Low Level Landscape Lighting (LLL)

Palouse Falls (eastern Washington state) with and without Low Level Lighting (LLL) • 20 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400, with a 15mm ultra-wide lens on a full-frame DSLR camera • Copyright Royce Bair • Click image to enlarge

Low Level Landscape Lighting (LLL) public service webpage, provided by Royce Bair and Wayne Pinkston.

What is Low Level Lighting (LLL)?

• LLL is NOT light painting — which is moving, momentary and difficult to repeat. Light painting is usually a very bright form of artificial lighting, which is jarring to your eyes and others around you.
• LLL is a form of "stationary lighting" (on a light stand, tripod or lying on the ground).
• LLL is constantly on during all camera exposures — making it ideal for stacking, panoramas, time-lapse and group settings.
• LLL has a very low level brightness on the foreground surface that is less than or equal to the light from a Quarter Moon. LLL adds very little light pollution, allowing the stars to be easily seen.

Comparing LLL Intensity with Natural Light

A Comparison of Natural Light Intensity on Earth Coming From the Sun:

The measurement of light falling on the earth from the overhead Sun (90º) is 129,000 Lux. At sunset this drops to 759 Lux. At the start of the Astronomical Dusk (-18.0º), illumination from the sun drops to 0.000645 Lux! This is the darkest period of the night and the best time to photograph the Milky Way stars.

Photo courtesy of PhotoPills

   Sun Position  Intensity      Time of Day                  

• 90 degrees  129,000 lux    Noonday Sun
•  0             759         At Sunset
•  -4             29.9       Start of Blue Hour
•  -6              3.41      End of Blue Hour 
•  -12             0.00806   Start Astro Twilight
•  -18             0.000645  During Astro Dusk

Add to the Astronomical Dusk illumination and you get the following:

• Total Starlight only 0.0002 lux
• Total Starlight + airglow 0.002
• Typical LLL "base" intensity 0.008
• Quarter Moon phase at 30º 0.00958 
• Quarter Moon phase at 45º 0.01602
• Typical LLL "accent" intensity 0.024
• Quarter Moon phase overhead (90º) 0.0267
• Full Moon phase at 30º 0.09583
• Full Moon phase at 45º 0.1602
• Full Moon phase overhead (90º) 0.267

Click image to enlarge - ©Royce Bair

CONCLUSION: The typical intensity of LLL base lighting is only about 4 times brighter than starlight, and even the intensity of LLL accent lighting is less that Quarter Phase Moonlight!

Here's another example of Low Level Lighting in practice:

Rainbow Bridge (290 feet/88 meters tall, in Utah) photographed with and without Low Level Lighting. The "base" light (an LED panel light dimmed to only 5%) is about 500 feet (154 m.) from the bridge, and producing about 0.008 lux on the surface of the bridge (about 4X greater than the lux from starlight and airglow). Another panel light is behind the bridge, and is dimmed to about 15%. This produces an "accent" illumination under the bridge (about 0.024 lux on the surface), giving more character, shading and dimension. All single exposures were 25 seconds each @ f/2.8, ISO 6400, with a 15mm ultra-wide lens on a full-frame DSLR camera. © Royce Bair. • Click image to enlarge.

How Does Low Level Lighting Compare to Starlight Blends and Twilight Blends?

Low Level Lighting at "Temple of the Moon" ~ Capitol Reef Nat'l Park. © Royce Bair • Click image to enlarge

1. A single exposure (15mm lens on a Canon 6D • f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO 8000)

2. Same EXIF, but with my LLL, and stacked 18 times to reduce noise. I like the drama and "character" one can achieve with LLL — it's similar to moonlight, but you get to control the direction of the light, and it doesn't wash out or lower the contrast of your Milky Way sky.

3. Longer foreground exposure, using overhead starlight (f/4, 120 sec, ISO 6400, with Long Exposure Noise Reduction turned on), then blended with the sky exposure in number one. I like the detail I get in the foreground, but I often do not like the "flat" lighting this technique gives you. One remedy is to do a Blue Hour blend rather than a starlight blend, as these twilight blends have more of from-the-side directional light (see the bottom of this blend page for more details).

4. My LLL exposure (from 2.) blended with the foreground exposure from number 3. This gives me the best on both techniques: more foreground detail (from the longer starlight exposure) AND more "character" from the LLL.

Artificial Light Restrictions in some national parks: As of May 25, 2021 there is no longer any artificial lighting allowed in Capitol Reef National Park due to a new Superintendent’s Compendium.

Capitol Reef now joins Arches, Canyonlands, Zion and Grand Teton National Park (and Natural Bridges Nat'l Mon.) in this artificial light restriction (Bryce has an artificial light restriction, but it only pertains to the viewing of wildlife). Currently, there are only five of the 63 national parks with this restriction, and only one of the 133 national monuments have this restriction. None of the BLM lands have this restriction (that's 245 million acres compared to the 50 million ares of National Parks land). I don't know of any state parks that have an artificial light restriction, but some like the Valley of Fire in Nevada do not allow photography after sunset.

HOW TO SET UP YOUR LOW LEVEL LIGHTING

Setting Up Low Level Landscape Lighting

Low Level Landscape Lighting (LLL) at Fairyland Point, Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park • Lights off in top photo • Two LED panel lights turned on (each at about 5%) in middle photo • Camera moved to left in bottom photo, and pointed up to show more sky. Post processing contrast added to sky (orange light pollution reflecting on clouds from nearby town) • © Royce Bair • Click on image to enlarge

 How I Set Up My Low Level Landscape Lighting (LLL)

for Nightscape Photography

Return to LLL BASICS Home Page

I've been using the F&V Z96 LED Panel Lights for about a decade in my Low Level Lighting. They use five AA batteries, come with magnetic diffusion and warming filters, and have an analog off/on dimmer switch on the back. The Lume Cube LED panel lights are smaller, lighter, have built in Li-on rechargeable batteries, and have digital dimmer switches that show the exact light intensity output (1% to 100%) and the amount of power that is left in the battery. The light color is also digitally controlled from 5600ºK to 3200ºK. You can read my reviews on all three of these lights via the above links.

I use the Lume Cube Panel MINI as the main (base) light source in most of my LLL set ups where the foreground landscape that I'm lighting is less than 300 feet (91 meters) away. Even at this distance, I'm typically using a light intensity of less than 40% power. For distances greater than 300 feet (91 meters), I use the larger Lume Cube RGB Panel Go (which replaced the original Lume Cube Panel).

Omni-directional "camp" lanterns compared

Camp lanterns put out an omni-directional light that are great for use as "accent" lights — putting a warm glow behind a landscape feature, or under an arch. The top photo shows six different digital LED lanterns I have used over the years. Number 1 has the digital likeness and size of a Coleman gas lantern. Number 6 is the one I now use the most. It is the Goal Zero Lighthouse Micro. Its On/Off/Dimmer Button can control whether two LED lights are used (180º light coverage) or four LED lights are used (360º light coverage). It can also control the intensity of those lights. Wrapping semi-translucent cloth (or tissue paper) and colored filters around the lanterns can added additional controls for diffusion and warming the color of the lights.

© Royce Bair • Click image to enlarge

Two filtered camp lanterns were placed under Sunset Arch, in the top photo. A single panel light from the left side provided the dramatic "base" or main illumination. A single filtered camp lantern lighted the underside of Mesa Arch in the bottom photo. The lantern is hanging from a string about 50 feet (15 meters) below the arch (the string is tied to a rock). The intensity of the lantern is easily controlled by raising or lowering the lantern. Two panel lights provided the "base" or main illumination — one on either side of the arch. The panel light on the right side was set at twice the intensity as the panel on the left side, in order to provide shading on the rocks, but with some shadow detail.

LIGHTING TUTORIAL ~ 5 Ways to Produce More Even Lighting

1. Increase lighting distance
2. Scrim the foreground
3. Place the light higher
4. Feather the light
5. Use a 2nd light for "fill"

CLICK for a 4-minute video tutorial

LIGHT STANDS

The Impact brand is one of my inexpensive favorites because they are so sturdy and tall (they can rise to a height of 9.5 feet, which makes them great for item #3, above), and they have a wide footprint (52") for greater stability—you'll appreciate that on windy nights. Disadvantages: They are all aluminum, so they are a little heavier than the carbon stands, which are better for backpacking into a location. They are also not as compact (42" when folded), which makes them more suitable for locations close to your vehicle.

The Manfrotto MS0490C Carbon Fiber Nanopole light stand costs about four times as much as the Impact light stands, but your back will appreciate the weight difference, if you have to backpack into your location. Although the stand only goes to 6.5 feet (77.5" / 196.8 cm) height, I can usually make up for that by finding higher ground (and it comes with a leveling leg, so that you can keep your stand vertical on uneven surfaces). For backpacking, you'll like the weight of only 1.65 lb / 0.75 kg and a compact folded length of only 20" / 50.8 cm.

MINI BALL HEADS

Mini Ball Heads are placed between your panel lights and your light stands. The mini ball heads allow you better lighting control (to "4. Feather the light"). The top ball head is a Lube Cube product ($24.99). It's well made, but a little overpriced for your needs, in my opinion. The DSLR shoe mount at the bottom (which also has a female 1/4"-20 thread for tripod or light stand mounting) is not need for our stationary type of lighting. I think the Oben BD-0 Mini Ball Head (via B&H for $12.71) is just as well built, and accepts both 1/4"-20 and 3/8"-16 studs at the bottom, but without the DSLR shoe mount. The bottom mini ball head is a ripoff of the Terra Firma design that you can get from B&H for $15 — or you can get this cheap mini ball head on Amazon for only $3.50! (This product is more than adequate for holding and positioning a light weight LED panel on top of a light stand.) Note: If this product link disappears, just search on Amazon for "Swivel Mini Ball Head 1/4 Screw Tripod Mount" and you should find several similar products.

NOTE: This page is currently under construction. Until it is finished, please refer to this webpage about additional lighting equipment from my friend, Wayne Pinkston.

Low Level Lighting BLENDS

The Milky Way above Temple of the Moon in Capitol Reef National Park, photographed with Low Level Lighting, and then blended with an additional foreground exposure (using overhead starlight) to increase foreground detail in the shadow areas.

I love doing both Low Level Lighting and starlight blends. My colleague, Wayne Pinkston and I co-authored the Low Level Lighting technique (or LLL). LLL gives one the drama or character that one can achieve with moonlight, but without washing out or lower the contrast of your Milky Way sky. Starlight blends allow you to increase foreground detail (especially in the background areas) that one cannot achieve with LLL, and many think that starlight blends look more natural, even though they are "flat" due to the overhead lighting effect of starlight. By blending my LLL exposures with the foreground portion of a longer starlight exposure, one can achieve the best from both techniques. Let me explain in this tutorial...

1. A single exposure (15mm lens on a Canon 6D • f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO 8000)

2. Same EXIF, but with my LLL, and stacked 18 times to reduce noise. I like the drama and "character" one can achieve with LLL — it's similar to moonlight, but you get to control the direction of the light, and it doesn't wash out or lower the contrast of your Milky Way sky.

3. Longer foreground exposure, using overhead starlight (f/4, 120 sec, ISO 6400, with Long Exposure Noise Reduction turned on), then blended with the sky exposure in number one. I like the detail I get in the foreground, but I often do not like the "flat" lighting this technique gives you. (One remedy is to do a Blue Hour blend rather than a starlight blend, as these twilight blends have more of from-the-side directional light.)

4. My LLL exposure (from 2.) blended with the foreground exposure from number 3. This gives me the best on both techniques: more foreground detail (from the longer starlight exposure) AND more "character" from the LLL.

NOTE: As of May 25, 2021 there is no longer any artificial lighting allowed in Capitol Reef National Park due to a new Superintendent’s Compendium.

This includes LLL (Low Level Lighting) — even though the intensity of LLL on the monument is equal to the light coming from a Quarter Moon that is about to set.

Capitol Reef now joins Arches, Canyonlands and Grand Teton National Park (and Natural Bridges Nat'l Mon.) in this artificial light restriction.

ALTERNATIVE BLENDS: Where LLL is not allowed, a blended exposure of the starry night sky (as in #1), with a longer exposure of the foreground lit by overhead starlight (as in #3), produces beautiful results. Many feel this has a very natural look. I agree; but I also think it has a flat, and somewhat drab look.

An alternative is to use a Blue-Hour blend from a twilight exposure that is taken about 30 minutes to an hour after sunset, or a similar period prior to sunrise. The advantage of a twilight exposure is that it has directional light: the west side of the sky (after sunset) is brighter than the rest of the sky, and the opposite is true for a morning twilight. When these brighter portions of the sky are perpendicular to your foreground landscape features, they produce shading and sculpturing to your landscape, giving it more interesting "character." The disadvantage of this technique is the waiting: You have to shoot your Blue-Hour exposure and wait until the Astronomical Dusk to shoot your starry night sky exposure (or shoot your starry night exposure and then wait for the morning twilight exposure). With a starlight foreground exposure, you can take that foreground shot immediately after doing your starry sky exposure. Here is a tutorial for doing a Twilight Blend...

A Blue-Hour exposure of three obelisk spires in Capitol Reef National Park. Photo taken about an hour after sunset with a Canon 6D, using a 15mm Irix lens • f/4.5, 25 seconds, ISO 800, Daylight White Balance.

Same image processed to a warmer, more natural color balance. (Some people like to keep the bluish or purplish color balance that come with a twilight or Blue-Hour exposure. I do not.)

Milky Way sky exposure taken about 1-hour later, during the Astronomical Dusk: f/2.8, 15 seconds, ISO 8,000 • 8 exposures stacked to reduce noise.

Last two images blended together in Photoshop layers. Click on any image to enlarge.

Low Level Lighting with Lume Cube

Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada - Low Level Lighting with a single Lume Cube ~ © Royce Bair

Original Lume Cube 1.0
1.6" x 1.6" (about golf ball size)

Lighting with Lume Cube. This November marks the 5th year anniversary of Lume Cube, the amazing little company in San Diego, California that started a photographic lighting revolution. The initial concept came to life via a Kickstarter Campaign. Their powerful little LED lighting cubes were rugged and waterproof, making them perfect for GoPro camera users who wanted to add lighting to their adventure sports videos and still photos. Cell phone camera users and professional photographers also started adapting the Lume Cube for their needs. Once the cube started to rise in popularity, requests began to pour in for accessories to make them more useful in a variety of lighting situations. Original accessories included a snap-on filter holder that allowed magnetic diffusion filters and various color filters to attach in front of the light.

A little too bright! At 1500 lumens (750 LUX @ 1M), the Lume Cube was very powerful for its size. Manually adjustable via a power button on the top, it could do 10 different brightness levels in 10% increments, from 100% to 10%. This power range works great for my regular photo projects, especially as fill and accent lighting for outdoor portraits. However, even 10% was too bright for Low Level Lighting (LLL) of some close nightscape foreground subjects.

Dimming down the Lume Cube: Early users of the the Lume Cube found they had to use several layers of cloth or tissue paper to filter-down the intensity. Some of these same users found that Lume Cube's early mobile phone app could remotely reduce the original Lume Cube intensity even further (the above photo was lit with the early Cube reduced to 1/32 power). The current Lume-X iPhone/Android App will wirelessly control the original Lume Cube 1.0 and the new 2.0 version from 60 feet away (both are Bluetooth enabled devices). The app allows remote brightness adjustments in 1% increments, all the way down to 1 percent!

Moon Caves (slot canyon) in Cathedral Gorge lit with moonlight and a Lume Cube, with a diffusion bulb and a CTO warming gel attached to the front of the light. Brightness @ 50% walking into the cave. Lowest brightness walking out of cave ~ © Royce Bair

The NEW Lube Cube 2.0 is LLL ready! On the outside, the newly redesigned Lume Cube 2.0 doesn't look a lot different than the original, but inside, it is packed with some great new features and technology. For Low Level Lighting users, the most exciting is its new 2 button control system to increase and decrease brightness manually. Although you can use the Lume-X app to remotely go to lower light levels, you can now manually enable the LOW LIGHT MODE by holding down both buttons. This allows super fine-tune low-level brightness control from 1%-10% right from the Cube's buttons! Price is $89.95 per unit.

2.0 with included accessories

Light modification accessories included: The 2.0 also comes with a Magnetic Softening Diffuser and a Magnetic Warming CTO Gel for warming color temperature (Down from 5600K to 4500K), plus a Modification Frame for mounting those and other accessories you may chose to purchase later on.

Longer running and better light quality: Full power light output from the 2.0 is the same 1.0, but runtime has been increased to an amazing 1.5 hours (I was getting only about 20 minutes with the original)! Of course, when you lower your brightness down to 10% or less, you'll be able to get several hours of runtime, which is perfect for timelapse work. Light color quality has gone from a somewhat bluish 6000K to the more natural 5600K, and from a 91 CRI to a 95+ CRI (while this may not mean a lot to landscape photographers, portrait photographers will love the better skin tones).

Other included features: Five other features I like in the 2.0 are 1.) wider 80º angle beam coverage vs. the older 60º beam; 2.) faster USB-C charging; 3.) the new charge indicator light that more clearly shows power condition of your battery; 4.) a new 360º optical sensor for slave flash capability; 5.) and the new aluminum body that is much more rugged and durable.

Additional lighting accessories: The Lume Cube 2.0 and the original 1.0 have many other lighting modifiers available to them via the Modification Frame. Once the frame is snapped onto the front of the Lume Cube, any one of these filters or diffusers (and combinations in stacks) can magnetically attach to the frame. System items can be purchased individually or in bundles for greater savings:

Should I buy the less expensive Lume Cube AIR? The Lume Cube AIR is $20 less than the Lume Cube 2.0, and is a great product. It is a little smaller and lighter, but it has reduced features that may not be the best light product for some photographers, especially those doing LLL nightscapes. Here are some of the major differences between the AIR and the 2.0:

• AIR does not have the "Low Light Mode" feature
• AIR only has 4 brightness levels: 100%, 75%, 50% and 25%
• AIR does not have Bluetooth, so will not work with the Lume-X app
• AIR's 1000 lumens (400 lux @ 1M) at full power is 33% less bright than 2.0
• AIR's handy magnetic back is a problem for drone use (can interfere with GPS)
• AIR is not a rugged as the 2.0's aluminum frame

NEW Lume Cube Panel! I've saved this amazing new product for last. It's fast becoming my favorite light. The Lume Cube Panel is a bi-color LED panel light and also functions as a power bank to recharge my mobile phone! It's incredibly small—about the size of my mobile phone, or about 1/4 the size of other panel lights I have been using in the past for my LLL. Featuring an intuitive LCD screen on back, the Panel not only allows you to adjust color temperature and brightness, but gives you immediate feedback on how long the light will last at each brightness setting. Although its compact and sleek design allows it to fit nicely on top of your camera, where I use it as a fill light in my portrait, macro and video photography; I typically use it off-camera (on a light stand), especially for my LLL work, so I can create more modeling, texture and drama in my foreground landscapes. Price is $149.95 per panel.

Click to enlarge and view features

LUME CUBE PANEL Specs:

• Color Temperature: 3200K - 5600K
• Brightness Range 5%-100%, adjustable by 5% increments 
• Max Brightness: 400 Lux @ 1M
• CRI: 96+
• Run Time on 5% Brightness: 7.5 Hours
• Run Time on 50% Brightness: 3 Hours
• Run Time on 100% Brightness: 90 Minutes
• Rechargeable via Micro USB and USB-C
• Built-In Li-Polymer Battery: 3.85V 4040mAh
• Power bank Output: 5V 2A
• Dimensions: 151x80x9.8mm
• Weight: 180g

How does the Lume Cube Panel compare to other panel lights I've used? For many years I've used the Z96 LED Panel Lights that I've mentioned in this blog and in my Milky Way NightScapes eBook. This is one of the oldest and most compact panel light designs, yet it is about 2X larger and heavier than the Lume Cube Panel. This old design requires magnetic snap on CTO filters to change the color temperature from 5600K to 3200K (and there are no in between color temperatures available). Power comes from 5 replaceable AA batteries (about 15-20 minutes of run time at full brightness) or snap on Sony style NP-F Li-ion batteries (larger NP-F batteries sizes will give you longer run times). Batteries are not included, and the NP-F batteries can get pretty pricey. The genuine F&V Z96 brand will cost you $159. Chinese rip-offs on Amazon usually cost under $100. F&V has a newer bi-color Z180S panel light design, that allows you to dial in your color temperature like the Lume Cube Panel, but this will cost you $365.

Before the Lume Cube Panel, I used the Genaray LED-6200T 144 LED Variable-Color On-Camera Light when I wanted a bi-color panel light. It's about 4X larger and at least 20% heavier (depending the battery size you buy) than the Lume Cube; and it will cost you $139. The Genaray only uses the snap in NP-F batteries (a small NP-F550 is included). Full power brightness is about 25% greater than the Lume Cube panel, but minimum brightness stops at 10% with the Genaray, whereas the Lume can go all the way down to 1%. Two big problem I see with most light panels is that 1.) none of these other panel lights have any type of a battery meter, and 2.) nearly all use a low-tech analog dimmer knob with no brightness reference markings. The Lume Cube has a digital LED brightness readout that can be accurately referred to or repeated in future photo setups, and they have a great battery meter with accurate projections as to how long the battery will last at the current brightness.

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Low Level Landscape Lighting Tutorial

Low Level Landscape Lighting (LLL) illumination levels compared with light from the stars and the moon. Click to enlarge. Photography by Royce Bair at Chimney Rock, Capitol Reef Nat'l Park, Utah.

LowLevelLighting.org is a new public service website that Wayne Pinkston and I have created to educated photographers of the benefits of this less evasive and low-polluting form of artificial lighting for starry night landscape photography.

A quick illustration of how LLL lighting compares with traditional hand-held light painting, using a focused flashlight. Click to enlarge. Graphics by Royce Bair

We hope you'll visit the website, look at this style of NightScape photography, compare, and see where your night photography might benefit from using these low level lighting techniques.

Traditional light painting is convenient and portable, but produces much higher light pollution and is very inconsistent compared to LLL lighting. Click to enlarge. Graphics by Royce Bair

Equipment resources for LLL lighting are also given near the end of the webpage. Neither Wayne or I are financially benefiting from this public service website.

LLL Lighting Tutorials can be found on this website and in my Milky Way NightScapes eBook. Below, is just one example taken from page 85 of that eBook:

In this example, I used two F&V Z96 LED panel lights (on tripods), filtered, dimmed (see above) and left on during the whole 30 seconds camera exposure. Click to enlarge. © Royce Bair

Final image after some post processing contrast was added to the night sky. Another advantage of constant LLL Lighting is that you can use this lighting for hours while you do time lapses or star trails. Click to enlarge. © Royce Bair

Please help us spread the word about this website. Why? At least two USA national parks have banned light painting in commercial photo workshops, and we have heard rumors of more bans coming in other parks. Of course, some of you may say that artificial lighting has no reason to be in the parks in the first place. And yes, there are plenty of beautiful techniques for producing wide-field astro-landscape photographs that do not use artificial light. Still, we believe there are benefits to using responsible, LLL lighting.

1) A single 25 sec exposure @ f/2.8, ISO 6400. 2) A 100 sec exposure to increase foreground detail, blended (via Photoshop layers) with the previous exposure of the sky. This is the “natural” method preferred by many, but because starlight comes from overhead and all around, it is like photographing with an overcast day (very flat, with little character). 3) A single exposure @ f/2.8, 25 sec, ISO 6400, with LLL lighting strategically placed. Click to enlarge. Photography by Royce Bair at Chimney Rock, Capitol Reef Nat'l Park, Utah.

Why artificial lighting is sometimes helpful: Compare the above photos. Photo number 2 is the "natural" double exposure blending method for enhancing foreground recognition. We believe there are artistic and foreground recognition benefits to #3.

Please note that #2 could have been done using low angle moonlight (to give an effect similar to #3), but the star and moonlight exposures would have been many hours apart, and there are only 2 days a month where the angle is even somewhat correct at this location. Mixing a twilight exposure would have been a fairly worthless option here because we are facing southeast and a northwestern twilight would have also given flat lighting.

Another reason for allowing responsible LLL lighting in the national parks is that it is much less invasive than the headlamps use to help photographers or stargazers get safely to their night viewing destinations. Compare these two images, below, as proof:

Typical headlamp illumination can be 20-40 times brighter than LLL lighting. Click to enlarge. Photography by Royce Bair at Sunset Arch, Grand Staircase-Escalante Nat'l Monument

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