The best photography lighting kits in 2024: for studio, location and video

Picking the best photography lighting kit is one of the most important things you can do as a photographer or videographer. But it comes with its share of pitfalls, as there's plenty of cheap lighting out there alongside the good stuff from reputable manufacturers. So it's worth shopping around to make sure you're getting a quality product. 

That's why we've put together this handy guide to the best photographic lighting kits available right now. Below, you'll find a wealth of options to consider for 2024. In our roundup, we include a diverse range of photography lighting kits, covering a range of budgets. And we'll give you all the facts and figures you need to choose between them.

In our first section, we'll look at flash-based kits for studio and location work. However, if you're more interested in continuous lighting, skip ahead to our second section on LED lighting panels.

Our top picks

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The best photography lighting kits: Flash for studio and location work

The best value photography lighting kit

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Available together in a single kit, these two heads make use of IGBT (Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor) technology, which allows for more sophisticated shooting modes to be available to the user. Performance in our tests was impressive indeed. In the words of our reviewer: "The intensity of flash output is entirely reliable and consistent on a shot-to-shot basis, and color temperature remains highly accurate throughout the entire power range."

The two heads offer an impressively broad power range, each able to output as little as 7Ws, with maximum ratings of 131Ws (for the 125 TTL) and 522Ws (for the 500 TTL). The built-in transceiver works in tandem with the Elinchrom Skyport Pro trigger, which comes in seven different variations to cover a variety of camera makes, from Canon and Nikon to Micro Four Thirds. This adds High Speed Sync to the equations, allowing the user to capture images with flash even at super-fast shutter speeds like 1/4,000sec or 1/8,000sec. 

The units are also solidly made, with an all-metal chassis that feel secure and durable. The cooling fans are driven by a ‘smart pro-active cooling’ system, which effectively 'learns' your shooting practices in order to deliver the most efficient cooling process. As you'd expect, these units are also compatible with Elinchrom's extensive range of light modifiers and other accessories, so if you're already invested in the system, the upgrade just makes sense.

Read more: Elinchrom ELC 125 TTL / ELC 500 TTL review

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The best premium photography lighting kit

Billed as ‘the first true continuous strobe hybrid light’, the StellaPro Reflex S features ‘digital burst’ technology for stills photography that can keep up with continuous drive modes of up to 20fps. In ‘continuous’ mode for videography, it’ll run for 30 minutes at maximum output from its own battery pack, or for 10,000 full-power ‘flashes’. You can also run the lamp direct from the mains via an optional 100W USB-C charger. Overall, it’s a compact yet powerful and versatile lighting kit with excellent all-round performance, justifying its high-end price tag.

Read more: StellaPro Reflex S review

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The best budget photography lighting kit

This kit costs less than a single flash head from most other manufacturers, but here you get a pair of flash monolights with a beefy output of 400Ws a piece. These mains-powered SK400II heads boast a 0.1-1.0-second recycle times, a 150W modelling light and an LCD control panel. 

You can fire the flash using a traditional wired connection to the heads' sync sockets, but if you want to go wireless, Godox sells attractively priced 2.4GHz flash triggers that will allow you to eliminate the cables from your studio set-up.

We love that this kit gives you practically everything you need to get your home studio set up - with the kit including two light stands, a pair of 24x36in softboxes, two reflectors, two 60-degree honeycomb grids, a single set of barn doors , and four colored gels. Brilliant value! 

The best studio flash kit

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Elinchrom’s D-Lite flash heads and kits have earned a reputation for excellent build quality, ease of use and superb performance. The Elinchrom D-Lite RX 4/4 To Go is a range-topping kit that includes a pair of 400Ws flash heads, sturdy stands, a 66cm square softbox, a 56cm octagonal softbox, and a translucent deflector that enables a beauty dish effect.

The included EL-Skyport Transmitter Plus radio-frequency trigger enables users to adjust flash head settings remotely and has a range of up to 200m. Alternatively you can upgrade to the Elinchrom HS Transmitter, which also offers high speed sync flash. Alternative save modes include triggering from a flashgun, and ignoring any pre-flash pulses. 

Elegant and intuitive, the push-button control panel offers easy adjustment of power output through a 5-stop range, in 1/10th stop increments. Selecting proportional, full, low and no modelling lamp output is similarly simple, using a conventional 100W bulb. An auto-sensing cooling fan is built into the head. Output is remarkably consistent on a shot-to-shot basis, and power adjustments are highly accurate.

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The best premium location kit

Larger and 400g heavier than the standard Profoto B10X, the new B10X Plus edition is twice as powerful, at 500Ws. Like the Honey Badger Unleashed (above), the battery clips into the head instead of being housed in a separate power-pack but, this time, you can power the head from the mains as well as from the battery.

The kit includes a head (twin head kit also available), stand adaptor, battery, battery charger and a padded carrying bag. The kits and accessories are pretty pricey – the heads don’t feature a sync socket and the Profoto Air Remote TTL trigger will set you back an additional £349/$429, while Profoto’s standard OCF Magnum Reflector costs a further £189/$209. 

On the plus side, all components are of very high quality. Rear-panel controls are simple and intuitive. TTL, high speed sync and freeze flash modes are available, and there's an iPhone companion app that links up via built-in Bluetooth.

The powerful LED modeling light is useful for stills and video capture and comes complete with adjustable color temperature. Recycling speeds are pretty quick but battery life is relatively limited, at 200 full-power flashes.

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The best value location kit

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Sold as the Flashpoint Xplor 300 Pro in the USA and the Godox AD300 Pro in the rest of the world, this brilliant flash head hit the scene gunning straight for the Profoto B10X range. However, while the Profoto certainly edges it in terms of control and consistency, the fact is that the 300 Pro is just one third the price. This means you can afford to pick up a couple of heads and modifiers of your choice and have a brilliant bespoke kit of your own. 

A very compact and easily portable unit, the 300 Pro packs 300Ws power with the option of 1/8000 sec high speed sync to overpower the sun and take control of the scene when on location. Its brilliant bi-color modeling light can be used for video, too, with its 3000K ~ 6000K temperature range. 

The meaty battery gives you around 320 full-power flashes and charges in just 2½ hours. Optional adapters can mount Profoto, Elinchrom and Broncolor accessories, and the 2.4GHz trigger system is compatible with seven camera brands. 

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The best budget location kit

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Slightly larger and nearly a kilogram heavier than the mains-powered Honey Badger head (number 2), the newer ‘Unleashed’ edition runs on a rechargeable battery. Indeed, unlike the Elinchrom and Profoto battery-powered kits, you can’t run it from the mains, so you might need to add a spare battery or two to your kit at around £59/$60 each.

Our chosen kit option includes two heads, batteries and mains chargers, two 60cm pop-up softboxes and a sturdy backpack. The optional Interfit HSS TTL remote trigger is similarly great value at £80/$100. This, as its name suggests, enables TTL and high speed sync flash modes. Unlike with the mains kit, there’s no cooling fan here, which means the Unleashed edition is virtually silent in operation – a particular bonus when using its bright 2500 lumens LED modelling lamp as a constant light source for movie capture.

Although the 250Ws head gives less output than the 500Ws heads in our guide, this is the only battery-powered kit that features two flash heads rather than one, making it excellent value at the price.

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The best studio kit for precise color quality

At the lighter end of the premium lighting kit space, this kit from Broncolor is built around two of its Siros 400 S lighting heads. These 400Ws monolights deliver plenty of functionality to crow about, not least of which is their nine-stop power range and 1/19,000sec flash duration, allowing you to get thoroughly precise with your lighting.

The Siros S can make use of a specialised "Speed Mode", which specifically speeds up the charge time and flash duration for a super-fast series of exposures, meaning you can capture the most fleeting of moments in huge amounts of detail. At the very fastest setting, this can go up to fifty individual flashes per second, at the cost of a reduction in maximum power.

This comprehensive kit also includes a softbox with speedring, an umbrella, two basic M-stands and bags to carry it all in, so you'll have everything you need to set up a makeshift studio. Fast and effective, the Broncolor Siros 400 S Expert Twin Head Kit is an ideal lighting solution for pros on the go.

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The best photography lighting kits: Continuous LED lighting

The best portable LED panel

This powerful, hugely versatile yet lightweight portable LED lighting panel is a radical redesign compared with the original AEOS. It gives you 16.7 million colors of light to play with, instead of just various degrees of white. And that goes for both constant lighting and flash, the latter with a high-speed sync option. The interface is also completely overhauled, with the addition of a color touchscreen that makes it quick and easy to access a huge range of lighting options, digital filters and special effects. The original AEOS was very good, the AEOS 2 is absolutely brilliant.

The AEOS 2 certainly isn’t cheap to buy, but it’s a joy to use and a top performer, making it worth the money.

Read our full Rotolight AEOS 2 review

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Best premium portable LED panel

Litepanels has a reputation for producing quality kit aimed at semi-pro videographers, and the Astra 6X panel certainly feels like a quality product. At 3.2kg it’s designed solely for stationary light stand mounting, but the aluminum yoke cradle is very tough, as is the XLR power input connection, plus there’s a quiet fan to ensure the longevity of the electronics and 256 individual LEDs.

These are guaranteed to be flicker free regardless of the frame rate at which you record, and they can be fluidly adjusted in colour temperature from tungsten through to daylight. The panel manages an impressive minimum colour rendering index of 95 at the tungsten end, rising to an incredibly accurate 98 when outputting daylight-balanced illumination. Outright power is also formidable, as the Astra 6X manages a huge 6330 lux at a distance of 5 feet, and it’s steplessly adjustable down to 0% with no colour shift.

The AC adaptor is neatly integrated into the yoke, and optional adaptor plates are available for attaching a Gold Mount or V-mount power pack.

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Best standalone LED monolight

Is it an LED light or a 'continuous' monolight? You decide – but the Badger Beam could do the same job as an LED panel with a smaller form factor and compatibility with regular Bowens S-type lighting modifiers. 

That might not mean much to videographers but will be very interesting to photographers who need a continuous light for video work and stills. Available as a standalone LED monolight that runs on AC mains or its own rechargeable battery pack, the Interfit Badger Beam is also available in twin-head kits that feature options of barndoors, pop-up softboxes or umbrellas, complete with lighting stands and carrying cases. It’s a useful, versatile and good-value lighting solution for use at home or on location.

Read more: Interfit Badger Beam review

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FAQs

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How to choose the best photography lighting kit

The best photography lighting kit for you depends on what you're planning to shoot. Are you expecting to stay in the studio, or perhaps do you anticipate loading the kit up and taking it out on location? There are lighting kits great for both purposes. You also want to consider whether you'll mostly be using flash for stills, and how bothered you are about having a continuous light for video.

Then there's also the question of budget. There are lighting kits and panels right across the spectrum when it comes to pricing, so it's worth having a think to see what's the best you can afford. Our guide above includes all different types of lighting kits, from plug-in studio lights to battery-powered lighting kits designed to be taken on location, as well as continuous LED lighting panels. 

If you want something simpler and more portable, it's worth checking out our list of the best flashguns. Flashguns are handy and fast in a pinch, but they do have their limits in terms of how much control you can exert over the light. 

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How we test photography lighting kits

When we test photography lighting kits, we're looking for optimal performance and consistent results. We start by assessing the kit's components, checking things like bulb wattage, reflector condition, and power output. We'll let up the lights in a controlled environment and use a light meter to measure the illumination levels at different distances and angles. We'll then experiment with various lighting setups and modifiers like softboxes or umbrellas to see how they affect the quality and direction of the light. We pay attention to color temperature, shadows and overall coverage. 

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Read more:

• Best softbox lighting kits
• These are the best flashguns for your camera right now
• Shooting video? We choose the best LED light panels
• Portrait lighting tips: Key lighting and fill lighting photo techniques
• The best LED light sticks and light wands for photography