Shopping Cart
In the digital age, where visual content dominates communication, the quality of lighting becomes a key element that can elevate the level of professionalism of any photography or video project. Ring lights, with their unique ability to provide evenly distributed light, have gained immense popularity among professionals.
This article is primarily aimed at photographers and videographers looking to enhance their work with ring lighting. For those who film and photograph themselves, we’ll be writing a separate article that’s more tailored to their specific needs.
The ring light, with its iconic distribution, creates a unique lighting effect that is particularly appreciated in portrait and beauty photography. The variety of models available on the market, from fluorescent to LED, offers a wide range of adaptation possibilities to different conditions and aesthetic requirements.
Understanding the Ring Light Principle
To fully appreciate the advantages of the ring light, it is worth delving into the physical basis of its operation. The key to understanding the magic of the ring light lies in the way the light spreads and interacts with the objects it hits.
Uniform Light Distribution
The ring light, thanks to its unique ring-shaped design, emits light from every point on its perimeter. This means that light reaches the subject from many different directions at the same time. The effect of this multi-directionality is to evenly illuminate the subject, minimizing the hard shadows that typically occur when using traditional, point-based light sources.
Why Wrinkles Become Less Visible
In traditional lighting, when light hits the face from one direction, it creates harsh shadows around any protrusions and depressions, such as wrinkles or scars. These shadows accentuate the texture of the skin, making wrinkles more visible.
With a ring light, light is emitted evenly from the entire circumference of the ring. As this light hits the face, any potential shadows cast by wrinkles are 'filled' with light from other parts of the ring. This makes shadows much less visible, and the skin appears smoother and more uniform. This effect is particularly desirable in beauty and portrait photography, where the goal is to emphasize natural beauty without unwanted skin textures.
Physics and Aesthetics
It is interesting how simple physical principles - such as light diffusion and the way lighting affects the perception of shapes and textures - can be used to achieve specific aesthetic goals. The ring light is a great example of these principles in practice, allowing photographers and videographers to not only minimize unwanted effects, but also emphasize the desired features of their subjects.
Types of Lamp Rings on Sale
Fluorescent: These lamps use fluorescent tubes to generate light. They are characterized by a soft, diffused light that is ideal for applications where we want to avoid creating hard shadows. Their main disadvantage, however, is the limited lifespan and lower energy efficiency compared to LED.
Due to outdated technology and the use of mercury, these lamps have been withdrawn from sale in the EU from September 2023.
LED BiColor: LED technology is more energy efficient and offers a longer lifespan than fluorescent counterparts. LED lamps allow for precise adjustment of brightness and color temperature, which gives users more control over the lighting of the scene. They are also often equipped with the ability to change the color of the light, which adds creative possibilities in video and photography production.
LED RGB: Another advantage of LED technology is the ability to easily change the color of the light to any color from the RGB palette. Such diodes, together with appropriate control electronics, are used in ring lights to create portraits with effect lighting, often emphasizing the unrealistic style of the photographer.
Ring lamp in practice
In the section on practical aspects of using a ring light, it is important to emphasize the possibilities offered by adjusting the brightness and color temperature.
The ability to smoothly adjust the brightness is crucial, as it allows the light intensity to be precisely adjusted to the distance from the subject or model being photographed. This in turn allows creators to achieve the desired visual effect without the risk of overexposing or over-darkening the scene.
Equally important is the ability to adjust the color temperature. It allows the light of the lamp to be matched to the ambient light, whether it is warm sunlight or cooler fluorescent light. Thanks to this, photography or video can maintain the naturalness of colors, which is especially important in the production of materials with a high aesthetic standard.
On a practical level, modern ring lights often come equipped with additional brackets or connectors, allowing for the attachment of accessories such as microphones, which is extremely useful for video content creators such as YouTubers or vloggers. The ability to integrate a smartphone directly with the lamp opens up new possibilities for users to create mobile content with high-quality lighting.
The option of network operation of ring lamps, i.e. the ability to power directly from the socket, ensures uninterrupted operation during long photo sessions or video recordings. However, an equally important feature is the ability to operate on batteries, which is useful when working outdoors, where access to power sources is limited. Thanks to this, ring lamps are a versatile tool, adapted to various working conditions, both in the studio and in the field.
Stability and the ability to flexibly position the lamp are essential for achieving optimal effects. The choice of tripod should be dictated by the specifics of the work - heavier lamps require more solid stands. It is not worth using particularly high studio stands - in practice, lamps work at face height and the cheapest stands are often the best.
Modern ring lamps offer a variety of control methods, from potentiometers to remote control. These functions, although they do not directly affect the quality of light, can make work much easier, allowing you to quickly adjust settings without having to interrupt the session.