First use of a ringlight
Greetings. I'm new to the Fstoppers community. Here's my first portfolio worthy shot using a DIY ringlight. I love the quality of light it produces. What do you guys think?
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14 Comments
For a first time, it's quite a first time :)
I really like the atmosphere, tone and catchlights. Did you shape the light a little in post ?
Nope, the catch lights are straight from the camera.
I meant on the skin, not the catchlights :)
Beautiful portrait. I've never used a ringlight before and I have never studied the light it produces, but I have to say this image really caught my eyes and makes me want to step out of only natural light portrait :)
Yes, one of the beauties of the ring light is the ability to shoot with super wide apertures (this one was 1.4).
Generally I don't like ring light head shots, which tend to be too dramatically frontally lit and the reflections in the eyes tend to annoy me as they are distractingly unnatural. In your shot the refelections are as expected and I don't like that aspect of your photograph but the general lighting is better than is often the case, although still a bit flat. The shallow depth of field works wonderfully and she looks great, and that is what matters in the final analysis.
Good job.
Yes, I agree with your points. It's a unique look (shallow DOF, fast light fall off, relatively flat). When people think of studio headshots, the norm is speedlight or strobes.
Oh, another nice feature about ringlights - because of the relatively flat even lighting, it tends to hide lines and wrinkles (or shall I say less noticeable). Women like this feature. :)
This is nice. I feel like the DOF forces me to focus to much on just a small portion of her face. I think it would've been cool to have seen more of her cheeks in focus. But other than that I'm loving it. I would love to see your DIY light's set up.
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I pretty much followed the steps in this guide to build the ringlight. The main difference with mine is secured the lights to the plywood with nuts and bolts as opposed to zip-ties. :) I also use LED bulbs
https://iso.500px.com/diy-lighting-ring-tutorial/
Awesome, Great job.
whut r u talk'n 'bout! this is GORGEOUS work!
Great work for a first time!
Nice work. I have not used a ringlight light before, I might look into one.