Ring Flash Advice.

SealBeard

SealBeard

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Hello lighting enthusiasts,

I'm wanting to have a go at using some ring flash for my home studio portrait work, but I'm not exactly sure what my options are. Budget wise I wouldn't really want to go over £500 - the less the better really.

As far as I can see, I'm not going to be getting much change from £500-1k for a decent powerful set up. The other option is to opt for something like a ray flash adapter and use it on my 580exII. The problem with this path is I'm not sure it would be powerful enough? I'm only using 200w heads but still... what do you think? Not only that, but do they provide a decent 'ring flash' effect? (sorry for 20 questions)

Any advice on deciding which would be the best choice would be great :thumbs:
 
have you looked at the Orbis ringflash system? I just got one and I think it's great
 
All of these 'stick on' ringflashes seem to work by having mirrors/reflective surfaces inside them so that the light bounces around inside.
This makes them pretty fragile, and quite a lot of light is absorbed, so you'll need a fairly high ISO
But they do work and are big enough to create the 'ring flash effect'
 
Rob_Ashton said:
Unfortunately I think your right Ed, but £750 is a lot, however I'm sure in the long run it will be the way to go - I best get selling some stuff I don't need :D



Any idea when they will be back in stock, would we be talking weeks or months? :)
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Weeks, but I don't know how many yet...
Best thing to do is to go onto the website page for it, click the 'Notify me' button and you'll get an automated email when they're available.
That's the first time I've ever seen a seller crying because they've sold all their stock
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Unfortunately it isn't me who's selling them - I'm just the guy who has to tell people that they can't buy what they want to buy:'(:'(:'(
 
I have the original RingFlash Adapter. Just checked it with a 580EX on my 5D2, which is very usable at ISO800. At 2m, full power, f/11.

I think it's a great accessory, especially if you can get the Coco version for forty quid or something. With a decently powerful gun like a 580 (which also goes down to 1/128th power, even less on E-TTL) it's great both for fashion/portraits and macro too. And it retains E-TTL.

Macro ringflashes are too feeble for portraits. And those big studio ringflashes are so powerful you need an ND filter a lot of the time, no good for macro. Ringflash Adapter (Coco, RayFlash whatever) seems to be a very good all-rounder when combined with modern technology in the shape of flashes that have very controllable high and low power, plus a camera that does good high ISO. I see you have both (like me :D ) and also some nice fast glass. At the money, I think you'd be mad not to try a Coco at least.

Edit: lots of examples on the RayFlash website, or Flickr. I thought you might like to see this splendid example :thumbs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/taweili/3509517911/in/pool-718898@N23/
 
HoppyUK said:
I have the original RingFlash Adapter. Just checked it with a 580EX on my 5D2, which is very usable at ISO800. At 2m, full power, f/11.

I think it's a great accessory, especially if you can get the Coco version for forty quid or something. With a decently powerful gun like a 580 (which also goes down to 1/128th power, even less on E-TTL) it's great both for fashion/portraits and macro too. And it retains E-TTL.

Macro ringflashes are too feeble for portraits. And those big studio ringflashes are so powerful you need an ND filter a lot of the time, no good for macro. Ringflash Adapter (Coco, RayFlash whatever) seems to be a very good all-rounder when combined with modern technology in the shape of flashes that have very controllable high and low power, plus a camera that does good high ISO. I see you have both (like me :D ) and also some nice fast glass. At the money, I think you'd be mad not to try a Coco at least.

Edit: lots of examples on the RayFlash website, or Flickr. I thought you might like to see this splendid example :thumbs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/taweili/3509517911/in/pool-718898@N23/
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An interesting read Richard thanks for your input, although it would seem sensible to grab one of the Coco adapters, I have my doubts about how practical it would be when trying to use it in combination with my studio flash heads - which is what I'm planning on doing.

I'm finding that I'm shooting around f/8-11 even on 1/8th power at iso 100 - I'm just not convinced that a 580 with an adapters going to be up to the task, or that I can dial down my flash heads enough... I will have to have a think :)
 
The adapters aren't that expensive Rob, £21.90 on ebay (search F170 for prosumer bodies and F175 for 1D series bodies). I'm sure if it didn't work you could sell it on here for a little loss!
 
EdBray said:
The adapters aren't that expensive Rob, £21.90 on ebay (search F170 for prosumer bodies and F175 for 1D series bodies). I'm sure if it didn't work you could sell it on here for a little loss!
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Ooooo very tempting... even if its just for the sake of having one :lol: - cheers Ed :thumbs:
 
Rob_Ashton said:
An interesting read Richard thanks for your input, although it would seem sensible to grab one of the Coco adapters, I have my doubts about how practical it would be when trying to use it in combination with my studio flash heads - which is what I'm planning on doing.

I'm finding that I'm shooting around f/8-11 even on 1/8th power at iso 100 - I'm just not convinced that a 580 with an adapters going to be up to the task, or that I can dial down my flash heads enough... I will have to have a think :)
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Fair comments Rob. It is a little bit flimsy and there's a lot of leverage on the hot-shoe. I think the hot-shoe is metal on your 580E-MkII so if you take a little care. It certainly works very well for me.

Not used the newer version but I believe it's a little more efficient. Just having tried mine now, I noticed that the coverage it gives is actually very wide, pretty even across a 24mm lens. So I thought by cutting the spill a bit and concentrating the light a little more, I'd get more output. So I taped some white card around the outside edge, about 1in deep, and gained another stop! :)

So, I'm now looking at f/16 at 2m distance, ISO800, with the 580EX on full power. Putting that another way, I could get f/5.6 at 1/8th power and have very fast recycling which I think is the main drawback with most hot-shoe portrait work.

It would be very easy to fabricate something easy to fit, in finest strobist tradition, using velco tabs. At the same time, you could velco some foil patches over the front to give some direction and modelling to the light, or create interesting radiating patterns in specular reflections in the eyes. That sort of trick :)

Edit: no problem using hot-shoe flash (of any type) to fire or trigger with most studio flash. That's often how I work. With the hot-shoe gun firing on manual, you don't get any pre-flash nonsense and the studio strobes fire as normal off their integral optical slaves.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
They're really designed for macro work, not portraiture
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The Marumi has a guide number of 14M
The Sigma has a guide number of 14 as well

I quote from the warehouse express page on the Sigma...

"I bought this mainly to do some macro photography and for this subject it is a superb product. Since using it I have also found it to a really good tool for portrait photograhy as well, it is quite a flattering light if used correctly. The model lamps to check shadow details are a real bonus and I am now using on many occassions when I might have used my Canon Speedlites. All in all an excellent tool for many aspects of photography."

Not so bad as a low cost start ?
 
I've got the Sigma (primarily for macro) but on the odd occasion where it does get pointed at a normal size object it actually works pretty well. If you're obsessional then some people actually PS in the catch-lights to make them completely circular.
 
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