Small, portable LED lights are fantastic. It’s always a good idea to carry at least one small LED light in your kit. They are great if you need a camera mounted light for run and gun shoots and are highly versatile for every situation. However, when working outdoors in bright, natural light, most smaller LED panels do not emit enough light to counterbalance the sun’s brightness. In those instances, a 4-bank florescent panel is extremely handy.
Florescent panels are great all around lights because they generate a nice, soft, pleasant light that doesn’t generate much heat or electricity. Using day-light balanced bulbs, they blend nicely in an outdoor situation. We shot mostly outdoors for Hawaii Bouldering but the majority of our locations were naturally well lit.
The Nu’uanu boulders are covered by a canopy of trees which made lighting really difficult and spotty. To compensate for the lost light we added a 4-bank florescent light to brighten up the scene. When shooting sports or other fast paced action, it’s beneficial keep your aperture around 5.6 or f8 so you’re not constantly hunting for focus which makes having a strong light source crucial. The problem we had to overcome was finding a way to power our light in a forest with no electrical outlets. The solution; a DieHard Portable Power 1150.
This type of battery was originally intended for jump starting dead car batteries but this model also has two AC plugs as well as a USB port. We got about one hour of total usage on this shoot. One great feature is the digital display that indicates how much time is left on the battery. It is a tremendously valuable piece to have in your kit if you regularly shoot in remote locations and need power. I was able to find the unit locally at KMART in Waikele and they are also sometimes available at Hawaii, Sears locations.
Photos by David Chatsuthiphan of Unreal Hawaii
