Lighting can be your biggest enemy or your best friend, so it?s in your best interest to learn how to work with it.

While expensive lighting rigs will get the job done, there are cheaper options if you?re on a budget. Larger lantern lamps from Ikea or similar department stores are cheap and commonly used by cam models and content creators.

All 3 of these lighting sets come highly recommended, and all are between $50 and $65, which is a great deal. Personally, we’d recommend this 3-light set for around $53, but below are the 3 most recommended lighting sets in this price range :

1. LimoStudio 2-light set ($65)
2. Cowboy Studio 3-light & umbrella set ($59)
3. Photo Portrait Studio 3-light & umbrella set ($53) – our recommendation

Ring lights such as this are also popular but can run very pricy. If you?re feeling crafty there are DIY tutorials on how to make your own. Here’s a few that are super-easy and super-cheap.

This uses those LED string lights you’ll find at any hardware store, Wal-Mart, Target, etc :

If you’d rather go with an LED strip (you might have to order those on Amazon, as they’re not often found in stores) :

Going in a different direction, this very informative video (make sure to click through to the actual video to get links for all the items mentioned) shows some fantastic lighting options & setups on the super-cheap :

Getting a clip-on ring light for your laptop and/or cellphone is a great option if money and/or space are limited, and especially helpful for the traveling model. If you want a super-easy clip-on ring light for your phone on the cheap, this clip-on ring light is the best-rated one on Amazon. If you want something a little more robust (and free-standing), either one of these options work great :

1. Selfie Ring Light with Mobile Stand?($19)
2. B-Land Ring Light with Tripod?($36)

In addition, here’s some quick tips we put into shareable graphic form. Feel free to grab them and spread them around!