Like any human being I woke up one day and thought : why the hell not go even further.
Then I went back to a 5-year-old-on-the-eve-of-Christmas state of mind. Playing around with the ringlights. At first I thought they might be too distracting. Then I remembered I was 5 years old and distraction became part of it all. Curious to have a couple of point of views on this :)
Cheers,
OYC
Can't wait to see what you will be capable of when you grow up.
I don't intend to, heard it's a trap :)
Thanks though !
I never used ring flash, but I'm thinking about buying one.. just a question: did you used only ring flash in these portraits? No reflector, no modifiers?
Talking about images: I like them VERY much! Great job!
Hey Matteo thanks for taking the time :)
No modifiers were used for the first two portraits. Just straight up LED ringlights I designed and used a Walimex cradle to fit them in (I wanted the refraction of the aluminium layer inside their ringlight, but not the tube as it was too hot for my taste even at 50w, so I used that as a second or third layer further away from the models, as you can see in the first picture).
In the last picture, there are three ringlights (bottom, left, right) and one flash with a Dish modifier from RoundFlash (up). One of my favorite tools to play around with lately.
Did I get it right? You create your own ring flash? WOW (for who - me - isn't good at manufacture, any suggestion about which ringflash buy?) ps: if I didn't get it right, sorry, I'm not mothertongue ;)
No worries, me neither :)
If it's your first ringlight I would suggest you start with something like a Walimex 50w, most of the time it's enough power for a simple portrait. It's pretty cheap from Amazon and works kinda well, but power is not adjustable. If you really like the aesthetic of the ringlight, something like a Falcon Eyes DVR-630D is pretty good and you can widen the diameter in the iris with a bit of black gaffer or tape. And if you're really into it, Limelite's LED ringlight is some of the finest gear money can buy, in my humble opinion.
Thanks! I'll check the Neewer, I usually go warmer on postproduction, so it could save my time ;)
Yes it's a good ringlight, I edited my reply because the Falcon Eyes does pretty much the same job but can be adjustable from 3k to 7k. It does cost three times the Neewer but it's more powerful, better build and better controls.
I really like these photos! I especially like the expression the first model has.
Thank you ! She was surprised by the apparatus I guess :)
ring lights are rad! I built a a huge one after seeing Jay Russel, and Dani Diamonds. the catch lights can be a bit distracting, or super cool .... depends who is looking. I had one agent love them and another hate them after shooting a few actors head shots. if you can shoot -1 under with it and carve out the light in post you can get a sweet fall off effect. awesome shots.
Didn't get around to building that one yet, because I needed these to be a little portable, so they're all 18 to 20 inches. And I do indeed underexpose a little, except when the model is really fair skinned. In that case I just let nature do its thing.
Maybe I can understand why a casting director might need the eyes free from distractions. That's something to consider, thanks for the tip ! :)
Nice Lighning!
I make some shape mod for my roundflash ring with stars and circles, working fine.
Hey, new to the site and the forums but scrolling through and I immediately stopped on your photos. I guess that is a good thing right? Your post is fantastic, the Lightning is great. The rings in their eyes throws me a little cause my mind tells me that is not right but honestly I'm impressed. Thanks for making me stop and slow down for a moment