Sunday 20 September 2020

Lighting for Gaming Photos and Videos - Neewer ZC-10S Review

 


Everyone likes a good photo on a blog, Insta or the Twitters and a good well lit video on the Utubes is a bonus too.

I was very fortunate to have Mrs YG buy me some lighting for my photos recently and after a few weeks use I thought it would be an idea to share them wider and illustrate their use for gaming related photos.

Below is a Utubes video going through the contents of the Neewer ZC-10S set and their operation.





I've added some photos below to give you an idea on how the lights work.


The first photo is taken in my games room, it might time so their is no external light source, the room is well lit with a high power "cool" strip light.


The second photo is taken with the one high, one low set up shown in the first photo on this post,  it's easy to see that the light levels have increased dramatically, however it can be very easy to have too much light and "white out" a picture.

Shadows can also be an issue if the intensity of the light levels are too high, look at the shadows from the flags on the buildings in the bottom photo.


Looking in the next set of photos, I will look at a bit more detail, the above "control" photo is simply taken with no additional lighting.


Followed by full intensity with both lights.


The next photo is also full intensity but the lower light has been moved to the front of the subject to light up the faces, note how the rear building is whitened out and the flag shadow is very prominent.


With the lights in the same position I've dropped down the intensity by 3 on both and things are starting to get better.


This final photo would be my choice, both lights dialled back by 6 from the strongest, the buildings are no longer standing out, the shadows on the figures are adding to the level of detail, possibly too dark for some but we are now in the area of personal taste rather than definitely too dark or too bright.

The lights also make a great portable paint table illuminator as well, I used them recently whilst on holiday.

Hope that's been useful, see you for the monthly update next week.

21 comments:

  1. Fabulous after some myself for my table shots

    Cheers
    Matt

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    1. Cheers Matt, glad the post was useful 👍🏞

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  2. This is a useful study in lighting. Thank you!

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  3. Cheers Ken, been lookign at lightign for a while, just ordered these.

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  4. Good information Ken, I'm relatively new to gaming photography and have been wondering how to tackle lighting - it looks like I have a solution. Cheers Greg

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    1. Cheers Greg, glad to see it was useful for you 👍🏞

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  5. Well on this recommendation I’ve just ordered at set. ðŸĪŠ

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  6. Ken - timing of this is perfect for me. Just had real difficulty doing some decent photos for a mag article, so determined to improve the set up. These are spot on, and the info is really useful.
    Cheers
    Noel

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    Replies
    1. Nice one Noel, glad it was useful 👍🏞

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  7. Thank you - I have been battling recently with getting enough 'low' light. Found them for a good price on Amazon AU and purchased.

    Richard

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    1. Excellent news Richard 👍🏞 I wish I was on commission now 😁

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  8. Those lights look jolly useful. Thanks for posting.
    Cheers
    Matt

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    Replies
    1. Cheers Matt, I've used them as a portable painting light too 👍🏞

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  9. Thanks for the lighting recommendation. I ordered a set from Amazon and spent part of Saturday taking some photos and getting them posted on my blog. Cheers

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    Replies
    1. Many thanks, glad it was useful for you 👍🏞

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  10. Slightly OT Ken but could I ask, what sort of battle mat you are using for the Renaissance stuff please?

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    Replies
    1. https://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.com/2016/03/deep-cut-studio-darkwater-and-plains.html

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