Pete Askew
Admin
There's been quite a lot of discussion of late about ring flash and ring lights. A ring flash is an electronic flash tube that is positioned such that it surrounds the lens and is intended to illuminate the subject without creating shadows. A ring light is normally employed to do the same thing but has a continuous source of light. Some of the latter are used away from the camera as well, as an equivalent to a circular light and emerged from videography. They have either a fluorescent tube or an array of LEDs (like Dan's DIY unit - http://www.realphotographersforum.com/forum/threads/man-down-so-man-build.16847/). The fluorescent tubes tend to have a more balanced spectrum of light whereas LEDs can be very peaky in their output frequency. Some have a mix of LED types to compensate for this. The flash units are of course daylight balanced. There are also a number of flash adapters that take the output from either a hot-shoe mounted speed-light or a studio monoblock and create a circular light surrounding the lens using internal reflectors (e.g. RayLight adapter and the Bowens' Ring Lite adapter).
There are basically two types of ring-flash, small electronic units intended for use in macro-photography and large studio heads used in fashion and portraiture (and some technical applications especially where a LF camera is employed). They are very different in size and output and this is illustrated below. On the left is a self-contained macro ring-flash from Sunpak (with a Nikon F shoe fitting) and on the right is a Bowens studio ring-flash intended for use with a studio generator (http://www.realphotographersforum.com/forum/threads/studio-flash-generators.16925/) - there are also monoblock variants from other manufacturers. The output of the two units is vastly different and the smaller unit is OK for 35mm and DSLRs and some medium format cameras but struggles on a LF camera. The studio unit has 2 semi-circular flash tubes and they are driven from two 1.5KJ outlets on a generator, hence the two connectors. The difference in price between the two types is significant! And it is the high price of the latter that has driven Bowens to create their adapter, but this still limits them to the studio in most cases. However, the speed-light adapters, although they do not quite reproduce the classic ring-flash effect, can be used anywhere. As always, which system is best depends on your needs.
There are basically two types of ring-flash, small electronic units intended for use in macro-photography and large studio heads used in fashion and portraiture (and some technical applications especially where a LF camera is employed). They are very different in size and output and this is illustrated below. On the left is a self-contained macro ring-flash from Sunpak (with a Nikon F shoe fitting) and on the right is a Bowens studio ring-flash intended for use with a studio generator (http://www.realphotographersforum.com/forum/threads/studio-flash-generators.16925/) - there are also monoblock variants from other manufacturers. The output of the two units is vastly different and the smaller unit is OK for 35mm and DSLRs and some medium format cameras but struggles on a LF camera. The studio unit has 2 semi-circular flash tubes and they are driven from two 1.5KJ outlets on a generator, hence the two connectors. The difference in price between the two types is significant! And it is the high price of the latter that has driven Bowens to create their adapter, but this still limits them to the studio in most cases. However, the speed-light adapters, although they do not quite reproduce the classic ring-flash effect, can be used anywhere. As always, which system is best depends on your needs.
