The best ring light will immediately improve the quality of your video calls, vlogs, interviews, Zoom meeting, Filmmaking, YouTube, Instagram, content makers, Tik Tok, and even selfies!
Ring lights are an essential component of any lighting setup, and they have taken the globe by storm in recent years.
Ring lights were once only used by skilled photographers and videographers. They used to be extensive and expensive. The buggy fluorescent bulbs of past eras have been replaced by LEDs, which make the best ring lights today much smaller, more lightweight, and more flexible.
A ring light is now an inexpensive necessity if you want soft lighting with diffused shadows that improves your photography skills and conceal rather than expose skin blemishes.
The best ring lights on the market today are powered by LEDs, which produce constant illumination and are ideal for all types of videography. As a result, they are the chosen light for many vloggers, YouTubers, and content creators, including those who create beauty tutorials. Ring lights are fantastic for applying makeup!
Let’s break this down with a few questions before buying.
What is a Ring Light?
A ring light is a circular-shaped exterior illumination accessory. The most recent ring lights make extensive use of LED lighting technologies. It emits light in all directions (360 degrees), making it suitable for facial lighting. They are sometimes advertised as selfie lights or vlogging lights, but they all fall into the same category: they create a continuous, diffused light that flatters almost every subject.
What is Ring Light Used for?
The primary function of the ring light is to spread an even light on the subject. This removes shadows and blemishes on the face while still lighting the skin. As a result, ring lights are often used in portraits, glamour shots, and also videography where only one subject is captured. You can use the camera and microphone built into your laptop webcam, for example, and illuminate yourself with overhead room lights, but this rarely works; instead, a proper lighting setup is required.
How do I choose a Good Ring Light?
What to look for in-ring light for videos and selfies. If you’re looking for the best ring light for photography, you can aim for one that has a;
- Dimmable so you can customize it to your conditions and have more control, LED lights should have a wider dimming capability.
- Color temperature is another factor to note is color temperature and brightness; colder, natural colors are better for normal use cases or streaming, while white-balanced lights are better for shooting and close-ups; others also have 16 RGB color choices and other lighting effects.
- Size Matters broader lighting often results in smoother lighting effects. So, if anything else is equal, a larger ring light is preferable for video output. Ring lights are available in a variety of sizes (laptop webcam) and are reasonably priced.
- High Color Rendering Index the higher your light’s CRI value, the more real and vibrant the colors can look. Look for CRI values of 90 or higher, preferably 95. If the CRI rating is not included in the catalog, it is possible that the lights use poorer quality lamps or LEDs.
- Power Options having control choices may be beneficial to you. If your light will be powered by rechargeable batteries, you’ll have one fewer cable to trip over, and your light can be easily carried outside.
- Extra Diffusion the extra surface area of fluorescent tube ring lights provides more diffused light. However, if you put a diffuser over the front of the ring, the light would be much softer.
Ring lights come in a variety of shapes and sizes, some of which can fit not only stand-alone cameras but also smartphones and other gadgets. So, which model are you going to go with? Continue reading to learn about the Top 6 Best Ring Lights For Photography, YouTubers, beauty bloggers, TikTokers, and Videographers in 2023.
Best Ring Lights to Buy with Stand in 2023
Best ring light with laptop stand
Color temperature 3200K-5600K | Weight: 901g | Power supply: USB | Dimensions: 33.3 x 27.9 x 5.7cm
If all you need is one of the best ring lights for Zoom calls, don’t bother with tripods; this 10-inch Neewer ring light keeps it simple with its convenient laptop stand. It has a USB port, meaning you won’t have to locate a power outlet for it, plus there’s a built-in phone holder, so you can use it hands-free.
With 120 LEDs, it’ll brighten up even the darkest home office, and there are three light modes and ten brightness settings to choose from, but with a little trial and error, you’ll easily find a lighting system that flatters you.
Key Features
- The best ring light for Zoom calls
- Built for use on a laptop
- There are several settings available.
- Mobile holder built-in
Best ring light with camera mount
Color temperature: (3 white light settings) | Power supply: USB | Dimensions: 6-inch
Ring lights are awesome, but you can fail to locate a surface or enough room to set up a tripod unless you’re seated at a desk or table. The Smoovie Flexi Selfie Ring Light fixes this issue by using a lightweight clip arm, allowing you to place your light almost anywhere – the side of a shelf, a window ledge, a heater, the interior of your vehicle… it even goes where tripods can’t! The clip also has a second versatile arm that can accommodate your camera phone, so it can be used as a dedicated handset rig or as an adaptable ring light. The light can be set to three different white shades to complement natural or artificial lighting, and the brightness can be adjusted as well.
Key Features
- Mounts everywhere with a flexible clip arm.
- The second flexi arm can hold smartphone
- adjustable brightness with 3 tone settings
- USB powered
Best ring light for iPhones and laptops
Color temperature: 6000K | Power supply: USB | Dimensions: 85 x 28mm
Often you just need a little light – and sometimes you need a literal little light that you can put in your laptop bag or handbag for on-the-go lighting. This is where the Xinbaohong Clip-On Selfie Light comes in handy: a genius mini ring light that clips onto something 18mm or smaller. That means you can clip it to your phone for beautiful selfies in a nightclub, or place it on your mobile for a key light while you’re on the road and need to call in from a hotel room or coffee shop. Stick it on your phone, monitor, or even clip it onto your car’s sun visor for improved lighting – it’s so inexpensive that you can probably get one.
Key Features
- All-purpose light
- Battery & USB control
- Modes of brightness and dimmer
- After an hour, the small battery begins to dim.
Best ring light for YouTube
Color temperature: 3200-5600K | Power supply: 1x NP-F battery, mains power | Dimensions: 530mm x 420mm
This utter beast of a ring light from Neewer should suit the bill nicely for pro-grade lighting anywhere you are. It’s a massive 20-inch model powered by 352 LEDs, with a huge color temperature spectrum that you can monitor with a good old-fashioned knob, and although it’ll take mains power at home or in your studio, it’ll still work off Li-ion batteries if you want to take it on location.
Its heavy-duty stand allows you to place your light anywhere between 90 cm and two meters, and it includes a phone holder as well as a hot shoe for shooting with your DSLR.
Key Features
- The best ring light for beauty tutorials
- 20-inch diameter for
- Mains or battery capacity
- Sony NP-F batteries are needed.
Best ring light for Tik-Tok
Color temperature: 3000K-5800K | Power supply: Mains | Dimensions: 58 x 51 x 11 cm
Do you want to record with your iPad instead of your phone? This monster ring light from Ivisii is just what you need; in addition to a phone holder, it also has an iPad holder, and at 19 inches in diameter, it’s large enough to place your iPad inside the ring light itself.
When turned up to full power, the light gives you complete control over color temperature and brightness, and it emits an extremely bright white light. For even more artistic control, it comes with a package of white, green, red, and blue filters that you can mix and match to create amazing-looking multicolor lighting effects.
Key Features
- Lighting that is extremely strong
- Color solutions that are versatile
- Included is an iPad holder.
- Just for the mains
Best ring light for home studio
Color temperature: 5500K | Power supply: Mains | Dimensions: 61.4 x 51.3 x 11.2 cm
We’re now getting into extreme lighting territory. Neewer offers a well-specified 18-inch model with 240 LEDs, a color temperature of 5500K, and a dimming range of 1 to 100%.
Instead of color temperature sensors, this ring light comes with white and orange color filters that you can use in conjunction with the dimming controls to achieve the desired temperature. It comes with a lightweight but sturdy tripod, as well as a phone holder and a hot shoe, so you can deal with a DSLR instead of your phone.
Key Features
- Large ring light with
- Fine lighting controls
- Ideal for DSLR
- Just for the mains
The Bottom Line
What is the best ring light? You’ll need to consider all of your wants and needs and compare them to the choices available. All of them are high-quality choices that are needed for a specific occasion.
Consider what you want to do with a ring lamp. A makeup artist can think along different lines than a YouTuber or TikTok user. Often, still, photographers and videographers have common requirements, but the choice will have to be adjusted based on how near or far away the subject is.
To be honest, seeing so much light isn’t always a bad thing, but you would want to go for an 18-inch or 14-inch light. If you take care of your ring light, it will last you for years!
We do know one thing for certain. Using one of the best ring lights for photography that we described would open up a whole new door for your photography or videography skills.
Check out the other posts below to read more about equipment for Filmmaking, Photo Editing, Video Editing, Slopro Apps, Free Adobe Software List.
