ring flash for fashion?

anybody here using ring flash for fashion or portraiture work? i

know it was used in the 90s by martin parr and helmut newton, but i

thought ring flash casued "red-eye" in portraiture. thoughts,

experiences, problems? thanks.

Lots of people say the ring flash is 'trendy,' but it seems to come back every five years or

so, so - it's a matter of perception. It's intermittently consistent, perhaps....

 

I'm not very familiar with Martin Parr. A well-known british photographer who uses it quite

a bit is Rankin [www.rankin.co.uk].

 

I have the Profoto version, which seems to have been the most popular with fashion

photographers. Probably only because the Profoto packs are the standard, and not

because the ring is any better than the other brands. Other manufacturers? There aren't

many, but i would check Norman and Broncolor. The most popular portable ringflash is

the Hensel Porty. With a battery pack.

 

You can't really use the macro versions sold by Canon, Nikon, Vivitar, etc. for fashion.

They are very low-powered, and 'optimized' for close-up work. There are always

exceptions, though - you could use them as Thierry Le Goues did in his book on Cuba. I

don't know which version he used, but the results are not very flattering to skin, which

contrasts with the full-powered versions which really flatten everything. The macro

versions tend to reveal every skin flaw and detail.

 

Red-Eye is avoided in the studio by aiming a constant light source at the eyes, from

behind the ringflash. For example, i would have another strobe head positioned behind my

shooting position, just over my head. This head would be plugged into a different pack,

but without strobe sync, so it worked only with the modeling light. That was usually

sufficient to keep the pupils undilated. You could also keep the ambient light high, but

that might also interfere with your flash:ambient ratio. You could also just retouch

afterwards, although that could get messy. If you're good with PS, i guess you could

remove red-eye without it looking unnatural.

 

Problems? It's inconvenient to use with a Pentax 67 if you use Polaroid testing, because

you have to switch bodies, meaning the thing has to be unscrewed from its mount and

reattached to another camera. If you have a MF camera with interchangeable backs, it's not

an issue.

 

If you have any other questions, please ask.

I've read reviews that the Phoenix Ringflash RL-59 works but at a considerably lower f-stop than the Profoto ring flash. I've put in an order on B&H for it to see what kind of results I get. If it's not so good I'll just return it.<br>

Just as the previous person mentioned, you're going to get the best results from using the ringflashes that are rigged to work with a power pack. A lot of the shoots for Maxim and FHM are done with the Profoto ringflash.

Or so I've heard from several who've bought it, and returned it. I'd considered it, and a few other alternatives, for macro work, and didn't get good reports on the Phoenix - but perhaps your results may differ.

 

I ended up getting the Paterson eFlash, which is a large, flat surface flash unit with the output of a ring flash (GN of about 43 or so, in feet.) The light is smooth in a way that even ring flash doesn't achieve, almost like a macro softbox. You can also put two of them on a single flash head, then put on hotshoe or handle, still not too unwieldy, and it gets you a gn of about 80. I love it for macro work, with digital I can get a richness and saturation that I can't get any other way, while still having some modeling shadow.

 

If you're shooting within 2 or 3 feet of your subject you can probably get away with macro ring flash, but not much further away unless you use pretty high ISO. It is the look of the day for fashion work, to the point where I've heard that some folks are shooting with ring flash and then retouching out the tell-tale circle on the eyes.

I believe David Lachapelle uses a Bron ringflash. They enjoy something of a vogue every now and then.

jnorman,

 

a ring flash is a standard tool in fashion photography, it gives you an "instant" fashion

look so easily it's almost a scam. So there seem to be a lot of fashion photographers

who don't like it for this simple reason -- why bother with something that looks so

generic? On the other hand, it could be viewed as being just another tool in your

toolbox, and if it fits the desired look, why not use it?

 

I use the Profoto Ringflash and had no problems with it so far, no red eyes at all. The

only "minor" disadvantage is that it has no modelling light, so focusing in the relative

darkness of a studio might become tricky.

Here's a sample photo using the Phoenix Ring Flash RL-59.

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/3034187">http://www.photo.net/photo/3034187</a><br>

I shot it at f3.5 at 1/60th from about 5 or 6 feet. Looking at the negs, they appear to be over exposed by about 2 stops, so next time I'll try stopping the camera down to about 5.6