Have you hopped onto the ring light bandwagon yet? If not, what are you waiting for? 

Ring lights have become very accessible and affordable and are not only meant for vloggers anymore. You would be surprised to find out who has ring lights in their homes now. 

Have you noticed that your friends’ photos and videos look better and more professional than before? Chances are they are using a ring light. 

Do you own a ring light or plan on getting one soon? Let’s take a look at a few photo projects you can do with your ring light. 

Portrait Photography

The most common way people use their ring light is when they do portraits. Portraits are usually well planned out and the subject is posing. This way it is easier to control lighting and other factors as opposed to taking candid photos. 

Catchlights in eyes are very interesting and capture the viewer’s attention. It used to be that only professional photographers with expensive studio lighting could achieve this. Not anymore. 

Ring lights became mainstream a few years ago and became very trendy with online workers attending Zoom meetings during the 2020 lockdowns. 

Using a ring light to do portrait photographs will create a light circle in your subject’s eyes. You decide how intense or how soft you want the effect to be. 

The size of the ring light and the distance from your model will determine the impact of the ring light in their eyes. Place the ring light close if you want a vivid and visibly defined ring in your model’s eyes. Placing the ring light farther away will create a softer light effect. 

You can also use the ring light to the side of your model to create a split lighting technique effect. Split lighting is when only half of the face is lit and the other half is shadowed.

Professional photographers use this technique to create moody and mysterious portrait photos.

Notice the light in her eyes. 

Selfies

Bring your selfie game up a notch! Another common use for ring lights is to use them for taking selfies.

A selfie is basically a portrait of yourself that you take yourself, a photo where you are the photographer AND the model. 

It’s easy to set your phone securely inside your ring light and use the self-timer on your phone or use a remote Bluetooth control to take the photos.

Place your phone facing you and use the front-facing camera so you can see your shots and adjust your lighting as you want it.

Food Photography

A cool way to make your food photos look more professional is to use good lighting. Many food bloggers use their phones and ring lights now to take those delicious-looking photos. 

Take time to place the elements into the frame without overcrowding the photo. Place your ring light on top of the food and either hold your phone in your hand for more versatility or attach it on the ring light and use a Bluetooth remote shutter release.

Macro Photography

Marco photography can be achieved now with the newer phones that are on the market today. The cameras have dramatically improved and even professional photographers are using their phones for photo shoots. 

Macro photography is when you take close-up photos of objects and is still a bit tricky when not using an external macro lens or a professional camera with a professional lens.

The best way is to stabilize your phone on a tripod or on your ring light attachment to make sure that your phone doesn’t move after you have set your focus.

Adding the extra light from a ring light will help the camera to focus and take a sharper image and significantly improve your photo quality.

Framing

One fun way that we are seeing people using their ring lights is to actually use it as a prop in their compositions. The sky's the limit and there are no rules when it comes to having fun with your ring light. Place yourself, a model, or an object, and incorporate the light into your shot.

Fun stuff!

Have you taken a look at the new KobraTech ring light? It comes with everything you need to get started, and of course true to our usual way of doing things, we’ve added several extras - like a remote bluetooth shutter and a carrying case. 

We took it a little further and designed our ring light with 15 different colors and 10 brightness levels for you to have fun with.

Show Us Your Phone Photos!

Are you taking great photos and want to share them with us? We would love to see you taking photos using your new ring light. Follow us on our Instagram account and tag us in your posts or stories. 

Also, you can join our fun Facebook page Shoot Like a Pro with your Phone where you can share your phone photo experiences with our community of like-minded people. Post your photos, share your Instagram, ask questions, and participate in our weekly photo contests.