Cheap Lighting Part 5

by Mickey Rountree

I recently got a 19 inch Flashpoint fluorescent ringlight. I’ve been looking at getting one for a couple of years, but finally broke down and bought one when I found it on  on special at Adorama for $90 (Regularly $140). I bought the 19 inch model, but there is also a smaller (and cheaper) 13 inch model. The 19 inch allows a little more flexibility in shooting and should provide a larger catchlight in the eye. There are several brands (and prices) available, but all should work similarly. A fluorescent ringlight is suitable for tight head and shoulder portraits. It creates a distinctive circular catchlight in the eye. Some people will see the round catchlight as unnatural, but it is common in fashion photography.

One of the big advantages of a ringlight is that the light is direct and frontal and tends to minimize imperfections in the skin. A disadvantage is that it doesn’t create the shadows that define the shape of the face. Your subject may have to do more contouring than usual with makeup. Which also brings up the point that this light is most often used as a type of beauty lighting for females. It will probably not look appropriate for a male face.

This light is probably different from any light you have used before, so here are some tips.

The light is daylight balanced, but I used my Color Checker Passport to create a custom color profile for it with all of my cameras. If you don’t use custom profiles, shoot a gray card in the first shot and use it to set the white balance.

A fluorescent ringlight may seem bright, but it is relatively weak. It must be close to the model, and you will need to shoot at a high ISO and a wide aperture. With the light 24 inches from my subject I am at about 1/250 sec, f/2.8 and ISO 400. Also, you need to shoot in a dark room, as any other light sources will affect color balance and shadows. You can use an incident light meter or just use your camera’s metering. If you do this, use aperture priority, a wide aperture, and shoot a test shot. If the exposure is not right dial in some exposure compensation and retest until it looks right. Or you could use manual exposure mode.

For the most even light on the face, and the roundest catchlight, set the light at the same height as the face and square on to the subject. You will be shooting through the center of the ring.

The distance of the light to the subject will affect three things. The first is the obvious change in exposure; the closer the light, the brighter; the further away the darker. Second, and less obvious is light falloff. The closer the light is, the more rapidly exposure falls from the front to the back of the subject, so the tip of the nose might be just right while the ears are dark. Third is the size of that round catchlight in the eye. The closer the light, the larger the catchlight.

Below you can see a couple of setup shots and the lighting effect a ringlight produces.