Lighting for Indoor Photography 📸

At present I’m using two selfie style ring lights to try and illuminate the room but I need something much brighter. Any suggestions would be very welcome :relaxed:

How about a tripod and the existing ambient light?

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The ring lights that I currently use are already on tripods and ambient light is not sufficient. I’m looking for something that is almost as bright as natural sunlight :relaxed:

Something like the Interfit LM8 100W LED Monolight will give you that.

It’s sufficiently bright that, just like the sun, looking directly into it will damage your eyes so use a diffuser!

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What is it you’re trying to photograph?

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My guess would be Ragdoll kitties :slight_smile:

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I’d like to shoot more photographs of my cats as they are growing up and videos for YouTube etc.

My Canon takes great photos when the sun is shining but indoors even when I adjust the ISO etc the photos come out dark looking and don’t look natural :relaxed:

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You ask the master here :sunglasses:

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Key question.

For static items with relevant exposure factor adjustments I assume.

Yeah, you’re going to struggle if your cats are anything like mine…Trying to get them to stay still under ideal lighting conditions for anything like the time one needs to compose and complete a shot is not my idea of fun! Even then I suspect most of your cat shots will be spur of the moment perhaps?

I guess for video a constant light on you hot shoe is best.

For stills, a camera with strong high iso performance and then practicing with some adjustment software like Lightroom and de-noising from someone like Topaz would be my suggestion.

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Yes. I gave my answer because the info provided by the OP said:

“to try and illuminate the room”

Yet, now we are hearing about photographing cats. Amazingly there is a world of difference between photographing a room and photographing cats in a room. Ask a question in the wrong way, get a wrong answer. No surprises here.

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Don’t Ragdolls classify as “still life”? Beautiful, peaceful, and calming kitties…easy to photograph…

…and not in the slightest like “madcap” Burmese at all.

(new Burmese kitten incoming tomorrow!!)

OTOH, I do like the look of that Interfit light. Have you come across it, Chris?

No criticism intended. :slightly_smiling_face:

I have a friend that uses the 60W version with a VERY large softbox/diffuser - it’s VERY bright, so much so that she usually uses it at about 25 to 50% power. This is with a 4 camera studio setup used for sales videos, tuition videos and broadcasts. She also has two much smaller LED panels used for secondary lighting / fill in and a 450mm ring light on the overhead camera.

They turn into ragdolls when they are handled, limp and soft like jellies, but otherwise, they are full of beans and love chasing each other around (especially after a meal). When they play fight it is cute to watch because they are soft and gentle with each other in comparison to Sausage and Pumpkin who liked to duel to the death.

I find one kitty is easy to photograph but a group of them requires various techniques to encourage them to stay in the right place :relaxed:

The lights you mentioned have received good reviews and I’m considering buying two of them. My current selfie ring lights are only 20W which means that those lights at 100W should be five times as bright? Thank you for the recommendation :relaxed::+1:

The interfit as mentioned are a good option, also godox monolights are very good.
Depending on what level you want to take this type of photography too - you could also consider a couple of speedlight flashes, placed off camera within soft boxes or not.
I have never photographed pets but can imagine the challenge with cats is keeping them still for long enough to get sharp images.

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Using a modern digital camera that enables high iso with low noise would be useful if pics are wanted of the animal moving, otherwise flash. If the room(s) have white walls/ceiling then reflecting/bouncing to soften and light more evenly is easy, otherwise use soft boxes or similar and multiple lights, depending on exactly what the OP is trying to achieve.

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Gary Fong lightspheres are a useful accessory when using flash.

Check out his tutorials on YouTube, lots of advice on indoor shooting.

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