Ring Flash

I was experimenting yesterday with my ring flash that I bought off eBay (it's pretty cheap so not fancy). I wasn't really sure what to think of it but I took some comparison photos that helped me out. :D

I was using my photo tent to get some lighting from the sides but one of the minor issues with the tent is getting lighting from the front. It doesn't always bother me but the ring flash really helped with this problem.

I've been wanting to test it for a while but motivation is a hard thing for me. Thankfully I had to take some photos of Doll North's mascot Momiji (as part of my off-season responsibilities) for our 700 likes and I thought "why not?". :D

This is what she looks like without the flash. If I placed her deeper in the tent she'd probably get better lighting on her eyes.

This is with the flash set to only come on as I take the photo, like a regular flash. I don't mind this one because it's interesting but it makes the colours weird and darkens the image in a way I'm not sure works well in many cases. It also makes her hair reflect the light badly. You can see the reflection of the flash in her eyes which is one of the things I love about ring flashes. :D

This is with the flash set to stay on and act more like an additional light from the front. This turned out the best for the photos I took later because it was more balanced lighting and the colours looked much better. You can still see the catch light from the flash in her eyes. <3

One of the nice things about this flash is that it allows you to adjust the intensity of the light so it doesn't wash her out completely. I had it set on the default setting originally and it washed her out something awful. For these photos I had it on the lowest setting since she also wasn't far from my camera since I was using my 55mm lens that doesn't have a zoom. :D

Next time I play with it I'm going to fiddle with the different filters that came with the flash. It came with a clear cover, white, orange and blue. It can also be used without a filter on it so we'll see what looks nice when. I think the orange one didn't work in this case but it wasn't a good setting to test them since Momiji's carrot coloured wig is hard to capture nicely under even the right settings sometimes. XD