CharleyL Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video? | |
I just added two more of the GVM 480 LS light panels to my studio. These were bought because my existing three panels were barely acceptable in total brightness for the studio video work that I have been doing. The studio shooting room is only 18 X 26' with an 8' ceiling so it's a bit tight to do videos, but it works. Since I already had three of the GVM 480 LS LED panels, and had figured out two years+ ago how to make the three that I had work via remote control from my cell phone via the GVM WIFI App, it just seemed like the right thing to do was to buy two more LED panels and get them working via WIFI as well.
Setting them up and getting them remotely controlled via WIFI, after doing this with the first three, went very well. GVM's latest version of the App, downloadable from the Play Store or the GVM website made it quite easy. I had everything working together, both old and new, in less than an hour. Their App and the instructions for using it were terrible when I bought the first three panels two years ago, but the latest version of the App works much better, although it could still use a few improvements.
One thing that they don't tell you in the manual is to only power one light panel on at a time when using the App to change the LED panel WIFI name. It will first show as GVM-LED on the WIFI list on your cell phone. Then, after selecting GVM-LED in the phone's WIFI list and getting connection, you go to the App maintenance menu and rename the WIFI address for that light panel. The password is "gvmled-admin" Then you go back to the main screen and test that you have control of the light panel. After it has a separate name in WIFI, and it's working fine, then you can turn on the other panels and they will all play nicely. If anything goes wrong in this renaming process, there is a reset button on the back of the light panel, and if you hold this button in for about 5 seconds, the panel will reset and name itself GVM-LED again. I used GVM-LED 1-5 as my naming scheme. If you have more than one GVM-LED panel, you cannot remotely control them unless you give them separate WIFI names. Trying will only randomly allow control of one panel, and it may be a different panel each time they are powered on, when all have the same name. There is supposed to be a "group control function", but I was never able to get this to work and there is nearly no information available on this.
I have built a ceiling mounted lighting support grid system in my studio. These lights, and my studio strobes hang from this ceiling grid to almost eliminate cabling and tripod stand trip hazards. I still use tripods for my strobes and these panels as well, until I find the right position for them, then attach them to the ceiling grid in that position, if I expect to continue using that lighting arrangement. Having all of the lights remote controllable reduces the necessary ladder work. Ceiling mounted electric outlets every 6" along both sides of this lighting grid all the way to the backdrops gives me an electric outlet within 5' of anywhere on my studio ceiling, and one main switch turns everything connected to the ceiling grid off every night. When power is turned on, these GVM-LED panels default to manual control and turn on, if their power switch is on. If you have the WIFI App working, you can then bring up control of each light and make adjustments or turn it off from the App. With 5 of these Lights, I get to bring up each WIFI address for each light and turn it off one at a time. This is a bit frustrating, but it's only necessary to do this once, and as long as the power remains on, it isn't necessary to do this again.
These LED light panels are mostly used for Video work. I have a daughter-in-law who is starting a business and we are making instructional videos for her business. It's mostly just her talking and demonstrating the products, and she is either sitting and/or standing behind a banquet type table while holding and demonstrating the products. The LED panel lights have been pretty much stationary since we began this, so I leave them stored on the ceiling grid, all set up and ready for making the next video with her, or for any similar work. Now that I've added two more panels, some repositioning of the 5 will likely be needed, but it shouldn't take long to get them right when getting ready for the next video.
I sometimes use these panels for product photo shooting sometimes using a translucent shooting box. For this work they usually need to be taken down and moved to suit the need, but they are pretty much stored between uses, just hanging from the ceiling grid.
I don't use any modifiers with these LED panels other than the included diffuser and barn doors, but do have some colored gels that are cut to fit into the slot where the light diffuser is inserted, and I have done this a few times. The light is output is quite soft without any modifiers at all, but only 30 watts per panel, so I adjust the ISO of the camera to be able to use the shutter speed and F-Stop settings that I prefer for still shots. 4-600 are the usual ISO settings when I was using the three light panels and doing stills. For video, I have so far been letting the camera control the ISO. I just space the panels 5-8' from the subject for even lighting and elimination of shadows, or at least those that can be seen by the camera. Mounted on the ceiling grid with a horseshoe shaped positioning of them seems to work best for video. The additional two panels will be side lights, extending the legs of the horseshoe.
Charley
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