Would you have used an LED light?

[Dan McGuckin]

Looking over the footage I shot for a wedding on Sunday, it was dark, really dark, with lighting on the dance floor with just a chandeler ( spelling, sorry ), and outside, just the sparklers, and the carriage.
I used a 550D, and a Sigma 30mm with a 7" external viewfinder. The video I'll link is not rendered in HD, just DVD mp4 size for ease of upload , and de-noised with NeatVideo ( Vegas )
The ISO was 6400.
I probably could have gotten better light on the dance floor with an LED , which I do not own, but I think it would have ruined the overall beauty, or color scheme of the shot, with adding an outside LED glare.
I'm sure the LED would have let me get up from 1.4 a bit to help with focusing, but I'm not sure I would have liked the end result. Opinions?

Untitled on Vimeo

[Chris Harding]

Hi Dan

The photog is using flash is he not??? If he wants to light the scene I would have too. Then again I don't shoot on DSLR but on video but my technique is to get the overall lighting so the blacks are nicely crushed and then light just who counts, in most cases the bride and groom..that way they are well lit by the video light (if you dim the light so their faces are lit but not blown out) but the overall ambience is still there. It's a great tool if used correctly.

If you watch as they move out of the procession and head for the carriage, they are in complete darkness .. I definately would have followed them a bit closer and lit just their head and shoulders so the overall ambience is still black night darkness.

Chris

[Iker Riera]

Like Chris mentioned, i think the first shot of them getting to the carriage would have been better if you could have moved in a bit closer. At that point a LED light could have a added a bit of fill to make them stand out without being too invasive.

On the dance floor yeah i would have used it, you don't have to blast it at full power, just adjust it to fill the right amount needed for each shot.

Here's a video i did recently with the following equiments/setting:
- Two Canon T3i's
- Sigma 30mm f/1.4 (using between 1.4 and 2.0 most of the time)
- Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 (at 2.8)
- Two Z96 LED lights.
- Technicolor Cinestyle
- ISO at 800 at all times.

Colegio Champagnat - Promo 51 - Fiesta de Graduación y Créditos - YouTube

We always had the light on the camera and simply adjusted the dimmer depending on the shot.

[Oren Arieli]

You don't own a LED light or any type of on-camera light? Pick up one today! Sure, you might alter the 'dark as hell' ambiance they are hoping to create, but you won't starve your camera of photons. There is a second option of mounting the 'on-camera' LED to a light stand off to one side. That way, you still get a brighter image, but not necessarily flat.

[Dan McGuckin]

I have plenty of studio lights, but no, no on camera LED ( speedlights, yes )
I'll have to invest in one.
And I was on a tripod, so couldn't really move around without losing the shot.

[Don Bloom]

I've said it before, ambience is nice but what's more important. Quality footage or the felling of dark. Cameras need light to function properly (get a quality image). I always tell my couples when we first converse that I'll be using some sort of lighting. LEDs to be sure but either on camera, off camera or a combination of the 2 IF they want quality footage. Years ago using the old 200W sungun (beta days back in the 80s) yes it was annoying, today, I think people realize that there neds to be some sort of additional lighting. Saturday there was a guest using some sort of small palmcorder shooting dancing. Pretty much along side of me. He asked me why I used a light since the footage he had looked great on his LCD. I said to turn the brightness of the LCD down to match the lighting in the room and then talk to me. Needless to say his footage looked crappy. Caveman dark, enough grain to look like a newsprint.
A little light never hurt anyone. I've rarely had anyone complain about my light to me and the B&G are always happy I used it since they can actually see the party and it's properly exposed.
Solid, properly exposed, well composed footage with really good audio will win everytime. At least it has for me.

I don't think an LED on a low setting would have hurt anything and would have helped the color a bit. Taken the yelloow out of the brides dress. (unless it was a yellow dress)
LEDs today are pretty inexpensive. I think you'd be happy with one.

[Dan McGuckin]

Thanks for all the replies, I ended up ordering NEEWER® 160 LED CN-160 for when it's needed.
By the way, the image is not color corrected at all, just de-noised and a render to upload, no other editing was done ( yellow dress )

[Don Bloom]

Ah, explains the yellow! ;-)
I've got 2 of the Neewer 160s and use them as off camera lights. I have remotes on them so on/off is easy from a distance but before I set that up I used 1 for on camera. I worked really well for me. I just needed something else for on cam so I opted to have 2 remote lights. I also use them for quick setup talking heads stuff. Small, lightweight, compact, fast and easy to setup and strike.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Dan

I still have a CN-160 ..you might need to do a mod on the cold shoe base as it's rather poorely made. On mine I removed the foot totally and bolted a miniball head into the base of the light case and it had a cold shoe fitting already on it. Much tougher and a lot more sturdy.

I find the multiLED's a bit cumbersome so all my new lights have PowerLED's ...much more compact as they have 6 or 8 LED's instead of 160!! The light coverage and control is excellent too!!

Chris

[Stelios Christofides]

Originally Posted by Dan McGuckin

I have plenty of studio lights, but no, no on camera LED ( speedlights, yes )
I'll have to invest in one.
And I was on a tripod, so couldn't really move around without losing the shot.

In scenes like this it's better to have a monopod so you can easily move around if need be, and yes an LED light on the camera is a must. I have invested on the Comer CM-LBPS1800 On-Camera LED Light and never looked back.

stelios