Reflection, refraction diffraction

We found the best overall light to be the Westcott 18" Bi-Color LED. We like that it has a digital readout for brightness and temperature and has the option to mount either a phone or DLSR. For something more portable, the Xinbaohong Clip-On is small enough to fit in your pocket and mounts directly on your phone when it's time to grab a selfie.

black hole: A region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation (including light) can escape.

If an extremely massive object — such as a galaxy or a black hole — lies between an astronomer and the distant star they are looking at, that star can appear to be in a false spot (much like the ring at the bottom of a pool). The mass of the galaxy actually warps the space around it. As a result, the beam of light from that distant star bends with the space it’s moving through. The star might now even show up on the astronomer’s image as multiple identical appearances of itself. Or it might look like smeared arcs of light. Sometimes, if the alignment is just right, that light can form a perfect circle.

On the other hand, the Westcott 18" Ring Light is one of the most expensive ring lights we tested, so we would expect it to perform extremely well across all of our metrics, and it does. It delivers value with excellent light quality and sheer brightness. It is easy to use, stable, and durable, making it a versatile and long-lasting product. That said, this option is only worth the money if you are looking for a more advanced model. If you want something of high caliber but don't need or want to pay for extra features, the Neewer 18" Kit is another solid value pick.

gravity: The force that attracts anything with mass, or bulk, toward any other thing with mass. The more mass that something has, the greater its gravity.

This only works because a mirror is a polished surface that’s extremely smooth — and therefore reflective. Its smoothness makes all of the light that hits it from a certain angle bounce off in the same direction. The surface of a painted wall in your bedroom, in contrast, is so bumpy that it doesn’t reflect very well. Light that hits the wall will reflect off those bumps, bouncing off in a mix of different directions. That’s why most walls look dull, not shiny.

Trisha Muro has always loved stargazing and writing. Now, she does both! She loves to share her enthusiasm about the wonders of the universe.

The same thing happens in rainbows. As sunlight enters each individual raindrop, the ray of light refracts as it moves from the air to the water of the droplet. Once inside the raindrop, the light actually reflects off the inside of the drop. It bounces once, then begins to head back out of the raindrop. But as the light passes from inside the drop back into the air again, it refracts one more time.

Aixpi 10" LED Tabletop — This one fills the face pretty well, but the right side is still lost. The photo also has a green cast, but you can start to see the ring light catchlights.

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Finally, almost all the lights have “color temperature” controls (besides the Auxiwa Clip-On and ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit — and the Rotolight Ultimate Vlogging Kit utilizes plastic discs instead of temperatures lights, as described above). The USB lights we tested have three different controls, which allow them to provide warmer or cooler light depending on the vibe you're going for. Both the Westcott Kit and the Neewer Kit allow you to dial the white balance between 3200K and 5600K, and the Neewer Kit also includes red filters you can snap onto the light.

When waves of light hit a smooth surface, such as a mirror, they reflect off of it. They also bend, or refract, when they move between environments of different densities, such as when light passes from air into and through a glass lens. Together, these basic properties of light allow scientists to design lenses and mirrors to suit their needs — whether it’s to peer across the cosmos or deep inside a cell.

The Westcott 18" Bi-Color LED has you covered, from selfies to outdoor shoots. With 2435 lumens and a 3200K-5600K temperature range, you'll be set for photography, video calls, blogging, and much more. This ring light has a continuous dimmer and digital readout, allowing you to fine-tune brightness and temperature with the turn of a dial. The digital readout lets you quickly change settings based on external light conditions. The light includes two NP-F750 lithium-ion rechargeable batteries and a battery charging port. These batteries keep the light going on full power for 70 minutes, and there is also a wall-powered option for extended use. This ring light comes with a sturdy tripod and mounting accessories capable of holding a DSLR camera or smartphone. In addition, it has a USB port capable of charging phones and other electronics to avoid low battery interruptions. This light and its accessories fit nicely into a well-made storage bag with separate light, tripod, and battery compartments.

The ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit is simple once you have the hang of it, but there are three layers between the MagSafe adapter sticker, the light itself, and the tripod/selfie stick, so it takes a minute to figure out how it all needs to go. We like the similar designs of the Sensyne 10" Ring Light with 50" Extendable Tripod and the Razer Ring Light 12". They have legs that deploy in three stages for easy adjustment. The Sensyne, however, has a max height of 50 inches, so it's not quite tall enough for most adults to be used if you are standing up.

array: A broad and organized group of objects. Sometimes they are instruments placed in a systematic fashion to collect information in a coordinated way. Other times, an array can refer to things that are laid out or displayed in a way that can make a broad range of related things, such as colors, visible at once. The term can even apply to a range of options or choices.

A simple microscope is defined as the type of microscope that uses a single lens for the magnification of the sample. A simple microscope is a convex lens with ...

angle: The space (usually measured in degrees) between two intersecting lines or surfaces at or close to the point where they meet.

While the price is right, this ring light has some downsides. When using it in a portrait orientation, the clip mount blocks the rear-facing camera of many phones, which is an issue when taking a non-selfie photo. To mitigate this problem, you either have to slide it to the corner or a different side of the phone. Another consideration is the light itself is not particularly bright, so if you photograph anything more than an arm's length away, this light won't make a noticeable difference. Also, for everything we love about this mini light, it feels lower quality than other premium portable options. Still, for its simplicity and ease of use at a steal of a price, the Xinbaohong is a nice portable light for selfies. If you have a little wiggle room in your budget, check out the well-designed UBeesize 10" with Tripod, which includes a solid tripod and is quite bright.

Regarding portable models, the Rotolight Ultimate Vlogging Kit is exceptionally bright for its size, boasting up to 1000 lumens, which is multiple times brighter than lights of equivalent size. However, in terms of overall quality, this model suffers because it's not dimmable. Instead, you must manually swap the plastic temperature disks over the light face to change the light quality.

We focused most of our testing on the amount and quality of light produced by each product. We deemed brightness the most important factor of light quality. However, a few other characteristics also come into play, like dimmability and the variety of tones each kit offers.

We love the versatility of the UBeesize 10" with Tripod — it comes with some great features, and they're all well-designed. It has an excellent, fully functional tripod and a carry bag for the light. There's a separate carry bag for the tripod, and it also includes an easy-to-use remote trigger for your phone. This light sets up fast (we managed it in 18 seconds), and adjusting it is a dream. It also features the same phone holder as the UBeesize 10" Tabletop, which can easily twist to whatever angle you want.

To show more about how they look (and how the different lights compare), we took a bunch of selfies with different exposures (in camera) to make the lighting similar. This approach shows how the different light sizes change the face and the photo. We did not edit these photos at all.

prism: A triangular wedge of glass or another clear substance that can bend the components of white light into a rainbow-like succession of colored bands. (v.) To separate light into its component hues.

astronomer: A scientist who works in the field of research that deals with celestial objects, space and the physical universe.

Refraction oflight

Look in a mirror and you’ll see your reflection. The law of reflection is simple: Whatever angle a beam of light makes as it collides with a mirror is the same angle it will have as it bounces off the mirror’s surface. If you shine a flashlight at a 45-degree angle onto your bathroom mirror, it will bounce off at a 45-degree angle. When you see your reflection, the light shining on your illuminated face hits the mirror dead-on, so it bounces right back to your eyes.

rainbow: An arc of color displayed across the sky during or just after a rain. It’s caused when water droplets in the atmosphere bend (or diffract) white sunlight into a number of its component hues: usually red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Seeking to improve the light quality of your photos or videos? You're going to want a ring light. We purchased the 14 best setups and put each one through the wringer, shooting a ton of selfies and portraits, timing the setup and breakdown of each model, and assessing stability and durability.

Concave lenses do the opposite. Thicker on the outside than at their center, they spread out a beam of light. Both types of lenses are useful in microscopes, telescopes, binoculars and eyeglasses. Combinations of these shapes allow optical scientists to direct a beam of light into any path that’s needed.

warp: A change in the shape, usually due to some twisting or curving in a normally flat surface or plane. A piece of wet lumber may warp as it dries unevenly, causing it to bow or show a slight twist.

What isreflection

A prism causes incoming light to bend by different amounts, depending on the wavelength — or color — of that light. As light passes through the prism and exits on the other side, it spreads out into a rainbow.

No ring lights in our review came close to the light quality the Westcott model offers. Still, of the smaller lights, the UBeesize 10" with Tripod performs better than the rest, with the Sensyne 10" Ring Light with 50" Extendable Tripod following close behind. These 10" ring lights offer 240 lumens and 11 dimmer steps, and 225 lumens and 10 dimmer steps, respectively. Both come with three different warm tones for a cooler or warmer feel.

focus: (in physics) The point at which rays (of light or heat for example) converge sometimes with the aid of a lens. (In vision, verb, "to focus") The action a person's eyes take to adapt to light and distance, enabling them to see objects clearly.

To measure and compare sheer brightness between these often very similar devices, we used the LT300 Light Meter by EXTECH. We were sure to measure each ring light from the same distance of 36 inches away and with no ambient light present. We even tested each light multiple times to confirm all readings. The lights in our test suite emit a wide range of lumens.

ILLUMINATION meaning: 1 : light that comes into a room, that shines on something, etc.; 2 : knowledge or understanding.

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cloud: A plume of molecules or particles, such as water droplets, that move under the action of an outside force, such as wind, radiation or water currents.

Lenses are tools that take advantage of light’s ability to bend. By carefully shaping a piece of glass, optical scientists can design lenses that focus light to make clear images. To magnify the appearance of an object, designers often combine a series of lenses.

Reflection and refraction can work together — often with awesome results. Consider the bending of the sun’s light as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere at a low angle. This tends to happen at sunrise or sunset. Sunlight’s bending, or refracting, paints clouds near the horizon in an array of red and orange hues.

To understand durability, we spent time setting up and breaking down each light repeatedly to identify any weak spots they might have. We supplemented our assessments by reading user reviews to see if there were any common problems. We were sure to put them through all the paces that a busy videographer or photographer might.

Ring lights are an essential tool for anyone who films or photographs faces. They provide a kind and diffused light that removes shadows and helps subjects stand out from their backgrounds. Even if you're just doing a ton of Zoom calls, ring lights will help you look your best. Our expert testers subjected each product to a series of rigorous tests designed to reveal any strengths or weaknesses and then sorted the results into four weighted categories.

Imagine running along a beach. If you start running on a concrete path, you can sprint fairly quickly. As soon as you cross onto sand, you slow down. Even if you’re trying to move your feet at the same speed as before, you can’t. You’ll slow even more as you try to keep running through the water. The “thickness” of each surface you’re now running through — sand or water — slows you down compared to when your feet were moving through air.

star: The basic building block from which galaxies are made. Stars develop when gravity compacts clouds of gas. When they become hot enough, stars will emit light and sometimes other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The sun is our closest star.

... flood Light · 12 LED Black Light · 28 LED Black Light · 41 LED Black Light · 68 LED ... UV Lights. Blacklights USA - Fluorescent UV Lights. Our Most Popular ...

peer: (noun) Someone who is an equal, based on age, education, status, training or some other features. (verb) To look into something, searching for details.

In case you haven't used many ring lights, we wanted to compare how each light size category affects a portrait. One of the big things is the "catchlights"—if someone uses a ring light, you can almost always see the characteristic circles in their eyes.

Specularreflection

Convex lenses are thicker in the middle than at their edges. They bend an incoming beam of light to a single focal point.

microscope: An instrument used to view objects, like bacteria, or the single cells of plants or animals, that are too small to be visible to the unaided eye.

reflective: (v. reflect; n. reflection) Adjective that refers to the ability of something to reflect light strongly. Such objects can produce a strong bright glare when sunlight bounces off of them. Examples of reflective objects include a mirror, a smooth metal can, a car window, a glass bottle, ice, snow or the watery surface of a lake.

lens: (in biology) A transparent part of the eye behind the colored iris that focuses incoming light onto the light-absorbing membrane at the back of the eyeball. (in physics) A transparent material that can either focus or spread out parallel rays of light as they pass through it. (in optics) A curved piece of transparent material (such as glass) that bends incoming light in such a way as to focus it at a particular point in space. Or something, such as gravity, that can mimic some of the light bending attributes of a physical lens.

This is what causes the rainbow effect as light passes through a prism. It also explains why red is always the uppermost color in a rainbow and violet the lowermost hue. White light entering the prism contains all different colors of light. Red light waves bend the least, so their path stays closer to a straight line. That leaves red at the top of the rainbow. Violet light waves bend the most when passing through the prism, so that hue dips down to the bottom. The other colors of the rainbow end up in between red and violet, based on how much their waves bend.

The ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit is a top choice for content creators who need a reliable light on the go. This portable device turns a phone into a more traditional-looking camera by adding a shutter button, light, and detachable mini tripod to any smartphone. The tripod legs also easily collapse down into a selfie stick. This light uses MagSafe magnetic technology to quickly click in place on your phone. It even comes with an adapter sticker that turns any non-iPhone into a MagSafe magnet-compatible device. It also strikes us as high-quality and comes with a semi-rigid case to protect the light and battery.

galaxy: A group of stars — and usually invisible, mysterious dark matter — all held together by gravity. Giant galaxies, such as the Milky Way, often have more than 100 billion stars. The dimmest galaxies may have just a few thousand. Some galaxies also have gas and dust from which they make new stars.

The all-in-one Caselites offer your choice of daylight or tungsten color correction in a compact, easy to carry fluorescent package.

Light passing through raindrops forms a rainbow’s distinct arc for the same reason light passing through a prism does. Red forms the outermost arc and blue the innermost one. As the colors splay out, we get to delight in the beauty of those smeared hues. (A double rainbow happens when the light bounces twice inside each raindrop. Two refractions plus two internal reflections. That reverses the order of the colors in the second rainbow.)

mass: A number that shows how much an object resists speeding up and slowing down — basically a measure of how much matter that object is made from.

To test ring lights, we took hundreds of photos with each of these devices and conducted controlled photo experiments to measure relative brightness. We played with all the different features, timed setups and breakdowns to assess ease of use, and monitored stability by attaching our phones and cameras to each product. We determined the durability by physically comparing each model throughout our testing and digging through online user reviews to find any frequent issues to watch for while testing.

Total internalreflection

The Xinbaohong Clip-On is a lightweight and compact clip-on ring light for smartphones. It offers multiple temperature settings, continuous dimmer capability, and the most basic setup imaginable — all at a very affordable price. It clips directly to the phone, like a chip clip. A single power button turns the light on, and successive presses cycle through the temperature modes. Super easy. It can easily fit into a backpack, purse, or jacket pocket. This is a great option for budget-conscious social media posters and selfie-takers alike.

This is known as polarized light. When two orthogonal light waves are in-phase, the resulting light will be linearly polarized. The relative amplitudes ...

This review is the collective work of several veteran GearLab testers. Senior Review Editor Richard Forbes has been shooting photos with a wide range of cameras (from phones to film to pro-DSLRs) for nearly two decades and has been a working photographer for seven years. He firmly believes that photography is painting with light, so he spends way too much time thinking about how to get the right light in the right place. He loves to use ring lights on shoots and for his own selfie game. Richard is joined by Hayley Thomas, a lover of photography since she was a child, growing up with her photographer mother. She has a keen eye for composition, and her Canon Mark IV 5D is never far from her side. Ben Applebaum-Bauch has been with the GearLab team for almost six years. In that span, he has tested hundreds of home goods and electronics products, taking dozens of product photos each time. Often relying on the assistance of a ring light, he knows what to look for in these models that will bring the best user experience and lighting to the shoot.

telescope: Usually a light-collecting instrument that makes distant objects appear nearer through the use of lenses or a combination of curved mirrors and lenses. Some, however, collect radio emissions (energy from a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum) through a network of antennas.

degree: (in geometry) A unit of measurement for angles. Each degree equals one three-hundred-and-sixtieth of the circumference of a circle.

Auxiwa Clip-On — This light isn't bright enough to do much; you can see how it doesn't fill in the right side of the face.

Our timed setup test revealed this most clearly, as the large Neewer and Westcott lights took the longest to set up (at roughly one minute and 15 seconds each), while the Xinbaohong Clip-On and Auxiwa Clip-On took only five seconds to clip onto a phone (though the Xinbaohong also blocks the rear-facing camera on an iPhone, so it's primarily useful for selfies). In the middle of the pack, some lights were unnecessarily fiddly: in particular, the Aixpi 10" with Tripod took 50 seconds to set up just because the parts didn't fit together well.

Light, too, changes speed in different mediums. And since light travels in waves, those waves will bend as they change their speed.

When it comes to sheer brightness, the Westcott 18" Kit edges out the Lume Cube 18". The former emits a whopping 2435 lumens, and the latter an exceptional 2267 lumens. The Neewer 18" Kit takes third at 2065 lumens, which is still extremely impressive compared to the rest of the products in our test suite. These models are wall-powered lights (though the Westcott also comes with batteries). Part of the reason for the out-of-this-world brightness on these three is their size; they both have roughly 25 times the lighting surface area as the tiny Auxiwa Clip On, which gives them quite the advantage. The Westcott, Neewer, and Lume offer continuous dimming, meaning the dimming is completely customizable. The Westcott 18" also offers a sliding tone scale, which is a rather unique feature. If you are searching for the absolute brightest, you should go with one of these larger lights. The Razer Ring Light 12" is smaller and less powerful. Still, at 789 lumens, it holds its own, especially compared to its closest competitors, the Ubeesize 10" with Tripod and Sensyne 10" Ring Light, which emit just a couple hundred lumens.

In this tutorial, Peter Drazy shows you how to put together a DIY ring light using mostly household items, as well as some very inexpensive LED rope lights.

Unfortunately, the phone holder on this model has the same issues as the others — it doesn't grip phones with a large case well. We also wish the light was slightly brighter, though it's the brightest of the 10" sized lights we tested. This is a great mid-size option at a very accessible price point. If you need a brighter model, the Razer Ring Light 12" is a solid option that's cheaper than the priciest premium products we tested.

You may have also noticed that the most spectacular sunsets happen when the air is either dusty or moist. In those cases, sunlight is refracted by Earth’s atmosphere and reflected around by particles of dust and water vapor.

Overview. Spotlight is the use of spot lenses or reflectors and other light gathered into the light. Reflector light is a simple spot light type, with strong ...

The ring light you choose must stand up with a camera/phone attached. We set up each model, attached the largest camera or phone possible, and then jostled it vigorously to see whether it could stay up. We also assessed whether each could support a phone or DSLR and whether we felt confident that our electronics were actually going to stay where we put them.

There were a lot of different DSLR holders and phone holders, though some were better than others. We were impressed by the UBeesize phone holder on both models we tested: the UBeesize 10" Tripod and the UBeesize 10" Tabletop. The holder has a solid feel and grips phones well. The Lume Cube 18" has a stable tripod, but we struggled to get iPhone Plus models into the holder. The Razer Ring Light 12" and Sensyne 10" Ring Light with 50" Extendable Tripod have level tripods with a wide base. However, they are both relatively lightweight, so they can get knocked over easily if you bump into them. The Rotolight Ultimate Vlogging Kit has a stable mini tripod. But, we found that the weight of the actual light can cause the whole apparatus to tip to one side, especially if no phone is attached to anchor the other side. The Aixpi 10" LED Tabletop is so short that it has a low center of gravity, making it relatively stable. The Mactrem 6" LED strangely has two different tripods, both poorly balanced.

concrete: To be solid and real. (in construction) A simple, two-part building material. One part is made of sand or ground-up bits of rock. The other is made of cement, which hardens and helps bind the grains of material together.

You might have noticed that inside flashlights and headlights, there’s a single, small light bulb with a curved mirror behind it. That curve collects the light coming off the bulb in many different directions and focuses it into a strong beam that leaves in one direction: outward. Curved mirrors are extremely effective at focusing beams of light.

Back to that straw in a glass of water: If you look through the side of the glass, the straw will look like a zigzag. Or, if you’ve ever placed a diving ring at the bottom of a shallow pool and attempted to grab it, you’ll have noticed the ring isn’t exactly where it appears to be. The bending of light rays causes the ring to look as if it’s located a short distance from its actual spot.

You know how a straw appears to bend as it sits in a glass of water? That’s due to refraction. The law of refraction states that light waves will bend when they move from one medium (such as air) to another (such as water or glass). This is because each medium has a different density, also known as its “optical thickness.”

We determined value by comparing the price of a ring light to its performance (i.e., its overall score). The UBeesize 10" Table Top and Xinbaohong Clip-On are quality options if you want to save money while still getting a decently performing product. You forfeit many of the fancy features that the more expensive models offer. However, you still receive a decent light at a fraction of the price with either one.

Diffusereflection

Mirrors, too, can be shaped to modify the path light takes. If you’ve ever looked at your reflection in carnival mirrors, they might have made you appear tall and skinny, short and rounded or distorted in other ways.

Like most bargain buys, there are some downsides to consider. For instance, we wish the phone mount was more compatible with larger phone cases (e.g., Otterbox). Also, this smaller ring light costs less than others in our lineup and, as a result, lacks the brightness that larger, more expensive models do. That said, neither issue is a dealbreaker compared to how much we like this light. The UBeesize 10" Table Top is a small, simple, and portable option, all at an unbeatable price. If you require a model compatible with larger phones, the Westcott 18" Bi-Color LED is a more viable option. It features a remarkably bright light and works with large phones and cameras alike.

A telescope’s mirror works the same way. It focuses the incoming light waves from a distant object, like a star, into a single point of light that’s now bright enough for an astronomer to see.

This UV Flashlight is perfect for exploring geologic fluorescence in our Shining Syenite specimens! We've found that the 365nm wavelength these lights have ...

The ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit and Rotolight Ultimate Vlogging Kit are some of the most sturdy portable models. This is partly due to their smaller size — fewer hinges and joints to break on tripods, for example. However, they are also both well-constructed. The ShiftCam is rubber-coated and comes with a zippered protective semi-rigid case for travel, while the Rotolight has a durable metal T-bar mount. The UBeesize and Westcott lights are the heartiest of the bigs, and we are confident the UBeesize 10" Tabletop, UBeesize 10" Tripod, Razer Ring Light 12", Westcott 18" Kit, and Neewer 18" Kit will all last a long time. On the other end of the spectrum, the Xinbaohong Clip-On, Auxiwa Clip On, Mactrem 6" LED, and Aixpi 10" with Tripod are all underwhelming and strike us as liable to break if the light were to fall on the floor.

Most lenses are made from glass that has been ground into a very precise shape with a smooth surface. The starting slab of glass looks like a thick pancake. By the time it’s ground into a lens, its shape will be very different.

wavelength: The distance between one peak and the next in a series of waves, or the distance between one trough and the next. It’s also one of the “yardsticks” used to measure radiation. Visible light — which, like all electromagnetic radiation, travels in waves — includes wavelengths between about 380 nanometers (violet) and about 740 nanometers (red). Radiation with wavelengths shorter than visible light includes gamma rays, X-rays and ultraviolet light. Longer-wavelength radiation includes infrared light, microwaves and radio waves.

The top scorer for stability is the UBeesize 10" Tripod, which proved remarkably sturdy. The Neewer and Westcott models also achieved a high score in this category (like all categories), inspiring confidence with whatever device we needed to use. The Auxiwa Clip-On, Xinbaohong Clip-On, and ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit (to some extent) are also “stable” in the sense they don't require a tripod — they are as stable as your grip.

The effects of this bending are greater or smaller depending on the light’s wavelength, or color. Shorter wavelengths, such as blue and violet, bend more than longer ones, such as red.

Have you ever wondered why we don’t see rainbows in the snow like we do in rain? Maybe it makes sense now. Rainbows depend on the almost-spherical shape of water droplets. Snow is water, too, but its crystals have a completely different shape. That’s why snow can’t produce the same refraction-reflection-refraction pattern that raindrops do.

environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).

refract: (n. refraction) To change the direction of light (or any other wave) as it passes through some material. For example, the path of light leaving water and entering air will bend, making partially submerged objects to appear to bend at the water’s surface.

Neewer 18" — And this is it, exactly what these lights are supposed to do. You can see the catchlights in the eyes, and the face stands out from the background. There's a world of difference between this and the “no light” selfie.

Almost all of the lights have varying brightness levels, from the stepless dimming of the Westcott 18" Kit and Neewer 18" Kit to the 9-11 brightness settings of the USB lights to the four and three levels, respectively, of the ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit and Auxiwa Clip-On. However, we found ourselves almost always using the lights to their full capacity, so the dim settings didn't matter much.

In addition, it would be disingenuous to ignore the obvious issue with a “brightness only” approach. This test has a huge range of sizes, from the enormous 18" Neewer model to the tiny Auxiwa Clip-On. Obviously, the largest lights should be the brightest, so we also measured the ring lights' exact sizes (which were roughly as advertised) and compared these values to brightness values.

As with many things, if a product is unnecessarily complicated, you may not use it. Within this metric, there was a wide range of well-designed (and not so well-designed) products, and to sort out which products made it the easiest for us, we set them up and broke them down repeatedly.

202291 — Could I use optic fibre to run natural light to a dark area of my house? What would be the best equipment to do this?

For those looking to take their videos and photos to the next level, we've tested a ton of useful tools, many of which are smartphone-compatible. A smartphone gimbal can help smooth out your video shots, while an iPhone lens can change the focal length of your built-in camera, giving you more creative reign over your photos. With your camera phone in your pocket and cell phone accessories, you're sure to level up your media production.

The Westcott 18" might be too big, depending on your lighting needs. Setup requires a tripod, so adequate floor space is necessary. Also, it lacks a remote and does not offer Bluetooth availability to control the light settings remotely. Compared to a standard ring light, this model is also a bit more expensive, but we found the high-quality construction and utility well worth the cost and great for various applications. If a compact, remote-triggered ring light is what you're after, you can enjoy the UBeesize 10" Table Top at a fraction of the price.

This light has just a few drawbacks worth noting. First, it is not especially bright. It does the job for selfies or anything within close range but much more than an arm's length away, and its effectiveness fades fast. Second, it's heavy, which you might notice if you plan on taking a bunch of selfies with the included stick. When attached to the stick, the weight of the light combined with a phone sometimes forces the pivoting ball joint to slump over at an angle. However, for convenience and quality in a tiny package, this light is our go-to when on the go. If you can't swing the cost, check out our favorite portable budget model, the Xinbaohong Clip-On. It's lightweight, affordable, and fits in your jacket pocket, so you can take a selfie whenever the moment strikes.

We also looked at additional features in this category. We gave products higher ratings if they included things like a remote trigger (for use with a phone), like the UBeesize 10" with Tripod, or a tripod that can turn into a selfie stick, such as the Aixpi 10" with Tripod, ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit, and Rotolight Ultimate Vlogging Kit. The UBeesize 10" Tabletop tripod can technically be used this way, but it is a little impractical given the size of the light and its wired setup. Again, the ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit impressed us here with the added capability of the SnapGrip portion to wirelessly charge the phone it is attached to while in use. One super basic but unique feature of the Sensyne 10" Ring Light is that the included tripod has a bubble level to ensure a superior level shot.

Founded in 2003, Science News Explores is a free, award-winning online publication dedicated to providing age-appropriate science news to learners, parents and educators. The publication, as well as Science News magazine, are published by the Society for Science, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education.

Mactrem 6" — This one fills the face better; you can't see the side lighting as dramatically, but you still can't see the characteristic eye “catchlights.”