This is the List of best video lights for visual creators (Beginners/Semi Professional) who are just starting off as a content creator and thinking how to make your videos better right from the start without spending so much money then you are reading the right blog. There are many tricks to create very attractive videos without even purchasing any lights. However, I will mention the benefits of having lights plus which one to buy when you are completely new to this.
Let me start with saying that whatever your niche is in content creation, lighting plays the most important role when it comes to high quality content creation. It doesn’t really matter which camera you are using if you know how to crack the lighting. Surprised? Well, being a professional photographer for the last 10-12 years one thing that I have learnt is, camera is important but bad lighting can make the most expensive camera worthless and good lighting can make an average camera work really well for you. Conditions apply, unless you are shooting for some professional client and they have a specific need/demand, which is not going to be the case generally because you are a beginner.
Hence, the lighting tricks and equipment given in this article works wonders for beginner content creators to create some quality content without spending much. So lets quickly dive into it.
Use Window Light: If your house has a good amount of sunlight coming in, then you might not need to buy any lighting for a really long time. When you use the sunlight while being in the shade, you gives your skin a beautiful glow and makes the subject very well lit without much of an effort.
Sometimes when the sun is harsh and window light is over brightening everything use the defuser. There are different ways to use a defuser. You can either buy a sheer curtain like I did initially or you can buy a 5 in one reflector which has defuser included in it, with 4 different type of reflectors. Links mentioned below for curtain and the reflector.
5 in 1 Reflector
Sheer curtain for window
Ring Light: The reason for suggesting ring light is, it gives a very soft effect on your face without any defuser, it’s uncomplicated to use, now it comes with remote control as well, and of course it doesn’t cost much. I have shot so many amazing images only with ring light. I will suggest 2 different ring lights one has cool to warm colour temperature and other one has RGB colours. So if you are someone who like playing with colour gels then you can go for the RGB Ring Light as well.
Cool to warm Ring Light
RGB Ring Light
Small LED Light with Colour Filters: You get 2 small LED lights with different colour filters which is amazing for people who like mixing different colour effects in their videos or need only their face in the video, like makeup artists, gamers, for shooting small objects, people who sit and talk in videos etc. This light is perfect for that because size of these LED light is small so only face and some of the upper body can be covered by the light. This light comes with 2 stands and colour filters and it is still under budget. Check out the link below.
Colourful LED Light
NOTE: Now all the lights I am going to mention below are going to look the same but will be differentiated by the softness of their light panels with and intensity they give. Let me give you an example of sun. When it’s two in the afternoon, the intensity of sun is quite harsh, it gives you a lot of shadow if you shoot in the afternoon under the sun, but when you shoot in the golden hour the intensity is low, that’s why you get softer shadows and beautiful glow on your face. Now come back to the light. When a light can give you higher intensity but softer shadows, that becomes a better light in comparison to others, although it looks the same. Now let’s move on to the next light.
GiftMax LED Video Soft Light Panel: Two lights that are slightly different from each other in dimensions and one of them includes universal phone mount. Both of them has soft panel and price range is attractive to beginners. Also, if you have natural light source available in your house then you can buy one light and mix it with any one of these lights for better quality videos. Links mentioned below.
LED light with phone mount
LED light without phone mount
Pack of 2 LED lights: These lights come in the pack of two. If you are someone who needs to capture the entire body to show the clothing products etc. then buying pack of 2 lights will be best for you to make sure the entire body is well lit. When ever the shooting area doesn’t have natural light coming in so I personally used these 2 lights to make sure the object is well lit. These lights have soft panels and intensity is slightly different.
LED light with more intensity
LED light with slightly less intensity
Outdoor/Indoor usage lights: These lights comes with battery. Hence, you can use them in outdoors and of course indoors if you want but majorly battery lights are bought when power source might not be available, like wedding photography, night outdoor photography etc. Digitek light comes with multiple colour options and Simpex one has only two options (cool to warm) but comes with a hot shoe mount so you can attach is to your camera as well while shooting portraits and it comes with a barn door to control the light directions.
Osaka light comes with built in barndoor, it’s very light weight, it has lithium ion battery which lasts longer and comes with a handle. So basically all three lights have barndoors which I really prefer because for example, if you want only your face to be lit and rest of the things in the dark, then barn door will help you control the direction of the light to achieve the results. All three lights are great, links are mentioned below you can choose as per your need and budget.
Digitek RGB light
Simpex hot shoe mount light
Osaka Bi-Color Dimmable LED Video Light
Note: If you click on any of the product links and buy the product, I might earn a little commission on it. However, it doesn’t affect your purchase price.