New to lighting? Welcome. Start with Lighting 101, linked below, as millions of other photographers have done before you. Or scroll down further to access Strobist's other free courses.
Lighting 101 is the core foundation of Strobist. It is a free, start-from-zero tutorial that will teach you the basics of lighting and minimalist lighting gear. Lighting 101 will have you up and running in no time—and at minimal expense.
Lighting 102 is the sequel to Lighting 101. Where L101 was about gear and basic concepts, L102 will teach you how to further understand and control the qualities of your light to make it do your bidding.
Lighting 103 is a deep dive into color. It explores the intersection of light and color to help you give your photos more nuance, realism and depth.
Strobist Lighting Cookbook combines the concepts learned in L101-103 to give you more understanding and fluidity with your lighting. We also explore some of the shoots from a 360-degree/ecosystem perspective.
A Baker's Dozen: Here you'll find a sampling of posts to help you understand the scope of the lighting education on this site.
On Assignment features full walk-throughs of over 170 real-world assignments, complete with discussions ranging from lighting to concept to execution—and even some screw-ups.
It (largely) follows my path as a newspaper shooter and beyond, progressing from simple speedlights to more complex studio flashes.
Sad fact: There are a lot of companies that make some pretty crappy lighting gear, but are still happy to take your money. The Strobist Gear Guide is designed to help you avoid making many of the costly rookie mistakes I made over the first few years of my career.
This is the gear that works for me, day in and day out. It is solid, reliable and will get the job done without destroying your wallet.
Books are gear for your brain. Chosen wisely, they represent some of the best value for dollar you can spend as a learning photographer.
Featured on the Strobist Bookshelf are my current favorites, winnowed from hundreds of books read over the course of my career. It is a relatively short list, but there are solid selections for nearly any lighting photographer.
Since 2017, I’ve led annual workshops in Cuba and Vietnam focused on thinking like a photojournalist while traveling with your camera. The Traveling Photographer's Manifesto is, in many ways, the book version of that workshop. More, here.
Ring Flash Week: Intro and Resources
Welcome to Strobist Ring Flash Week and the first post thereof. First off, there seems to be some confusion as to whether it is a "ring flash" or a "ringflash" or a "ring light" or a "ringlight."
I am going with "ring flash" for the most part unless there is a reason to differ in a particular circumstance. But the important thing was to get all four versions into the first paragraph to make the search engines happy.
(Now, c'mon -- isn't the honesty refreshing?)
The goal of this week is three-fold:
1. To elevate the ring flash technique discussion to somewhere above the "up against the wall" single-light shot. 2. To show you how to build a completely new DIY version, which is speedlight-based and is powerful enough to use in full daylight. A few of you have seen it, and know just how pumped i am about it. 3. To prime the pump for discussion and group design input for a small, cheap, passive ring flash light mod that will very likely actually be manufactured.
More on that last one later, and much more after the jump. ___________________________
This Week's Menu:
Today: Overview and a list of internal and external gear resources.
Tuesday: A look at a reader who is shooting cool ring flash stuff and a high-end commercial shooter who uses it well, too.
Thursday: How to build the DIY Strobist HD Ring Flash.
Friday: Shooting/Experimenting with the HD Ring Flash.
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Ring Flash Resources
Below is a list of internal and external ring flash resources. Please feel free to add any links you may have along these lines to the comments to improve the value of the list.
Whether you are going the cheap DIY route or the expensive studio route, there is something for every wallet size.
The shot at left, BTW, is of Czech model Lenka. She was shot with the DIY ring flash designed by Dennison Bertram, which is linked below. ______________________
Ray Flash is the first commercially produced ring flash adapter designed to turn a speedlight into a ringflash. While ringlight is nothing new around here, up until now you have had to either go the DIY route, or lug around a much bigger piece of gear.
Assuming you've got the wallet to handle it, I think a lot of people are gonna go for this thing. More on the unit itself -- and how much it'll set you back -- after the jump. _________
Good News, Bad News
I'll give you the bad news first: The Ray Flash ring flash adapter costs $300.00.
Still here? Okay.
Because despite those 300 reasons against it, the Ray Flash is one very cool pice of gear. I've been playing with one for a couple of weeks. And to a person, almost every photog that I have shown it to was pretty smitten by it.
IMO, it's gonna be very popular with the wedding and people shooters. It's small, lightweight, maintains all of the flash's TTL functions. Best yet, it loses only one stop of light as compared to direct flash.
That last bit alone puts it head and shoulders above any DIY versions I have seen or tried. With that kind of output, it is even usable outside during the daylight at modest portrait distances. Especially as fill against other lights, which is the way you want to be using a ring flash if you want to have some variety in your photos.
That's the way I used it at the Southern Short Course in Photojournalism this weekend when a group of four photographers out of Florence, SC, asked me to do a group shot of them after we had finished portfolio reviews at about 1:00 a.m. (That's still early in the evening at a SSC.)
IMO, ring flashes have a total of exactly one look when used by themselves. That is fine, if you have, say, Czech supermodel Lenka standing in front of you against a wall. But that look is gonna get old for you if you just use it as a main light with nothing else. (Unless, of course, you are using it to mint coin every week at weddings...)
To my mind, the people using ring flash well are folks like Dan Winters, who combine it off-axis light (frequently, hard light) and create some really cool schemes.
For this shot, I placed (L to R) Keri, Heidi, Erin and Rebecca about 2-3 feet away from a wall and filled them with the ring flash. My SB-800 (which powered the ring flash) was dialed down on manual so it would light them at about three stops below the exposure at which he hand-held flashes would light them. I was also shooting with a CTO gel on the ring flash and straight light on the other flashes.
Being photographers, they all lit themselves using Nikon handheld SB-800's in the special slave mode. Those strobes were set at 1/128 power. I very much appreciate not having to do all of the work myself, especially after a day of teaching and a night of reviewing portfolios. (Thanks, guys!)
Now the classic ring light coming form the Ray Flash becomes a cool, 3D-ish, wrapping fill. This is the kind of approach that gets me excited about the Ray Flash as a lighting tool. Using it in conjunction with another speedlight (or four, in this case) gets you into all kinds of funky stuff.
As specifics of the unit itself, the two things that stand out are its efficiency and its thin size. I cannot for the life of me figure out how they got that light around the lens while only using one stop. Amazing. That bit of engineering makes the adapter more usable in a wide variety of situations. And I am definitely gonna be experimenting with this baby some more.
Speaking of engineering, this is a pretty impressive piece of optical design. It uses little light channels to guide the flash around the lens pretty darn evenly. Given that the top is closer to the flash, you know that is gonna be the hot area. But they counter it by not releasing the light fully until they are an inch or two from the top of the ring, going around. Seems to work great.
The build quality seems to be pretty good, too. I had a little bit of de-silvering (de-painting, actually...) in one of my little light fiber channels, but there was no effect on the final output that I could discern. And to be fair, this was an early production model.
They have designs either in production or on the way for all of the current popular speedlights (the mounting bracket is designed to fit the individual flash heads). It attaches with a very sturdy clamp that makes both the strobe and the ring flash adapter essentially one unit.
As for size, they say you can't be too rich or two thin. And the Ray Flash is A-list in both categories. It will easily slide into the side pocket of a Domke F2 bag, the standard bag for PJ's. When you need to use it, you simply slip it onto a camera-mounted flash and you are good to go.
Here is a straight shot, typical up-against-the-wall stuff from a seminar in Phoenix earlier this month. (No added light sources were used here.) The whole, camera-flash-adpater combo is very easy to hand hold. The Ray Flash adds very little weight or bulk to your setup.
Shooting with it is a breeze. Works great in both manual or TTL mode, although you'll probably wanna tweak your compensation a little to fine-tune the look in TTL mode. But that's easy enough.
Gelling the Ray Flash flash is easy, too. You slip a gel on the actual speedlight before you mount the adapter. The Rosco sample pack gels work great.
But $300, you say? You can buy an ABR-800 for $400, right?
Yeah, sure. But then you'd have to lug it around with a Vagabond -- or find some AC. It all comes down to your shooting venue and style. If you are primarily a studio shooter, it is ABR-800. No brainer. Or something else, which would be north of $1,000.00. Way north.
But if you are mobile -- and especially if you like the TTL thing -- you have to give the Ray Flash strong consideration. And this design clearly took a lot of time and effort to produce. Not to mention a some very expensive mold design.
For the people for whom it makes economic sense, the cost will be returned many times.
I suspect that the Ray Flash will be a hit with the hipster wedding shooter crowd. It takes up almost no room in the bag, then you just slip it on when you wanna do the funky bride shot. You can do it at each wedding -- it's always new to them, right? This thing could make some cool reception pix, too, if you are into that kind of thing.
The Ray Flash ring flash adapter is a sophisticated light modifier that fills a big gap in today's strobe gear, and will open up new possibilities for many shooters. It's great to see a company taking light to a new level. __________
Ray Flash vs. Orbis vs. AlienBees ABR800 Review, Pt. 1
Ring light has, for me, gone from a curiosity to what I consider to be an essential part of my lighting kit. I do not always use it when lighting people, but I always bring it. And I frequently end up using it -- but rarely as a main or only light.
In this first of a two-part series comparing ring flashes, we'll be taking a look at the two direct competitors in the bunch: The Ray Flash and Orbis ring flash adapters. The ABR-800, in all of its different iterations, will get its own post next week.
As most of you already know, the Ray Flash and Orbis are not actually ring flashes but rather are passive light modifiers that convert your existing speedlight into a ring flash. This process has advantages and disadvantages, and there are also relative strengths and weaknesses between the two.
The straight dope, inside.
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A Little Background
I have been planning this post for awhile, as one of a pile of "evergreen" type posts that I keep tucked away for a rainy day. In the interim, Dave Honl and Bert Hanashiro over at SportsShooter came up with a video of their own comparing the three.
It's fantastic in that it shows the relative size and ergonomics of each. It sucked (yeah, bros, I'm calling you out) in that it did not really get very deeply into the most important facet: What does the light look from each like in an apples-to-apples comparison?
I kid -- mostly.
But long story short, Dave and Bert's video is a good 4-minute primer on seeing how they each work. So if you have not seen that video yet, I would suggest watching that first. You know, to save me some typin'. (Note: They used a Zeus, which is the ABR800 equivalent in a pack-and-head configuration. Same difference.)
The Ray Flash mounts to your camera with the flash attached on the hot shoe. The camera, flash and Ray Flash all become one unit.
At first, you'll worry that it puts too much pressure on your shoe-mount flash foot. That has never been a real issue, tho. And it does flex a little and takes some getting used to in general. But the latter is true for any ring flash.
Here is how it mounts, which should be pretty self explanatory.
And if you have trouble holding these guys, the studio versions will only feel clunkier and heavier. This is as light as it gets. There is a physical learning curve to dealing with these, but it is worth the effort.
The Ray Flash is available here (or at many other camera stores around the world) for $199.95.
…followed by: The Orbis
The Orbis Ring Flash Adapter, which also sells for $199.00, is similar to the Ray Flash in that it channels your speedlight's output into a ring of light. But the similarities end there.
The Orbis mounts from under your lens, with the flash stuck up inside it. Normally you would connect it to your camera with an off-camera TTL cord (not included, but something many DSLR shooters already own.)
Your choices until now have been to hand-hold it or to use a light stand, both of which have advantages. But it could not fuse with the camera to make a single unit like the Ray Flash.
That changes with the upcoming release of the Orbis Arm, shown below:
I have played with a production model and have found it to be built like a tank -- a very lightweight tank, thankfully.
It is thick, rigid, powder-coated aluminum. And the two, double-screwed L-brackets are solid as a rock. I would note that, like the Ray Flash, there is some flex involved in the end. But that comes from the Orbis' connection to the flash head, and is in no way related to the Orbis Arm.
I have found it to be adjustable to any camera/lens combo. (I marked mine w/Sharpie to assemble it exactly to the right distance every time.) And it folds into a "spooned L" shape that fits into your bag without taking up any appreciable room. Nice design.
Stepping into The Ring
So, there are the basics for each one. From here on, it is Orbis against Ray Flash -- and may the best ring light win.
Which one will you like best? That depends. Because as similar as they are, they stack up totally differently depending on how you prioritize their features and qualities. So let's get to Round One.
Light Efficiency
Winner: Ray Flash
Here is an apples-to-apples comparison. Everything is the same except for the adapter used to mod the light.
On the left is Orbis. On the right, Ray Flash. Neither are optimal because I left them flat and split the difference on the exposure.
Some tests were, IMO, subjective. This one wasn't. If you are working with closed down apertures, low ISO, or outside, give the Ray Flash a good look.
But even with the increased efficiency, neither of these are overpower-the-sun machines. For that, you'll want an ABR800. You can fill with the speedlight models, but you cannot dominate the sun outdoors in full daylight.
That said, the vast majority of the time you will be working with these kinds of lights in moderate and/or controlled ambient light levels. And they both are more than sufficient for indoor use.
Exposure-wise, it is also worth noting here that both will pass through the TTL information -- it is just your normal flash after all -- and can be used with high-speed focal plane sync for wide aperture work. Gels are also a breeze to use with either. Just gel the flash as you normally would.
Universal Fit
Winner: Orbis
Again, no contest. The Orbis fits most every camera/speedlight combo (except for big honkers like Vivitar 285's.)
The Ray Flash is camera and flash specific. You need a different model number for variances in camera depth (prosumer or pro-sized body) and flash. And brand.
If you shoot with the same model camera(s) and flash(es) all of the time, this is a non-issue. Otherwise it is something to consider.
As a small consolation, I have found that I can mount an SB-800 on a D3 with the Ray Flash model meant for the SB-800 and D300. But it is a little off center on the vertical axis.
Run and Gun
Winner: Ray Flash
First, it comes ready to rock without the added bracket. And even considering the bracket on the Orbis, the Ray Flash is a more compact, self-contained setup.
If you are working in a pack of photogs, the Ray Flash is going to be a little tighter and more compact. This follows through to packability, too. The Ray Flash is thinner and smaller, but inherently "L-shaped". And FWIW, I have found that I can usually work that "L" around a corner somehow in a bag.
But that size efficiency comes back to bite you when it comes to …
Quality of Light
Winner: Orbis
Okay, this is one of those "IMO" types of things, as quality of light is subjective.
But the physics add up. The Orbis, being bigger and less efficient, also appears to be softer and more even in it's light distribution. This is a design point, and Ray Flash just went for more compactness and efficiency.
But being subjective, let's go to the example pics so you can judge for yourself.
Here is the Ray Flash pic. And these are both as apples-to-apples as I could make them. Just one ring light and a gray wall. And Dasha, of course.
It makes since that, since the Ray Flash is smaller it is going to produce a little harder light quality. Just physics. But, you get efficiency and compactness back in return.
It is my opinion that there is also some "lensing" going on in the Ray Flash, which means that you are going to get a bit of vignetting if you shoot wide with it. It is more efficient, in part, because it is somewhat of a "zoomed" ring flash.
This is something that is not very apparent in these two comparison photos, which were shot with a portrait length lens. But you can see it in a wide-angle lens shot, as in this example.
And here's the Orbis, in the same conditions as the shot above.
Right off of the bat I get a little softer shadow on the wall, which is obviously the result of a bigger lighting surface area. But in addition, the light is less "lensed" in the design of the Orbis, so it is also more evenly distributed around the circle. (Again, this will mostly come into play with shorter focal length shots.)
The Orbis is a softer, more even light. And thus, a little more flattering. And as I said, that comes back to bite you on the butt when it comes to lighting efficiency. You choose the factors that are more important to you.
Both are Better as Fill
Actually, let me be more clear: Any ring light is better at fill. So while the Orbis may win out on single-light quality, I do have to say that I rarely use ring lights this way.
Take this picture of Dasha, done at the same time with the Orbis.
In this setup, the Orbis is acting as a fill to a gridded SB-800 coming in from camera right high. This is where I think the Orbis, the Ray Flash and just about any other ring light (or adapter) shines.
Using a ring for what is essentially contrast control is where the fun is, because the ring actually allows you to be more edgy with the design of your key light and take more chances. I see it as being sorta like "layer blending" in Photoshop. Except for you do it in camera.
Because some will ask, here is the setup shot for the photo above. I just popped out of the ring (it was on a stand) and shot from above.
You can see how simple this is, but the result looks very sharp. And, depending on the fill level of the ring and the angle of the key, can give you a thousand different final looks.
The splash of light on the background also hides the effect of the ring light back there if the key light doesn't reach that far back. Which would be the case in this setup, probably.
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So there you have my best effort at a comparison between the two main, speedlight ring adapter contenders. It should be noted that there are some others, too, which are essentially cheap knockoffs of one of the above designs.
But a warning to those who would save a few bucks: Just because someone's ring light platic mold might have "fallen off of the truck" does not mean they went out and coughed up the bucks for the best internal optics materials.
In fact, if they were going for low price, they almost certainly did not spend that money. I have had reports of several tests of the various cheaper "Ebay ringflash adapters," and have heard stories so varied on color consistency (um, not) and hideous efficiency (including one report of a six-stop light loss) that I am not even gonna go there.
Look, if you want a super cheap ring light, just DIY your own from one of many different designs here and elsewhere. Save your marginal dollars for another flash.
Next week, get ready to go into full retina burning mode with the 320 watt-second AlienBees ABR 800 monobloc ring flash. We'll be doing comparisons there too -- same conditions as above, so you can compare all three. And with its various included and a la carte attachments, the ABR is a pretty variable light source in its own right.
I have not had much time to play with my new ring flash yet, but I can already see that it produces light that is soft, even and strong enough for the kinds of photos I want to learn how to shoot. Click on the pics for larger versions. ______________________
I made this photo at the Patapsco meetup, just starting to experiment a little with still life photos. The leaf was frontally lit by the ring flash, with additional light coming from the top of the frame in the form of an SB-26 lying on the ground firing directly.
I like the ring-light-against-hard-light look very much, and I hope to be experimenting more with it soon.
(More sample photos after the jump.)
Everyday objects take on a whole new look when shot with a ring light as the primary light source. These leaves on the ground -- only lit with ring flash -- have a weird, Photoshopped/HDR look to them. This is right out of the camera, with just the one light. Definitely seeing possibilities there for experimentation.
Also shot at the meetup was Andrew N., the youngest photog present (sporting a modded Poverty Wizard trigger, no less!)
This is done outside in hazy daylight, with the ring flash overpowering the ambient sun. Just a straight, up-against-the-wall shot. And this wall really does not work well for showing the ring shadow, which is subtle with a light source this big.
Victim number two, Justin, shows how the look changes with the addition of one back/side light, which is positioned to miss the background. As with the leaf, this is a look I prefer to the one-light ring shot. With a ring and one or two small accent flashes, you could create a cool painted backdrop and do a neat, themed portrait series.
In fact, being assigned such a series would be a good excuse to build something like this. Or anything else that can give a disparate group of photos some continuity. (You listening, Dana?)
Pathetically, I can report that I have now shot with a ring flash everything in my house that I could find to shoot. This shot of a pair of jeans is ring light only. While I like the 3-D-yet-flat look, I will probably be more interested in shooting against raking lights for most stuff.
Getting in this close, the ring light is really big enough to be considered a "ring soft box" and the light gets flatter. But it is powerful enough (certainly up this close) to be made smaller and harsher with a mask made out of cardboard. That's on the list to try, too.
I was down in Charlotte, NC last week, doing a workshop at The Observer where my friend Bert Fox is the new Director of Photography. During a break I drug out the ring flash and set up a quick, triangle-lit portrait of Shawn, one of the the shooters for the newspaper group.
This is the first chance I have had to set up a couple of additional light sources, and I really like the possibilities I am starting to see with the ring flash as a component of an overall lighting scheme. The background is a white wall in a studio (could be anywhere) and the grey tone comes form the distance ratio (light-subject distance vs light-background distance) which we talked about earlier in Lighting 102.
This is ring flash in front with two gobo'd SB-26's coming from the back/sides. Check it out larger to see the detailed look of the light.
The goal in experimenting is both to start to explore the possibilities and to get the ring flash out of my system, so I will be likely to pull it out at opportune moments instead of on every single shoot for the next six months.
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Questions and Snarky Comments Dept.
You guys aren't exactly the shy type, so I thought I would bring some of the comments and questions from the "how-to-build page" up for all:
So the camera resides inside the tube? Do your arms not hit the sides of the tube when in use? Is the reason for this to keep the lens from vignetting?
The lens is in the PVC tube. The camera is just behind it. The tube, being just a little wider than the shade, can stick out a little bit without vignetting.
How are the flashes triggered? Are rf-triggers required or is it enough to just use the camera's master-trigger (via flash)?
I have triggered several ways so far. PW's (all internally placed) Nikon CLS with the pop-up flash (on TTL and on manual) and PW'ing one flash (either an external rim light or one of the two internal flashes) on manual and slaving the other(s) in SU-4 mode.
The three questions that arise for me, is why the notch in the pvc tube? just for grip or does it serve another purpose? You mentioned that you wanted to do ttl, how can this be achieved accurately with the strobes pointing forward but sensors pointing inwards? Lastly what method did you use to connect the strobes to the camera (main reason for that question is because you said you could do ttl) love to finally see a nicely designed ring flash though.
1. The two notches allow for zooming of the lens with my fingers (side notch), and the top notch allows the pop-up flash to pop up with the body stuck as far as possible into the PVC tube.
2. TTL, when used, means everything comes through the lens before it is measured. Flash/sensor position is very flexible for that reason.
3. See above.
Can't wait to see your pictures (and possible arrest stories) with that thing.
I can assure you that the ring light will only be incidental in the arrest report...
Ummm, how much does this thing WEIGH? How much extra time am I going to need in the gym, training to use it? :-)
It is, shall we say, substantial. Rough guess: 10 lbs, fully loaded.
I'm sorry, the quality of posting on this site have gone way down. I'd pay $400 to not have to carry this thing around.
Your refund is in the mail. As for the size, nothing smaller really solved my design criteria. I wanted to create something that would have the power to use in more real-world situations. It is much lighter than an ABR800 and a Vagabond battery, FWIW.
Could you cut the length in half by turning the flashes around and bouncing into reflectors? Here is a sketch.
I have thought about that, and might play with that a little in further revisions. Nice sketch.
how much light is wasted, bouncing backwards out of the flash, right back into your face, I wonder? Could the back of this be sealed up, and line it with silver tape?
You need easy access to adjust the flashes. But if you wanna try it, knock yourself out. Please send pictures.
Cool design. Is it powerful enough for a sunny day? A little black paint and a Nikon sticker, and it would look almost professional.
It will overpower full sun at modest portrait ranges. And if anyone reading this works for Nikon and has access to Nikon stickers, hook me up and I will pimp it out after painting...
Can't... stop... laughing.
But you're laughing with me, right? Right? Hello?
At least it wont get stolen.
Dunno... I would not leave it alone at a Strobist meetup, I'll tell you that much.
What level of SPF do you recommend for the model?
I generally only photograph models in full burkas, just to be safe. But I do put sunscreen on my face when I use it.
Lighting 101: Two of My Favorite (if a Little Unusual) Light Mods
Photo by Strobist reader James Madelin
While we are on the subject of the quality of light, here are two of my favorite light modifiers for creating interesting light for portraits. I use them a lot—both individually and combined with each other.
The first is a ring flash adapter. A ring flash is a donut-shaped flash, with your lens sticking into what would be the hole of the donut. This allows the light to come from all around the lens axis, which does a couple of things.
First, it makes smooth, shadowless light (on the subject at least). Second, it creates a unique, signature shadow on any wall or backdrop that might be directly behind the subject.
You have probably seen that look before in fashion and or modern portrait photography. Now you know how it was done.
Real, professional ring flashes are… very expensive. But you can turn your garden-variety speedlight into a ring flash for a lot less with something called a ring flash adapter. Essentially, these are very sophisticated reflectors that bend light around your lens before releasing it.
My favorite of the ring flash adapters is the Orbis (seen above). I like it because it is the only model of ring flash adapter on the market which (a) can be used with nearly any hot-shoe style flash, and (b) has a better quality of light than the others.
I use it a lot, both by itself and in combination with other lights. For $199 (here) the Orbis will open up a whole new world of possibilities -- both as a key light, and as a fill that covers its own tracks.
In the montage above, shot by Strobist reader Ed McGowan, you can see how a ring flash adapter can quickly give a cool look/theme to a series of portraits. His ring flash adapter is homemade—props for that.
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Little Bitty Soft Box
A soft box is simply a box that emits light. They usually run from 2x2 feet to as big as 4x6 feet. But filling a box that big is a lot to ask in terms of power when using speedlights.
So another of my most-used light modifiers is a tiny (as in 8x9 inches) version of a soft box, which happens to be very useful for lighting portraits from up close. That's it above, providing the light for a self-portrait. (As you can see, I like to experiment with my light mods…)
But these things are super useful. Take this photo, for example. The small soft box is being held just out of the frame to the left, and is what is responsible for the great quality of light sculpting his face.
The other main small light mods (Rogue, Fong Spheres) may have the huge marketing budgets, but more thoughtful photographers eventually wind up with LumiQuest folding boxes. For me, LQ light quality comes down to three things: predictability, efficiency and control.
That they fold down to almost nothing (8x9" by half an inch deep) is a bonus. They are also inexpensive. My favorite tiny box is the LumiQuest Soft Box III (AKA SB-III). I use the crap out of this mod—especially for close-in portraiture.
Just Like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
Often when I photograph people, I am working quickly and with very lightweight gear. And I frequently use the Orbis and the Soft Box III in combination. These last two photos are all good examples of that.
Seen above, I photographed poet Linda Joy Burke using a flash with an SB-III as my "key" (or "main") light off to the left. For fill light, to get that very controlled intensity of shadow, I used a second flash with an Orbis Ring flash Adapter.
Ditto the above portrait of blogger Siany Meades, shot in London. Same combo, same general light locations, actually. This was shot in a shaded courtyard but the light(s) gave me the ability to create a little sultry late-afternoon style light.
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So, lots of cool toys and gear to think about to get your mind spinning. But now, let's take a moment to learn about balancing the light from your flash with the existing ambient light.
For most people, this will be when you start to really see the control you get from learning to use your small flash like a professional…
Want to give your little munchkin the supermodel ring flash lighting treatment, but all you have is a dSLR with a pop-up flash? Or even a point-and-shoot?
All it takes is just a few dollars and some ingenuity to kick your flash photography up a notch.
Reader Doug R.'s "coffee can" adaptation of the HD Ring Flash can be tweaked to fit to almost any pop-up or point-and-shoot camera.
First, how he did it, then how to tweak and adpat it. _________________________________
Canned Beauty Light
Last month when I designed the HD Ring Flash adapter, I knew it would not be long before people started tweaking the concept and improving it. What I did not anticipate would be that someone would shrink it down and make it friendly to even the pocket digital cameras.
Doug has done just that, losing the 16" concrete form housing in favor of a coffee can. This makes it all but palm-sized, and the shiny metal interior handles a lot of the (required) light reflecting for you.
Doug starts with an old potato-masher-style flash bracket. But you can substitute a piece of aluminum strip (1"x3'x1/8") at a hardware store. I know Home Depot carries the stuff. It cuts, bends and drills easily with normal household tools, too.
So if you have a camera bracket, like Doug did, feel free to use it, But there are alternatives.
Like the larger version, Doug's design is a tube-within-a-tube. The outer tube is the coffee can, and the inner tube is a subwoofer port. (Doug clearly has some neat detritus around the house.) But this, too, can easily be aped with a short section of PVC.
To reproduce the flange on the end (which is very helpful to hold the diffuser) you could run a multi-layered, thin strip of gaffer's or duct tape around one end to build it up. If you use white PVC, best to paint (or gaffer tape) it black on the inside to avoid flare-inducing reflections. You can get the stuff in black plastic pipe, so that might be best.
Just get it in a big enough diameter for your camera's lens, but not any bigger than necessary. You'll need a fairly close fit to allow your flash to fire on the outside of the lens-hole tube. You'll also want the tube to be pretty short if you want to use wider lenses. But the shorter the tube, the less bouncing around room the light has in the contraption. So the wider the lens you design the can for, the less even the light will be around the ring. Life is a trade-off.
Wrap the outside of the inner tube in foil (matte side out to better disperse light) then in clear packing tape. You'll need this tube to be pretty reflective on the outside for the light to efficiently bounce around inside the can.
Doug uses his bracket thingie to support the whole setup. The bracket is bolted to the inner tube with a bolt and a few nuts and washers to act as a stand-off. At the other end, the bolt is fastened to the coffee can in a similar manner.
You can see the other end of the bolt here, from the outside.
The front diffuser should be made out of material that disperses the light pretty well and is of neutral color. Doug's is made from the lid of a large ice-cream container. Find something without wording, obviously.
Doug cut a donut shape out of the diffusion material, and made a friction fit with the inside tube. If you are using PVC, you'd probably want to slide the donut-shaped diffuser down to your DIY tape flange (see above) and then make another flange behind the diffuser to sandwich it in firmly. If you click on the pic above, you can see that Doug simply used packing tape to connect the diffuser to the can at the edges.
You'll need to position your bracket or aluminum strip correctly, and drill a hole if there is none present to act as a support for the camera. The stuff is pretty easy to bend, if you have to, for camera positioning. Make sure you take into account the position of the tripod hole on your camera, as some are off-center.
A standard 1/4x20 bolt and a wing nut can be used to secure your camera to the strip of metal, if you are not using a pre-made bracket.
Here's Doug, popping off a shot to show off the business end of the can. This is a really sweet design. Best yet, I think it is so cool that anyone with a with a point-and-shoot and a free afternoon can now play with ring flash. ________________________________
Tweaking, Adapting, Improving
Doug's design allowed for a dSLR with a pop-up flash, but this could easily be adapted to fit a point-and-shoot.
You'd be using a smaller diameter inner tube (P-n-S lenses are smaller) and you would want to make sure that your flash is positioned on the outside of the lens tube. As some flashes are very close to the lens axis on different models of point-and-shoot cameras, you'll have to give careful choice to your inner tube's diameter.
Here's a tip for getting better diffusion (and more even light) on your coffee can ring flash: Tape a little foil deflector piece on the outside of the inner tube, directly in front of where the flash will line up. Angle it so the flash's light bounces up to the interior wall of the can.
This will block the direct light from making a hot spot (and uneven light) on the diffuser panel in front. This will cost you a little bit of light output, but you'll get more even light on the front panel.
In any case, you will not get a ton of range out of this design. But it should work great for indoor head-and-shoulders shots, of even 3/4 length portraits.
Thanks to Doug for picking up the HD Ring Flash design and running with it. (And seriously, could Olivia be any cuter as a model?) ________________________________
Thousands of miles apart (and brought together by the magic of Photoshop) readers Tanya Shields and David X. Tejada both made ring flash adapters recently. Then they proceeded to test them out on a nearly identical subject. I found the differences in the way they tested their new lights to be very interesting.
More after the jump. ________________________
Canadian amateur photog Tanya Shields, (left) built her ring light adapter out of common household items. It's a neat approach, as attested to by the fact that I immediately went out and ripped the design off. I built mine in about three hours (one good movie, one so-so movie) from cardboard, parchment paper, foil-backed tape, gaffer's tape and glue.
Total (prorated) cost: Under $5.00.
Yeah, yeah, I know: "What about the cost of your time, David?"
Well, first of all, I like making stuff like this. I also like watching movies. And my accountant will tell you that my time does not in fact appear to be particularly valuable in the monetary sense anyway.
Long-time pro David X. Tejada, (right) whose lighting videos have spent so much time on Strobist that they keep a toothbrush here, made a spiffy new hardware store ring flash. (He shows you how to build it here.)
While the two ring lights are very different in construction, they create fairly similar light sources. What you'll get from these designs is a typical ring flash look, flavored by the fact that the ring will likely be a little hotter on the side closest to the flash.
Some may see the lack of absolute consistency as a hindrance, but I would prefer to think of it as a feature. The ring is going to fill all the way around, with likely about a stop or so difference between the flash side of the ring and the other side.
Since the rings are very portable and hand-holdable, you can choose to put the hot side on the top or bottom by rotating the ring. The hot bottom will give you more of an in-your-face ring shot look, whereas a hot top will give you more of a subtle ring look.
(Incidentally, this is the first time that the terms "David X. Tejada" and "hot bottom" have ever appeared on the same web page.)
Anyway, through some freakish and coincidental force of nature, both Tanya and David both proceeded to test their new ring flashes out on a young man wearing a hoodie. The similarities in light source and test subject matter struck me as interesting, and made me think about two completely different approaches to thinking about the same light source. ________________________
Tanya did exactly what very many of us would have done: Walk around here house shooting anything or anybody who would sit still long enough. Her self portrait up top was done with her ring flash, too.
When I made my first ring flash, I did just about the same thing. The light just puts a whole new spin on just about everything. And you are like a kid in a candy store -- a weirdly 3-D, flattish, wrapped-shadow candy store. You go out and shoot a memory card full of photos that each like all of the other ring flash pix out there.
Nothing wrong with that. You just can't help yourself. It's too fun.
But someone like David, who has been around the block a few times, tends to think of the ring flash a component in a multi-light scheme. This is an approach that many of us can learn from.
Take the example above. David shot his nephew (and fellow Strobist reader) Ian, using a similar ring flash to Tanya's model.
But David is using the flash as part of a triangle lighting setup, with two other speedlights positioned about 20 degrees behind Ian on each side. In doing so, he is completely wrapping Ian with light. Working about two stops above the ambient exposure (as David is) means that Ian is effectively being lit on another plane than the diffuse, grayish ambient.
___________
POP QUIZ:
Q: How would I know David is working about two stops over the ambient? A: Because on a cloudy day, properly exposed snow would be rendered a couple of stops over medium gray - bordering on white. But David's snow is very close to medium gray. Bringing his subject up with strobe allows him to put the snow at any tone that he wants, from near-white to pitch black. ___________
Okay, back to the photo: Which means that not only can David get this cool separated (dare I say, almost Dave Hill-ish) look, but he could also do the warm gel / cool gel thing, or make that dropped-down ambient any color he wanted.
Mind you, this is not a typical look that will pop up every week in one of David's oil-rig annual reports or brochures. But one day when he needs to amp a boring portrait, will be able to whip this technique out to save the day and look like a hip young Gen-Y shooter in the process. (Don't worry, Dave. You're better lookin' than that Lawrence kid.)
Here's the point: The first thing someone like David T. does with a new light source is to get past the obvious and start to experiment with it as an integral part of a lighting scheme rather then as an end to itself.
To be fair, my first experiences with the ring light were much more similar to Tanya's. But I am learning to think more like David T. as I go forward.
________________________
UPDATE: Australian reader Sam Webster took his new ring adapter into the bathroom to shoot underwater portraits. I thought that was a neat twist, and a cool look for the water-themed series of shots he was doing for a local band.
He did a video of the shoot here. More of his pics are here.
There were lots of questions following the earlier review of the new Ray Flash Ring Flash Adpater.
I have tried to answer them best I could -- and found a video to boot -- after the jump. _________
Ring Flash Q-n-A
Q: This is pretty neat with one exception. The design of it and the way it flops down, won't it block the infrared focus assist on the SB800?
A: Yes, it will block the AF-assist light on the SB-800. But FWIW, I am not sure that this thing is that much of a run-and-gun light source. (At least, that is not the way that I would use it.)
Q: What is this? No Konica-Minolta/Sony flash units? That's a pretty poor business choice... (Ditto other question, re: Sunpak/Vivitar)
A: Dunno which other flashes are coming, but you have to understand that Nikon and Canon comprise the vast amount of the DSLR market. They have to go where the numbers are, at least at first.
Q: A quick search for "Ring Light" or "Ring Flash" on eBay lists a lot of ring flashes that sell for less than $100. So what's the advantage of a ring flash adapter over such an eBay flash? Are the eBay ones restricted to macro photography?
A: I actually have bought, tried and discarded a couple of those types of flashes. They are far too weak (and the light source size far too small) to be very useful for subjects other than macro.
Q: Looks like this would block the front of the flash body. any idea if it kills the built in wireless flash capability of say a Canon 580exII? Could I use this unit and still fire another canon flash off-camera?
A: It does block the front of the flash, because it channels it to the ring light area. Being a Nikon guy, I tried it in SB-800 Commander mode to see if it would control other flashes wirelessly. It did.
Q: By saying "But they counter it by not releasing the light fully until they are an inch or two from the top of the ring, going around. Seems to work great." ... Do you mean that the light output is evenly distributed around the whole ring?
A: If the light were emitted all of the way around the ring, it would definitely be hotter up top, which would be closer to the flash. They balance this out by not starting to release the light until it is just a little bit of the way around the circle. The end effect is a pretty even lighting effect around the ring.
(You can see a good, albeit brief, visual example of this in the video below.)
Q: Okay, I'm operating on zero sleep, but what if you want to use your PWs in addition to the ringlight? Are you out of luck?
A: That depends on whether or not your camera will trigger a PW from the PC jack when a hot-shoe flash is mounted. Some will, some won't.
Q: Who wants to bet that there will be a $29 knock-off available in/from Korea within 3 months? It looks pretty backwards engineerable.
A: I'd eat my hat. This thing has a pretty complex light distribution system. Second thought, I would not be surprised to see a piece-of-crap knockoff. But this thing is actually more complicated that it looks from a distance.
Q: I've noticed it's $50 cheaper if you're a Canon user yeah!
A: FYI: That appears to be the older model. It is not as efficient as the new, thinner model.
Q: I'm sure the Gadget Infinity folks already have a prototype in the works.
A: We actually gave them an engraved invitation to create one about six months ago, and they pretty much dropped the ball. Shame, too.
Q: I'm a bit confused - is this the same product as that: ( http://www.ringflash.cz/en_index_go.php? )
A: That's the older, less efficient model. Same principle, though.
Q: I would like to see some evidence that this attachment wouldn't overtstress the the plastic hot shoe, otherwise add a new 580 EX II to the price package.
A: Can't speak for the plastic hot shoe flashes, but on my SB-800 (with a metal hot shoe) there did not seem to be much stress at all on the shoe or the foot. I would think that they would already know it if flashes snapping off were a problem. Having used it on mine, I am not worried.
Q: It looks a little small. I think you'd need something a lot larger (maybe 12-14" across) to get the proper ring light "look".
A: It is a little smaller than the ABR or other big-powered ring flashes. But at portrait distances, it seems to fine. Personal preference, tho.
Q: Anybody know where these are available in the UK, only one I managed to find was on Amazon.co.uk but it was a Nikon fit and I have canon 580EX II.
Q: Looks exactly like my Flaghead ring flash that I got for exactly 292 dollars US from Bob Rigby in the UK. They are fun to use and handy beyond. I use it with my G-9 and a canon speedlight. Needs a 1/4 CTO, just a tad bit cool straight out the cow.
A: (As if on cue.) Thanks for the gel tip. I'll try it!
Q: Does it work with high-speed (FP) flash?
A: Yes -- remembering that it is totally passive. It'll handle close-in portraiture outside using the FP synch stuff. ______________
For a better look at it's size, thickness, how it attaches, etc., check out this YouTube video, which we have conveniently dubbed for our readers from The Netherlands. Please bear in mind that this man is not a professional actor, but merely a normal photographer person such as yourself:
Having begun to explore fill with a ring flash, I knew there would be other ways to push light from on or near the lens axis. But before I tried them out, I wanted to learn how a ring light fill would work in combination with a more restricted key light.
Hard key light leaves hard shadows. And if you are not taking into account the ambient light (maybe the ambient light quality sucks, for instance) on-axis fill can reach into shadows and open them up in a highly controllable way.
Keep reading for two quick set-ups, and a refresher on ratio control without a flashmeter.
Swamp Thing
This summer as I was looking for any excuse to experiment with ring-as-fill, my son Ben returned from a day at camp wearing the shoes you see pictured at the top of this post.
My wife: "Do NOT come inside with those shoes. Clean them off with the hose outside."
Me: "Don't clean 'em yet! I want to shoot them. (... on your mother's great-grandma's antique cutting board, I did not say out loud...)"
Hey, we don't use the board for cooking. It is mostly used as decor against the counter backsplash. And it covers up the mess and tangled wires around the phone pretty well, too.
We only have a few minutes before dinner, so this will have to be quick. No problem, as I already have my background (secretly) picked out. I love shooting details like this for the family album, and these shoes say a lot about a well-spent summer day for a seven year-old boy.
Having seen what the ring would do against an umbrella, I wanted to play with some hard light. My thinking was, this combo will let me dial in however much texture I wanted by filling against a hard shaft of light.
But before I could make the hard key, I needed my ring flash as fill. I cranked my lens down to a very small aperture to hold focus and dropped the shutter speed to 1/250th to kill the ambient. Then, I adjusted the power output on the (manual) ring flash until I got the proper exposure.
(I was using a Ray Flash adapter fitted onto a Nikon SB-800 speedlight for the ring light.)
Now, since I was already way down on the aperture, I dropped the ISO a couple of stops to take the ring flash from being properly exposed down to a nice fill. I looked at the histogram and rear display and it looked like a nice "baseline exposure" for what would become my shadows in a moment.
This is no different than dialing down your ambient before you add in your key light, except that it was all being done with flash.
Now, for the hard fill.
Using a set of ten-dollar barn doors designed for small flashes, I closed off the spill of the key light until just a small beam was getting through from hard camera left. I used a 1/2-strength CTO gel to warm up the key somewhat to accentuate the color of the mud.
Given that my shooting aperture is set, as is the number of stops I have already dialed down my fill, the only thing left to do is to adjust the key light until the direction and exposure looks best.
No meters -- just eyeballing the relationship between the tones on the rear screen and making sure my histogram is not out of whack.
Quick and easy, and I notch another quick experience in my goal to get more comfy with on-axis fill. Honestly, the hardest thing about the shoot was smuggling the cutting board out of the kitchen (and back in) without Susan noticing.
I really like the ring-against-raking-light look on the muddy shoes. The highlights are crisp, but you can see right into the shadows -- exactly as much as I want, thanks to the lighting ratio on the fill. The ring also gives that characteristic wraparound shadow -- which looks kinda cool against the highlights, too.
Ring Against Grid
A few days before Ben's shoes, I had done a little more experimenting with ring fill and hard light, and I found myself growing more and more comfortable both with the technique itself and the key-to-fill ratios.
This portrait of Em, done in the last days of single digits before her tenth birthday, was the first time I had worked with ring and grid light. But I already had a good idea what to expect, thanks to experimenting earlier with on-axis fill and umbrella key in Dubai.
There are two ratios to consider here, and if you are into reverse engineering should be able to spot them by looking closely at the photo.
The first is the ratio of the ring (which will end up being the fill) over the ambient. You can see how far the ambient drops off by looking at the depth of the ring flash shadow (around Em) compared to the surrounding bricks in the areas of the photo not lit by the gridded key light.
The second ratio is that of the gridded key light over the ring fill light. This you can see in the shadows on Em's neck and under her nose. (These shadows are left by the key light, but are lit by the ring fill.)
Which means that in this setting, we have two control levers to adjust the contrast range of the photo. The ring flash was about a stop and a half over the ambient and the gridded key (coming from upper camera right) was another stop and a half over the ring light.
(If this shorthand exposure information doesn't make sense, take a look at this post.)
I have to say, I immediately loved the look of the ring fill against the gridded key. It was crisp and open all at the same time, and every portion of the photo was tonally legible in a controllable way.
Baseline Exposure Cheat Sheet
I was starting to get familiar with the Ray Flash, and was finding that it knocked off a little more than the one stop (vs. direct flash) advertised by the manufacturer. To be fair, after testing I found it to knock off about 1.2 stops -- if you used the 24mm throw as a bare-flash comparison.
Real-world (50mm throw) I would call it close to two stops. But that is still plenty powerful to use as a beautiful fill light at portrait distances outside.
Having experimented in a darkened room, I tested it to see how much light it would throw in a given ISO and power setting. To help me learn get faster at future setups, I stuck my standard cheat sheet on the Ray Flash:
The numbers:
1/2 power -- ISO 400 -- 10 Feet -- f/8
From there, I could quickly interpolate differences in any future setups to get a starting point for my power setting in manual.
Comfortable with the tests, I was ready to try ring light as fill on an assignment -- confident that I probably would not screw it up completely.
Nothing I blog about, save maybe Jill Greenberg, is as polarizing as is ring flash. You either love it or you hate it.
(The haters are in the minority, BTW, as the RF posts are consistently among the most widely read pieces on the site.)
That said, I'll play Devil's Advocate for a moment.
(More after the jump.)
___________________
Little Tommy G., of Burtonsville, MD, (USA) writes in to say:
" ... I just don't like the look of ring flash, and I'm not sure why all your readers are so excited about this terribly unflattering and uninteresting form of light. Granted, it's new and trendy, but it's not much better than the "3-stops overexposed direct flash" look that was big in all the fashion mags 2-3 years ago.
And it's neat to build stuff, but it doesn't seem worth the time investment to create something that so limits your shooting flexibility. ..."
Well, Tommy, your problem is simply that you are 100% wrong.
(Kidding, of course.)
And I only did the "Little Tommy" thing because this particular person used to rule over me with an iron fist as my assignment editor at The Sun. Actually, those are all valid points, even if coming from a guy whose idea of "shooting flexibility" used to be asking for a weather feature squeezed in between assignments at 2:30 and 3:15.
I digress.
And I'll admit to being a little schizo about the whole ring flash thing. For me, it comes down to how the thing is used.
I think the "up-against-the-wall" one-source ring flash shot is overused and pretty one-dimensional. (That said, I never do get tired of that Lenka photo...)
But I'll admit right here and now that after I finished building my ring light a few days ago, I shot darn near everything and everybody in the house that was up against the wall with it. The cat won't even stay in the same room with me these days.
But the new car smell wears off pretty quickly on that look. Although it is always there to pull out if you need it once in a blue moon.
What does interest me -- fascinates me, actually -- is the idea of a ringlight as an on-axis, secondary light source. And to be honest, I plan on using it more for still life than for people. I like the idea of hard edge light, filled by that 3-D, wrapped light coming from the ring flash.
I start to get more excited when I think of color contrast between the frontal and edge light, too. ___________________
More than anything else, the work of Dan Winters has gotten the ring light stuck on my brain. He uses it in a variety of ways -- as a sole light source, a primary source in a multi-light setup, or as subtle fill.
I could look at Winters' photos for hours on end. (And I have.) I would really like to be able to experiment with some of his techniques on the cheap. A DIY ring flash is not gonna make me Dan, of course. But it will allow me to play with some of his methods and see how I can apply them toward my own style.
If you are into really cool, quiet, cerebral photos, I'd highly recommend a walk through his site, BTW. And if you are a photo editor, you should hire this to shoot something for your mag in every issue. He can make anything look interesting.
Closer to home, for example, reader Michael Hui is doing some neat stuff, too. He is playing with an Alien Bee ABR800, which he uses both alone and in conjunction with other light sources. In the photo at left he used an additional bare Vivitar 285HV from camera left.
It's the latter look that I am drawn to, and I sometimes have to keep myself from faving Hui's pix automatically, as soon as they appear.
In addition to combining the RF with a hard sidelight, Hui is also using it with a multi-source, wrap-lighting scheme that is totally working for me, too.
In short, where some people see a one-trick-pony light, I see a jumping-off point for more creative looks that I simply cannot get with any other light source. So, to that end, I want to learn as much about it as a possibly can.
For now, I am a total newb. But I hope to be doing cool stuff with it soon. ________________
Do you have more time than money? Time to get your MacGuyver on with this collection of DIY projects. From the ridiculous to the sublime, it's all here. Most of these have been submitted by Strobist readers with more ingenuity than cash. That said, no matter how flush you are it is always better to save your cash for things you can't make yourself.
Links are coded to open in new tabs, for easier multi-project browsing. Pictured above: $10 DIY Macro Studio
Ray Flash vs. Orbis vs. AlienBees ABR800 Review, Pt. 2
Last week, we looked at the Orbis and Ray Flash, which pretty much compete head-to-head in the ring flash adapter arena.
This week, we take a closer look at the AlienBees ABR800. Although it is a ringlight with a self-contained studio monobloc flash, it is priced in the neighbor of the other two units -- especially when you consider a standalone flash is not needed to make it work. __________
The AlienBees ABR-800
For the sake of (relative) brevity, I am going to assume you have already read both last week's post and seen the comparison video at SportsShooter. (Again, they talk about the "Zeus" ring flash, which is a pack-and-head model. But for quality-of-light purposes, the two are identical.)
The ABR800 ($400, here) is a monobloc housed within a ring flash unit. At 320 watt-seconds, it is powerful enough to blast into the sun at typical portrait distances. And it has enough juice to work as appropriate fill in full sun at much greater distances.
If you are shooting in open sun a lot, this is reason enough alone to consider the ABR over the speedlight modifiers. Sadly, Paul Buff (the ABR manufacturer) does not sell worldwide. But as of a few days ago he has just opened up an Australian/Asian distribution point.
Alas, for people who live outside of the US or AU/Asia, there are not any current choices at this power level in this price range. (Hint, hint, flash manufacturers.)
At $400, it is a screaming bargain compared to its studio flash competition. Like most Paul Buff units, it is not excessively heavy duty. I have used mine for the better part of a year, and have had no build quality issues. But neither will the high-impact plastic housing and mount inspire lots of confidence for some.
The ABR comes with a bracket to allow mounting on a light stand, a tripod or just married to the camera for hand-held use. I generally use it on a light stand, and walk it around as my shooting angle changes. As a single unit, mounted to the camera, it is pretty useable hand-held. But it will take a little getting used to, and will make you pine for the day when you thought the Ray Flash setup was unwieldy. (Wuss.)
The unit is an AC/mains power only unit. But Paul Buff does, for $300, sell a Vagabond II battery pack which is powerful and robust enough for extended shooting without AC power. Before jumping on that, consider the less expensive alternative of a couple hundred feet of extension cord for $30 or so at Home Depot.
If the Vagabond could be considered an optional accessory, the 30-inch "Moon Unit" light modifier is a no-brainer and you should just buy it when you get the ABR800. The $60 Moon Unit, which shares it's name with the daughter of singer Frank Zappa, turns your ABR into a gorgeous ring light/soft box.
This combo is really sweet, as you'll see below. But it also means that the ABR can be used as a particularly nice, self-contained beauty dish-style light on it's own. Just stick it on a stand and go to town.
That said, as much as I love the Moon Unit, it could also be classified as a medieval torture device the first few times you assemble it. So much so, in fact, that I was loathe to let a subject watch me assemble it during a shoot. (There is usually some cursing involved.)
I am reminded of a novice VW Beetle driver who pulls up a little too far in front of the gas pump. Rather than try to wrestle it into reverse, he says, "I'll be right back!" and takes a lap around the block.
Don't let it bug you too much. You'll get it. All of the work is worth it. And it is totally worth the $60.
The ABR's Split Personality
One of my favorite things about the ABR is its versatility right out of the box. It comes with a very efficient, 10-inch reflector and a donut diffuser. (Mmmm-hmm-hmm… donut diffuuuuuuser…)
These combos basically give you four different looks and/or beam spreads to the light -- bare, donut, reflector or both.
(Please note that all of these pictures were done in the same conditions and time as the photos from last week, so if you want to compare apples to apples, that should help.)
Bare ABR
Without any modifiers, the ABR is very harsh. It is classic, in-your-face, garish ring flash. I have yet to use it this way, but if you shoot for one of those weekly CityPaper-type publications, it might be right up your alley.
In addition to being harsh, it is relatively inefficient when compared to use with the 10" reflector, as there is little to push that light forward for you.
I haven't given it much use this way yet (ain't my thang) but I think it could look kinda cool in B&W if you blew out the exposure a little. Very over-the-top, brash paparazzi kind of thing maybe.
ABR w/Donut
Snap on the diffuser donut, and ring diameter stays pretty much the same. The wall shadow intensity and glare lessen slightly, but not much. This will also cost you some power.
The diffuser has the effect of sending the light out more evenly in a 180 degree sphere, though, So if you are shooting wide -- whether using the ABR as main or fill -- this will probably be your best configuration.
ABR w/Reflector
If you are going for sheer sun-nuking power, this is your best bet.
With the reflector, the bare tube's power is all sent forward, giving you the absolute most lumens possible. And the diameter of the light is bigger, which gives you a different background shadow and light quality. This is how I use the ABR when filling outside in full sun. (But usually not nuking the sun with the ring as key -- usually, as fill in combo with a separate key light.)
ABR w/Reflector and Donut
In this setup, the ABR-800 most closely resembles the classic, studio ring flash -- smooth, even small light going into a high-efficiency reflector.
For me, this is most commonly used indoors when I want a standard ring look, for key or fill. Even with the donut, this is a very efficient combo.
And again, more often than not this is going to be used as fill for another lighting scheme.
Outside, the ABR separates itself from speedlight-based models. This shot, a promo still for a short film, was done in the shade.
But we still had power to burn in full daylight if we wanted -- we were powered way down on the ABR. This this cranks.
We used the reflector-with-donut setup mentioned above and found some smooth shade. Then we underexposed the shade by about two stops and brought the ring up to full exposure.
We then took that combo down a further stop-and-a-half and used VAL'd SB-800s as key lights. You can see the setup here, courtesy Rehan, who was helping that day.
ABR w/30" Moon Unit
The combo of an ABR with a 30" Moon Unit is far-and-away my favorite look for ring flash -- especially on those occasions when I use it by itself as an on-axis light.
It is a combination ring flash and soft box, and produces a light like nothing I have seen. It wraps and rings, at the same time.
There are caveats, though. First, you will lose some photog/subject interaction, as you are pretty much gonna be hidden behind the light source. It's big.
Also, you cannot get too close with it, to it gets too soft -- just flattish and blah. And the on-axis highlights in the eyes start getting really big. As in, people start looking like aliens. (Hmm, or AlienBees?) But from a working portrait distance, it is sweet.
It also makes a good modifier for a ring-as-fill, too. It does the job in a smooth way, without leaving its own signature. In the BW example at left, I used a 30" Moon Unit as fill and a gridded SB-800 speedlight as a key, from high camera right.
If you have an ABR and have not gotten a Moon Unit, do yourself a favor. It's cheap and it totally transforms the light. And its secondary usefulness as a beauty dish is a great bonus. Just be ready to feel like an idiot the first dozen times you assemble it. __________
Bored of the Rings
So, there you have it -- a full, direct comparison of three of the most reasonable ring light solutions around. Had enough yet? I'll bet yes.
Even if you do not go for the up-against-the-wall standard ring stuff (not a big fan, either) I hope you will consider one as a way of filling some of your edgier forms of key lighting. They make a lot of things possible that otherwise would not look very good.
And even if you can't spring for one you can always sit down with a movie, some cardboard and some foil tape and roll your own. That's a whole new variable to add to your lighting kit for less than $5, which is pretty hard to beat.
Welcome to Strobist Ring Flash Week and the first post thereof. First off, there seems to be some confusion as to whether it is a "ring flash" or a "ringflash" or a "ring light" or a "ringlight." 
Below is a list of internal and external ring flash resources. Please feel free to add any links you may have along these lines to the comments to improve the value of the list. 
