Ring lights is the craze waning?

harlequin · Apr 6, 2023

Hello

I happen to like the raw in your face brilliance of a good well placed ring flash!

I have noticed that there are more and more available in the resale market some have been heavily used (rental fleet) but the prices are not so outrageous.

Questions

A) for those shooters that use ring flash what is the deciding factor to go ring light
B) metering many of thes are bare high output flashtube with high output would metering be the same as with umbrellas?
C) they look fragile do ring lights have protective coverings for flashtube?
D) do you also use background light or does this kill the ring effect?

Thanks for your feedback opinions !!

Harlequin

albada · Apr 6, 2023

I've only used a ring flash for macro work, never general purpose shooting.
The metering would be the same as with an ordinary on-camera flash.
All the ring flashes I've seen have a protective plastic diffusive cover over the flashtube.

Mark

MattKing · Apr 6, 2023

My sense is that there aren't many here who spend a lot of time in the world where ring light portraiture is/was a "craze".
I too have only used them a small bit for small things like coins.
One of the reason that the "craze" might be waning is the prevalence of lighting for Zoom and social media that somewhat mimics ring light.
From an Amazon listing:

(And no, I don't believe that product was used to light that woman in the screen image)

wiltw · Apr 7, 2023

I presume your reference to 'ring light' is for the larger diameter units, not the little ones used for macro illumination? Large ring lights ( greater than 10" ring diameter) were largely a fad popularized by fashion photographers who wanted to present a 'different' appearance, although they were also adopted by some 'portraiture' photographers who found the ring catchlights in the eyes not too disturbing. Certainly the web still offers very recent articles promoting the use of ring lights, including the hideous catchlights. If big ring lights are falling out of favor, I say "Good riddance'

Sirius Glass · Apr 7, 2023

albada said:
I've only used a ring flash for macro work, never general purpose shooting.
The metering would be the same as with an ordinary on-camera flash.
All the ring flashes I've seen have a protective plastic diffusive cover over the flashtube.

Mark

If I had a ring light I would use for macro work. I would never use it for other work because the circles would appear reflected in the eyes and off other shiny surfaces. If I were given on, it would remain unused.

ic-racer · Apr 7, 2023

Outside of macro work and some of Lee Friedlander's work, I have not seen much film photography with ring light. Can you point to some examples?

armadsen · Apr 7, 2023

I'm with wiltw in that I think the ring catchlights in eyes look awful and don't understand why everyone went crazy for them for a while. I hope that's a fad that's dying.

Sirius Glass · Apr 7, 2023

Could we donate money to make the craze die faster?

Nicholas Lindan · Apr 7, 2023

I think the ring catchlites in the eyes for Zoom/YouTube are/were a desirable "look-at-me-I'm-cool-thing" & "don't I look like a professional YouTube presenter."

Certainly the clueless positioning of the light in the Amazon ad supports this cynical view. In the ringlight's defense it looks like it can be clipped to the laptop's screen and be swiveled to surround the PC's camera lens.

Large continuous ringlights are still a thing and used with DSLRs for YouTube videos.

Large ringlight flashes were used in fashion shoots, and used by some of the big names in the field. Now that I am in my dottage I don't pay much attention to fashion photography, or fashion itself for that matter.

Patrick Robert James · Apr 7, 2023

I had an Elinchrom years ago. When I first got it I shot a friend to test it and after a few shots she was like, that thing is brutal. So I had her take a shot of me, and I agreed. You are basically asking the person to look straight into a powerful strobe. Just don't do it would be my advice. If you are shooting other things though they can be great. Just don't abuse an actual person. After the Elinchrom sat around for a couple years I sold it to a fashion dude in LaLaLand.

If you are talking about one of the little ones that people use for macro they really don't have the power to light a person. They also are so close to the lens axis they don't produce much ring effect, just flat light. You really need to get some space from the lens axis. The bigger the ring light is the more it will look like a ring light. I did have one friend who liked to use one just as a mild fill light for portraits. It looks more like just even fill. Then again with digital these days maybe that will do what you want. I doubt you would be happy with that though.

If you do end up getting one I would light the background. Ringlights tend to make crappy halo shadows so you would probably want to eliminate that or at least knock them down, unless of course you like that, then go for it.

Just like everything ring lights and such are fads. I would suppose these days they aren't used much because most photographers don't really have the technical ability to use one. Or maybe ADs just don't like the look. I remember back just before my time when Hosemasters were all the rage. Google that if they will even show up on Google. Lol.

Pieter12 · Apr 7, 2023

I have often used a ring light dialed down as fill. Works great.

reddesert · Apr 7, 2023

Like everyone else said, small ringlights can be used for macro flash, because the strong-shadow effect of a single off-axis flash can be hard to deal with in macro and setting up a two-light setup can be awkward.

Large LED ringlights are an ongoing trend for Zoom presenters, youtubers, etc, I believe because they provide a diffuse light that is more flattering than a single light and relatively easy to set up (for ex easier than a softbox).

The small ringlight that Matt showed as an example is sort of the worst of all worlds because it's not large enough to effectively diffuse light a person's face, just large enough to make the catchlight ugly.

xkaes · Apr 7, 2023

There are plenty of small around-the-lens ring flashes -- which are typically not too powerful -- but there are larger ones, like the Sunpak Auto 12R, that have plenty of punch for portraits, especially since portraits are usually done at wider apertures. It can even do groups! That doesn't mean I'm advocating for that use, but it does get rid a horrible flash shadows in the background.

Ring lights can be great for macro work -- assuming you are not trying to create a lot of contrast -- because you don't need much "punch" at close distances, even at small apertures. The problem with macro use is that at high magnification the angle of the flash may miss the subject. Some ring flashes have adjustable bulbs to try to deal with this.

I mainly use my 12R for fill-in light with the main light(s) coming in from a different angle(s). The 12R really helps fill in any too dark shadows on the subject. The 12R has an easy variable power lever from full to 1/32 so I can get exactly the amount I need.

harlequin · Apr 24, 2023

This is what I was thinking of,
Not the tiktok led rings
Something high powered like this pro photo model Ilford Pan F at asa 25 /120
6x6 format cue fan and nude model……

Be safe

Harlequin

wiltw · Apr 24, 2023

One of the things that I find not appealing about using big ringlights, as was done for a while in fashion photography
exemplified in a post by fotografz, posted 12/14/23

Ring Flash in Fashion Photography

i have been searching for a fairly "simple" way of achieving nice light. nice shadows... even lighting. nothing so stylized i would need 4 lights. something very portable. i know ring flash is used primarily for macro purposes, but are there brighter ring flashes available for shooting full body ...

www.photo.net

the donut catchlights in the eye are not too objectionable when the fashion shot is full length, but used for a headshot or head & shoulders portrait...shoot me!

MattKing · Apr 24, 2023

harlequin said:
This is what I was thinking of,
Not the tiktok led rings

We understood that.
My observation was that the overall familiarity with the effect of the Tik Tok version of that lighting may be why many people find it to be no longer and novel - thus the waning of the "craze".

Pieter12 · Apr 24, 2023

wiltw said:
One of the things that I find not appealing about using big ringlights, as was done for a while in fashion photography
exemplified in a post by fotografz, posted 12/14/23

Ring Flash in Fashion Photography

i have been searching for a fairly "simple" way of achieving nice light. nice shadows... even lighting. nothing so stylized i would need 4 lights. something very portable. i know ring flash is used primarily for macro purposes, but are there brighter ring flashes available for shooting full body ...

www.photo.net

the donut catchlights in the eye are not too objectionable when the fashion shot is full length, but used for a headshot or head & shoulders portrait...shoot me!

It's a look. It was a fad. It was what the editors and art directors and possibly the clients wanted. Photography (especially fashion photography) goes through such fads and looks, some stick, some don't. Currently there is a lot of multi-color gel lighting going on--mostly red/magenta on one side, blue/cyan on the other--that looks pretty ridiculous. I hope that goes away too.

Helge · Apr 24, 2023

Isn’t ring lights with circular eye catchlights almost exclusively a 90s thing?
Start of the “everything is soft lit and blown out” “novelty” that is still going?
Every year there is new prol who discovers simple light modifiers, and has their small mind blown by “how expensive their shots look” all of a sudden.

Smaller rings for macro always seems way to mechanical to me. It’s just an even boring light.
You get the same basic looks for a shots‽
Better get creative with lights, now that you have the tripod out anyway.

warpath · May 5, 2023

This fad has been around foreverrrrrrr. Over a decade ago people were making them with multiple incandescent bulbs. Now LED. It's probably not going to die anytime soon haha

harlequin · May 8, 2023

Thanks for your input and opinions but
Does this lightning look that revolting?
I know it was
Overused in the 1990’s but it does have a place (I think) example enclosed.

wiltw · May 8, 2023

harlequin said:
Thanks for your input and opinions but
Does this lightning look that revolting?
I know it was
Overused in the 1990’s but it does have a place (I think) example enclosed.

Draw your own conclusion about ring light in portraiture

Three ways to use a ring light in photography

At first glance, it might appear as if a ring light has only one purpose in photography. But really, you can think outside the circle (pun intended) to use a ring light in multiple ways. Today we’d like to share some of those with you. Standard method The standard method for using a ring light...

photofocus.com

This look for headhots was never the intention among the fashion photographers who started the ring light fad on full length shots of fashion.
This 'surroound' shadow (seen on 2 posts from Dec. 14 of this thread) demonstrates the original concept of using ring light, the eyes were not filled with distracting catchlights 'in your face'.

Ring Flash in Fashion Photography

i have been searching for a fairly "simple" way of achieving nice light. nice shadows... even lighting. nothing so stylized i would need 4 lights. something very portable. i know ring flash is used primarily for macro purposes, but are there brighter ring flashes available for shooting full body ...

www.photo.net

AnselMortensen · May 14, 2023

Isn't it about time the Hosemaster came back?

eli griggs · May 14, 2023

I had and used a ring light many years ago, a battery powered Sunpac, IIRC, and used it for photographing macro and close up lens object photography, especially with a Hasselblad bellows but I did no use it as a portraiture tool, other than a general fill light outdoors, a few times.

It was a good light and I wonder what I did with it?

For me, I think a small ring light like that old Sunpac is most useful for photographing close up objects and a small LED ring light would be extra nice for a continues modeling light and camera strobe light.

However, any photographer using these should always be trying to use it in any fashion that they can come up with, as a simple light source, in concert with other lighting tools and methods, as the only thing that counts in photography is that final image, no the category that manufactures and "experts" decide it must be limited to.

Godspeed, everybody.

Sirius Glass · May 14, 2023

Ring lights are good for macro and close up photography and for dentists to take photographs of teeth. That is about it.

ericB&W · Jul 14, 2023

People: Benetton Group fires Oliviero Toscani

Benetton Group and its president Luciano Benetton have recently sent out an official communication expressing their total disagreement with Oliviero Toscani’s statements about Genoa’s Morandi Brigde collapse.

www.the-spin-off.com

Oliviero Toscani often uses ring flash with his Canon , in fact many of his advertising photos are
without shadows .

Ring lights is the craze waning?

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