1x1 LED's

Guy Jackson · March 28, 2008

When the Mini litepanels appeared, I fell in love with them, and ever since been dropping them in strategic places on most of my setups.

Last year I also bought two 1x1 litepanels, which are my new favorite toys, you can just place them in the weirdest place, tightest locations. And with some manipulation the quality of the light is amazing.

however I do find them a little Green next to other HMI sources. I deal with it with minus Green,

I was wandering if you all agree that they are little green and if you do, how do you Deal with that.

On a recent shoot I used them for a table top ECU shot of a wine Glass by placing the Glass right on the light, it did take a lot of diffusion to get those LED dots reflection from the Glass but once we did it gave it a very nice low glow.

I would love to hear about any unconventional ways you used them for.

thank you

Phil Rhodes · March 28, 2008

All I know about white LEDs is that they go magenta after a while, so one might speculate that they balance them slightly green from new in order to preempt this happening and get a better end to end life with better average CRI.

This happens because white LEDs are actually blue junctions topped with a yellow-emitting organic phosphor, which is excited by the blue light. This phosphor decays over time, especially if the LED is run hard and therefore hot, resulting in a dropoff in yellow light - turning the output purplish.

My speculation about the greenness is just that. You might just be seeing an odd spectral spike, although they're usually quite reasonable, especially the tungsten balanced types as they derive more of their output from the phosphor which has a smoother spectral curve (although they fail faster).

P

John Sprung · March 28, 2008

Another thing you might try is to set up a single LED about 10 ft. away in a dark environment, and use a scrap CD or DVD to diffract the light and see if you have any spectral spikes or notches. Compare that with what you get from the sun, incandescent lights, flourescents, etc.

-- J.S.

Chad Stockfleth · April 1, 2008

I worked with a DP who used them to light some portraits and I thought they had a bit of a magenta shift. Pretty handy little gadgets.

Rupe Whiteman · April 2, 2008

on a shoot last year I used them a lot... really hand small sources and so easy to shift around for a little fill, soft back-lights... eyelights etc etc. My gaffer helped them develop them...