LED Lights

Thanks for all the comments.

Peter

The shot I posted is not really correct, I had a custom white balance set when I took it. Here is one I took just now with an F 50 set to f1.7 with autowhite balance, shot in raw, converted to 8bit tiff, and sharpened with Matt's PS action, no white balance adjustments were done in C1, -1 stop for exposure.



Hope this helps.

Looks like it needs some serious diffusion Brian.
Maybe some sheets of tracing film or baking sheet would help?
Matt

Hi Matt, thats the beauty of LED's, so cool you can stick anything on the front. Will be doing some experimenting this week, luckily I work in a drawing office, as we are all PC based now there are rolls of tracing paper and various thickness's of mylar lying in store that will never be used..... well not for drawing on .
The coffee machine cups might be interesting too...cheap stofen (18p including coffee).

These bulbs I've got look as though they are only 13degree spots, you can get flood type and more powerfull here, http://www.chamaeleon-tech.com/hyperion.htm.

Will post some of the experiments hopfully by the weekend.

LEDs are a very interesting light source. They can be very bright and stable (being DC there is no flicker). The higher power ones do kick out some heat but it's nothing like as bad as a tungsten lamp.

Newer white LEDs usually use ultra violet light which is converted to a blue-ish white by a phosphor inside the LED. Some types use multi-coloured LEDs to generate white. Colour rendering can be a bit poor but it is getting better all the time.

For the more adventurous you can get IR versions (should be fun with HIE or SFX) or you can strobe them to make a flash unit.

I'd say give 'em a try!

As promised here are some more shots lit with the LED's, still only have 2 bulbs, get the other 2 tommorow. I reckon the *istD auto white balance hadles the LED light very well.

SMC FA100mm Maco, no adjustments to the RAW file, converted to 8bit Tiff, sharpened (Matt's Sharpen-O-Matic action) and resized. Camera was set to Auto White Balance.

Matt.
I knew they needed some diffusion, I was in a bit of a rush but I have taken your comment on board, Sainsbury's 6 pint milk bottle for these shots (washed offcourse) taped to the front of the bulbs.

http://www.pbase.com/mcbrian/image/58681443.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/mcbrian/image/58681444.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/mcbrian/image/58681445.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/mcbrian/image/58681446.jpg