularly for the product shoot side Ive been lazy and relied on flash though dipped into LED for filming. A couple of extra points I would love to add to provoke further discussions and feedback with your viewers is that when I have used LED lights the models/actors/musicians have struggled with the glare from constant lighting which whilst strong enough to make actors squint like Client EastWood in those westerns, my camera is at 800 ISO and 1/125 and f4 to achieve it which is not great for unwanted motion blur plus I get lots of noise. Most models and bizarrely actors that came for shoots have preferred flash Leading on from that I find myself wondering about films/movies/documentaries where the footage looks clean in low light dim lit moody scenes that for my camera would have to be at 32000 or higher to achieve some exposure at all so im guessing a lot of those are actually shot in decent light and then crushed down in post to give the night/dim light look.

[@NeilSnapePhotography]

I use LED to mix with daylight in studio as I only need to add fill, and like to see the effect in real time. With workshops and studio rentals I find most photographers don't really understand flash, where LED are so easy. I have two FV Godox main lights and 6 SL 60 W for background lights or accents. Life has become a lot simpler with LED. The only real deraw back is light quality and power output if depth of field is needed.

[@temaborbiuwovwi2637]

Pls do a video on hybrid lighting

[@ShadowlightPhotography]

Would love to see you review the new Rotolight products i.e. Neo3 Pro and especially the Aeos 2 Pro, as that is the more powerful but still portable model.

[@ralphberrett8485]

When I need lights I typically use flash, if I am shooting video I use LED. For product shots I use studio flash, but for glassware, I tend to use LED. Portraits I go back to flash. I have greater control with flash for stills.

[@Alvocinq]

Thanks for this very helpful video.

[@6gwilliams]

Thanks Rob, another great video. I personally favor using my 12 Godox/Flashpoint strobes, but I have actually used some of their LED modeling lights to use as fill in ambient lighting portraits indoors and at night. Cheers and best to you.

[@burnhamny]

super well done - thank you!

[@ray313ray]

Hey Rob. Would you consider making a video Godox AK-R21 and how it compares to the LED projector system that they make?

[@robhallphoto]

I just got mine in so I plan to work with it this week and hopefully video out by next week!

[@KomeiHarada]

Great video! One advantage of flash you didn't mention is that it doesn't make the model squint like the bright LED does. Most LED lights are not bright enough to cause this problem. But if you want to achieve the flash-level brightness with powerful LED, squinting would certainly become a problem.

[@robhallphoto]

I don't think I agree, as an advantage that many headshot photographers find in LED is how it narrows the pupil to create a more full iris. The human eye is beyond capable of tolerating the brightness of a modest LED. I have light eyes that are sensitive to light and am unbothered by a 1200w LED. If you were trying to match the brightness of a 600w strobe via LED (not sure this level LED even exists) at 1/200s, absolutely - I don't think anyone could tolerate that. But in terms of the brightness that people actually use for portrait work, most subjects would be fine.

[@KomeiHarada]

@@robhallphoto, thank you for your reply! I think we are actually agreeing with each other ;) As I said, most LED lights are not bright enough to make the model squint. But if the LED lights keep becoming more powerful in the future, squinting may become a problem.

[@HDBnB1]

Such a good video. But wow I didn’t know my godox v1 has the same output as a 1200x!

[@eksmaan]

Spot on man. 💯

[@robhallphoto]

Thank you!

[@amitkrupal1234]

8:27 Awesome

[@MrMarclauren]

Awesome tutorial!!

[@Jwitherow1964]

Good to see you! We’re you been?

[@robhallphoto]

Good to be back! 3 words: 1 year old 😂

[@brucedeo1981]

i shot some small (catalog) products and i choose LED. Why? Because i can focus stack! As simple as that, R6 has auto focus-stack option, i shot 10-15 frames in auto-mode (flash doesn't work in this setting) and im done. I also avoid using f16 for example that deteriorates quality, and stay in f5,6-f8 where is the lens sweet spot. Happy so far, but for portraits or bigger objects where you need much more light, definetely you still need flash for pro-grade results.

[@boringlyfactual6368]

For the scope of this video, which is just right, it is one of the best videos of any kind I’ve seen. And it felt complete. I think that I now have the intellectual framework to make reasonable analysis of lighting that I lacked before. Very well done. Thank you.

[@robhallphoto]

I think we’re cut from the same cloth as I feel your username would be an excellent channel name considering a lot of my videos😂. Thank you for the comments, I really appreciate it.

[@VTGGT]

I have a 600w flash and my gf has a 60w led and I am trying to find out the analogy of Gn to lumens. So with this video you answered my questions I think... Also Greg Williams in hos professional seminars prefers constank light of flash but he uses 24KW lights to do the job. Unearthy really...

[@pogolas]

So light is light. But is it possible, that the pilot lights of a strobe (tungsten), will produce a different result than the flashes of a setup? I am asking, because I see different results on reflecting bicolour objects. There is a better separation, in photos shot with pilot lights.

[@Lucamitm]

What about for a beginner food photography? I struggle to do focus stacking with a flash and I still don’t manage all the shadows of each fruits on a big cake for example. Is there a size of led you recommend that will be like a godox ad100, or you don’t recommend at all led for this use case scenario? Thanks

[@albert.artphotography]

excellent 👍👍👍 thanks 🙏

[@ArtKingjr]

Excellent video!

[@robhallphoto]

Thank you!

[@AnthonyToglife]

Yup!

[@uncleanAlibertine1]

great great I love this

[@waynedennyphoto]

Hey Rob! I bought the VL300 a while back based on your vid, I use it quite a bit for headshot work (fill light & to make the pupils smaller for more color in the iris). Question for you, have you ever reviewed/done a video about the Godox FL150R Flexible LED lights? They've recently gone on sale, and I was curious as to your opinion on them (there's hardly anything on YT) because it'd be much easier to carry around rather than the VL300. I'm in Florida, and anything to lighten the load in the summer is a godsend!

[@robhallphoto]

I haven't ever made a video on them, however I do actually use one. I have the FL150 + softbox as my key light for videos at my desk. The reason I got it was because it's so lightweight that I actually nailed it into my wall. This works great because it's a tight space and allows me to get rid of one more stand. I'm not sure I'd like it for run-and-gun stuff though, as putting it together on a stand would annoy me, even if it is quite light.

[@waynedennyphoto]

@@robhallphoto Interesting, thanks for the reply! I saw a vid of a guy using them for headshots similar to what Peter Hurley does, and was shocked at the price difference between them and the Westcott version. It's not exactly how I'd use them, but I was intrigued because they seemed so lightweight for headshots in an office for a day job.

[@wendystumbaugh695]

I bought into the Rotolight hype (don’t get me wrong - they are great lights) but really only use them to constrict the pupils in the eyes of my studio subjects. I mainly shoot environmentally (typically too bright or far for LED), narrow aperture studio headshots or events. I’ve seen people plop an LED atop their camera, but that’s rather obnoxious. A few LEDs are great to have, but my treasure trove is mostly filled with flash.

[@robhallphoto]

Rotolight has their merits. I went from basically calling them a scam to feeling they are a high quality LED / hybrid but a bit overpriced, and especially on the smaller models they really lack application outside of shooting in a pitch black room. I still hate their marketing’s initial emphasis on no recycle time. It focused on a speedlight’s “4-5 second recycle time”. But they conveniently left out the fact that a speedlight is producing 50x more light at that recycle speed. That always came off as a gross misrepresentation of their products capabilities. Flash is still the way for sure!

[@wendystumbaugh695]

@@robhallphoto you bring up a great point. Recycle rates are actually very fast on speedlights and strobes when set to practically anything lower than 1/16th don’t you think? I’d never argue LED has no merit, but…

[@robhallphoto]

@@wendystumbaugh695 Yeah I'd call anything under 1/16th fast. Even an old dusty AA speedlight will recycle in a fraction of a second at that power. And all these battery operated strobes that recycle full power in 2 seconds, those will keep up with 10 fps at 1/32 power.

[@JeffBennionPhotography]

Great video

[@robhallphoto]

Thank you Jeff! Are you all LED in the studio nowadays?

[@JeffBennionPhotography]

@@robhallphoto yes, except when I have to be. I'm going to be writing some fstoppers stuff about this, including this video. I mentioned it a bit in my last article about freezing movement.

[@itspeache]

Can you do an LED vs tungsten?

[@markwildphotography]

It’s got to be a combination of both! I bought 2 Aperture Bi-Colour LS 60X’s last year and they’ve been invaluable 👍🏻 Great content as usual Rob!

[@JeffBennionPhotography]

I switched from 100% flash and being a hard core flash-only guy to 99% LED and I love it and can't go back.

[@yordanlamouche]

Where did you find the difference between light power?

[@robhallphoto]

By metering lights. I have spreadsheets comparing dozens of LED products to one another, and Flash products to one another. And in the case of bridging the two I've compared the FV150 Hybrid LED flash to an AD400 Pro flash. The AD400 Pro at 1/64 -.2 produced the same brightness as the FV150 at 100% brightness, so the FV150 is -6.2 stops as bright. There were additional factors (FV150 punching up relative to other LED products at the time, the shutter speed this test was done at) that ultimately had me land on 1/50th as bright. But your shutter speed, use of HSS, and modifier you use can skew these results significantly.

[@terencemorrissey4413]

You should make a video using LED outside for night photography.

[@robhallphoto]

I searched my entire BTS history for a clip to use as B roll for that portion and couldn’t find one. I have done a few shoots at night over the years but I’ve always still used flash. I’ll give it a whirl this spring.

[@fjhphoto]

@Sharpen I got tons!😜

[@robhallphoto]

Lol I considered reaching out to you for a clip this morning when I was finalizing this at 7 am, but I figured it was too early.

[@brettharrisphotography7463]

LED lighting hads a very long way to go!

[@mordavian]

Led is a good light for food photography when using a camera on a tripod.

[@andersistbesser]

As a hybrid shooter i use leds for everything.

[@captureitphotography2352]

For my headshot work, I'm 100% LED panels (other than sometimes using speedlights on the backdrop). My setup puts the lights close to my subject, and the result is unbeatable in my experience. I'll use them for portraits sometimes, but I do like mixing it up with strobes for more creative work. Yes, strobes/speedlights gives you lots of creative potential, but ultimately I use the tool I need for the result I want.

[@AStageForTheKingdom]

In your experience, what are the specific advantages of LEDs vs speedights for headshots?

[@captureitphotography2352]

@@AStageForTheKingdom much less futzing with lights - I have my setup locked down. I can see the light before I press the shutter, so not testing things on the client. Clients appreciate nothing flashing in their eyes. Pupil size is reduced allowing more of the iris to be seen. It's may not work as well for people who think a headshot is actually a 1/2 or 3/4 body and you have to have the lights far away - hence my portrait setup. But if you're taking actual head-and-shoulder headshots, it's an awesome setup

[@omarortizytc]

flash is still king 👑

[@3DThrills]

I assembled a 161 watt LED array for $80 that I can repair myself for $5 should it ever be necessary. I'm not much of a techie, I just used available components. I don't own a flash or strobe.

[@robhallphoto]

While that's fun and possibly even functional, most consumer grade LED products have terrible CRI, low output/watt, and lack control via light modifiers - hence the purpose of professional tools.

[@3DThrills]

I suspect most of your viewers are not professionals and need less expensive options in order to participate at all. I've got plenty of modifiers.@@robhallphoto

[@ALex-qc4lf]

Somehow this doesn't make sense. LEDs don't have to stay on long, an LED can flash for thousandths of seconds. To me this only sounds like the LEDs you're using are meant to be ambient light, not flashes. LEDs are vastly more efficient than any other luminescent technology we have that can act at speeds needed for a flash. I would be curious what kinda light a flash actually puts out in lumens. Considering a 12cm LED flashlight can produce 2000 lumens continuously, a flash shouldn't be an issue. There is extremely high power LEDs and usually they are limited only by the heat (since they are so small) so for something like a flash, I can't believe it wouldn't be possible 🤔

[@robhallphoto]

I would be curious if someone intentionally designed an LED strictly to overcharge / have short durations like a flash. So far those who have designed LED systems to emulate flash (Rotolight Neo / Aeos, Godox FV series) design them as hybrids capable of constant production too. But all have followed roughly the same principle, a 4-500% overcharge and a duration of around 1/200s. While the 4-500% overcharge helps to close the gap, they are still far below the power of flash. For instance the peak brightness of a Rotolight Neo II simulating flash is equivalent to a speedlight around 1/64 power. And that’s using a V-mount battery that is as big as the speedlight itself. And this is with the speedlight diffused to mimic the spread of the Rotolight. Until we see the overcharge rating increase by a factor of 20, to 10,000%, LED will continue to be very far from strobes.

[@MichaelRoachWV]

I decided to use LED for Peter Hurley - inspired headshot lighting setup. In this use case, LED works fine, but it took me down a godox-mount rabbit hole lol. Long story short, I hacked together a Godox Mount to Bowens Mount adapter: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4OQl6F_ir58r7M

[@jsavak99]

you secretly love led

[@noun_photography]

But when I use LED it makes it way easier for the people loitering to steal the images I'm creating, which is a huge benefit. 😝