Ring Light: What went wrong?

[Shibby!]

Here are some pictures of the mess I came up with. As you can see, the design doesn't work =)

I like ring lights for the tight "halo" of a shadow. As you can see, my disaster does nothing of such marvels.

What can I do to improve. I have adjusted the inner "bowl" in to see if it would focus the light and it doesn't. Would a shoot through cover make that much difference? The light seems much too diffused even though it's a fairly deep dish bowl. I thought that would prevent diffusion, but apparently not. I know there is a hot spot on the bottom, but I think that's the least of my worries right now.

Anybody have experience and came out with a good DIY design? Any pictures of how the light reflects on a wall?

Thanks,
Q

 

[ScottS]

Have you seen what David Tejada came up with? Its on www.strobist.com

 

[Shibby!]

I have looked, and read some DIY projects from that ring light week, but I can't seem to replicate the results.

 

[ScottS]

Hmmm.... I dunno what to tell ya. I tried doing the ring light thing, but then I got lazy half way through and didn't complete it... maybe I will now.

 

[Shibby!]

Hmmm.... I dunno what to tell ya. I tried doing the ring light thing, but then I got lazy half way through and didn't complete it... maybe I will now.

Like most things with lighting, I thought it would be easier!

I have a large softbox, and umbrella and still struggle with basic pictures and that equip.. sad =( hahah

 

[Garbz]

Your photo is no good for identifying the problem. Shoot into your ringflash again like you did in the 3rd photo but do so firing the flash at it's lowest power output so as to not blow the highlights of the flash.

My guess is you'd see sharp direct light from the bottom and not a lot of light at the top. Place a ring cut sheet of paper across the front of the ringlight to reduce the direct light hitting your subject from the flash at the bottom.