Help! I need a light that will attach to my iPhone so I don’t have to hold it for taking photos of moths, etc… at a light sheet. Any suggestions? I have a good headlamp, but something about it’s light causes the photos to not come out right.
1 Like
i think the best setup for what you’re describing is a selfie stick + phone mount with cold shoe(s) + portable LED light with cold shoe mount. my experience with portable LED lights is that they all seem relatively unreliable and will malfunction within a year or two, if not much sooner. so i probably would just get something cheap, knowing it’ll break sooner or later. something that allows you to adjust the temperature of the white light may be useful. something that also has a red light mode may also be useful to help you preserve night vision.
it’s also worth noting that your iPhone should have its own light built in. i’m thinking that should be enough for taking photos at a light sheet, but maybe not…
iPhone built-in flashlight?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097YB57KK
(Moderator edited link to remove tracking/ref)
2 Likes
Is there any reason why you wouldn’t use a headlamp?
1 Like
I can think of two reasons:
Specular highlights: if headlamp has, say, a line of leds without a diffusing cover plate, you’ll see lots of tiny, bright white dots on reflective rippled or textured subjects like beetles, for example.
Strobe lines: headlamps often use pulsed lights at higher power to prevent overheating the LEDS in the strip. The frequency is high enough not to be noticed by us but can result in horizontal bars at higher shutter speeds or video shooting.
The first problem can sometimes be easily fixed by adding a diffusing material over the lamp. As simple as a few layers of frosted clear tape maybe, or perhaps gluing some whitish plastic on top. It lowers the intensity of the flight but at macro distances, this usually isn’t too big a deal.
The second problem, strobing? Can’t really hack around it. That’s where a fill light like the one someone posted (with the Amazon link) works better. These flood lights don’t last as long on a charge as a headlamp though, because they don’t strobe, so you might want to find a small external usb battery pack to go with it if you plan to use it as your main ‘searchlight’ too.
Another peeve I have about LED floods is that they never seem to have a simple on/off power switch and instead you have to hit several times to switch through power levels and then to off. PITB when you’re on a ‘chase’.