Best Lighting Equipment for Streaming – Buying Guides & Reviews

5 Best Lighting Kits for streaming

Streaming is enjoyable and goes well with perfect lighting. A proper selection of lighting will bring extraordinary effects to the streaming, even with the most basic apparatus. The quality of the video would be enhanced manifold, with lighting playing a vital role. There are a large number of choices available in the market. You would essentially require a key light along with a fill lighting to start with streaming. This would yield quick and best possible results for streaming. Here you get to know about the best lighting for streaming, which guides you to pick the one that suits your needs. The top five picks are addressed with their positive and negative points.

Best Lighting Kits Equipment for Streaming Reviews

1. MOUNTDOG 1350W Photography Continuous Softbox Lighting Kit

• The kit comes with an extra bulb of 1350W for serving future needs of replacements. The high power of the bulb gives effective lighting.
• The tripod stand with a height of 80 inches offers great flexibility allowing you to adjust upto 27 inches. Thus, you can adjust to any desired angle.
• The kit has got an adjustable lamp holder up to 210-degree rotation softbox head and is adaptable for a wide range of streaming needs. The settings are easy to adjust as per the need of the hour.
• The softbox light reflector is extraordinary in eliminating the shadows.
• The kit is foldable, saving space and is portable.
• The illumination is 1820 Lumens.

Pros:

• The product functionality is worth its price and is affordable.
• Absolute softening of the hard light is done.
• Lightweight model.
• The assembling of the equipment is very easy.
• It provides ideal lighting for streaming and offers a high degree of versatility.

Cons:

• The softbox switch may get difficult to operate.

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2. Emart Continuous Umbrella Studio Lighting Kit – Photography Backdrop

• Compatible for heavy duties and easy to install as well.
• It comes with a Green Screen Muslin Chromakey that perfectly serves as a neat backdrop. The clamps and stand support system are in the kit. The background screen makes the kit ideal for portraits, streaming, and similar purposes.Compatible for heavy duties and easy to install as well.
• The adjustability of the lamp holder ranges from 26.8 inches to 75 inches allowing you to screen a variety of angles.
• The 33 inches photo umbrella reflector ensures even spreading of light by eliminating glaring, shadows, and spotting.

Pros:

• The CFL bulbs used are with (CRI) optimum colour rendering index
• The lighting comes without any noise or flickering disturbances with good durability.
• The appearance is classy, and the kit is perfect for beginners too.
• The kit is made of a durable framework.

Cons:

• CFLs may be emitting heat if used for a prolonged period.

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3. NEEWER 160 LED CN-160 Dimmable Ultra High Power Panel Digital Camera/ Video Light

• The kit consists of 160 LEDs that illuminate to the maximum.
• The unique feature of 2 level filtration is seen. The effects of spotlight and diffuser would reduce the colour temperature up to 3200K.
• The intensity of light can be adjusted to achieve a professional-grade quality.
• The brightness can be adjusted as per your requirement with a rotate switch.
• The conventional bulbs of CFL are replaced with LEDs.
• The kit is a great space saver.

Pros:

• The illumination can be dimmed while streaming if necessary.
• The kit is light in weight, and assembling is not a tedious task.
• The bulbs consume less power while operating.
• The best quality of bulbs is given, whose lifespan-extends up to 50000 hours.
•  Compatible with a variety of rechargeable batteries.
• The Neewer could be placed on tripods or any hot shoe or ¼ inch thread.
• A battery adapter is included in the kit.
• This could be employed either as a main light or as a supplementary lighting system.

Cons:

•  The battery is not included with the kit.
• It does not come with the lamp holder in the kit.

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4. Julius Studio Photography Lighting Kit

• The kit comes with a white umbrella that is meant to act as a reflector.
• The kit comprises of a standing tripod to hold the light.
• You can carry the kit with the bag provided.
• The three CFL bulbs make sure the light is evenly spread with the creation of soft light. The hard light is, therefore, avoided without any issues of shades and contrast.
• The lumen value of lighting is high, creating a perfect streaming setup.

Pros:

• The bulb value is 6500 Kelvin.
• The white colour of the reflector reduces the impact of temperature.
• The light stand can be adjusted from 50 inches to 86 inches.
• The entire kit is lightweight and is portable.
• The light is continuous without any trigger.
• Efficient functioning and is worth more than its price.
• The kit is self-contained with easy operation.

Cons:

• There is no instruction manual for assembling. However, it is easy.

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5. RALENO 800W Softbox Lighting Kit

• The equipment offers a continuous lighting environment, which results in a professional streaming output.
• There are two bulbs whose capacity is 5500K.
• There are two adjustable light stands with over a range of 27 inches to 80 inches.
• The lamp holder is adaptable as well as adjustable up to 210 degrees of rotation as per your desired angles.
• Easy assembling and brings an elegant outcome.
• Softbox has got Silver lining that acts as a reflector.
• Full lighting environment within a decent price range.

Pros:

• Warranty of one year to the product.
• Credible customer support service for your lifetime. Any query is ensured to be resolved within 24 hours.
• Employs the latest technology of dual soft light, which brings out a clear vision without spots or shadows.
• The light gets diffused with the embossed stone. This ensures interruption-free illumination with two bulbs of 85 Watts.
•  The lifetime of the bulbs is 8000 hours.
• The cable length is sufficient and makes it convenient to move around.
• The stand is foldable, portable being light in weight.
• Best serves all the heavy-duty works of streaming or photography.
• The kit comes with an in-built locking mechanism.
• Softbox is meant to suffice all kinds of applications with many adjustment probabilities.

Cons:

• The knobs of the stand may not be durable.
• Mounting the device on a hotshoe is not possible.

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What type of lighting kit is the best for streaming?

The main aim of streaming should be that it is supposed to be gripping with great quality of its kind. This would ensure that you retain the viewers and would portray you as holding the accountability to deliver the best content to them. Choosing the right lighting is one such measure to bring the right outcome.

Reliable lighting would decide the quality of the stream and gives a professional touch. There would be a soft transition with apt lighting. Best lighting for twitch streaming gets impacted by the number of hours you use per day. For more number of working hours, LED lights are to have opted as they make the streaming sessions pretty comfortable with less emission of heat.

Soft lights are a must for creating soft edges of the objects, and also they assure minimizing unwanted details. The soft lighting could be achieved either by using soft light directly or by using hard lights with diffusers or kits with umbrellas. Thus, you get a dramatic look.

With more number of lights, you would be more flexible in attaining perfect illumination. Considerable importance should be given to the color temperature of lights. The kit lights should be self-sufficient without wanting you to think about the issue of mixing color temperatures.

Buyer’s guide to the Best Lighting for Streaming

First thing first! While selecting the best lighting for twitch streaming make sure to check that the lighting is adequate to let you shoot with minimal gain or zero gain on your camcorder. Once this part is taken care of, then you can think about the art and pattern of lighting, whether the veiled three-point lighting to add a dramatic effect in the customer testimonial, or slight shadowing to create a soft edge around the speaker’s face.

While selecting the best lighting for streaming, you should preferably get a soft light that can create soft edges around the shadows and also minimize wrinkles or large pores. You can create this soft lighting in two ways: either by using a soft lighting source such as a fluorescent bulb or by diffusing the hard lighting as the tungsten bulb within a softbox or by rebounding the light off an umbrella or any other surface.

Number of lights

To obtain the maximum flexibility, you should keep at least three lights: first one in order to serve as the key or central light, the second one as the fill light, and the last one as the hair or backlight. You can also search in Google about three pointed lights for resource materials detailing how the lights should be placed. With such a three-light kit, you can easily create contrasting dark shadows ideal for the customer testimonial or adequately flat lighting required for a news announcement.

If you seek to produce green screen footage or want to shoot against a white screen background, you will require at least two extra soft lights in order to light up your background. It’s advisable that you Google the techniques and you are sure to find a plethora of resources that will inform you about the lighting directions and placements.

Color temperature of the lights

The color temperature of the lights is another important factor since mixing up different lighting temperatures during a shoot can be disastrous. You can easily choose to color correct any single temperature, be it on your camera or afterward. But if you buy a kit that matches the existing lights, ensure that they deliver a similar color temperature. It’s advisable that you select such a kit that offers you enough lighting without having to rely on the existing light sources. That way, you can easily shut the shades or turn off the lights during shooting so as to get rid of any tension about mixing up of different color temperatures.

Bear in mind that if your objective is to enlighten a large area, you will require more lights.

Softboxes

Determining the enclosure type is the fundamental aspect before selecting the best light for streaming. A softbox is such an enclosure around your bulb that focuses the light and thereby projects it via a diffused material placed at the front in order to create the soft light. Softboxes generally consist of four of the five soft light kits that use a single or multiple softboxes. Softboxes are made with flexible rods that connect to an external ring around the light and with other hooks connected in that enclosure which spread the fabrics of the softbox and thereby keep it taut.

Though it has a simple design, nevertheless a softbox generally needs much force as you try to snap the rods within the placement holder in that fabric and the entire set up procedure can take ten to fifteen minutes. Cheap softboxes will require even more time since they are not much flexible. Also, the cheap ones are vulnerable and may break down if you put much pressure on it. For this reason, inexpensive softboxes are better for semi-permanent or temporary usage but if you are looking for a softbox that’s portable and has a longer lifetime, you better invest on a good one.

Bulb Type

The next most considerable part is the bulb type. It can be either fluorescent or tungsten. The central benefit of tungsten is that lots of light can emit from a single bulb. But that light burns quite hot which consumes more power and can overheat your subject. Therefore, it requires special handling. For a safer usage, the fluorescent bulb is the right choice as they create soft light and gets cooled easily. But remember that they don’t create much light. In comparison, you have to multiply a fluorescent watt by the factor of 12 in order to occupy an approximate amount of tungsten lighting power. Luckily, you can bring fluorescent light much closer to your shooting subject without any risk of first-degree burn.

Output control is another important factor to consider before buying the best lighting kits for streaming.  The controlled intensity of the fluorescent system is determined by turning an individual bulb in on and off modes. Therefore, your key light may have five blazing bulbs while your fill lights are only three. The focusing mechanism allows you to focus at the intensity of any light. Attachments are also important while enhancing your ability to control lights. For instance, barn doors will allow you to specifically control the corners of your lighting. As a solid frame is necessary for the barn doors, this cannot be used in the case of the softboxes.

Now that you know what type of lighting is the best for streaming, you can easily purchase one for your next big day. Don’t wait anymore. Buy one yourself and lighten up your life (we mean, face!)

Conclusion – Choosing the best lighting kit for streaming?

Lighting is the key to make any video appear at its best when you stream. The content would be presented with more grace to the viewers. Even with good content, bad lighting cannot hold the viewers for long. The major source of lighting would be the key light, nothing but the best of all. Positioning should be well, and the remaining lighting requirements should be met with the fill lights that would be with reduced intensity.

A good lighting setup would turn the video into the optimum possible presentation. You never want others to have a negative impact concerning your video lighting setup. Perfect lighting brings a positive, feel-good effect concerning your video content. With minimal spending, you can get your desired results. Go through the above mentioned to choose the one considering your budget constraints.

Lastly, do check out our other product reviews on streaming  microphone for streaming

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