LED Front Lamp for night shots?

[Adriano Moroni]

Hi, I usually make night shots in the night, in the forest or large areas in the villages where people dance. I always use a small led lamp on my GH5 camera. It often is insufficient and I need more light. I'm thinking about a LED Front Lamp to put on my head. I noticed a lot of lamps of each invoice but for trek and running. I don't know if it can be useful for me too. I need a front lamp with zoom and with a large floodlight. Does anyone here have experience in this regard? Maybe I do a stupid thing to buy and use a LED Front Lamp? I found some LED Front Lamps with 6000K but I could add a filter to make the light a little warmer. I always travel alone and I also need to optimize weight. Thanks for some precious news.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Attach a cto gel to the light.

[Adriano Moroni]

Sure, but it is difficult to understand which is the best LED Front Lamp for night shots because it has to have a good wide floodlight and a right power. I hope someone can give me some suggestions about a precise model. Thank you.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

You’ll get better recommendations from people who use these devices ie sportsmen, camper, hikers, bikers...

There are two main types of lights: the first is a flood wide beam good for close up work this article touches on this type https://www.greenbelly.co/pages/best...king-headlamps
the second is a spot narrow beam that bicyclists would use to illuminate 10ft in front of them. This style is equivalent to a flash light mounted to your head. They’re hybrid in between these two and there are ones that mount to backpack shoulder strap.

I’d go to a store and try them out or buy a few online and return the ones you don’t like. No matter what model you get I think you’re are going to be limited by physics how useful such a small light source will be. Even if it can reach your subjects it will be hard unnatural light with shadows. The results are basically going to be a flash light.

[Oren Arieli]

How far are you from these dancers? How much ISO boost are you willing to do? None of these headlamps (powered by AA/AA) will give you decent power at a distance without being highly focused on a small spot. I don't think that's an ideal use for these low-CRI headlamps. If you get very close to your subject, it's likely to blind them due to being right at eye level. The color of the light is often much too blue and because of the low CRI, you're not likely to get realistic flesh tones regardless of your color balancing skills in pre and post production.
I'd recommend an off-camera panel light, which will give you access to much higher power lighting within a small form factor. Add a nano stand (reversing legs light stand), and get that light as high as possible to minimize the squint factor. Don't bother with soft lights if you want a good throw. You can always add diffusion if you find the lights too harsh. A bi-color unit is useful if you're trying to match warm lights like bonfires. 5600K is a default for shooting at night when the moon is the only other source of illumination. RGB lighting might be less powerful, but you'll be able to dial in any color, or add your own special effect color on-the-fly.
If you're planning on running the lights over 1 hour at full power, don't bother with built-in batteries. For additional research type "on camera lighting review" on YouTube and you'll find a good number of videos.

[Adriano Moroni]

Oren
thank you a lot for your suggestion. Anyway there are headlamps with white light and not bluish or yellowish. Anyway even if the headlight have the adjustable light beam and can become quite wide, you're right. That light makes the skin look unnatural. I would have bought it just for ease of use. In fact, I already have a nice off-camera panel light but I rarely use it because I usually need to shoot in short time. I usually instantly shoot what I see. I thank you again for your advice.