As mentioned previously, and in the video, LED lights are nowhere near as powerful as studio lights. This is an important difference that will limit (and even dictate) what aperture, shutter speed and ISO you can use when shooting.
In short, studio flash offers the greatest versatility when making images, and therefore allows you a greater level of creativity.
As I demonstrate in the video, when shooting at 1/120th shutter speed, there was a nine-stop difference when using a flash light and continuous LED light. Essentially, this meant that I would need a four-second exposure to get the same amount of light from the LED light compared to the flash.
At 1/250th shutter speed that would be a 10-stop difference between an 800 joules studio flash and the 12000 lumens LED light tested here, which means the studio light was 512 times brighter. Alternatively, a 1600 joules studio flash light would be 1024 times brighter.
The additional power output offered by studio lights also makes them well suited to working outdoors, especially if you’re looking to achieve dramatic images with darker backgrounds.
By using smaller apertures like f22, you can cut out the ambient daylight but still clearly light your subject using flash (I demonstrate this technique in one of our environmental portrait classes, where I photographed a farrier outdoors).
However, similar results would be nearly impossible to achieve using LED lighting as they simply wouldn’t offer the power output required to light the subject and cut out the ambient lighting.
