Bought a fancy light setup for my desk pictures and it looked worse than my phone flash

I spent $80 on one of those ring lights with a tripod from Amazon to take pictures of old coins and bottle caps I find interesting. Set it all up and the shadows were all wrong, made everything look flat and fake compared to just using my phone camera by the window. Anyone else find that natural light beats these artificial setups no matter what you spend on them?

2 comments

2 Comments

bencampbell15d ago

Read somewhere that professional photographers will still ditch their studio lights for window light whenever they can. Natural light just has that softness no amount of gear can fake.

anthony_lane5515d ago

Window light is great but it's not some magic bullet that beats every studio setup. A decent softbox or octabox can mimic natural light pretty well, especially in a controlled room. The real trick is that good photographers know how to use whatever light they've got, whether it's a window or a strobe.