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iPad LED Light: Overview

Updated Today · 4 min readBeginner

The iPad LED Light step controls the LED light connected to an iPad booth from inside your workflow. It is the iPad-side counterpart to the Windows LED Ring step: both queue a lighting command to the same hardware, one from FMX for Windows and one from FMX for iPadOS.

It is an iPad-only step. On Windows builds it is hidden from the Steps Library, because Windows setups use the LED Ring step instead.

What Is the iPad LED Light Step?

From the workflow's point of view, the step:

  • Queues a lighting command for the connected LED hardware
  • Continues to the next step immediately: it never waits for the light to respond
  • Has no screen of its own, so the guest sees the light change and nothing else

Because it does not block, place it before the step it should illuminate and let the workflow carry on. The light is already in the right state by the time the countdown or the capture runs.

Settings

Action is start or stop. Start applies the settings below; stop turns the light off. When the action is stop, the pattern, colour, and brightness controls are hidden, because they no longer apply.

Pattern chooses the behaviour:

  • Solid — a constant colour. The right choice for capture lighting
  • Rainbow — cycles automatically through colours
  • Spin — a spinning effect around the light
  • Fill — the light fills progressively
  • Fill Repeat — a repeating fill

Color is any colour, entered as a hex value. The default is white (#ffffff), which is what you want for photographic light.

Power is brightness, from 0 (off) to 1 (100%). The default is full.

When Should You Use the iPad LED Light Step?

Use it in any iPad booth that has a light attached and where the lighting should follow what the guest is doing rather than sit at one setting all evening.

Typical reasons:

  • Bright white at the moment of capture, so the light acts as the key light
  • A calm idle pattern that signals the booth is free, and a different one while a session is running
  • Building anticipation during a countdown with a spin or fill pattern
  • Marking payment, success, or completion with a distinct colour
  • Matching the light to a client's brand colour for the whole event

You do not need it if:

  • The iPad booth has no LED light connected
  • You are running on Windows, where the equivalent is the LED Ring step
  • The venue provides its own controlled lighting

How the iPad LED Light Step Fits in the Workflow

A typical sequence:

  1. iPad LED Light (start, Solid, brand colour, low power) — the idle look
  2. Touch-to-start animation
  3. iPad LED Light (start, Solid, #ffffff, power 1) — capture lighting
  4. Countdown animation
  5. Live View (Start), Take Photo, Live View (Stop)
  6. iPad LED Light (start, Rainbow) — celebration while AI or processing runs
  7. Preview and sharing steps
  8. iPad LED Light (stop) before End Session

Practical rules:

  • A start command replaces whatever the light was doing. You do not need a stop between two starts
  • Set the capture lighting at least one step before Take Photo, so exposure is stable when the shutter fires
  • Add a stop before End Session, unless you deliberately want the light left on as an attract state between guests
  • Use Solid and white for anything you are going to print. Animated patterns vary the exposure between frames, and coloured light shifts skin tones in ways that are hard to correct afterwards

Save Rainbow, Spin, Fill, and Fill Repeat for the idle, waiting, and celebration moments, where the effect is the point and no photo is being taken.

Why the iPad LED Light Step Is Useful

For event operators:

  • Lighting that reacts to the workflow makes an ordinary booth feel produced
  • The light communicates booth state across a room without any signage
  • Brand-colour lighting is a cheap, high-impact win in client pitches
  • Consistent capture lighting means consistent photos all evening

For guests:

  • Clear visual cues about when to pose and when the photo is coming
  • Better-lit photos when the light is used as the key light

Troubleshooting

Nothing happens when the step runs. The light is not connected or not detected by the iPad. Check the physical connection and pairing, then see LED Ring Issues.

The light stays on after the event. There is no stop step, or it sits on a branch that did not run. Remember that each branch of a Selection Screen needs its own stop, or a shared one after the branches merge.

Colour looks wrong in the photos. A coloured or animated pattern is running at capture. Switch to Solid white for the capture step and return to the effect afterwards.

The step is missing from the Steps Library. You are on a Windows build. Use the LED Ring step instead.

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