Ring light for zoom video

[ac12]

I was looking forward to the article. but . . .
Man the CNN people have a weird idea of what good lighting looks like.
In both of their examples I prefer the "before" pix. The "after" pix have overexposed highlights on the face that makes the face look BAD.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/07/cnn-...ghts/index.html?iid=CNNUnderscoredHPcontainer

 

[RevBob]

I agree, the before pictures look more natural. Might be a great light and a poor photographer.

 

[Holoholo55]

I was looking forward to the article. but . . .
Man the CNN people have a weird idea of what good lighting looks like.
In both of their examples I prefer the "before" pix. The "after" pix have overexposed highlights on the face that makes the face look BAD.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/07/cnn-...ghts/index.html?iid=CNNUnderscoredHPcontainer

Hahaha... Totally agree with you. The after photos look awful. Pretty much as bad as you'd expect a direct light shining at the face would look like. A soft box or umbrella would have looked a lot better. I have seen ring lights (aka halo lights) being marketed as being the best thing for vlogging. I don't get it.

 

[ac12]

Ring lights are OK, but they are not a "silver bullet."
I think with a ring light, the face will look FLAT, with no definition of the nose and facial features. Maybe better to illuminate someone with DEEP eye sockets.

I used a ring light on my stereo microscope, to look at a coin. ugh. The ring light made it harder to see the 3D surface of the coin, because there were no shadows to see the texture of the coin's surface. A desk lamp from the side worked MUCH better.

 

[Holoholo55]

Here's an article on using a ringlight for portraits. It is useful in certain situations. However, I don't find any of those portraits to be flattering. They weren't intended to be, I suspect.
https://www.thephoblographer.com/20...a-tutorial-for-new-photographers/#more-161419

 

[John M Flores]

They're not my jam but ringlights are a cheap and easy way to get not-terrible lighting.

 

[mfturner]

Yeah, my zoom video lighting is terrible, but I don't think their examples of a ring light is an improvement. It's not terribly far from a builtin flash look.