Use a Ring Light for Glasses? Here are 7 Tips to Avoid THAT Awful Glare
Can you use a ring light with glasses? Glare can be one of the most annoying things about ring lights, this is what happened when I first tried a ring light. Especially if you wear glasses, it’s more than just an annoyance – it’s downright painful. But there are ways to avoid glare and still get that perfect light, without a headache.
7 Tips for using a ring light with glasses
Light Positioning – How to setup ring light with glasses
The easiest way to avoid the glare in your glasses is to move your ring light. There are a couple of ways you can do this. One is to buy a ring light that has an arm or bracket so that it’s easy to move the light around your subject. Or, if you have a tripod for your camera, try putting your ring light on there and tilting it up or down.
Another way to avoid annoying glare in your glasses is to change the height of your ring light. For example, you can take a tall stool and stand on it while holding your ring light over your head so that all of the lighting comes from above. This keeps any glare off of your subject’s face or glasses because they aren’t looking up into bright lights – but be aware of shadows.
Turn your wall into a large softlight source
Instead of facing your ring light at your subject, you can bounce the light off a wall. This gives you a large, soft light source that will have less of a glare, but be aware of colour casting – the light will carry the colour of your wall.
Change your ring light source
If none of these other tips work for you and it’s just unavoidable that there is some glare in your glasses, then try changing the type of light. Ring lights are great for some photography, but LED panels are better for this application because they don’t have the crazy hot spots that ring lights do.
Turn your subject’s glasses down
If you’re wearing glasses, then try tilting them downward before taking pictures. This will help reduce glare off of the front part of the lenses and keep it out of your eyes!
Use a polarising filter
If you still can’t get rid of the glare, then try using a polarising filter on your lens. This will reduce reflections and give you less contrast between light and dark areas in your pictures which means that there will be fewer hotspots (bright spots) to deal with!
Practice makes perfect – or at least gets rid of annoying glare
Ultimately, the best way to avoid glare with your ring light is through practice. If you’re using a new product or lighting method that’s causing problems for you then just play around until you get it right!
If you’ve been struggling with glare from your glasses when using a ring light, try these tricks to make it easier on yourself. Ultimately, understanding how light works will always help you light your subjects perfectly every time.
