RING THE CHANGES

James Paterson shows you how to use ring lights to capture beautifully lit portraits of people and pets

- James Paterson

1 HOUR Ring lights have been used to 1 produce distinctive-looking HOUR images for a long time, but they've become increasingly popular over the last couple of years as many of us took to video calling for chats and work meetings.

A ring light eliminates shadows for simple, flattering lighting of faces. The 360 degrees of illumination helps to give skin a flawless look, fills out bags under eyes and reduces wrinkles. As such it's a popular choice not only for Zoom meetings but also among YouTube vloggers and for fashion photography.

In addition to the characteristic shadow-less illumination, ring lighting also creates wonderful circular catchlights in the subject's eyes, and this makes it a great choice for pet photos, as eyes are such an important feature for conveying the character of subjects.

In this project we'll explore several creative uses for a ring light. For our pet portrait above we've used two rings, one inside the other, to create a double ring catchlight. We'll also look at other ring light tricks, from using it as a backdrop to breaking up the ring shape with tape.

These all serve to add interesting details to your pet portraits and people photos. While ring flashes can be pricey. you don't need to buy lots of expensive kit for this. To keep things simple we'll instead focus on inexpensive LEDs and fluorescent ring lights, as these are the kind that have become cheaper and more available lately - and, of course, they're handy for your video calls too.

GET STARTED PUT A RING ON IT

Try using a double-ring light for unusual catchlights and stunning pet photos...

1 RING LIGHT