Ring Flash
ears ago there was a full-page ad that showed up in a number of magazines and newspapers with the following headline: A Lazy Man’s Way to Riches. The ad promised that for a mere $29.95 (or perhaps it was a bit more) “millionaire secrets” would be sent immediately to you, and that if you followed them, step by step, you too would soon be a millionaire. Since I never responded to the ad’s offer, I cannot attest to the secrets’ success, but I can attest to something else: If you head out the door with a ring flash at the ready, you will quickly discover the lazy man’s way to riches, photographically speaking. The riches to which I refer are freedom and some really beautiful light.
Imagine being freed up from using a tripod because your shutter speeds are closer to those safe and handholdable speeds of 1/125 or 1/250 sec., all the while using apertures as small as f/16 to f/32 with ISO 200! Imagine being freed up from having to find a way to get your diffuser in position so that you can soften the light! Imagine sleeping in for a change and planning your flower shots at midday! Unheard-of, right?
These are just a few of the “riches” to be discovered when shooting macro shots with a ring flash. Unlike your camera’s built-in or shoe-mounted flash, the ring flash itself is normally comprised of two half-circle flash tubes that are embedded in a hard plastic circular housing. This hard housing threads onto the front of your lens, while the power source with its single power cord is mounted on the camera’s hot shoe. The ring flash was originally invented by a dentist for dental photography, but as with most inventions, one thing led to another, and now the ring flash has become one of the more popular macro accessories, if not a must-have.
As many of my readers already know from my prior books, I’ve never been a big fan of electronic flash, and truth be told, it wasn’t until the fall of 2007 that I actually took the time to discover just how “rich” I could become from the use of a simple ring flash. I’ve spent many a day and evening since that time reflecting on what is now a very passionate relationship with my ring flash, and there is this sense of loss that I feel at having waited as long as I did to embrace its use. It is really that important, that vital, that good! Needless to say, I do suggest that you consider picking one up for yourself, and the good news is that, as of this printing, you can find one for under $100. Recently, I’ve been using a brand called Phoenix, which I picked up at Adorama Camera in New York for $88, and it continues to serve me really well.
Every ring flash provides even illumination—shadowless, in other words—and this is particularly important when shooting contrasty macro subjects, because the flash will evenly light things, doing away with harsh contrast. Additionally, because the flash is literally wrapped around the front of the lens, it is amazingly close to the macro subject, and this in turn allows you to shoot at some really small apertures (f/16 to f/32). The result is some great depth of field. And the best part of all is that, since you’re using flash, you’ll find yourself shooting at the fast flash sync shutter speed of at least 1/125 sec., if not 1/250 sec., depending on your camera. At these shutter speeds, who needs a tripod?!
Late one afternoon, I came upon a dead blackbird. How it died I have no idea, but the flies had arrived in force, and it was the stark green-and-bluish flies that caught my attention. With the ring flash mounted to my 105mm lens, my aperture set to f/22, and my shutter speed set to the flash sync speed of 1/250 sec., I moved in as close as I could focus, rendering 1.5X magnification, and fired off several shots.
A shot like this would be next to impossible to record without ring flash. Why? Because, in this case, natural light levels were really low; the dead bird was under the shade of a tree, and it was about 7:00 PM. If I had had my tripod and if I were going to shoot in only available light, I would still have had to rely on this fly to sit very still for what would have been f/22 at 1/4 sec. Considering the feast this fly was sitting on, that wasn’t going to happen.
Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens, f/22 for 1/250 sec.
RING FLASH: MY PERSONAL CAVEAT
I do find one drawback with the ring flash in low light, and I’ll be the first to admit that it’s strictly a personal one: I don’t like unnatural black backgrounds, but they can’t be avoided when shooting with the ring flash in low light. A simple law of using flash is the following: Correct exposure is based on the flash-to-subject distance, not camera/lens-to-subject distance. Since the ring flash is mounted right at the end of the lens, it is, at times, a mere 2 to 3 inches from the subject. This is particularly true when my Micro-Nikkor 105mm is rendering a subject at 1:1 or greater magnification; at these close distances, the aperture opening must be quite small (f/16, f/22, or even f/32) to maintain a correct exposure of this very close flash-to-subject distance. Sure, it’s good news most of the time, since most of us would prefer greater depth of field, not less; but when shooting at these small apertures in low light, and due to the limited distance that most ring flashes can reach, the background is quick to fall off into underexposure—and this underexposure is simply recorded as a black background.
Again, it’s strictly personal taste, as I know of other photographers who go out of their way to shoot in low light to make sure they do record a dark, if not black, underexposed background. They love the contrast of their well-lit subject against this black ground, but for me, although the flash output from the strobe is really a soft light, it is still “flash” light, and when seen against these black backgrounds, it is a look that’s just a wee bit too artificial. To be clear, I’m all for black backgrounds, and I’ve shot my share of black backgrounds under available light, but these subjects have either been sidelit or backlit with the golden light of early morning, and they simply look far more natural.
Take a look at the light in this scene. One glance at those shadows and you’ll recognize it as midday light. And with midday light come those often-harsh shadows that can quickly spoil a macro shot. Normally, in my pre–ring flash days, I would find myself on tripod, holding my small diffuser disk over the rose to reduce the harshness of the sun’s light. I’m sure, however, that I won’t be reaching for my diffuser nearly as often now that I’ve discovered the benefits of the ring flash.
It should be easy to see the change in lighting in these two close-ups. In the top image, there clearly are both light and shadow, yet in the bottom shot, the light is even and soft. The difference: ring flash. Without ring flash, I chose f/22 to allow for maximum depth of field. Since I was in Aperture Priority mode, the camera selected 1/100 sec. I framed the shot without a tripod and fired off several exposures. With ring flash on my lens and the power source atop my hot shoe, I had the same f/22 aperture and the shutter speed set to a sync speed of 1/250 sec. Due to the flash, the shadows were all but eliminated, rendering a much softer, kinder rose. Is this easy or what?
Second image: Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens, f/22 for 1/100 sec., Aperture Priority mode; third image: Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens, Phoenix ring flash, f/22 for 1/250 sec.