Exploring the Ringflash for Closeup Work
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Godox ML-150
I can remember the days when if you said ring light, anyone in the photography game knew what you meant. It was (and still is) a series of flashes or flash tubes mounted in a circle that fit around the external element of a lens. These days if you search ring light, you are more likely to find the LED or fluorescent rings that run off USB to make your selfies or streaming video look more nicely lit. While these can be applicable to macro use, and are generally very inexpensive, they are very low output and where you want lots of depth of field you will be into very long exposures, problematic if your subject moves at all.
Hence with the returning interest in macro and close up photography, it’s a very good time to take a look again at what we will call ringflash, for the purposes of clarity. They were the first ringlights, but the world has a tendency to appropriate and reuse words to mean different things.
What Is a Ringflash
A ringflash consists of two primary components. There is the power delivery unit, which in most cases mounts to the hotshoe of your camera, but in the world of studio strobes, tends to run off a large external power pack, like the awesome and awesomely expensive Profoto Proring 2. I have had the pleasure to use one of these and they are spectacular, but as I do not generate income from fashion work, purchasing one, and the pack it needs, makes no sense to me.
I wander. The more common ringflash systems mount to the hotshoe, with a cable going to the ring itself which mounts to the front of the lens via a ring screwed into the lens filter mount. The concept has been around a long time with camera makers offering ringflashes such as the Canon MR-14EX II pictured here. These units run off rechargeable AA batteries and have guide numbers of around 14. This sadly means nothing to most people, so let me simplify, it needs to be REALLY close to deliver maximum depth of field and this makes it ideal for macro and close up work.
Finding Your Ringflash
Since the camera manufacturer’s offerings tend to be pricey and in some cases have not been updated in a very long time, one might be inclined to look into the third party space for an option and this is a very good place to start looking. I started with a Sigma EM140 for Canon and it proved to be excellent. Sigma has discontinued them from production sadly but you can find them on the used market.
When I was shopping for a ring flash, I wanted a unit that supported manual flash control as well as TTL flash control, because I know that TTL works, and manipulating the output is SO easy using Flash Exposure Compensation..
Since most ringflash systems comprise either two flash tubes in the ring, or two separate heads that mount to the ring and are positionable, I also wanted the ability to use different output levels for each flashtube in order to create dimension and even some shadows for depth, as a normal ring flash with both tubes the same power produces a light that is very pleasing but can be a bit flat.
Several years ago, I stepped up to a Canon MT 26 EX RT which is the two heads mounted to the ring as shown in this graphic. I was happy with the Sigma, but I wanted more power as well as the ability to control the direction of each light source. It is a really great system, but could very well be overkill for the less nerdy macro photographer. It’s also outlandishly expensive for what it is. Further confusing to some is that in this case RT does not imply any radio triggering.
So how about a ring flash for the non-nerdy among us, who want a ring flash without the high price?
Recommended for your consideration
I have had an excellent success rate when testing and using Godox flash equipment in production. I have not personally tested either of these products in my studio, although I did try the ML-150 in the field for a very brief period.
For general ring flash use, I don’t think that you can beat the Godox ML-150 ring flash. It does not have TTL support, but it’s price is right at about $50 USD from B&H or Adorama. It has five power levels and includes mounting rings for the following filter mounts, 49mm, 52mm,58mm, 62mm and 67mm. Since this is a manual flash, it works with any camera with a hotshoe. Very hard to beat.
If TTL is really important to you and you would like a bit more power, some years back, I had the opportunity to shoot a session with the Nissin MF-18 Ringflash. It was then, and since it has not changed, still would be a superb choice. It’s about 10x the price of the Godox but has TTL and a lot more output for faster recycling and the ability to work with very tiny apertures. The Nissin is available for Canon, Nikon and Sony TTL options
As I sometimes cannot get all the depth of field that I want from a single aperture, I will on those occasions use manual focus and do focus stacking. My preferred software for this is the excellent Helicon Focus, and the caveat for ring flash is that the ring flash needs to allow you access to the focus ring on the lens. Some of the very large ring flashes where the lens fits through the ring, such as Godox’s powerful Witstro AR400 impede access to the focus ring, so that may be a consideration.
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I'm Ross Chevalier, thanks for reading, watching and listening and until next time, peace.
