LED VS FLASH – WHICH ONE IS BETTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY?

Are flash or LED lights better for photography?

LED photography lights have come a long way in the last couple of years. They now are brighter, more powerful and offer more useful features than ever before, but they are completely different to studio flashlights. Which begs the question, will they ever replace them?

Well, in short, no, they will never replace studio flash by any means. But, they are still a great additional accessory for your kit.

The main differences between them is that LED lights are continuous, which is great, but even though they are incredibly powerful, they are not even close to the power of a simple studio flash. If you're into high-speed photography, it will be impossible to capture this with LED lights. Your shutter speed will have to be around 1/4000 to 1/8000 of a second, and if you're using continuous lights, your exposure will be tremendously dark.

Also, if you are not working in a very dark studio, you'll have very little control over light spill with LED lights as well. But, if you're not necessarily shooting in studio, perhaps you're on location, LED lights can be of great advantage as they are usually very soft and produce an excellent quality of light. Furthermore, most photography LED lights give you the ability to change the colour by altering the degrees of kelvin. By default, they are calibrated to match studio flash colour at 5,500K, but can be warmed up or cooled down. This will help you correct the colour of light in a mixed lighting environment, or get creative with it.

Take a look at the video below by YouTube channel, Karl Taylor, on LED Photography Lights v Studio Flash: Which Is REALLY Better?