A number of times now I’ve given a remote presentation in the evening and I’ve struggled with lighting. The room I use just has ceiling lights and my desk faces a window. A pleasant view in the day but very dark at night. I ended up borrowing my daughter’s desk lamp to help make me look a bit brighter. That’s not a long term solution (especially if my daughter wants to use her desk light too!)

I’ve noticed some people getting Elgato Key Lights, and they certainly look pretty swish, not to mention how they’re remotely controllable, but at $AU270 per light (or $AU199 for the ‘Air’), they’re not that cheap. Elgato make some nice gear, but unless I was using it all the time I don’t think my budget could justify it.

More recently I saw the ‘Neewer’ brand getting mentioned on Twitter and at $AU55 for two lights, I was interested!

Neewer Lights

I ordered a Neewer 2 Packs Portable Photography Lighting Kit Dimmable 5600K USB 66 LED Video Light with Mini Adjustable Tripod Stand and Color Filters for Table Top/Low Angle Photo Video Studio Shooting amazon.com.au amazon.com.

You get two lights which are USB powered, with a controller on each power lead to turn on/off and dim up/down. They come with a small stand that uses standard 1/4” screw connectors.

Smallrig clamp mount

The comments on this product point out that the stand is not that tall, but I realised that I should be able to mount the stands on my existing monitor arms. All I’d need was something to attach to the arms. A couple of SMALLRIG Super Clamp Mount with Ball Head Mount Hot Shoe Adapter and Cool Clamp amazon.com.au amazon.com should do the job!

I was pleasantly surprised that it only took a few days for the packages to arrive. I presume they must have stock in Australia instead of having to ship from overseas.

I assembled the lights and removed the tripod foot so I could instead use the clamps. Here’s the clamp attached to the monitor arm:

Camp on monitor arm

And here’s one of the assembled lights:

Light on stand behind monitor

Now I’m all set for my next evening presentation!

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