Ring Around the Caller

When your home recording studio becomes and on-camera studio

We’re currently living in a Zoom, Skype, Google, FaceTime world! Whether we wanted to be or not- we’re all “on camera“. I’ve been doing webinars and classes constantly, and thanks to my amazing photographer wife, I now have a way to be properly lit without shining a desk lamp in my face!

A perfectly timed birthday gift this year was the Belifu Video Photography Ring Light Kit! In addition to my nightly webinars, I’m also on camera for my day job. My ad agency clients participate in recording sessions via Zoom, while the actors connect via Source Connect (unless they’re in my driveway piped into my home studio from their car... which is happening a lot!). So for most of the day and night, I’ve got a webcam in my face!

Early on, I was using a pair of well placed desk lamps. They worked- but made my eyes look even more exhausted than I actually am. So when my birthday came along, my wife (photographer Julia Maloof Verderosa) knew exactly what to get me!

The USB powered ring light comes with lots of useful gadgets. The light itself can be mounted on any standard tripod, but they actually give you two- a small tabletop tripod and a folding full-size tripod that doubles as a selfie stick! You also get a phone mount that can be screwed in then center of the ring, a clamp to mount your phone or any camera to the side of the tripod itself, or just use the standard size screw in the center of the ring to mount your camera. They also throw in a swivel mount that can be attached to help you adjust exactly where the lense is pointing. My Logitech webcam has a standard mount thread on the bottom which works perfectly on all of the included attachments!

The light has several settings: white, warm white, and yellow. The brightness and style is controlled via a switch in the power cable. I’ve found that the yellow light gives a warmer look- more like a traditional lamp. It can also get plenty bright if you need it to- but I find the lower settings to be plenty!

To make this package even better, they’ve included a handy Bluetooth shutter trigger that works with IOS or Android! It works perfectly for snapping pics without your arm raised. However, you’ll want to drop the Bluetooth connection when you’re done because the phone seems to see it as a bluetooth keyboard, and won’t let you type on the phone until it’s disconnected.

Amazing value. Works really well! I hope this helps you survive all of your video conference calls or auditions!