3 Must have photography lighting equipment for beginners

If you often use your camera to take pictures of family and friends or for your business, then you know how hard it is to find the best lighting kit. There are so many options out there that it can be really difficult to find the right one for your needs. That’s why we put together this quick guide! In this article, we will go over some of the different types of kits available and what they offer. We’ll also talk about what might be the best photography lighting equipment for beginners to create stunning lighting. However, if you don’t understand lighting basics then you will struggle. So start with the fundamentals.

What is a lighting kit?

A lighting kit is a group of lighting equipment. It can include lights, light stands and other accessories to make it easier for you when photographing in low-light conditions such as indoors at night or harsh bright light of the midday sun. (So, yes, you should have a lighting kit, but it should be personalised to your needs)

How To Choose The Best Photography Lighting Set For Your Needs

When choosing the best photography lighting kit, you need to consider if this light will be your only light source or whether it’s going to be an extra light.

The type of bulb (incandescent bulbs / fluorescent bulbs)
How powerful the light is
The colour of the light
Cost
Portability

Types of lighting equipment

Continuous lighting Vs Speed lighting Vs Strobe lighting?

Lighting kits are an important part of any photography setup – whether you’re taking product photos, creating delicious food photos, or simply what to master photography lighting at home.There are so many light choices out there. So what are they and what do they do?

Continuous lighting can be achieved with a continuous light, such as ring light, fluorescent or LED Light. The main advantages of continuous light is that you can see and is easy to adjust it prior to taking the photo.

Strobe lighting is an extremely powerful “old school” light source that flashes on and off really quickly to make that super bright “pop” of light in your photo or video. The main advantage of strobe is to create sharp shadows and glare on the subject’s face and body for dramatic effects. However, they are mainly used in studios, due to their cost and lack of portability.

Speed Lighting is a type of artificial light that fires intermittently, they are light weight and cheaper than strobe lights. The main advantage of speed lighting is to illuminate the subject with less harsh shadows and glare than continuous or strobe, which makes this type effective for photographing people in low light scenes like indoors at events.

Best Lighting Modifiers

There are many lighting modifiers out there like umbrellas, soft boxes and reflectors to name a few. Choosing the right one will depend on what you are shooting with your camera lens or how close up you need things like for food photography.

What kind of accessories are you going to need?

Here is some other photography lighting equipment that’s commonly used in a studio or on location:

Triggers – Remote triggers allow you to take control of lighting positions, as they let you set up flashes off-camera.
Colour gels – Colour gels can be used for colour correction or creative effects. For example, you can use a blue gel to convert tungsten light to look more like daylight.
Reflectors – You can use reflectors to enhance natural or artificial light by bouncing it back onto your subject. They’re an inexpensive tool to add to your camera bag.

Best Light Reflector for Photography

Neewer 43 Inch Reflector

Backdrops – Simple and non-distracting backgrounds are the perfect complement to photography lighting.
Light Stands – Unless you have an assistant to hold your lights or flashes, a light stand is a real must for any photography lighting set up.
Sandbags and weights – These can help keep your light stands and flashes sturdy and upright. The last thing you want is a light stand falling over mid shoot!

FAQ about Lighting equipment

Best Lighting Kit for Beginners: If you are just getting started in photography then this is a tough one. You’ll need to figure out what you’re shooting, how much light and where it needs to be coming from. There really isn’t one best lighting kit that will work for all types of photos or setups, but we recommend starting off with something simple that will get the job done.Beginners natural lighting kit:

A foldable 5 in 1 reflector kit is a great option for anyone looking to get into photography. Not only does it contain 3 different reflector, a black absorbing and a diffuser.
A grey card to help control light colour temperature.

A light’s wattage is how much electricity flows through the bulb.A light’s strength is determined by how close the subject of your photo will be to that particular light source.The best way to find out what kind of photography lights you need is by looking at the size of your light source, your subject’s distance from that light, and what kind of results you want to achieve.

Both soft boxes and umbrellas have their own advantages.An umbrella has multiple reflective surfaces, which can be useful when shooting in a controlled environment, and tend to be cheaper than soft boxes. A soft box bounces light around in a more controlled manner, meaning that light won’t leak out from behind the subject often more portable and easier to set up on location. Speedlights are considered to be more powerful than strobes and have the ability to freeze motion better in low-lit settings.

LEDs are usually the best choice when it comes to lighting kits because they tend not be as hot or bright and typically produce more natural looking colours than other type of light sources like incandescent or fluorescent lights.

Ring lights are continuous lighting and they usually have a ring light diffuser to get softer, more natural colours. Ring lights are normally only used for headshots and beauty. LED’s are lots of mini strobe lights and they usually have a more precise light output that allows you to see the light in your shot better than ring lighting.

You want a decent amount of light, but more importantly you want to be the right temperature. You can get day light white bulbs now easily from the local DIY store. If you have a few of them and a LED light. You really don’t need anything else to get started.