Getting the GLAMOUR look with RING LIGHTS!

[Tom Antos]

Hey guys, just added a new cinematography tutorial that talks about RING LIGHTS and how to build them and then set them up to acheive a sexy glamour shot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmvNuop0hzg


For all the other free tutorials go to www.antos.ca

 

[MichaelHalsell]

Thanks for sharing the link.

 

[michael zaletel]

Excellent. Thanks Tom.

The only thing that concerns me is the donut shaped specular highlight in the talent's eyes when she's looking directly at the camera. It buries the pupil in a distracting way. Do you find that bothers some people? Any workarounds? Perhaps by turning off 1/4 of the lights on bottom right or left so the highlight is broken up a bit, that would do the trick?

-michael zaletel

 

[Greg M]

Excellent. Thanks Tom.

The only thing that concerns me is the donut shaped specular highlight in the talent's eyes when she's looking directly at the camera. It buries the pupil in a distracting way. Do you find that bothers some people? Any workarounds? Perhaps by turning off 1/4 of the lights on bottom right or left so the highlight is broken up a bit, that would do the trick?

-michael zaletel

You have to be real careful with the ringlite, when the talent is too close you get that devil eye look. Just step the talent back a step or two and the ring turns into a dot. Otherwise VFX is in order.

 

[Andrew Rieger]

The ring in the eye is the look they are going for, if the ring bothers you, shoot with a standard light. These have limited applications because of the ring in they eye. They are not good for narrative filmmaking but work great for music videos and photography.

 

[Greg M]

The ring in the eye is the look they are going for, if the ring bothers you, shoot with a standard light. These have limited applications because of the ring in they eye. They are not good for narrative filmmaking but work great for music videos and photography.

Maybe some people go for the ring in the eye, but when I use the ringlight I find it looks much better when you can avoid it. Its just a matter of moving the talent back a few more inches. Its more about the light quality than the ring in the eye or "devil look" as some call it.

 

[Aaron McAdam]

Maybe some people go for the ring in the eye, but when I use the ringlight I find it looks much better when you can avoid it. Its just a matter of moving the talent back a few more inches. Its more about the light quality than the ring in the eye or "devil look" as some call it.

To each his own...some people prefer the ring effect, and the type of catchlight it adds.

 

[Harry Clark]

Funny...
I actually had a director ask for a ringlight for close ups "to make the look more fashiony", so I grabbed the ol' Kino Kameo (convenient and mounts right on the camera easily) rather than the homemade one with 64 MR-16's mounted in a plywood circle (nice but unwieldy) The rest of the lighting was daylight balanced so the daylight Kino tube seemed like a natural fit. Plus you rarely get the circle in the eye, due to the small size of the instrument.
When we got to the particular shot and set it up he exclaimed, "Where's the circle in their eyes???" I explained that the beauty of the Kameo was that it's small enough that unless the subject is very close the "circle" is small enough to appear as a simple highlight.
He then turned around and said, "I WANTED that circle! How else will anyone know that it's fashion???"
So you just never know... I guess...
Cheers,
Harry

 

[Steve Das]

Funny...
He then turned around and said, "I WANTED that circle! How else will anyone know that it's fashion???"So you just never know... I guess...

Like a film set satire..hilarious..you can just picture it..:laugh:

 

[Erik Franzén]

I hate to use the old idiomatic but . . . this is one of those horses for courses things. Or, to be more specific, use it when you need it/want it.

Anyhow, awesome info! Beginners (like me!) love to hear this stuff - and all the comments/discussion really helps my brain churn through all this! Personally, I wouldn't use this (as in "I wouldn't want that donut circle!") unless I had a good, story-visual, reason for it. Each to his own and all that.
Oh, and thanks for making that tutorial! :thumbup:

 

[John Brawley]

Excellent. Thanks Tom.

The only thing that concerns me is the donut shaped specular highlight in the talent's eyes when she's looking directly at the camera. It buries the pupil in a distracting way. Do you find that bothers some people? Any workarounds? Perhaps by turning off 1/4 of the lights on bottom right or left so the highlight is broken up a bit, that would do the trick?

-michael zaletel

I find that the ring light look is a bit of a one trick pony.

You can get the same affect by taking a larger sheet of Poly or card, cut to the shape you want in your subjects eye, put a lens port hole in it to shoot though and off you go.

The whole reason that the ringlight *works* is because you're getting light coming from ALMOST the same optical axis as the lens itself. The light comes from the same direction you're looking. Like a camera flash, the means all the shadows fall *behind* the subject and are generally not visible to the camera. This with a bit of overexposure for skin blemishes can create a very flattering look.

You can also help the modelling by running negative down either side away from the camera just out of frame.

I've often thought about using auto-prompter glass to try lighting along the optical axis but never got around to it.

You can also get a very similar result by using small Kino's above and below the lens as well.

You really don't need to go and get an actual ring light most of the time to get a similar result.

jb