Photographing LEDs

posted Mar 25th 2009 1:48pm by Caleb Kraft
filed under: digital cameras hacks, led hacks

ledpics_1

Since we rely on you, our loyal readers, to supply the tasty projects that we thrive upon, we felt this writeup about how to photograph LEDs could be very useful. Photographing them can be quite difficult at times, they throw off the standard settings on your camera pretty easily. EMSL takes us through all the settings for best results. While you’re brushing up on your photography skills, you might want to consider making a flash ring, or some kind of macro lens. Now go take some awesome pictures and submit your projects.

Comments [12]

tagged: led, photography

12 Responses to Photographing LEDs

Mephistopheles says:

March 25, 2009 at 3:48 pm

Wow, they never even mention using a flash in their article.

I find the best way to take photos of brightly lit things (such as LEDs) is to use a flash to light the rest of the shot…

eg. http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew_bolin/3371644033/

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Michael says:

March 25, 2009 at 3:59 pm

That is a LCD, and using a flash is not desired effect they are looking for.

The article is for LED’s

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michael says:

March 25, 2009 at 4:10 pm

Shiz will fluff you up!

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Mephistopheles says:

March 25, 2009 at 4:17 pm

@michael oh yeah, it must be one of those backlit-by-nuclear-fission LCDs, not the regular LED type… my mistake.

the flash gets results similar to their HDR image without having to muck around with image editing software.

anyway, just a suggestion, feel free to take the advice in the article (which can be summarised as: try different settings, use a tripod, watch your white balance, ooh look HDR)

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michael says:

March 25, 2009 at 5:44 pm

LCD’s are usually backlit with electro luminescence. Still mysterious glowing force :-P Sorry for correcting you :-D

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KVirtanen says:

March 25, 2009 at 10:35 pm

What Mephistopheles said about the flash is actually a good way. It reduces the huge contrast between the diffused PCB and the brightly lit LEDs. Just like photographing paintings and other flat objects, you just have to learn how to direct the flash. You’ll probably just need an external flash strobe to fire indirectly from the side. That way the reflection of the flash doesn’t bounce back to the camera.

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dustin says:

March 26, 2009 at 2:08 am

@michael
“sorry for correcting you :d”
[sarcasm] … no your not [/sarcasm]

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octelcogopod says:

March 26, 2009 at 3:43 am

also backlighting != bare leds
backlights are by definition diffuse, whereas leds are focused even if they are the diffuse (milky plastic) kind

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bbum says:

March 26, 2009 at 8:26 am

The photo above is one that I took that EMSL used [entirely with my permission / blessing / yadayada].

Original here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503114554@n01/3243176730

Taken for this rather snarky bit of nonsense:

http://www.friday.com/bbum/2009/01/31/1-31-2007-never-forget/

Which all started with this original writeup:

http://www.friday.com/bbum/2008/01/30/january-31st-2007-never-forget/

Whee!

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marph says:

March 26, 2009 at 9:07 am

dustin: No his what is not?

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Claudio A. Heckler says:

March 26, 2009 at 12:38 pm

I did two close-ups that ended-up not bad at all …

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ca_heckler/3167624707/

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ca_heckler/3167624583/

For those who care, that is a “joule thief”, as seen here before ;)

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tomca says:

March 26, 2009 at 3:07 pm

This is extremely handy! I’m currently working on a LED scrolling marquee so I will be sure to follow these tips when it’s actually finished and it’s bragging time.

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