I often have to take photos and video of my work, and generally need a lot of illumination. LED technology has allowed normal lighting to be much more efficient, generally leading to lower energy costs. It also means that it’s possible to produce a massive amount of light from a standard incandescent socket, in my case via these “45W Deformable Garage Ceiling Lights*.”
The lights fold out to reveal three lobes of bright light, which I have mounted on my office workbench as seen above via two swing arm desk lamps. The normal shroud of these swing arms screws off easily, revealing a perfect place to mount the triple-lobe lighting. While it’s likely not as good as a true photography light box, it allows a wide range of ways to aim the light, and I can use one or two as needed when working or for different effects.
In the garage, I also have one of these lobe light/swing arm setups, along with several mounted to a clamp fixture like this. Like the swing arms, I unscrew the shroud to mount the lobe light without it.
Overall, I’ve been quite happy with these lights, though looking at my desk devices for this article, it seems that the temperature of one might be different than the other. You’ll certainly want to do a custom light balance for your camera. I used this card set from eBay, which seems to work fine, and I’m using a Sony A6600 to shoot these days, which is an awesome camera.
As another note, you’ll see some reflection from the lighting on shiny surfaces, which is perhaps unavoidable when not using a light box. You may also notice lines from the light flickering if you photograph too fast. Like anything else, there are tradeoffs, but the setup works well enough for me.
Below is a clip I shot recently, testing out a little fan. I’m, of course, still getting the hang of things (aren’t we all). You can see how I built this desk in this video, though at the time I was only using one non-lobe light.
*The listing I purchased is no longer available, but those look identical. Note that Amazon links are affiliate, meaning I get a small % of purchases made through them.