What are the best lights for stop motion (on a budget)?

Why are is good lighting important for stop motion?

Good lighting makes a big difference in stop motion animation.

Daylight varies in brightness throughout the day and can create flicker in your animation. If you want to reduce this, the best thing you can do is to block out natural light – draw the curtains and close the blinds, and use task lamps. This will greatly increase the quality of your final animation.

Do you always need to use lights for stop motion?

Sometimes, it may not be possible to use additional lights, so do not worry about it and just go for it.

Which lights to choose?

The trouble is, studio lights can be very expensive. They can also be big, heavy and take up a lot of space. If you are doing stop motion at home or at school, you are likely to be looking for some more compact and budget-friendly options.

I have spent a huge amount of time researching and testing the best lights for stop motion and I am especially conscious of budget and portability as I have six stop motion stations at my workshops, and often have to travel with all of my equipment. likely

Type of bulb

You can use any desk lamp you have already, the important thing is the type of bulb. Some older type of bulbs will cause flicker in your animations, including incandescent, fluorescent and halogen.

LED is best as they stay cool and produce continuous, stable light.

My Favourites

Of the many lights I have tried, I love ones from Mighty Bright. The NuFlex is my favourite. It’s well-made, a pleasure to use and, lives up to its name in being nice and bright.

It can be clipped onto the side of the tabletop studio, its flexible neck is sturdy and can withstand being fiddled about with at my workshops! The light can be used with either batteries or charged with its USB cord.

It is better if you use two, but one is bright enough.

These LED lights are also very good – they are small, but powerful. They are also rechargeable and dimmable. Available on Amazon at time of writing here.

Stands with built-in light

A very popular and budget-friendly choice is Ikea’s LÅNESPELARE ring light with phone holder.

Another option is the Canvas lamp. I have not personally tried it, but it gets consistently good reviews from video makers. They ship internationally, but it is pricey.

For a more advanced set up

This shows the standard way that photographers position three lights to make sure an object or person is well lit with no harsh shadows. The KEY light is the brightest, the FILL light fills in the shadows, and the BACK light makes your subject stand out from the background.

3 Point Lighting

Professional studio lighting can be very expensive. There are budget-friendly options out there that can still get you good results. I’m loathe to suggest it, but Amazon is a good bet. Remember to look for LED bulbs and high lumens (brightness).