“Ghetto” is not an offensive word in and of itself. What’s offensive, is debating the merits or demerits of photographic equipment as though it has anything to do with anyone’s life in the ghetto. It’s like talking about how you bought a nice new Honda for $10K instead of $15K in front of someone’s aging rust bucket that’s up on concrete blocks. That’s what you actually see in the ghetto, not your Honda, and it says something about one’s wealth and attitudes not to notice the difference. A bit of cultural sensitivity would call it a “cheap” lighting solution, and not appropriate poverty as having something to do with your hobby or profession.

You can find some shockingly dangerous “Third World” lighting and electrical solutions if you scour the internet a bit. It wouldn’t be offensive to describe the techniques that poverty stricken people actually use. If you’re going to call something “ghetto,” it should actually be from the ghetto. Not just some yuppie’s idea about how they can lower their photography bill.

One thing to note is that LEDs, even the newish “white” LEDs, have kind of a spiky color spectrum and are subject to metameric failure (I’m sure the all of the “Hey, ‘D’ is for ‘Diode’, idiot” commenters know what that means, but for the rest of us it means colors might not look the same in your image as they did in the real world).

Works great for monochromatic post processing and will give good artistic effects as well, but don’t expect faithful color all the time.

peachey

LED can be had in virtually any color you can think of. The main reason LED lighting is so energy efficient is because only a very small portion of the wavelength is emitted contrary to tungsten bulbs where approximately the entire wavelength is being emitted. You’ll also note that tungsten bulbs give off allot of heat where LED generally gives off only a small amount if any noticeable amount at all.

Most LED’s are a single color or a small amount of the spectrum. White colored LED segments are similar to your TV where the three “primary colors” make it up. The heat is also only from those three LED’s in one segment.

*(If you increase the voltage/amps, please be careful. They can burn skin. Should you increase it more, the life either shortens allot, burn out on the spot, or explodes. That could make a tiny plastic or glass projectile go flying around the room. Don’t ask how I know this! LoL)