Product Review: Our Favorite Light for Stop Motion Videos
As a former in-house and freelance videographer and photographer for brands, I have used a LOT of professional lighting in a ton of different price ranges including a $6K Kino Flo light kit for a product shoot. Personally, I think that unless your ad is going on a billboard somewhere, I don’t think you need anything super fancy or expensive. I tend to prefer lights that are cost-effective, easy to set up and does the job. Efficiency and accessibility is why I built our stop motion app, Life Lapse, allowing people to create stop motion animations with their phone so you can see why I prefer this!
If you’ve gone and experimented with different lighting options, like our DIY photography light hacks using household lights, and you’ve decided that the next step in upgrading your stop motion game is to invest in a professional lighting set-up then this post is for you. Investing in a professional light will give you more flexibility of where you shoot and have more control of the light.
I am going to be reviewing the Godox SL-60W 60W CRI95+ Qa>90 5600±300K Bowens Mount Led Continuous Video Light from Amazon. Amazon has thousands of options for light kits for photography but I’ll share why I love this one for stop motion, and actually for product photography in general! This is included in our favorite stop motion gear round up if you’re interested in seeing the other items we use for our stop motion videos.
Godox SL-60W 60W CRI95+ Qa>90 5600±300K Bowens Mount Led Continuous Video Light Review
This Godox light is the one we use across all of our stop motion tutorials in the Life Lapse Academy. It’s a good size (16.46 x 9.76 x 9.21 inches) making it portable, is quite light (7.5lbs) for easy set up and is affordable compared to other professional lights at about $150.
Here are some of the key features from it’s Amazon description:
60W LED bulbs provide high light brightness
The color rendering index is over 93, presenting the objects authentically
Wirelessly adjust light brightness, wireless 433MHz grouping system（6 groups & 16 channels）
Large-sized LCD Panel, settings auto saved
Temperature control function to prevent overheating
Creates a stable light source for videos and photos that is suitable for wedding photography, outdoor photography, fluorescent lighting, etc.
What I like the most about this Godox light is the different looks I can achieve. The light on its own is a hard light which is a bright, focused light that gives a harsh shadow on your objects. It mimics direct sunlight so I really like to use this to give my videos a summer-y, fresh feel like the stop motion animation example below. This was achieved by moving the Godox light around as I was shooting.
Now for another look, I can also easily add a softbox to diffuse the light. Think of a softbox like the clouds in the sky diffusing the sunlight so you don’t have harsh shadows. This is the softbox I use, also a Godox product from Amazon that is collapsible.
Here is an example of the difference in lighting when I use a softbox vs hard light:
When using professional lighting, keep in mind that things like the height of your light, where the light is, the angle you place it, where it’s pointing to in your scene will all affect the look of your lighting. If you move the light directly in front of the object, the shadow will go directly behind it so if you’re trying to avoid shadows, you can have it directly in front of your product or directly above.
The best of advice I have is to have your camera set up with your Life Lapse camera on and move the lighting around so you can see how your movement of the light impacts your scene!
I hope you enjoyed this review and let me know in the comments if you have a favorite light. If you want to learn more about stop motion, lighting, tripods and backdrops, check out our YouTube channel.
Life Lapse is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This is not a sponsored post.
