a ring flash is a type of flash that is shaped like a doughnut. the idea is that you stick the lens of your camera through the doughnut hole, and then the doughnut circle will illuminate your subject, thereby avoiding any directional light, since the light source is a circle around the lens itself.
fashion photographers love ring flashes. mostly because they produce an image where the model is (usually) super bright in the picture, and sometimes has a "shadow halo" effect going on around him/her. it's been a trendy look for awhile now.
and of course, i want a ring flash. i want everything, really. every piece of gear ever made. but, ring flashes are very expensive. recently orbis has come out with a ring flash adapter that lets you use your speedlight strobe as a sort of a ringflash, but even that is pricey. so i'm stuck, with no ringflash.
then today i had an epiphany.... the ringflash look can be accomplished by just putting the camera in front of a big circular reflector dish. something like the do it yourself beauty dish i made six months ago out of a wooden salad bowl, a convex mirror and some spray paint. i would have to put the camera on a tripod, but i've been doing that anyways for this 365 project already.
so yeah, it's not something i can easily bust out for a photoshoot, since the camera's locked down to one place, but it's definitely a good move to have in the playbook. and i'm willing to bet that close to the same look could be achieved using umbrellas (either silver or white shoot-through).
how cool would it be to set something like this up in a "photobooth" type thing at a wedding? definitely some unique images for the album.
setup shot:
bonus shot:
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