Possibilities that a Ring Light Can Offer!

For some time now, in everyday life or social media, one repeatedly encounters portraits made with ring light, with their striking ring-shaped reflection in the eyes. Some love them and some just hate them. If you belong to the first group, you can learn in this article some new techniques to implement them in your style, if you belong to the second group, well… you should read it! Because we will also show you further possibilities that a ring light can offer!

What Exactly a Ring Light is

A ring light is a closed ring-shaped continuous light with an open center. Usually it is mounted on a tripod with a so-called gooseneck for intermediate storage. The gooseneck is a bendable extension of the tripod, which allows you to quickly and easily adjust the position of the ring to the size of your model. It is important to note that conventional ring lights are not dimmable. So if you are thinking about getting one, don’t go for the strongest thing you can find with the thought “a lot helps a lot”, but weigh up which strength really makes sense for you.

Where Can i Use it?

To portraits and selfies is a must! However, there are differences here too. If you illuminate the model frontally, you will get the distinctive ring on the pupil. In addition, the frontal illumination results in a flat illumination, i.e. virtually no shadows in the face. This is an enormous advantage especially for beauty and fashion photography. So you create an optimal canvas for the later beauty retouching. In addition, the brightness of the illumination decreases very quickly towards the back, so you can achieve a nice effect especially with a black background. You can also use this to your advantage, for example by placing the model in the wind and letting the hair disappear in the background.

In the same way, due to the short distance to the model, you can use the rather strong frontal light to make granules or similar things glitter in your face. In combination with a black background this can give the picture something mystical, with a light background something fairy-tale like. Of course there are many more possibilities to use the ring light. Here again, of course, there are no limits to your imagination!

How Create the Typical Ring Light Effect

First have to place the yourself relatively close to the light. This is necessary because the size of the circle changes with the distance of the model from the light. The circle in the model’s eyes should be exactly between the iris and pupil. This position is the most attractive for the viewer, as it is here that he or she appears most natural and is not perceived as disturbing. Now, depending on the effect you want to achieve, make sure that the room you are photographing in is darkened. This will help you to use the ring light and other flashes or lights in a more targeted way and avoid disturbing lights. Also the distance of the model to the background, if desired, should not be too large. Due to the relatively weak luminosity of the light, this can otherwise not be illuminated strongly enough and thus disappear.

So why not having all these possibilities with you all the time and take your selfies properly? Here you can find the ring that will change your status is social media forever!