The Westcott Ice Light Is Super Versatile. Here's How You Can Get One for Free

The Westcott Ice Light might just be the Swiss Army Knife of film and photography lighting.

LED lighting is all the rage these days. In many cases, LEDs have replaced traditional film lights in the kits of lower budget and independent filmmakers, because they are usually less expensive, consume less energy, are cool to the touch, can be powered by batteries for remote operation, and can usually be packed into smaller more efficient designs that would be impossible with older halogen lights. The Westcott Ice Light embodies all of those advantages, and is gaining in popularity as a versatile tool for filmmakers and photographers alike.

In fact, our friends at Story & Heart, a unique stock footage community based out of Portland, never leave home without one. Here's why.

For me the Ice Light is an awesome piece of lighting equipment that only has one or two downsides. First and foremost, the light coming from the Westcott isn't particularly easy to modify with the modifiers that you likely already own. You can purchase barn doors and custom fitting tungsten gel from Westcott, but don't expect to use any Chimera or Bowens modifiers with the Ice Light. My other concern is that the light coming from the Ice Light is soft and multi-directional, which is great for a wide range of uses, but for isolating a subject or background object with highly directional spot lighting, you'd be better off with a Dedo or PAR light of some sort.

If you're keen on adding an Ice Light to your kit, Story & Heart is giving one of these bad boys away, which is awesome, because at $450, the Ice Light isn't an inexpensive piece of gear by any stretch of the imagination. This giveaway is ending in two days on the 11th, so if you haven't already entered, you should definitely get on it before time runs out!