We Were Ring Flash When Ring Flash Wasn't Cool
I nearly spit Diet Mountain Dew all over my keyboard tonight when WIRED.com, who purports to write for reasonably normal people, uncorked a review of four different ring flashes.What is the world coming to? Have we gotten... mainstream?
I certainly hope not.
I spoke to Jonathan Snyder, who shoots for WIRED.com and did the review. And he said since they use them all of the time, he decided to do a quick review.
Notably absent:
The Orbis (seriously, James, you gotta send them one) and Jedrek's DIY Tupperware version. Just sayin'.
You can catch the review here, and see more of photog Jonathan Snyder's work here.
One more tidbit from Jon -- WIRED has just started up a photo blog.
Sweet.
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Posted at 10:23 PM.
19 Comments:
wired should just have given the strobist link in the article for full indepth review of every possible ring flash.
Red eyes in the sunset.
Sounds like the best reason not to get a ring flash. When Uncle Bob starts using one to shoot his prized azaleas, move on folks.
As far as I'm concerned, a typical Wired review. They compare a macro ringflash (the Canon), aka 'the apple', to the 'oranges' - studio-type ringflashes.
Wired? Ringflashes
Tired? Wired.
What's up with the red eye?
The photo they have accompanying the article proves that it's not so much the equipment you have, it's the skill of the photog. They managed to have harsh shadows and red-eye in their sample shot.
(I have the ABR-800 and I agree with them...the mounting assembly is a mess!)
Ring's diameter wide enough to accommodate every lens from Wired.com's photo department (we have more than eight!)
LOL!
Yeah, I think maybe wired should stay away from reviewing photography equipment. The reviews really were not useful at all.
What a useless review, no photos from the actual testing....very little if any tech info from the test...
Ring flash is so 20th Century
Geez... Now everyone is going to have a leather motorcycle jacket with a ring flash emblem on the back and a tatoo that says, "My Mama didn't light me."
They didn't review mine either for some reason.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2589/3750883627_54f5748385_m.jpg
It is no surprise to see this kind of review articles in Wired, just look at how many IT people are in the strobist group...
1 Find a market
2 Create articles to that market
3 ________
4 Profit
Carl
The opening photo in the article was taken with the Ray Flash according to the shadows around the model.
Red eye is even possible with Asians if you are using a ring flash.
I've been using the Orbis since it was released, and despite its awkward design, it produces the best ring flash light from a shoe-mount flash. It's also better used as a fill light given the amount of light loss.
You can see the results from the Orbis from my Comic-Con gallery on flickr:
I think this review doesn't have much meaning. The author simply ignores the fact many other manufactories make similar micro-ringflashes as Canon. And a micro-ringflash is in a total different category as the rest mentioned in the review.
Really I was kinda thinking everyone and their grandmother uses one these days!!
This is a nice article. If they were going to go as far as alien bees, I would have liked to also see how they stacked up against something like the Profoto ring light.
- Steve
www.sbellphotography.com
Interesting review. Would have been much better with test photos as other posters have said. It would have been nice to see a review of some of the DYI ringflashes too. I recently made one and it works well as long as you are fairly close to your subject as with most ringflash. I have just posted some shots on my blog in which I used the DYI made with plastic bowls.
http://richardgibbsphotography.blogspot.com/2009/08/shoot-for-up-and-coming-band.html
Thanks for the link to Wired's Photo blog.
How long has this blog been around? Is it recent?
I didn't read the ringflash review, because when I hit the link to Wired's photo blog, I saw the post about top things to throw into a black hole. Besides disagreeing with several, I really hate blog posts that are written with the royal or editorial "we." I thought blogs were personal, the thoughts or rantings on one person? Anyway, it all seemed rather pompous.
Mike
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