Studio Test shoot for the Lupo Superpanel 30 full colour

Oct 10, 2018 | Continuous Lighting, Studio

Every now and then a new product comes onto the market that changes the way I shoot or light. The Superpanel 30 is one such light. It is like a regular Superpanel ‘Soft” but has an array of RGB LEDs instead of the usual mono colour or dual colour. An RGB Superpanel 30 can be used in normal correlated colour temperature mode with a handy tint shift facility to match the other light sources or in hue, saturation and luminance mode. More details are here.

I don’t normally blog test shoots but I really like the preliminary look of these lights and I thought Alice was great too. There is another post here that features Alice on the streets of Bristol.

Model: Alice
Location: The Lovegrove Studio
Lighting: 3 Lupo Superpanel 30 RGB LED lights.
Shoot: A test shoot to try out the lights and a first shoot with Alice

01. I decided to use three colours to get me going and I chose a ‘midnight blue’, ‘diva purple’ and ‘goddess gold’. I have programmed these values into my lights so I can instantly recall them.

 

02. I popped a bit of smoke in to see how it picked up the light.

 

03. Traditionally I’d have shot these using the Lovegrove Studio Gels and flash heads but this is a much neater way of working.

 

 

04. I could tell straight away that I was going to get on well with Alice. We had a good laugh and the fun shows in our pictures.

 

05. I get to shoot wide open on my GFX 50s camera with the GF 110mm f/2 lens. It’s a look that I love.

 

06. It’s interesting what happens when you push the exposure in camera to create a bright zingy look when using coloured light.

 

07. I tested contrast reduction using smoke to quite good effect.

 

08. These lights work well for low key shoots. It’s lovely being able to be subtle or vibrant with the light without changing gels.

 

09. I had enough light to be able to use 1/500th second so I could freeze the action.

My next test with these lights will be creating pastel colours, ‘baby blue’, ‘soft pink’ and ‘aqua’ etc. I’ll be filming some new ‘how to’ videos using these Lupo’s next week.

8 Comments

  1. Light Subscriber (@LightSubscriber)

    Hello Damien.

    I’m thinking of purchasing the lupo superpanel 30 RGBW lights for DSLR Video Interviews, as my main light(only constant light). Will these lights have enough output for a working aperture around F8? Should I get the Softbox with egg crates or the Barndoors to start out with? Any advice on how set up the superpanel 30 for interviews, what aperture I should expect to work with. Thank You for the assistants.

    Reply
    • Damien

      Hi Light Subscriber, Sorry for the delay in my reply. I’ve had a lot of life ditractions and I’m just catching up.

      My guess is you’d just get f/8 out of the full colour 30 but not if you put it in a softbox. The dual colour units have a highr output.

      Depending upon where you are in the world you should be able to try one out.

      Kindest regards,

      Damien

      Reply
    • Damien

      Thank you Joss :)

      Reply
  2. Pete

    These do look good. I have always shot with strobes but I’m super keen to switch to these panels.
    These panels are super bright aren’t they? Am I really missing anything by switching to panels? The majority of my work is fitness portraits and generally shoot around 1/200 at f8 or so.. I’m guessing the experience will be similar with these panels just better set ups as I can see whats happening before hand.

    Reply
    • Damien

      Hi Pete, These panels are bright but not as bright as the Superpanel dual colour. You will not really be working at f/8 with them though. More like f/2.8 at 1/250th and ISO 200. If you bring the light in close the output increases but they do become quite intense for your subject. If f/2.8 could be your thing then these are perfect. If you want or need f/8 stick with strobes. That’s my advice.

      Kind regards,

      Damien

      Reply
  3. Rob

    Great stuff Damien, am thinking already to changing to LED constant lights, and this has pushed me again to seriously reconsidering for my portraiture.
    The only way I can shoot at 2.8 at the mo is using an ND filter, but to be honest, these may just have sealed the deal.
    Wonderful use of colour and may I salute Alice – fab work guys

    Reply
    • Damien

      Hi Rob,

      You have several options. Using new flash heads with HSS or going down the continuous light road. I favour the second option because they work well for video too and you see what you get straight away. Keep your studio flash heads for the occasional job that needs f/11 and shoot with LED at other times. If you want to pop down to my studio to try all the lights in the Lupo collection give Blaise or Laura a call to arrange a time. I have a demo unit of every lamp :)

      Cheers,

      Damien

      Reply

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