Larson Ringlight?

[Jeff Dachowski]

I am about to order one of these units.

Can anyone who has worked with one before give me some insight?

I assume they are cont light units?

Were you happy with it?

Thanks very much.
Jeff

[J. *Burke*]

Gary Box has one. They contain strobes.

Burke

[Steve Lott]

we do not have one
we have seen Gary and Pam box shoot with one as well as a couple of others
during seminars

fast tips shoot close to your subject
as in the light close to them

take a look at www.garybox.com and look at the eyes for the tel tale signs on a ring of lights in the eyes

a few have made their own with Hot lights
the larson ones ARE stobes as was already stated

they are very heavy units and therefor ship with a very heavy stand

steve

pS a search here in the forum will yield many threads on the topic

[Guest]

Jeff,

They are 4-100 watt model/flash tubes. I suggest you use them at quarter power. They pop pretty good. The closer the subject the better the ring in the eye. Pull away a bit and you get awesome flat lighting. I am a Larson rep & have had the chance to play a bit. Love the look & feel it adds to images. The stand is very heavy duty.

Nathan

I am about to order one of these units.

Can anyone who has worked with one before give me some insight?

I assume they are cont light units?

Were you happy with it?

Thanks very much.
Jeff

[Michael J. Plumeyer]

I am about to order one of these units.

I think I was the first one to order one of these. I know mine was one of the first two shipped (shipped out same day as Gary's, who designed it). I definitely love it and is a definite seller! :t:

Can anyone who has worked with one before give me some insight?

Steve had it right, stay close to your subject.

Another thing I'd like to let you know is that if you use a white background you really need to use some lights to brighten it up or it looks grey. I found this out the hard way.

I assume they are cont light units?

Nope, they're strobes. It is your personal preference as to how bright you want them. Me? I use'm full blast!

Were you happy with it?

Yep, the only problem I have is that since my camera room is only 17 by 26, I have to move it out of the room when I'm not using it. Gary was able to put it together himself, but I needed help to lift it and put it on the stand (I didn't want to break it).

I hope this helps!

[Gary Box]

I designed the light for Larson and it rocks. Smaller ringlights are cool. But like a small spotlight, they can really make features very prominent. So if you have a perfect face, the small one works well (other than that red-eye prone issue). But if you put an average looking person under a small one, it's not so hot. So I wanted a similar effect, but SOFTER. And in lighitng, softer means bigger. So it is basically a 36 inch softbox that you shoot through.

The light works incredibly well. But I will pass on some tips.

Shoot further back and you will see the "ring" in the eye.

Shoot closer (like their face 18 inches from the front) and it just fills the eyse with light beautifully.

Shooting closer, the light will also fall off very fast, there will be 1.5 stop difference between face and back shoulder if they are posed sideways.

Working this close to the subject is too close to focus with a 70-200. So I often use an 85 1.2 or a 28-135 lens.

At 1/4 power on the strobes, in this close you will shoot at f16-18 with ISO 100.

I actually "shortened the inner tube of mine, I occasionally kept getting it in the corners of my shots. Let me know if you want more details on this.

The stand is very solid. To be low, it took a heavier duty stand.

Do a search of my name with ringlight or ring light to see some examples.

[Jeff Dachowski]

Steve, Nathan, Michael and Gary,
Thanks so much for your tips! I wil order one of these this week, and I really lok forward to seeing what I can come up with. I will make sure to post some results for you guys to tell me what I am doing wrong. Thanks again!!!