Gadget Corner:  LED lights

By Patty Hankins and Bill Lawrence

 Sunrise and sunset can make for very dramatic landscape photographs.  When the sun is just below the horizon (either coming up or going down), the sky can turn dramatic colors, and when the sun is just over the horizon, the light can produce long dramatic shadows.  Unfortunately, photographing the great light means two things: 1) landscape photographers keep weird hours, and 2) they tend to spend a lot of time stumbling around in the dark.  While we can’t do much for the first, we can help with the second.  If you are hiking trails in the dark, then you will want a full-fledged flashlight, but for setting up your gear and checking your camera settings in the dark, we’ve found the keychain LED lights to be incredibly helpful.

 We currently are using Inova Micro lights, but a number of companies make similar products – this particular brand was available when we were in the market.  You should be able to find lights in the $8-10 range in the US, and a number of web sites sell them.  The type that we have includes a small lithium-ion battery with a white LED.  The LEDs come in different colors – we recommend white, since we found that red (the other common color) light made our camera LCD settings screens hard to read.  A single LED light of this sort will provide illumination for a number of hours, and is small enough to conveniently clip to your keychain or camera bag.  In fact, we recommend that you keep one clipped somewhere so that it will always be with you when you are out with your camera.  You never know when you’ll be setting up or taking down gear in the dark, and we hate to miss a shot simply because we can’t see to set up our camera.  We’ve also used them to walk dogs in the middle of the night, though we really don’t recommend them as your sole light for walking in the dark.

This may be one of the cheapest pieces of gear in your photography collection, but if you are into night photography (more on this in a future issue), or into photographing sunrises or sunsets, one of these lights mean the difference between getting your photos or going home empty handed!

Below is a photo of one of our lights (an Inova Micro light, with a white LED), which we keep on a keychain, and use frequently.

As an extra added bonus that we didn't notice until shooting the photo above, the gray on the light is a neutral gray pretty close to an 18% gray card (a future topic).

In addition to the key chain, we have one clipped to a gear bag.  Having one handy unexpectedly helped with the photos below.  We arrived before sunrise at Front Royal, Virginia, for a balloon show.  We arrived too early for the balloons, but, unexpectedly, we found a nice backdrop for sunrise, and the clouds broke just right to give a miraculous sunrise show.  We had our tripods, and set up at the first hint of light, using the LED lights to help set the cameras.

Sunrise1, Front Royal, VA.  (Copyright © 2002, William Lawrence)

Sunrise 2, Front Royal, VA.  (Copyright © 2002, William Lawrence)

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