In this article, we will follow photographer and videographer Vienna to enjoy a creative and beautiful macro videography exploration journey, together to discover the beauty of miracles in the details of life!

Hi everyone, I’m Vienna Marie and I am a creative based in Sydney Australia. I am also a photographer and videographer and I have teamed up with Godox today to talk about video lighting, especially using their macro light. 

As a creative that is always constantly on the go and needs gear that’s light and compact, the Godox Ring 72 LED light is one of my go-to’s, especially when it comes to shooting macros and detailed shots. 

What I love about this LED light is that it’s lightweight and it’s very easy to use. You just swivel it onto your lens of choice, and bam, there you go instant light for whatever occasion or situation that you need. 

Number two would be the fact that it helps with both video and photography which is a huge plus. 

Lastly, it supports both detachable lithium batteries and four AA batteries, meaning that you have power when you are constantly on the go and need something to light straight away. 

On Camera

Alright, so we are now in my home studio to give you a bit more flexibility in seeing how to use this in a home studio setting. The combo that I’ve chosen to shoot this is the Sony 90mm G lens with a 62-thread ring on it. I’m going to quickly shoot some without the light first, so switch this off and I’ll show you from there.

What I appreciate about this product is the fact that it’s just easy to use. When I look at it, it’s quite warm and it makes me feel approachable to it. If I was to be in front of the lens or go in front of someone else it wouldn’t be as overwhelming as other ring lights that probably influencers or vloggers use on their YouTube, but this one is pretty good. 

It’s also quite aesthetically pleasing knowing that you have full control because it’s a round shape. I just feel personal that it’s just a nice touch to your camera. The fact that it’s both the ring light and the control unit at the top that’s life is a huge plus. If you’re a photographer and videographer, gear is everything, and your health is everything too. You kind of want to make sure that you’re stable and that you’re secure in the way that you operate and film, and this ring light is one that isn’t too hard and something I would recommend for the books.

Left/Right

Different Ratios

For this demonstration, I’m quickly going to show you how the light can be customized in terms of the power of the light, either it being at full light or half light and just going through the ranges of the levels that you can do for either of them. We’re quickly going to turn on the light itself. 

At the moment it is at full ring light now as you can see you can swivel in between either turning off the right one or the left one here and even turning back one on and going through from the levels of one, swiveling it through up to ten. 

This can demonstrate some bits of contrast and dimension or dynamics in your video or photography that you’re capturing in this case for food photography, or we can put it onto the other side creating more shadows as well. The same sort of thing, swiveling through the levels one to ten or if you would like to have it at full light, you can do that by pressing L and R and then having it go through and then just figuring out which one you would like to capture either for photo or video. 

Comparing the two video and photography, the difference that I see is that it brightens the image, but also brings out those little intricate details and textures that probably your eye wouldn’t be able to pick up unless it’s lit. Before we begin, I’m just going to take some before and after shots so you can see the difference between using a ring light and not using one. 

This is what you’ll see here, and now I’m going to just quickly look at it with some light. Now what I think at the moment is because it’s quite harsh that the lighting I don’t think you’ll be able to see it but I’m going to dial down one of the things here so we can get a bit more dramatic lighting. Now the good thing is it doesn’t have to be fully dramatic, but I think it would just add some nice sort of dimension to it. 

Off Camera

Though I use it on the camera most of the time, one of the best things about it is that you can slip off the light and use it within cable’s reach. As a creative, it’s always nice to have that bonus of flexibility and just problem solving and to have that with a light that is portable like that’s a huge plus in my books. 

One of the other things that are great about this light is that it actually hits 5600k daylight, which is a plus again when it comes to hitting the details that you need.

We are here at the studio about to do another demonstration of what it’s like to control the lighting with your hand, with the ring light off. We’re going to quickly slip it off here, bringing it upwards towards the ceiling, and then just bring it towards the product whatever you would like to do to help illuminate it, so we can bring it around in a beautiful shape in a circle or whatever other form you’d like to desire for it to enhance the product that you are shooting. 

We can even bring it up closer, high above it, which is nice for food photography or even food video, or you can bring it back for even a nice reveal shot. 

Alright, so we’re now going to get to the next level of what we can do definitely with textures. This being with the lemon, so we’ve sliced it up and what you’ll see in the next clip is how we get a much more dynamic and dramatic lighting. We’ve added some haze in a can to enhance the experience of it and really bring out the textures and just the different foregrounds and the detail of what we’re going to go with for this.

Alright, so we are going to do something different for this scenario, pretty much we’re going to focus on some jewelry here that I’ve set up in a container of water decked out with flowers. We’re going to do a different type of shot with something smaller, so let’s try it out. 

The fact that you have those two dual-turning switches makes it easier for you being on the job. A good pro to this is definitely if you are time-crunched and you are under that pressure instead of having to go set up your lighting and everything. The fact that it’s just there and then at the tip of your lens, it’s just easy. 

Also, the Ring 72 light just gives intricate details to the textures that I’ve laid out here with the piece of jewelry. It’s very powerful when it comes to detail and texture like that, which is a huge plus when it comes to e-commerce and getting those minor details for the jewelry itself. 

I hope you enjoyed this article and that you learned something from this photography and videography tutorial. Godox and I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with, either it being for corporate or creative purposes. Remember it’s small, lightweight and compact, and I agree that it’s something that I use in my everyday kit when I’m constantly on the go for photography or video.