How to Actually Use LED Panels in the Studio (They're Not Hopeless, But You're Probably Using Them Wrong)

How to Actually Use LED Panels in the Studio (They're Not Hopeless, But You're Probably Using Them Wrong)

I have a piece of masking tape on the worst light in my studio that just says “handle with care.” It’s not fragile. It’s a flat LED panel, and that label is a warning to myself. For years I reached for those panels as quick fill sources and walked away with portraits that looked like someone lit a subject with a laptop screen. Harsh, flat, unflattering. The problem was never the light itself.