Lighting is crucial to photos — get the best shot with these portable LEDs
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The best lighting accessories for iPhone photography can help you take professional-looking photos no matter the conditions. If you carry an iPhone around daily, you're walking around with a pretty incredible camera in your pocket. It can take good photos, but the key to great photos is lighting. Dark environments introduce all kinds of artifacts into your shots, including noise and pixelization. Even though every iPhone in existence comes with a flash and manages light well, sometimes you need a little extra help. For that, we recommend lighting accessories. These are our top picks this year.
Show me the light!
LuMee Halo by Case-Mate Lighted Selfie Case
Staff Pick
In our iPhone 13 Pro review, we gave high marks to Apple's newest lenses, including the front-facing camera. If you want to improve the quality of your selfies, we recommend the LuMee Halo Lighted case. It's a durable case with built-in, adjustable LED lighting for portraits and selfies that balance out uneven and unflattering backlighting.
Clip it on
Whellen Selfie Ring Clip-On Light
This clip-on accessory provides you with 36 LED lights in a ring that you can simply clip on to any of today's best iPhones, iPads, or other devices. There are also three lighting settings with this accessory, and even the lowest option is still bright enough for a high-quality photo. It's a simple accessory that is compact and universal, but you will need two AAA batteries.
Portable photo studio
UBeesize Selfie Light Ring with Extendable Tripod Stand and Phone Holder
This set has everything you need for a portable, professional photo studio. You get a 10-inch selfie ring light that has three colors and 10 levels of brightness each. There's also a tripod stand that extends up to 50 inches, a flexible phone holder to keep your phone in place, and a Bluetooth remote.
Purr-fection
OURRY Selfie Light Ring
This little selfie light ring comes in two colors (pink and blue) and has adorable kitty cat ears. It features three lighting colors (cold, warm, neutral), with three brightness levels each, so you can customize your lighting however you want. It takes two hours to recharge fully and is small enough to fit on all your devices.
Social butterfly
QIAYA Rechargeable Selfie Light Ring
The QIAYA Rechargeable Selfie Light Ring is like the Whellen one we mentioned earlier, except this one is rechargeable, so no need for extra AAA batteries. The QIAYA has three brightness levels that are easy to adjust, giving you the perfect lighting anywhere, anytime.
Versatile lighting
Anker iPhone LED Flash Cube
If you're not really into selfies but still want a portable light, the Anker iPhone LED Flash Cube is perfect. It's a small cube that plugs into your iPhone's Lightning port so you get lighting that is 4x brighter and has twice the range of the iPhone's native flash. It syncs with your iPhone flash, and Anker also includes a silicone diffuser for softer light that's just right for Apple's portrait mode.
Professional lighting to-go
Commlite CM-L50 LED Camera Video Light
This versatile light can attach to your iPhone via a mount, but you can also use it with your digital camera, too. It has 50 LED bulbs with a full 360 degrees of rotation, so it works in pretty much any situation. The brightness is up to 6880 Lux and can last up to 18 hours in low light after a full charge. This kit comes with three filters (white, orange, and blue) for the perfect shot.
Desktop lighting that shines
Texlar T3 Ring Lightt
The Texlar T3 is a desktop ring light package that comes with an iPhone holder, remote, 10-inch circle selfie light, tripod stand, and remote. It's a fantastic tool for selfies, Zoom calls, TikTok videos, streaming, and FaceTime chats. The ring light has a ball head, making it fully adjustable, and it has 10 brightness levels.
Up your selfie game with the best lighting accessories for iPhone photography
Even with all of the advancements that Apple has made in iOS photography, you just can't beat real lighting. With the best lighting accessories for iPhone photography, you'll be ensuring that every photo, whether it's a regular portrait or a selfie, is flattering and good-to-go on your Instagram feed or in a photo book.
If you want some recommendations, I like the Anker iPhone LED Flash Cube. It's small enough to fit in your photography toolkit, and you can get a full 50 minutes of use on a single charge. Plugging it into your iPhone ensures that the flash is synced up with the native camera app or supported third-party apps, and you get a silicone diffuser for softer light when necessary.
Another great option, especially for selfies, is the LuMee Halo case. Not only do you get variable levels of brightness for both the rear and front-facing cameras, but the case gives you amazing protection as well. So if you accidentally drop your phone while taking that selfie, you don't need to worry about damaging your phone.
And if you want something simple but oh-so-adorable, then the OURRY Selfie Light Ring does the trick. It is small and compact enough for any smartphone, and it has super cute cat ears!