www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Does anyone use a ring flash ?
I have been looking at the Marumi ring flash and was wondering how they performed.
It would be used on a Canon 350D with a Canon 100mm macro lens. I have been using the pop up flash on the camera at reduced flash strength.

I have been known to occasionally use a Sigma EM-140 DG - always as just fill-in and very very lightly if wildlife. I've also used the Marumi (my partner has one) which, whilst it does a perfectly capable job, isn't as flexible as the Sigma

In general terms, a ringflash is very useful for certain things, but will inevitably offend the purist who wants a natural-looking pic of a butterfly.

I use them on occasion at work for technical subjects, but the problem with a butterfly is that you get the "miner's headlamp" effect, with a very dark background unless you use a second flash, or throttle them back and use as a fill flash.

Some also are too powerful, and will not be usable at less than say 0.7m. At that distance, some of the benefit of ringflash lighting is lost as there can be quite hard shadows.

A typical example of where they work well is:-

Chris

Excellent picture Chris.

Regards Gruditch

I don't know if anyone is interested but there are several "ring lights" on sale now which work quite well with a DSLR. One sold by Hama (via Amazon/Germany) has a ring of ultrabright LEDs on a flexible arm. This can be positioned in front of the lens like a normal ringflash or angled down and positioned over the lens, giving some modelling. The advantage of a ring of LEDs over a flash is that you can see the effect and modify it, as well as using the full range of camera modes.

Having played with one for a bit, I am impressed - it is about half as bright as sunlight when used very close, so it would provide useful fill-in light on a butterfly shot in bright sunlight for example.

Chris