You can take professional-looking portraits with a single studio light. But adding a second light opens a world of creative possibilities, especially if it brings colour into the equation. As a studio portrait novice, I was after a simple, flexible, cost-effective option for my second studio light. I chose the Lume Cube Tube Light Mini. It’s a pretty cool tool.
In an earlier article on studio portraits, I described starting from scratch with a one-light setup. After an encouraging start, I further tuned my portrait efforts with the purchase of a light meter. Using this minimalist kit, I began to photograph friends and family. In return for delivering a set of portraits, I got to hone my skills and explore different lighting strategies.
My enthusiasm for this new photographic genre has grown apace. So, I considered what might be a logical next step, to further broaden my scope and enhance my skill set.
Doubling up
Given my minimalist setup — LED light, soft box, reflector, and backdrop — an obvious move was to add a second light.
It would not need to be large. I would continue to use a Nanlite 200 as the ‘key light’. So a second light would act as a fill: illuminating the backdrop, providing ‘rim’ lighting, or managing shadows.
Ideally, it would provide a palette of colour options, complementary to the colours in the subject. Traditionally, gels, sitting in front of a light, provided those colours. These days, you can buy an LED light-source that generates the colours itself. That is what I had in mind.
After a customary period of research, I decided the Lume Cube Tube Light Mini perfectly met my requirements. It is small, powerful, produces a massive range of colours, and easily fitted to a conventional lighting stand.
Small is beautiful
This little device (one foot long) looks a bit like a short fluorescent light bulb. It is charged via a USB-C port, running for well over an hour at full power when fully charged. I control it via a panel on the light itself, or via a blue-tooth-connected iPhone app.
Rear control panel (Image by Lume Cube)
The Lume Cube Tube Light Mini delivers white light at temperatures from 2700k to 7500k. It also offers a full RGB spectrum, comprising 360 different hues. The light comes supplied with a mini-tripod and a moulded hard-shall case.
The mini-tripod screws into one of two standard ¼ inch light-stand fittings, placed at each end of the tube. I can also attach the tube to a ferromagnetic metal surface via magnetic, rotatable hexagonal end-caps.
It’s an impressive piece of kit, costing $149 plus tax in the US | £178 including tax in the UK, and weighing just 350g.
Self-portrait strategy
After purchasing a light meter, I learned to use that new device by taking self-portraits. I adopted the same strategy with the new tube light. To illustrate its capabilities, I have sprinkled both self-portraits and photos of a helpful volunteer throughout the article. They were generally taken at ~f/5.0, 1/125s, ISO 800.
To minimize ‘spill’ from the key light soft box, I fitted a hexagonal ‘egg-crate’ modifier. I can attach this to the front of the soft box using a built-in Velcro edge. It ensures the light source illuminates only what is directly in front of it. This prevents white light from the soft box interfering with the new source of coloured light. It does, however, reduce the light output from the soft box by roughly a stop.
Left: Directed illumination using egg-crate modifier. Right: Illumination of backdrop using light tube
I discovered, inadvertently, that the egg-crate modifier was reflected in my sunglasses when looking towards the soft box. It’s a cool effect, and so I tried to replicate it in a number of these portraits. I, and my model, adopted roughly the same pose in each case, to enable better comparisons between light configurations. Apologies for the monotony!
Let there be colour
Until now, I had used only the black face of the reversible backdrop. The white face yielded a rather bland, pale grey effect. So, one of the first tests of the tube light would be to project a colour onto this white surface.
I set the light on an Amazon Basics light stand, using its standard ¼ inch threaded fitting. I placed the light at roughly head height for someone sitting, and aimed it at the backdrop. The subject effectively conceals the light itself. With the key light set at 80% power, I tried various light intensities on the fill light. After several iterations, I achieved the effect I was after.
Checking exposure using the Sekonic Flashmate ensured that faces were well-exposed, despite the light-show behind. For the self-portraits, I set my 12-second timer, pressed the shutter release, grabbed a camera as a prop, and adopted my pose.
I have to say, I am pretty tickled by the results. The red background is really vibrant, and nicely complements my red Leica M and Apple Watch strap. I did not conduct an exhaustive test of all available colours, but those I tried worked nicely.
Complementary colours
Embracing the Fall mood, I tweaked the hue to give more of a tangerine fill. I think this worked well as a complement to my yellow TL2 case.
Turning to less exotic options, projecting daylight white light (5600k) onto the backdrop gave a very useful, if more conventional, effect.
While projecting the tube light on to a white backdrop yields bright, colourful backgrounds, I also tried it on the black face of the backdrop. This produces a more muted, but nevertheless, attractive effect, rather like a halo of colour, with a rapid fade to black at the edges of the image.
Finally, I dabbled with some side illumination against the black backdrop. Instead of using a reflector to bounce light back into the shadows, I tried the tube light. It took some experimentation to determine an optimum intensity and position for the fill-light. Of course, it had to be a red fill.
Calling Gen-Zers
As I had hoped, adding a second light to the setup added a new dimension to my portrait photographs. The Lume Cube Tube Light Mini turned out to be an excellent choice for that second light. I can highly recommend it as a small, cost-effective source of coloured illumination. At some point, I will try it out as a single light source for ‘product’ shots.
Once again, I am now on the lookout for opportunities to put my second-generation studio light setup into action. Perhaps you know some ‘Gen-Zers’ out there who need a portrait with a bit more of an edge, a bit more fashion-oriented with some punchy colours. For free! If so, please send them along…
Read the first article in this series
And here is the second article in the series
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WAS OT GOD OR THE BARD….”VANITY OF VANITIES, ALL IS VANITY”
Hi John, the passage you are referring to is from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, generally attributed to Solomon, son of King David. You might also have come across the phrase, also from Ecclesiastes, that “There is nothing new under the Sun”. Although The King James translation of the passage you quote refers to ‘vanities’, more modern versions speak of ‘meaningless, everything is meaningless”. Cheers, Keith
I suspect that we’re to take ‘vanity’ in the sense of ‘in vain’.
I’ve taught at University for 2/3 of my life, so it’s to be expected that I’d add: it isn’t in vain if one learns in the process. Which, I think, is rather the point of this series of articles. Learning — by trying new things, by re-thinking old habits: I believe that should be celebrated.
I’m going to have my say; so thank you Keith for this helpful article.
I have always shied away from using flash or lights to shoot indoors as the whole process seems like a black art. I can now see that it doesn’t have to be complex in terms of setup: you just need to prep.
Now I just need to ask Santa for a Lume Cube.
Hi Jon, many thanks! Luke Cube sell a range of small, LED-based lighting units. It would be worth looking at their options beyond the tube light, although that worked perfectly for my needs. All the best, Keith