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Ringlight


DavidSloan

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There are no shadows visible to camera with a true ringlite system.

 

There are several varieties out there, including the aforementioned Kamio from Kino.

 

Personally, the LED Ringlite (www.ringlite.com) is my fave.

 

J

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Here's a homemade ringlight used in "Alien Resurrection":

 

alienfour1.jpg

 

I think this one was made by using a bunch of Kino MiniFlos taped around the mattebox.

 

You don't see ringlights used much for features because usually the close-up lighting is similar for continuity's sake to the wide shot lighting and it's hard to be that flat on the face but not end up with a flat-lit wide shot. Plus it's hard to move the camera when your key light it taped to the lens and not create odd effects. Plus if you're doing an over-the-shoulder then the foreground gets too bright.

 

It's basically shadowless on the face because there is light coming from all sides of the lens -- but there tends to be a lot of fall-off because the light is close to the subject.

 

It's also not used because the ring reflected in the eyeballs is more distracting in a close-up on a fifty-foot screen than in a magazine photo where you don't question what's causing that ring of light.

 

I'm surprised they didn't use one in "The Ring" though....

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Yes,

I built a bracket to hold a Kino-Flo ring light around the Canon lens of a

Canon Rebel 300/Digital camera. Presently shooting and testing bracket

with ring light in my camera room. Also can mount it on Bogen 13ft. light

stand with a ball joint mount that I machined. So far in studio I'm getting

some real beautiful eye light. On Bogen light stand I can move it in close

to the camera and raise it or lower it to height desired and also determine

its direction. Now in the process of designing bracket to hold it over the lens

on Sony PD-170. This way I can move and shoot with PD-170, with ring light

around the lens. Kino-Flo makes an articulate arm but its designed to be att-

ached to a tripod,light stand etc.. I want the freedom to move and shoot with

the camera and ring light. It is worth every penny it costs,Kino-Flo ring light

that is.

 

Greg Gross

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A few years ago I made my own version of a ring light with the four foot flo tubes. It had sixteen tubes stuck in a wooden ring with holes routed out to accept the ends of the tubes. The tubes formed a cone out front of the lens. I know you can rent one of these rigs somewhere, I don't actually know what they call it though.

 

It's great for getting that soft shadowless light to cover a whole person or two. If you want to move with it though you have to mount it to a dolly with the camera and it then becomes a big freakin' monster to deal with.

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Hi,

 

I am a very big fan of ring lights, possibly because it's a very easy cheap way to a very popular and current effect. I bought an Osram "circline" tube and clamped it to the mattebox for this promo:

 

http://www.1159productions.com/test182/Dem...hodes_Promo.jpg

 

It's pushing the DSR-570 into DCC, but they liked it, and it played MTV for a while.

 

As regards Alien Ressurection - I like the Alien series, I like Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and I even like the slightly disturbing perpetual youth of Winona Ryder, but be warned that it is unutterably terrible as a piece of entertainment.

 

Phil

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Yes,

I built a bracket to hold a Kino-Flo ring light around the Canon lens of a

Canon Rebel 300/Digital camera.......... I want the freedom to move and shoot with

the camera and ring light. It is worth every penny it costs,Kino-Flo ring light

that is.

 

Hey Greg - would you consider sharing a photo or video still you've taken with this rig?

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Mark,

Sure if I can figure out how to post it here! I'm real smart with cameras and

lights,not so smart with computers! One cinematographer here or student cin-

ematographer, told me that my grammar sucks too. What the hell does that

have to do with cameras? One shot I have now I would have to get a release

from the girl to post. But what I'll do is just shoot another portrait of someone

where no release required. I don't want to post anything thats not up to it! My

girlfriend can probably help me post it,she does great story boards also and

her grammar is better than mine.

 

 

Greg Gross

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Hello Mark Douglas,

 

After much discussion with my girlfriend Stephanie(film school graduate) I'm

not. I'm going to set up a domain,website that will be named "Film 7 Productions".

As soon as I have it set up I will post address for all on forum who wish to visit

site. I will post portraits there done with ring light. I have a beautiful blonde to

pose for me for portraits and I'll do some nice eyelight. I also want to try some

rim lighting of her hair with the ring light. My lawyer tells me that I can not show

photo of my bracket on camera, on the site. However once site is set up I can

e-mail you with diagram of how to have a local machine shop make it for you.

It is really simple to do,the most critical thing involved are measurements. I

want to use my site to market myself for first time filmmakers, DP for them. I

will also teach portrait lighting and phptography for those interested. Stephanie

is going to be involved with producing the short feature films that we want to make. I should have done this a long time ago for marketing myself. Hoping to get per-

mission for Panavision info/links on sight and aso Kodak. I'm strictly Kodak man.

Also hope I can teach people via e-mails, some of the guys/girls have problems

understanding info that pros throw at them here on forum. I have a tremendous

amount of patience and most of the time I'm humble and ego stays at a low ebb.

Will post web site as soon as its up. Best regards! Hoping for Sony links info also.

Greg Gross

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  • 2 months later...

Does anyone have an idea of Rental | Sale price (USD or GBP)

 

ringlite.jpg

 

I might also look into getting a LED engineer student to build something up - does anyone know any forums for LED engineers - do they even exist?

 

thanks

 

 

Rolfe

Edited by Rolfe Klement
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I have a home made ring light that cost about £15. I cut a 2'6" ring from 18mm MDF, then drilled 16 holes in it at equal distances and rebated them. Then I wired in 16 Bayonet cap light sockets in parallel. On the bottom of the ring is a wooden 'paddle' that can be clamped to a C stand or whatever. It works great, but can get a little uncomfortable for the talent with 16 100w bulbs in it!

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We use a Chimera on-camera softbox with a Frezzi dimmer minifill that functions almost like a ringlight. The Frezzi is mounted in an L-bracket, and when the camera is mounted on a Steadicam JR (in the retracted position, itself mounted to the tripod) the light is at the exact same height as the lens, the edge of the softbox almost touching the lens hood.

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I have my fair share of experience with ringlights and the old homebuilt version that Stuart talked about works fine. Tried the LED version, the Kino version and every other version, but the old fashioned bulb-on-a-ring gives the most pleasing light, I think. If you're so tight that your just photographing the iris of an eye for example, then the Kino version is rather nimble since it's less hot and a lot smaller.

 

Ringlights are very flattering to faces and can be very pretty/useful for the right type of images. In the latest AC there's a nice picture of Gabriel Beristain, ASC, BSC using it on a close-up of Naomi Watts in The Ring 2. As David said, they're not very common in feature films, although I do feel they're on the increase due to many DP's having a commercial background these days.

 

I'd like to build one with 15W bulbs for that almost-non-perceptible-fill which I find looks quite good at times.

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