Photographing LED lights

[Former_Member]

Hi all,

I'm new to Etsy & to photography, and am in need of a bit of help. We're selling LED lights, and I'm finding it really hard to photograph them effectively. (See example below!)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/106914408/blue-led-adjustable-tentacle-light

I have a SLR camera & have done a bit of reading, but am generally pretty clueless. I'd really like any tips on lighting, and how best to photograph LED lights. (What light is best to photograph them in? Sunset? Middle-of-the-day?) I'd also appreciate any tips on setting; where would you most like to see the lights? Would photographing them outside against a sunset sky be better? Against a dark or light background?

I hope it's ok to post with so many questions. Any tips would be very much appreciated! Thanks for reading :)

[Former_Member]

this is a tricky one since you're photographing a high contrast environment and saturated items.

probably the best thing to do is to set your camera on night photography w/ a flash fill-in. it comes standard on slr cameras.

you won't have the deep shadows and since the flash is only set to fill in the shadows it won't overpower the led display and the "rays" emanating from it.

[Former_Member]

That's really useful, thank you! I'll play around with that setting & see how it goes.