Lighting Designer vs Photo Studio Light Setup
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lighting Designer
Create professional overhead lighting plots for film, TV, theater, and events. Quickly illustrate and communicate lighting setups with a vast library of equipment and intuitive tools. Sync your work across all Apple devices.
- Create overhead lighting plots
- Extensive equipment library (2000+ items)
- Organize setups into Shows
- Custom fixture creation with own images
- Detailed light specifications
- Floor plan drawing tools
- Email editable Plots
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Never draw a lighting setup on a scrap of paper again. Lighting Designer is a quick and intuitive way to create overhead lighting plots for film, theater, television, concerts, and anything else you can light. The wide selection of equipment and simple yet powerful interface makes it easier than ever to illustrate and communicate your lighting setups, from most Apple devices. Your Silicon Mac is powerful and gives you the most screen to work with; your iPad is large and versatile; your iPhone will go with you anywhere. And if you like, your work can sync among all your Apple devices using iCloud, so you can start plotting on one and finish on another. LD is perfect for tech scouts, working while traveling, or just choosing the couch over your desk chair. While expensive drafting programs can take hours to use and years to master, Lighting Designer is an accessible way to plan your next show! Features: • Organize your setups into Shows, with details like shooting dates and crew members • Choose from over 2000 built-in types of lights, grip equipment, camera gear, actors, and objects like furniture and musical instruments • With a Crescit Premium account, you can have access to an additional 25,000+ pieces of lighting equipment, gels, and gobo templates • Use your own images to create custom fixtures on your Plots (read the User Guide for image specs) • For each light, specify wattage, beam spread, light output, DMX address, color, and many other details • Certain fixtures include info for exposure approximation; all can be user-configured and have their exposure reverse-calculated from real-world readings • Use Groups to create flexible collections of lights • Notes allow you to describe every detail of your setup • Pack your Truck to share gear among multiple Plots • Draw a Floor Plan using basic shapes, and images from your device • Lights can target other objects, and objects can rig onto each other for easy adjustments • Email editable Plots to the crew, with images, equipment, and crew lists • Undo/Redo functionality • Dark Mode presents a dark workspace to reduce eyestrain and minimize your device's light in a dark environment
Photo Studio Light Setup
Easily document and create studio lighting diagrams with an intuitive interface. Save, modify, and share your setups across devices and with friends. Access a library of professional setups and equipment for enhanced creativity.
- Intuitive interface for light documenting
- Create and modify lighting diagrams
- Share setups across devices and with friends
- Library of professional lighting setups
- Document setups with precision and detail
- Includes professional equipment and props
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Photo Studio Light Setup app is designed for professional and amateur photographers, photography students and educators. The application provides users with an intuitive interface and fluid workflow for quick and easy studio light documenting and creation of lighting diagrams that can be modified on your devices any time in the future and shared between devices and friends. The app features a growing library of professional lighting setups with reference photos and detailed equipment settings available for In-App purchase. Photo Studio Light Setup includes a wide variety of professional photography lighting equipment, studio props and photography subjects and allows users to document their lighting setups with high precision and all necessary details. Studio setups are shared among your devices via iCloud and can be shared among other users as captured images.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Photo Studio Light Setup at $12.99 against Lighting Designer's $24.99. Photo Studio Light Setup also leads on review sentiment (58% vs 46%). Lighting Designer's advantage is rating (4.0 vs 3.0) and in-app purchases (none vs 5). On ads, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Lighting Designer costs $24.99 and Photo Studio Light Setup $12.99 up front. Photo Studio Light Setup sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Lighting Designer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Lighting Designer holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lighting Designer has 144 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 46% of Lighting Designer's written reviews are positive against 58% of Photo Studio Light Setup's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Lighting Designer ships an update every 3 weeks, Photo Studio Light Setup every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lighting Designer | Photo Studio Light Setup |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $24.99 | $12.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.0 (144 ratings) — better | 3.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 46.3% of reviews | 57.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 144 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #181 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 80 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Scenario Software LLC | Alex Maxim |
Customer experience
Lighting Designer
Photo Studio Light Setup
In-app purchases
Lighting Designer
No in-app purchases
Photo Studio Light Setup
- Feast, fashion setup with four lights$2.99
- Beauty portrait, 4 colored lights setup$2.99
- Fashion at the beach, sunlight + octa$2.99
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- Night beach setup with one light$2.99
- Glamour 6-light setup$3.99
Questions
Is Lighting Designer free?
Is Photo Studio Light Setup free?
Which has better reviews, Lighting Designer or Photo Studio Light Setup?
Do Lighting Designer or Photo Studio Light Setup have ads?
Which is updated more often, Lighting Designer or Photo Studio Light Setup?
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