No matter if you’re filming or photographing, it’s important to have a effective and efficient studio lighting set up. From fill lights to special effects lighting, we’ve put together the best starter pack must-haves below to take out all the guess work.
Key Light
A key light is the main lighting in your set-up. No matter its brightness, colour or position, this is the main light focus on your subject. In a basic set-up the key light is usually referred to as the ‘high-key’ light where the key is stronger than any of the other ‘fill’ lights within the scene. Usually it makes the image shadow-free, leaving predominant highlights. We highly recommend the Kenro Smart Lite RGB Light Panel for this job – its 24.5x23.8cm dimensions make for a large light surface complete with over 600 LEDs to create that bold, flat key light. This light also boasts a 360-degree RGB colour spectrum, with 1-100% controls for both brightness and saturation, offering millions of colours for limitless creativity. However, if you’re looking for a key light that will really make your subject pop, you could swap it out for the Kenro Smart Lite 19” RGB Ring Light. This lighting set up would work best for portraiture and beauty shots where the focus is on a flawless finish.
Fill Light
Fill lights do exactly that – they fill any dark voids in your images or videos. Using a smaller but powerful light such as the Kenro Smart Lite RGB Compact LED Lights are a great option. Their compact size means they’re easy to move about the scene without getting in the way of your shots. Again, with 360-degree RGB colour spectrum, you get the same almost limitless colour options as you do with your chosen key light. Plus, the Smart Lite range also come programmed with a range of tricky lighting scenarios such as flickering screen effects, candle or flame setting, as well as three emergency service vehicle settings.
Another option for a fill light is using a tube light like the Kenro Smart Lite Compact RGB Tube Light. This light provides optimal lighting for your shot with the same precision control over brightness, colour as well as special effects lighting. This first-rate tube light is ideal for a whole host of applications, including light painting, an element in a portrait shot, macro photography and as a general all-purpose light source.
Flash
Depending on the effects that you want from your lighting set up, a flashgun could also be a beneficial part of your set up. Although many cameras have a decent on-board flash built in, having a separate speedflash flashgun gives you much more flexibility when it comes to the direction and even harshness of the flash within the scene. The Kenro Standard Speedflash is a great option for an off-board flash. Compatible with both Canon and Nikon Wireless systems and with a synchronisation speed of up to 1/8000 in both manual and multi-flash systems, this piece of kit will be a great addition to your arsenal.
Stands
It’s all well and good to have all the lighting, but a sturdy and supportive lighting stand is also paramount in your lighting set up. For your lighter studio lights or lighting that will be moved around a lot more, you’ll want to use something like the Kenro 1.9m Lightweight Light Stand, perfect for moving your fill lights around the scene. If you’re using a ring light or something closer to your subject, you might consider using the Kenro 2m Lighting Stand, with its vast usable height and weight capacity, it’s a great all over stand. For your more industrial key lighting that will remain through your scene, or if you’re looking to work in some more interesting over lighting, the strong and sturdy 2.8m Pro Lighting Stand will be the one for you.
We’d love to see your studio set ups; whether you’re keeping it classic or playing with darkness and colour. Share your setups with us on Instagram or Facebook with the #kenro for a chance to be featured.
