It is possible to mount an iPad or tablet in the Neewer Ring Light but you’ll need a way to attach it. I use the Neewer Mini Ball Head with Lock and Hot Shoe Adapter with a Grifiti Nootle Universal Adjustable iPad and Tablet Tripod Mount and a mounting bracket.

Incidentlighting

My ring light has an 18 inch diameter with 240 LED lights spread around the circumference. The LEDs are covered with diffusion plates. The ring light sits atop a light stand. A hot shoe adapter attaches to the ring so that my phone or camera sits inside the ring. This setup emits uniform light from the camera's point of view.

By the way, sound is usually more important than light in a video. It doesn't matter how ravishing you look if your audience struggles to hear you. I use an iRig Mic HD on a boom stand. This mic connects to the Lightning port on my iPhone or iPad, and it records terrific sound while reducing background noise.

And what's more important than the sound? The content. Before teachers or students step in front of the camera, they should have an idea of what they are going to say and how they are going to say it. Otherwise, the best sound and lighting won’t matter.

If you don’t have a light stand, you may want to order the Neewer 18 inch LED Dimmable Ring light in a kit. The $110 kit includes the ring light, light stand, hot shoe ball head, phone clip, and a Bluetooth remote.

The perfectly even lighting can instantly turn a dark and dreary shot into a bright and cheerful one. The direct light eliminates shadows and minimizes wrinkles. The lighting is so flattering that I feel like a super model each time I turn on my ring light.

This type of lighting technique is more commonly seen in still life lighting, the even light that wraps around an object is perfect for giving darker shiny objects that extra ‘pop’ when shot against a dark background. This can be seen clearly here on the image of the model with the guitar and on the still life shot of the metal bodied camera.

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Machine visionlighting

The easy set up makes a ring light great for classrooms and schools.  Teachers can look dazzling in their instructional videos. A ring light can come in handy for when students record video podcasts, public service announcements, Flipgrid responses, video newsletters, and other movie projects.

Considering that this image is pretty much shot with just one light, you can quickly and easily get some great results. The secondary light you see being used here is really just adding some shine to the guitar and therefore turned down very low and thanks to the barn-doors not affecting the model. Shooting this shot with one light effectively though means that you will need to bounce some of that light back into the shot. Here I used a white bounce board but a simple white sheet would have the same effect. By moving that white bounce board closer to the model I was able to brighten the model and conversely by moving it further away I was able to darken the model. Again playing with this will offer different looks so its a good idea to try a couple of different distances.

This lighting technique is actually very easy to achieve even with just one light. The trick is to use a large light source (larger than your subject at least), here I used a large soft-box but a large window could have the same effect, and block out the middle area of light. This blocked out area will effectively be your background for the shot. For mine I hung a large piece of black velvet in front of my soft-box but a large black card would also do the same. I like to use black velvet because of its deep texture it reflects very little light and should be part of every photographers kit. It will come in handy on many occasions on set and I use it as a backdrops or for flagging light.

Brightfield illumination

What you are trying to achieve by blocking out most of the light is a narrow strip of light all the way around your subject, varying the size of this strip will vary the results so its worth experimenting with it. What this does is to light just the edges of the subject which really makes them stand out from the darker background.

Search Amazon for ring light and you’ll get lots of results. I bought the Neewer 18 inch LED Dimmable Ring Light. Here’s why:

Both of the photographs of the model and the camera were shot using the same lighting technique even though they are made of very different materials and very different sizes. The shot of the model shows clear edge lighting on both the shiny guitar and on the models skin and a good tip when trying to get strong edge lighting on naturally non-shiny objects like skin is to apply a small amount of oil or other liquid. This will allow the skin to catch the light and give you some strong spectral highlights (a direct reflection of the light that is behind) and it also helps to enhance any colours and contrast in tattoos.

You can tell when someone is using a ring light because, if you look closely, you’ll see the ring reflected in the eyes. You'll also notice that since the foreground is so bright, the camera ends up making the background darker.

Difference betweendark fieldand brightfieldillumination

I’ve used oversized soft box and pricey LED panel lights that I meticulously position to provide the best lighting. That means a lot of adjusting and having to live with some shadows.

I produce weekly videos for my online workshops for teachers. I believe that learners make stronger connections with the content when they see their teacher’s face onscreen, so I include selfie videos as part of my instructional videos. That means that I spend quite a bit of time looking at my face on video—and so do my students.

I investigated lighting solutions because I was not happy with the look of my selfie videos. I’ve seen many YouTube videos where the host’s face is perfectly lit. Would I be able to afford their lighting setups? It turns out that many YouTubers use a ring light.

Dark fieldimage

I can image a ring light set up in a diary booth as a way to collect video reflections. I set up a reflection area at a camp for teachers in Tucson in the summer. We didn’t have a ring light, but we did have large windows that provided great lighting. Without those windows, a ring light would have been useful. And, a ring light in a diary booth will encourage more participation. After all, who doesn’t want to look like a super model?!

Yes, there are small clip-on ring lights that you can buy for about $10. While they are better than no light, 14 inch and larger lights provide much better lighting.

Ring lights, also known as diva lights or selfie lights, vary in price. After researching my options, I spent about $100 on a ring light and hot shoe adapter. More about what I bought later. First, I want to tell you why I absolutely love filming with a ring light.

No ring light? You might try using a television or monitor as the light source. Cnet has an image you can download and display. Though, I have my doubts about how well this works.

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In the picture of the camera the same technique picks up on the naturally shiny metal casing making it clearly stand out from the background. This is one of the reasons it's a very popular still life lighting technique because it means the product is very easy to remove from the background and place it in a composite scene afterwards.

Since I already had a light stand, I ordered the Neewer ring light for $80. I also ordered a Neewer Mini Ball Head with Lock and Hot Shoe Adapter for $11. This adapter slides into the ring light’s accessory shoe and provides a standard 1/4 inch tripod thread post. I screw onto that post a Square Jellyfish Metal Spring Tripod Mount. It’s $11 and securely holds my large smartphone.

I hope I’ve given you a few new ideas to try next time you want to shoot something different.  Let me know your thoughts on this article by commenting below or reaching out to me on my Facebook page I do my best to respond to all questions and comments.

Not enough money for a ring light? Perhaps you can make your own. The Social Media Rocketeer page has instructions and a video for making your own light from about $66 worth of materials. Alternatively, in her YouTube video, Tanieya demonstrates how to make a light for under $25. Do a Google search and you’ll find many other tutorials for constructing your own ring light.