I share a lot of lighting setups on here and every time I do, not only am I trying to share something unique, but I’m also trying to share something that’s practical and easy to implement for as many people as possible.
For the most part, I think I achieve that and although not everybody has access to all the kit I do, I still believe that certain elements of every setup I share is accessible by all. This is me trying to soften the blow of this weeks setup, as although not everybody will own all of this kit, cheap alternatives are viable and failing that, at least the DIY background and basic lighting principles involved are very much achievable by all. As always, if you have any questions about any of it, don’t hesitate to drop them down below.
This weeks setup uses a ring light. Don’t have one? Maybe it worth grabbing one, as they’re now cheaper than they’ve ever been!
Rip the plaster off…
So what’s this piece of kit I don’t think everybody has access to? It is the infamous ring flash modifier and yes, this setup does see me using a ring light.
Ring flashes have had an interesting life. Back when I started shooting in the late 90’s, ring flashes were running rampant as the must-have piece of kit at the time. Every self-respecting fashion photographer used one and the biggest ring-flash junkie among them was Rankin, who seemingly never removed it from his camera.
Like all trends though, the next generation comes along and repulsed as they always are by the previous generations efforts at the ‘mainstream’, the ring flash died an aggressive death. When I was shooting in the early 2000’s, a ring flash on set was akin to setting your camera to auto. No self-respecting photographer at the time would be seen dead using a ring flash, as it was seen as simply a bit of a cop-out, or ‘too easy’. Which it was.
That 90’s Look…
If you’re not familiar with the distinctive ring flash look (and it does surprise me how few people are today), it’s a light that encircles the camera and from the perspective of the lens, the light seemingly comes from everywhere. It’s seen as too easy or cheating as you can get a ‘cool’ looking shot with almost zero effort. The subject can do whatever they want, the camera can be wherever you want it and as long as you’ve managed to expose the shot, you invariably get a good looking image. Literally anybody can use one to good effect.
Tell-tale signs of a photographer using a ring flash include a big bright ring of light in the subjects eyes. This is up for debate on whether it looks good or not, I personally don’t mind it, but I know many hate the almost alien-esque look it can give the subjects eyes. The other feature of the ring flash/light, is an even shadow that surrounds the subject all the way around them and it’s clearly visible when they are against a plain wall.
Portrait photographer Rankin, was renowned for using a ring flash in the 90’s and like it or not, it certainly gave his work a distinctive look. All above images copyright of Rankin
The must-have modifier for every teenage girl… and everybody else.
Fast forward 20+ years and ring flashes are once again extremely popular, only this time, they aren’t flashing. The distinctive ring light ‘look’ has seen phenomenal growth in recent years and although what started out as the must-have accessory for every self-promoting tween online, the pandemic also made the ring light a must for anybody…with a pulse, apparently!
The above sales forecast looking at the expected growth of ring lights thanks to the pandemic and everyone needing to video-chat online. Source article here.
The extremely flattering shadowless look of a ring light and it being so easy to use that actual children are using them, means ring lights are now more popular than ever and that growth is not stopping for the foreseeable future.
Ring lights for photographers
As you may well imagine, demand is swiftly followed by price drops and as every manufacturer jumps on the bandwagon, prices plummet. This is good news for us as photographers, because back in the 90s, a ring flash cost you a large fortune and even today, the big-name brands like Broncolor and Profoto still charge thousands.
But do we really need that much power for our ring light portraits?
The simple is answer is no. I know a lot of you that follow my work have the ability to work and shoot in light-controlled studios, or at least have the ability pull the curtains closed in your home studio. With a dark space to shoot in, we don’t need flash at all, in fact, in a controlled environment, you can use whatever ring light you can get your hands on. And yes, even that cheap LED ring light your 14 year old niece uses to film her TikTok’s will work!
LEDs are so ridiculous cheap now than even a £7 ring light is viable in a controlled environment.
Did I use that 7 quid ring light to shoot the portraits showcased in this article?
No, I’m not crazy ;) But joking aside, if you did want to play with a ring light to see what it can do in portraits then yes, a cheap ring light like this is viable, just be prepared to pump up the ISO a little. That being said, this cheap ring light was usable at 1/60th, f2.8, ISO 200. It’s not super-bright by any means, but seeing as you’ll be using it pretty close to your subject, it’s definitely worth a play.
The Lighting Setup
As I discussed in the previous section, using that code I provided above can bag you a ring flash absolutely free! …. Not really, I just know most of you skipped the history lesson above to get to the meat of the article down here ;)
The setup i’m sharing today is super-simple and you’ll need very little space at all to test it for yourself. Plus, although I caveated this article with an entire section about a piece of kit you actually may not own, you really don’t even need that much kit. I promise ;)
As always, let’s look at the setup itself and then I’ll explain what’s going on.
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TL;DR/ADHD/Artist Setup Explanation
Setup a large sheet of crinkled silver mylar being the model.
Fire 2 coloured lights into v-flats behind you, resulting in an abstract, colourful pattern being formed on the background.
Position the model close to the backdrop and then position yourself close to them with a ring light.
With a slightly wider lens, expose the ring light so that the white light overpowers the soft coloured light from the v-flats.
What You Will Need
3 lights - These can be any lights you like, but I’m using all LEDs here. I’ll cover those in a moment, but speedlights and strobes will also work just as well if you have them.
Modifiers - I already spoke about the ring light modifier above, but apart from that, you may not even need any other modifier. I’m just bouncing my LEDs into v-flats here, but a couple of white sheets would also work. Just use a simple reflector dish on your speedlight or strobe to contain the light into your sheet or v-flat and you’ll be fine.
V-Flats - I recently made these foldable DIY V-flats myself very cheaply. I aim to share the build process in a future article soon, so if you’re interested in that, be sure to swing back and check that in the next couple of weeks.
Ring Light - Of course I was using a ring light as a key here. I’m using an old Bowens Ringlite Converter which is just a ring shaped box with mirrors inside. It doesn’t actually have any flash or light within, it simply redirects the light you attach to it around the ring. These are extremely rare today so I’ll go over a couple of alternatives below.
Silver Mylar - I actually used this in a recent lighting setup article and had a bunch left over. I wanted to do something with it and so I came up with this setup. It’s pretty cheap and actually has a bunch of uses for photography so it’s well worth picking some up. Again, I’ll provide an example below.
Camera Settings
Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - 24-70mm f2.8
Shutter Speed - 1/60th
Aperture - f2.8
ISO - 100
Kelvin - 4200K
Focal Length - 32mm
The Results…
Click to enlarge any of the shots below.
Note: Focal Length
One thing many of you may not used to or overlook, is the fairly wide focal length all of these shots were taken at.
All the images shown here were shot at around 30mm - 40mm on my 24-70mm lens. The reason for that is so I can get the ring light to do what it needs to do, which is light the subject evenly.
Having the ring light too far away if you’re shooting at 50mm or even 85mm, will result in the light looking flat. Moreover, I want the white light of the ring light to be bright on the model, but not bright on the background behind. This works by being very close to the subject and having the power of the light low. This forces a very quick drop-off of light and you can even see the shadows on the models skin as the light drops off towards the edges. Look at the sides of the arms and shoulder here. See how the white light disappears and the coloured light replaces it?
Being in close with a wider lens is a key aspect of this setup and failing to do so will result in a flat looking model and a washed out background.
Featured Model: Jordan Ebbitt
Breaking it Down
As I mentioned, this is fairly simple to setup, but you should still bear a couple of key things in mind before jumping in.
The silver Mylar needs to be hung poorly to work. Add kinks, folds and bends to the Mylar to get the abstract colour backdrop we’re after.
The Backdrop
The backdrop is simply a sheet of silver mylar. You can get a roll of this for around £20 and you’ll get way more than you need. In fact, the sheet I used here is just a section I cut off the main roll. Why did I cut it off the main roll? This setup really only works when the silver mylar behind the subject is hung poorly! By that I mean, the folds, kinks and bends in the background are actually a feature, not just me being lazy and you should try to introduce as many of them as you can to get the abstract colour look we’re after. I simply hung mine on a crossbar and light stand combo and introduced folds in the mylar by clipping it to the bar at irregular intervals.
The Key Light - Ring Light
As we established earlier, the key light is actually the ring light modifier from Bowens called a Ringlite Converter. Most of you won’t have one of these, but a variety of ring lights could be substituted here. I mentioned that any ring light will work and even a cheap LED ring light from Amazon or eBay could work if you’re shooting in a darker environment and don’t mind upping the ISO a little. At least it would give you the chance to play with the setup or at least ring lights in general without a huge investment.
If you wanted to invest some money and get a decent ring light for future shoots, there’s certainly a few options available to you and without spending thousands on the aforementioned Broncolor and Profoto options, Godox and other cheaper brands now have a couple of alternatives too.
If you’re interested, I’ve listed a couple of ring flash alternatives at the bottom of the article. Some, more affordable than others.
The Key Light - The Godox SZ100R
For reference, as I know many will ask, but I was using an LED head in conjunction with my Bowens Ringlite Converter. The LED head I was using was the new SZ100R. I was recently sent one to test by Essential Photo here in the U.K. and so far I have to say I’ve been really impressed.
Why is the SZ100R so cool?
For me, I needed a way to use a lot of my old S-Fit (Bowens/Godox) lighting modifiers in conjunction with an LED head and this new Godox one allows any of those old modifiers to be fitted.
What else can it do?
Of course modifiers are great, but being able to add any of the millions of available colours to that as well is just too simple and easy to pass up. Especially as you can select those colours almost instantly. Couple that with a fully adjustable Kelvin range too and you have a very versatile package.
Plus, this head is actually super lightweight too. So much so, that I was actually shooting with the SZ100R and Bowens Ringlite in one hand and shooting with my camera through the hole in the other!
I aim to use this light a lot more with a variety of modifiers in upcoming shoots and I’ll certainly keep you posted on how I get on with it.
The Fill Lights
We’ve established that the white light in this setup comes from the Godox SZ100R and ring light converter, but there’s a ton of colour in this setup too, where’s it all coming from?
The pink and blue colours are coming from two Rotolight AEOS 2s being bounced into two white v-flats behind me. These big bounced walls of colour is what’s being reflected in the silver Mylar and that’s what’s creating the overall abstract effect on the background.
The coloured light is coming from the two Rotolight AEOS 2s.
The AEOS 2s are perfect here, as the key is already an LED light and these add some much needed colour with any of their instantly available millions of colours too.
V-Flats
These v-flats are the results of my latest DIY project. They are foldable v-flats that are black on one side and white on the other. I’ll do a complete article on how I made these soon, but for now, I’ll just say that although you don’t have to use v-flats specifically, it does enable you a lot of control over where the lights goes. Failing that, bouncing some coloured light into a couple of white sheets will achieve a similar look. The main point of this, is to create as bigger coloured reflection in the Mylar as possible.
DIY foldable v-flats are fairly easy and cheap to make. Stay tuned for the how-to article soon.
Points to bear in mind…
Inverse Square Law
This setup is essentially just a white key light and a couple of coloured fill lights. One area to bear in mind though, is how we manage the white light and coloured light falling on the model.
With the ring light turned off, obviously the model is going be bathed in all that colour. The trick is to get the ring light close enough to the model so that it burns off the colour from her, but also low enough in power that it doesn’t remove the colour from the background behind her. You will find a sweet spot and I’ll be honest, the Godox SZ100R was lightweight enough that I was actually hand-holding it and moving closer and further away to get the look I was after.
Go W i d e
As you’ll be very close to model with the ring flash, don’t be afraid to shoot wider than you normally would. I know shooting close portraits at 30mm isn’t ideal, but with the ring flash light, you’ll be amazed at good it actually looks. Get in close with a wide angle lens and just try it.
Keep it Abstract
One key aspect of the look is that very distorted backdrop behind the model. Failing to keep those folds and creases in place will instantly dissolve the look and you may even start to see yourself with the camera in the reflected surface. Clipping the folds in place via the crossbar above worked well, but also having a fan on to blow the background slightly helped with adding a little variety to the look as well.
Products Used…
Please note that I’ve included an affiliate link to the SZ150R below so I will benefit (albeit minimally) from the sales of any of these products should you purchase them. To that end, please feel free to use my discount code ‘HICK5-OFF’ at Essential Photo to receive a discount on any purchase via their site.
An LED studio strobe that will accept any of your current S-Fit modifiers.
Godox SZ150R
Essentially this is an LED studio strobe. You can use it with any S-Fit modifiers like beauty dish and softbox you already own, plus you can also change this to any colour and any Kelvin you’d like. It’s only 150 watts though, so you will want to use this in a controlled studio environment.
Rotolight AEOS 2’s are a circular 12 inch LED panel.
Rotolight AEOS 2
These are excellent LED panels and if you’re after clean LED portrait lights, these really do produce incredible looking light. The AEOS 2’s also come with touchscreens on the back resulting in you being able to access millions of colours, a full Kelvin range and power adjustments instantly.
Silver Mylar
This is likely the most unique item on the list and although you probably don’t have some of this lying around, it’s not too expensive to get.
I grabbed a 10m roll on eBay for less than £20 and although you probably don’t need 10m, it was the best value versus options for additional uses down the road. By all means take a look and get something that’s more appropriate for your needs. Note that Mylar is a used for a variety of applications from agriculture to helium balloons, so don’t expect to find it in a photo-store.
V-Flats
These v-flats basically just bounce the light so these can be as simple or as complicated and you want. I recently made these foldable double-sided v-flats myself and although I’ll put out an article on how to make them yourself soon, if you need something as a stop-gap, a simple white sheet on a stand will essentially bounce the light back into your set. Failing that, even a white wall behind you will do the same thing.
Bowens Ringlite Converter
Sadly, these haven’t been made by Bowens for many, many years. You can occasionally grab an old secondhand one on eBay, but they are now pretty rare. You certainly don’t need this one though and any ring light will do, including the super-cheap led beauty ring lights I mentioned earlier.
If you’re after something a little more photography specific, here’s a list of potential ring light alternatives below…
Ring Light alternatives…
Speedlight converter - £27.99
At the bottom end, you have a ring light converter for your speedlight. You simply place your speedlight in this big circular shaped softbox and it attempts to evenly spread the light around it. In my experience these are okay, but you will get noticeable hot-spots when used close to the subject.
Macro Ring Light - £62.99
This is a self contained unit in that you don’t need any other speedlight or flash to make this work. This is great for macro work and crime scenes, but it’s fairly weak powered and you do need to be close to the subject for portraits. It’s been many years since I used one of these and although a great intro to ring flash photography, the resulting shots can look a little harsh on skin.
Godox R200 Ring Flash for AD200 - £271
This has only just been released so I’ve not actually tested it myself, but this looks like it’ll be an incredible piece of kit. This ring flash does require you to own an AD200 flash (which I know many of you already do), but this simply plugs into that and off you go. The ring itself is a decent size for portraits and the eagle-eyed among you may notice that it looks almost identical to the Broncolour and Profoto versions (both of those also require you to plug them into flashes already owned) I shared above…. yet this is a TENTH of the cost!
When I saw this last week, I genuinely thought it was a typo and that the decimal point was in the wrong place. This is really the first time ring flashes have been affordable like this and I very much look forward to picking one up myself. I’ll let you know how I get on…. if they ever come back in stock ;)
Portable Ring Flash - £465
This is likely a very similar ring flash look to the aforementioned R200 above, but this is a single standalone unit which means this is the whole package of ring light modifier and flash in one. This is why the price of this is so much more than the R200 as that requires you to own an AD200 for it to work, whereas you don’t need anything else at all to use this RIKO 400 and it’ll give you 400 watts of ring flash power straight out of the box.
Closing Comments…
I appreciate I’ve probably given you more info than you needed for this setup and that’s not even including the short history lesson on ring flashes at the start either. I hadn’t planned on this article being this long, but I spoke about a ring flash in a recent livestream and several people had never used them, nor did they even really know what they did. Like I mentioned before, more experienced/mature/old folk like me will remember a time where a ring flash was mandatory in every studio, now we rarely see them outside of the hands of makeup-clad teenagers, so I thought I’d include a little more context this time around. Hopefully some of you found it useful and for everybody else, I hope you managed to skip to the parts you needed fairly painlessly.
As always, good luck if you’re giving this setup a try and if you do give this one a go, I’d love to see the results. Remember, you can always share the images with me in my weekly community image critique post, -Share-a-Shoot- every Monday on the Facebook Page.
Stay tuned for the next -Technique Tuesday- where I’ll be sharing how I made my inexpensive foldable V-Flats!
See you then.
Featured Model: Jordan Ebbitt
JHP Livestreams…
If you give this setup a go, I’d love to see how the shots turn out, so feel free to share them my way. One way to do that is via my livestream. I livestream every other Tuesday night via my FB Page and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. JHP Facebook Page
Thank You
As always, thanks for checking out this article and spending a little bit of your day with me here. I hope you found it useful and if you left with a little more knowledge than when you arrived, it’s been worth it.
If you have any questions or comments, or if something doesn’t make sense, by all means fire-away in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer what I can. Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next one.
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