The benefits of a Ring Flash...?

The recent thread about the Inon Z-22 Ring Flash and seeing the Athena Ring Flash ARF-10 on their website got me contemplating getting a ring flash.

The Athena Ring Flash looks tempting, as they also make adapters to fit various housing ports which also allow for the use of a 67mm screw on diopter. The Athena also appears to have more setting adjustments so it won't have the ploblems seen in the Inon Z-22.

So what are the pro's and con's of using a ring flash?

This is what I could gather up from the various posts. I'm starting to investigate possibly mounting an Inon closeup lens on my 100mm macro lens or adding an extender internally to do some supermacro work and thought a ring flash might be beneficial. Would like to hear other's opinions/ recommendations.

pro's

more uniform lighting

Better lighting on hard to get to critters vs twin strobes

Good for supermacro shots

Compact setup - even with an additional single strobe for fill light. (at least for the Athena one. The Inon, on the other hand, looks like a monster in comparison)

cons

Flat lighting?

Expensive - why buy one when you already have two decent strobes?

May need custom ports/ adapters to fit them

Z-22 (can't adjust the power low enough for digital cameras?)

Feel free to correct or add...

... i think backscatter is a big issue. and lighting creativity is pretty limited.

Hi,

This posting got me interested in the Athena ring flash. I looked around and found this photo at www.reefphoto.com:

It looks like they've developed an adapter to fit it onto Subal ports. That's cool!

Cheers

James

I have owned the Athena ARF-10 ring flash for over two years now and 1000's of images so I have some strong opinions on this piece of equipment. It is thin, less than an inch thick so it can be mounted to just about any macro system. The Subal housing mount that James has posted is simply screwed to a macro port cover with a 67 mm hole cut in the center. The ring flash also has a 67 mm thread on the front so that an Inon M-67 close-up lens or others can be used. Unlike the Inon quad flash, the Athena is a true ring flash with a 360 degree flash tube around the lens rather that four straight tubes set 90 degrees apart from each other. The Athena flash has a knob on the sending unit that turns up and down to control power output. The strobe is all manual unlike the Inon flash which can work in TTL with Nik 5 film cameras and the Fuji S2 body. Athena also makes macro ports for Sea & Sea and Olympus which have the 67 mm thread. With these ports the ring flash can be screwed into the front of the port. A 67 mm close-up lens can also be screwed into the port when using other strobes.

This flash has more than enough power at ISO 100 for macro lenses up to 200 mm. With my 1.4 X tele converter and macro lens no problem, using a 2 x tele converter power begins to become an issue.

The ring flash can be fired using a Nik 5 cable, an Olympus cable or fiber optics. This ring flash will also work well with many of the digicam housings.

The biggest downside to this flash over the Inon flash is recycle times due to using two batteries rather than four. This can lead to as much as a four seconds recycle time at full power with low batteries. I use Powerex 2700 NiMH rechargeable 1.2v AA's for best results.

When shooting very close to the port, such as in 1:1 plus diopter the subject may fall inside a donut of light because it is to close to the strobe for the light spread to cover the subject. This can only be over come with lenses longer than about 150 mm or by reflecting the light onto the subject using a white slate. This is worse with the Inon ring flash because the tubes are set even further from the subject at closest focus. A lens with a 200 mm (35 equv.) works fine.

Sample photos shot with the Olympus 50 mm F/2 macro (100 mm equv. & life size) and the 50 macro with 1.4 tele converter.

Phil Rudin

Ah... James, interesting... I thought I read somewhere that Ryan had worked out some custom ports or adapter for the Athena flash. Looks pretty sharp on that Subal housing Athena page only shows adapters for S&S, Zillion, and Inon ports.

edit: Phil, thanks for the feedback. Beautiful pics! I just got some prices on the Athena ring flash from Yuzo at naturephoto so now I might have to convince the relatives that I need one for xmas...

... i think backscatter is a big issue. and lighting creativity is pretty limited.

Ring flashes have been very popular in amongst BSoUP photographers in the UK for many years, both with the Edge-Sullivan ring of light and the INON quad. In 2002 I did a liveaboard trip to Thailand and I was the only person on board without one! A lack of compatability of these two systems with digital cameras has quelled their popularity, but I think that these new developments will make them popular again.

We had many talks and discussions about them at BSoUP. The main positive was the unique quality of the shadow-less lighting. As Serge says once on, there wasn't much else you could do, but many commented that it almost made critters look like they were lit from within.

The other comment that came up a lot was the fact that they didn't seem to produce as much backscatter as you might think. I'll post a link to this quite wide angle photo, taken by Martin Edge in the murky waters of Lembeh, which shows what surprisingly backscatter free images were possible, even at reasonably long camera to subject distances.

The two main disadvatages are that first you still need to travel with your normal strobes - for wide angle and other photography. And second the ring flash increases the bulk of the port (particularly the INON quad) making it much harder to get down to eye level on a subject when the subject is on the seabed.

Alex

I have also found that backscatter is less of a problem in macro with the ring flash than it is with dual strobes.

This image was taken in turbid water in Costa Rica, vis of about fifteen feet (4.6 meters) with a 50 mm macro, (100 mm 35 eqev.).

In both Alex image and mine you will see that the specular highlight is in the center of the eye as a result of the distance from the flash.

On my third image above you can see the entire highlight appears as a circle of light because the ring flash is much closer to the reflective subject.

Phil Rudin

We had many talks and discussions about them at BSoUP. The main positive was the unique quality of the shadow-less lighting. As Serge says once on, there wasn't much else you could do, but many commented that it almost made critters look like they were lit from within.

 

The two main disadvatages are that first you still need to travel with your normal strobes - for wide angle and other photography. And second the ring flash increases the bulk of the port (particularly the INON quad) making it much harder to get down to eye level on a subject when the subject is on the seabed.

 

Alex

Yes, I noticed that glow from within look of the ring flash.

I have to say the Athena ring flash looks compact even with its separate battery case. I'd have to play around with my bags, but I don't think it would add too much throwing that in along with 2 Inon Z-240's.

Which brings me to my next question. In my search on the net about ring flash use, I've seen a few setups where people are keeping a single strobe attached in addition to the ring flash? For use as a fill flash? Backlight? Toplighting? For supermacro, I'm thinking how that extra strobe would be used.

Hi Pac,

I think you have answered your own question, fill if you want to open the background, top and side lighting to add depth and fill for when the subject is to close to the ring flash filling the donut hole of light. Ring flash lighting makes things "pop" its an in your face type of lighting and not at all subtle. It is a tool to be added to/or to supplement the lighting which can be created by twin strobes.

The Athena strobe is indeed a small package both in your carry-on and on your housing.

Ring flash works very well out of the water as well.

Phil Rudin

Hi Phil,

After viewing your last image, I became interested in the idea of controlling the ring flash's light beam into a tighter spot by eliminating the halo effect of the surrounding beam?

I was then wondering if there was room in the equation for a custom made 'snoot' to suit the diameter of the ring flash?

I would envisage that this snoot would concentrate the available light onto the chosen subject and elimminate vertually all back scatter. I would also give that large dark negative space that is sometimes desirable with macro/super macro photography...

Opinions would be welcome...

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

To begin with the Athena ring flash has a beam angle of about 80 degrees at its edges, the Inon Z-22 is 95 degrees. So it is narrower than many of the strobes used for macro as it is. The angle could be further reduced with a snoot which would not be hard to make, however you need to remember that flash to subject distance in macro at 1:2 or greater is quite shallow. A snoot would extend outward towards the subject closing the distance even further or even pass the subject at supermacro. More important is subject placement in relation to the background you are trying to eliminate. In the flower image the background was eliminated by using F/22 and camera placement such that sky was the only background, in post #4 the third image was done the same way with only water as a background. In both cases the background goes to black. Most macro subjects are photographed against some sort of background. By reducing the beam angle with a snoot you will just increase light output to the narrower area adding more light to the background. Lenses in the 100 mm range (35 mm equv.) have an angle of view of about 24 degrees, any light outside of that area is not being captured anyway. High F/stops and separation of the subject from the background will give you the best results.

Phil Rudin

I tend to agree with Serge.

... i think backscatter is a big issue. and lighting creativity is pretty limited.

You can achieve a similar effect by mounting a large (A4) piece of translucent plastic on your port and firing your existing flashes through this. You also get the option of varying the light levels so the lighting is not so flat if you want.

Mark