Buying Guide

I spent the last 60 days shooting jewelry, cosmetics, and handmade crafts in every photography light tent I could get my hands on, and the differences are real. Some units delivered clean, professional results straight out of the camera. Others left me with hot spots, color casts, and wrinkles I had to fight in post. […]

After three months of testing 12 fixtures side by side across YouTube sets, livestream rooms, and on-location interviews, we narrowed our shortlist to the best bi-color LED panels for video creators who care about accurate skin tones and quick setup. Our team uses these panels weekly, and we measured real lux at one meter, ran

Our team spent 90 days testing the best RGB video lights for creators side-by-side in a home studio, a bedroom streaming setup, and on weekend location shoots with a Sony A7 IV and an iPhone 15 Pro Max. We measured lux at 1 meter with a Sekonic meter, ran each light at full RGB for

After 14 months of testing softboxes in our 10×8 ft home studio — shooting everything from newborn sessions to YouTube tutorials — our team pulled together this ranked list of the best softboxes for home studios in . We focused on kits that actually fit a real bedroom or spare room, not a rented warehouse.

After testing more than a dozen handheld and cold-shoe units across film sets, studio shoots, and weekend walks with a Leica M6, I can tell you this: the best light meters for photography in are still the difference between guessing and nailing exposure on the first frame. In-camera TTL metering has improved, mirrorless zebras and

The best lens filters for landscape photography in are a circular polarizer (CPL), a neutral density (ND) filter, and a graduated ND filter – those three cover about 95% of outdoor shooting needs. After spending 60 days shooting waterfalls, coastlines, and mountain scenes with 12 different filters, our team ranked the top options by optical

After 60+ hours of hands-on testing across three small studios, we narrowed down the best LED video lights for small studios in to eight models that actually fit a cramped room, run quietly, and render skin tones honestly. We measured lux at one meter, checked CRI with a Sekonic meter, ran each light through a

Yes, ring lights can work for product photography, especially edge-lit and bi-color models that minimize glare on reflective surfaces. Our team spent six weeks shooting jewelry, cosmetics, candles, and packaged food with eight different ring lights, and three stood out clearly for product realism: the NEEWER RL-18 18in Kit, the NEEWER Basics 12in, and the

After 30 days testing eight gray cards across studio portraits, weddings, mixed-lighting video, and outdoor landscapes, I can tell you the right card saves you hours of post-production. The wrong card silently throws a color cast into every frame and you’ll never see it on a phone preview until your client calls. I shoot RAW

I still remember the first sunny afternoon I tried to shoot video at f/1.8. My shutter snapped to 1/8000, my highlight warning screamed, and every frame looked like a blown-out slideshow. That single weekend sent me down the rabbit hole of variable ND filters, and after testing over a dozen on Sony, Fujifilm, and Canon