Lighting is the crux of photography. The true beauty of your subject will shine through the photographs only if you ensure that the lighting is perfect. It isn’t an exaggeration when they say that lighting can either make or break a photograph. This is where Manfrotto adds value. Manfrotto’s LYKOS setup is stella for photographers on the go who require the best portable lighting system.
Perfect lighting from a system such as LYKOS can add character, mood, and tone to a photograph. Good lighting gives depth to a portrait and separates the subject from the background. Minor lighting adjustments can help you recreate the same subject in different moods at the same time – that’s the beauty of lighting in portraiture!
Lighting brings along another major advantage – the flexibility to shoot at whatever time of the day you want to. Irrespective of day or night, proper lighting will ensure that you capture a portrait just as you intended to without any compromises.
Knowing how to use lighting to create dramatic portrait shoots is a skill. This skill comes with experimentation and experience, and it undoubtedly makes you stand apart from the crowd of photographers out there.
LYKOS Multiple Lighting Setup versus Single Lighting Setup
A lot of photographers are so used to capturing their subjects in natural light, that they refuse to use a professional lighting setup. While the subtle natural light has its beauty, professional lighting is not far behind.
In a Manfrotto LYKOS lighting setup, you can either opt for a single or multi-light setup. There is a striking difference between photographs taken in a setup that is lit with one light and with multiple lights. You may find the image looks rather flat, whereas multiple lights add dimension by reducing shadows.
The brightest part of any image is what steals all the attention, which is why the usage of multiple lights to illuminate a setup and more importantly, your subject is preferred. Multiple lighting gives you coverage from different focus points, something that would typically be hard to nail with a single lighting setup.
Benefits of Using Multiple Lykos Lights for Portraits
- Multiple LYKOS lighting setups are the best as one light would serve as the focus light, while the rest would be the important supporting actors. These remaining lights would play the roles of rim lights (hair lights) or background lights, as and when required.
- More the number of lights focused on your subject; the more well-lit and intense the outcome will be.
- You would not need to worry about the photograph at all – multiple LYKOS lighting setups would ensure your photograph is simply the best!
Lighting Gear you Would Require
It is advisable to equip your studio with proper and essential lighting gear. So whether it is the lighting stand, clamps, arms, brackets, lighting booms, reflectors or light meters, you need to have it all.
We will run you through some of the best lighting products out there, which are currently ruling the photography world. The Manfrotto LYKOS range of LED panels is the right fit simply because of all the features they offer – portable, agile and ease-of-use.
Daylight and Bicolor are the two versions of the Manfrotto LYKOS LED panels. Compact and light in weight, these are just the perfect choice for photographers as well as videographers.
Special Features of the Revolutionary Manfrotto LYKOS LED Panels
- A colour LCD display, which allows ease in monitoring functions
- They come along with a ball head, gel filters, a diffuser and most importantly an AC adaptor.
- The light output of LYKOS Daylight is 5600K whereas the LYKOS Bi-Color is equipped with the ability to change colour temperature from warm white (3000K) to daylight (5600K)
- It is in-built with SMT technology which boosts energy efficiency and a longer LED life. This technology also ensures uniformity in colour replication and flicker-free functionality.
- Both these LED panels work exceptionally well with the added accessory of LYKOS Softbox.
- An optional Bluetooth dongle easily converts the LED panels into smart devices that can be remotely controlled.
How To Light a Scene Using Manfrotto LYKOS Lights
LED panels are slowly becoming the preferred choice for lighting because of the many advantages they come with. Among all of them, Manfrotto LYKOS is indeed a class apart. All you need to do with these is set your colour adjustments on the LED screen, and you are good to go with all the functions – right from output to colour balance.
Here are some key areas you need to focus on while setting up the lighting:
Key Light
The main focus light that illuminates your subject is termed as the Key Light. This is the most critical tool of lighting as it lights up your subject. You would not want the Key Light to be directly on the face of your subject. For a soft glow, position your Key Light facing a white wall. The light that diffuses off the wall will subtly fall on your subject. Doing this will also ensure that the light spreads uniformly across the room. Using the LYKOS Softbox will give you a more versatile and soft glow, so definitely consider using it.
Fill Light
The Fill Light is usually the second light that is used, with the Key Light being the primary one. The Fill Light helps to make the effect of your Key Light a bit stronger, and also to fill in some shadows.
Back Light
Well, you guessed this one right – the light that is placed right at the back is called the Back Light. It is positioned at a distance so that it shines upon the subject just as much as it should, without being too overbearing.
Hair Light
A Hair light adds a halo-like glow around your subject. This subtly defines your subject without being too-in-the-face. These work best to add a little bit of colour to your image, so you can go ahead and use the warmer tones of lighting. This light is positioned at a height to give that soft outline to your subject.
Manfrotto LYKOS has been designed to stand a class apart from other ordinary lights. It’s no wonder photographers across the world swear by this equipment! The beauty of the images captured using these lights can be defined using two words – simply stunning. What are you waiting for? Go ahead and invest in these must-haves for every photographer. There’s two versions, the Manfrotto LYKOS Bi-Color On-Camera LED Light and Manfrotto LYKOS Daylight On-Camera LED Light.
