Light sticks can add another dimension to your long exposure photography, and you can create some amazing light-painting images with them.
In this article, we’re going to look at some different types of RGB lighting options, which will hopefully help you decide which ones will suit you best.
RGB Ice Sticks
RGB lighting in the form of ice sticks are great for light painting in long exposure photography, and for adding colourful and creative effects to portraits. You can use it as a main light on an outdoor shoot or for video, and you can use them in the studio for atmospheric portrait lighting, or as coloured background lighting.
The Yongnuo YN360 Ice Stick has warm light, daylight and full RGB colours, which makes it a versatile part of your studio lighting setup. Change from daylight to tungsten-type lighting with simple click-on filter, and you can choose from red, green, or blue light to create any colour of the spectrum. It comes with handy Bluetooth technology that allows it to be controlled by a compatible smart device for absolute ease of use.
The Yongnuo YN360II light stick comes with selectable colour temperatures of 3200K, 5500K, and also RGB colour. The Bluetooth connectivity allows for remote controlling by a smart device from up to 15 metres, and you can choose from a colour wheel within the app for total control.
You can tripod mount your light stick, as there is a ¼ inch tripod socket to give you more versatile lighting options.
Lots of photographers and videographers love the Yongnuo light sticks, as they are versatile and great value for money, especially for beginners building their kit. They are all-plastic, but very robust, and lightweight.
Portable RGB LED Pocket Lights
These pocket light sticks great for shooting on the go, and because they’re battery operated, they are supremely portable.
The Boling BL-P1 RGB Pocket LED Video Light has a huge colour temperature range between 2500K to 8500K, and lets you control the brightness between 1-100%.
The battery life of this model is 120 minutes at full power, and it has built-in protection to make sure the light doesn’t overheat in high temperature conditions.
It’s made from strong but lightweight aviation aluminium, and will fit on your camera’s hot shoe to allow a wide range of lighting positions.
Some users have found that these RGB lights last around 2 hours 20 minutes per charge, and charging is done via USB.
A really handy feature of these lights is the adjustable brightness control, and the huge array of mounting options that allow you a great deal of flexibility in how you position your light.
You can change the colour temperature of the light in 100K increments, or hold the button down and go from one end of the spectrum to the other very quickly.
There’s a handy colour chart on the back of the light that allows you to see what the settings are going to represent, going from red, yellow, green to blue, purple and into red etc.
There’s also a control for saturation, which allows you to decide how strong the colour is going to be from the light.
There are some cool effects modes with this RGB lighting, and one of them is a flicker effect that simulates lighting – great for shooting atmospheric storm scenes on video. Another effect is a kind of pulsating light, which resembles the light coming from a TV screen, and yet another gives a fast and not-so-fast RGB cycle of colours.
This light even has a strobe mode that resembles police and emergency service flashing lights!
Aputure WRGB LED Light
This RGB light panel hasn’t been released yet, but it is really going to be a game-changer. The Aputure WRGB LED Light will soon be available from our website, and it is set to revolutionize video and photography lighting.
It has a handheld light controller that allows a wide range of control in features such as hue, colour temperature, saturation etc.
This LED light has over 300 Rosco and Lee gels built-in, but in addition to that, it boasts a unique feature called the Color Picker.
This feature comes in the form of a remote that lets users scan the colours of other lights, but also the colours of textures and many other things. This innovation will allow endless possibilities for you to create unique lighting over time, as you can capture a sunset with the handheld device, or the flickering of strobe lights or TV screens and it will remember how to replicate them.
The colour picker allows you to point it at any light source to record the colour, which will help match lights that can vary in temperature.
Once released, the Aputure WRGB Led Light will be one of the best RGB lighting options available for your photoshoots.
Ways to Use RGB Lighting
As mentioned before, light sticks can be used to create colourful shapes and patterns during long exposure photography – this is especially stunning when done at night.
In studio photography, an RGB light stick can be put to work in different ways. It can be used as a key light, and switched from cool to warm tones to create different looks. Place the key light directly facing the model or object you are going to photograph. This look can be used for a nice, even light:
When you place a light stick to the side of the model, it throws amazing shadows for really atmospheric portraits.
You can have your model hold the light stick when it’s on as a prop, and you can use it to create silhouettes by placing it behind the model.
Start out using one light as a key light, then add more to build a lighting look. You can use an RGB light as a key or fill light, and the ability to adjust it to any colour you like can create a fantastic effect without having to add gels to your studio lights.
Because they are so portable and lightweight, they are rapidly becoming a favourite light with photographers on location shoots.
Conclusion
When it comes to RGB lighting, there are options out there to suit every budget and style of photography or videography. From entry level to professional, there is an RGB light out there to take your work to the next level.
Do your research before you decide which light is right for you to avoid any expensive mistakes, and you’ll enjoy using your new RGB lighting for years to come in your future shoots.
