Spekular LED Photography Lights / What is CRI / Part 2 of the LED Continuous Lighting LED Series
This is Spekular and this is Spekular and
this is Spekular and this is Spekular and this is part two of my LED lighting series. Spekular is a new modular led lighting system
that is being referred to as the Swiss army knife for lighting. In this video I am going to put Spekular to
the test and I am going to do my best to demystify those three letters that keep popping up when
people talk about lighting… CRI.
Stay tuned! Hey gang! My name is Joe Edelman and my mission is to
help photographers like YOU to develop a solid understanding of the HOWS & WHYS behind great
photography so that you can achieve your goals as a photographer. The Swiss Army knife for lighting is a great
reference for this new LED lighting system from Spiffy Gear. In case you don’t remember – Spiffy Gear
is the company the brought us the Light Blaster that I showed you in this video. Spekular is a modular lighting system that
can take on all kinds of shapes depending on your needs and this can save you money
and the time needed to pack and set-up light modifiers especially when you are working
on location.
Each of these sections uses only 14.5 watts
of energy which means just 58 watts for a kit of four sections. Each section puts out 1,500 lumens of light
which is about the same brightness as a 150watt light bulb. That means 6000 lumens for a kit of 4 sections
or a brightness similar to a 600watt light bulb . Unlike fluorescent lights – there is
no flicker with Spekular. They are daylight balanced at 5600k with a
CRI of 94+. We will talk more about that CRI stuff at
the end of the video.
They can be dimmed from 100% all the way down
to 10% and they output light at a beam angle of 120 degrees. And they are small – just 1.5” or 4 centimeters
square and 12 inches or 30 centimeters in length. Spekular comes comes as a kit of 4 LED sections. Each section is built with aluminum and ABS
plastic for a total per-section weight of about three quarters of a pound of which is
335grams. One section in each kit has the power switch,
dimmer switch and plug for the power supply. Also in the the case are 4 of these cool hinged
connecters, a 1/4-20” mount, eight gel holders, the AC Power Supply and Instructions. To use Spekular, start with a control section
and add a stand mount. Then depending on the configuration you want
to make – in this case I am going to make a simple panel – you just slip a hinged connector
on one end and keep adding pieces.
They just slide right in and then you tighten
them in place so that the unit is not going to come apart while you use it. The hinged connectors also flip in the opposite
direction so that you can create triangles and hexagons. Let me say right now that I think this lighting
system is brilliant, but please don’t lose sight of the fact that they are small. So if you are like me and you tend to use
large light modifiers – you will need to take a different approach to your lighting. That doesn’t make it bad – but it does make
it different and it definitely helps if you are comfortable and confident with your lighting
skills. To prove my point – I wanted to use Spekular
to create the same lighting styles that I normally do with my big modifiers.
The folks at Spiffy Gear were kind enough
to give me two sets to test out, so I started with a simple headshot. You can see here that I have one set of four
above the camera as my main light and one set of four behind my subject to light the
white wall. I was able to shoot this at ISO200 with a
shutter speed of 1/100th of a second at f/4. Then I moved both lights in front of my subject
for a simple clamshell lighting effect. This one was also at ISO200 – 1/100th of a
second at f/4 Next I switched to a #62 Purple Seamless Paper
Background by Savage Universal and used just four of the Spekular Panels arranged in a
square.
With my subject seated just in front of my
background and the Spekular light placed about two feet in front of her – I was able to shoot
this at ISO200 with a shutter speed of 1/100th of a second at f/4 Next up a different subject in front of a
#24 Orange Seamless from Savage, still with the square arrangement, but this time I have
used three additional Spekular panels behind my subject – one is creating a nice glow on
the orange background and the other two are placed camera right and camera left as rim
lights.
For the three lights behind my subject – I
have one main bar from the second kit and the two additional ones are attached using
the expansion extension accessory kit. The expansion kit comes with two additional
mounting pieces for light stands, two section to section extension cords and two straight
connectors. So now I have a four light set-up and a shot
that was done at ISO 200 with a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second at f/4 Next I switched to a #20 Black Seamless from
Savage and used the same square as my main light and just the two rims on camera left
and right. Shooting at the same ISO 200 with a shutter
speed of 1/125th of a second at f/4 I was able to get this series of portraits. Spiffy Gear also has a cool accessory called
the Star Adapter. This adaptor lets you attach 8 of the LED
bars to a central ring. This arrangement gives you a really sweet
broad light source and a very cool catchlight.
This shot was done with my subject sitting
in front of a #27 Thunder Gray Savage backdrop. I shot at ISO 200 with a shutter speed of
1/125th of a second at f/4 Here is the same arrangement on the purple
background. If I add a fan – back the Spekular star up
to about 4 feet from the subject you will notice the catchlight becomes much smaller
and I can shoot a beauty shot like this with an ISO of 400, an aperture of f/4 and an intentionally
slow shutter speed of 1/80th of a second to get some blur on the ends of the blowing hair.
Ok – so mission accomplished – I was able
to recreate quite a few of my favorite lighting styles with Spekular – but how about having
some fun with color? This three quarter length shot was done with
just one Spekular kit. My model is standing in front of a #01 Super
white backdrop with two bars on camera left – unfiltered and at full power. On camera right, I have two more bars with
a blue gel placed over them. This shot was done at ISO400, 1/80th of a
second at f/3.5 The filtered blue light on camera right is just bright enough to add
color to the shadows created from the main light on camera left. Next I went back to the black background and
placed two bars on camera left as my main light. Two bars on camera right with a blue gel and
then used two bars with a pink gel behind my model on camera right and one bar with
a pink gel behind my model on camera left.
The pink gels light up her blonde hair and
the blue gel is coloring the shadowed side of her face. This shot was done at ISO400 and 1/80th of
a second at f/4. For my last set-up I used the same lights
and gels but moved the blue set behind my model on camera left so that it was creating
a bit of a rim light – but not filling in shadows on the face. At the same settings, I was able to create
this series of shots. In addition to the Spekular Kit, the Expansion
Kit and the Star Adapter. Spiffy Gear also has a Battery Adapter that
will allow you to use any DTAP-enabled V-mount battery. The Spekular Core Kit sells for $650.00. The accessory are each priced at $130.00. Now I know what some of you are thinking… you think this is expensive and that you can
by a few speedlights for the same price. You could buy a few speedlights for the same
price, but you can't match the versatility that Spekular provides at this price.
Certainly Spekular is not going to be for
everyone, but as you have heard me say before – there is no one light that will meet all
of your needs as a photographer. While I have proven to you that it works great
with people, I also think that Spekular is perfectly suited for shooting products and
I have no doubt that cinematographers and videographers will fall in love with this
system.
Just to give you a comparison… a Wescott Ice Light which so many of you GEARtographers
oohed and ahhed over – the Ice Light sells for $500 dollars and has a much narrower beam
output of 72.6 degrees and outputs only 1,740 lumens of light. In other words its only slightly brighter
than 1 Spekular bar – with a narrower angle and costs almost as much as a whole Spekular
kit, so like most Wescott products – it’s overpriced for what it offers.
Be sure to follow the rest of the videos that
I will be doing in this LED light series because I will finish with some hybrid lighting arrangements
using Spekular in combination with strobes and ambient light. You can purchase Spekular online at spiffygear.com
and it is currently available at Adorama and BHPhoto with more retailers to come. Oh…. one last tip about Spekular… remember
the gel clips that I mentioned…. they also serve another awesome purpose. If you buy a role of Rosco Cine Foil – which
every photographer should have in their studio anyway… cut a 12” piece and wrap it around the back
of the Spekualr bar – then attach a gel clip from the back – one at either end and you
now have a shapeable set of barn doors for the Spekular lights. You could even do the same thing with regular
aluminum foil to make a reflector that will give you a slightly broader right coming from
one bar. So whats the big deal about CRI? CRI stands for Color Rendering Index. This is not the same as color temperature
that is measured in degrees kelvin.
The simple explanation is that CRI is a measure
that shows us how well a light source makes the color of an object appear to the human
eye and how “realistically” or “naturally” the light source makes different shades appear
in relationship to each other. In other words, CRI explains how accurately
a light source is rendering any color in comparison to daylight. Is CRI important? Yes, well not really – well yeah – well let
me explain. It really depends on what you are photographing
and how accurate you want or need your colors to be. If you are reproducing artwork for cataloguing
purposes – you need to work with lights that have a very high CRI because you need to colors
to reproduce accurately and in the proper relationship to each other.
This would be the same if you were photographing
products for advertising or clothing for a catalog. If you are doing something that is subjective
like a creative shot of a model lit by neon signs on a city street at night…. you probably don’t need to care about CRI
as you are not likely to be concerned about having an exact color match. The same could be said for a simple portrait. The bigger the number the better. CRI is measured on a scale that uses 100 as
the best. Incandescent bulbs have a CRI of 100 because
they don’t have any color discrimination. But we all know that incandescent bulbs aren’t
very efficient. When it comes to LED’s the bulbs are considered
good if they have a CRI of 85 to 90, but light sources which have a CRI of 90 or higher are
known as excellent and are the most appropriate for tasks that require the most accurate color.
Just like any other aspect of science I could
dig much deeper into this, the problem is I would get a headache before you do. So in short – Higher the CRI – better the
color match. Regardless of the type of work you want to
do – keep your CRI above 85 and you will have acceptable results unless you need that perfect
color match – then you need 95 or higher. Next up in the LED lighting series I am going
to take a look at some sweet lighting panels called Edge Lit Pro from Savage Universal
and I am going to put them to use in the studio AND on location. Until then, I hope you found this useful. Please hit that thumbs up and subscribe so
that you don’t miss any videos and until next time go pick up that camera and shoot
something because your BEST shot – it’s your NEXT shot, so keep learning, keep thinking,
keep shooting. Adios!.
