Have you ever wondered how some photographers and videographers get an almost shadowless lighting effect without making everything look dull and lifeless?
Meet the Yongnuo YN608C Bi-Color LED Video Ring Light
A ring light is like a hula hoop of light, with your lens or smartphone poking through the open middle. A ring light is a simple lighting tool that is commonly used for beauty shots, portraits, and macro photography.
Great lighting is important if you want people to watch your YouTube videos from start to finish. Your viewers want to be able to see your face clearly and will stop watching if they cant. Natural light works great, and its cheap, well its free, but not every video is suited to the outdoors. That’s where the YN608C comes in.
This brand-new light from Yongnuo is another amazing product in a long line of high quality photo and video bits at a competitive price point.
The YN608C makes front-filling lighting soft and even, eliminating harsh shadows and spotty effects. On top of pro-level capabilities, its accessible. Seriously its really easy to use. Its got a really simple remote control, adjustable color temperature levels, and Its easy to mount on a tripod or stand.
What does it come with? It comes in this fabric bag for storage and transport as well this little plastic handle and the remote control. That’s pretty much it. It doesn’t come with power or batteries. Well at least not here in Australia anyways.
Speaking of power it you can use a standard 12V power brick or 2 Sony NPL style batteries. Just be aware that if you want to use the light on batteries youll need to use 2 batteries as each colour temperature requires its own power. More on that later.
Lets go back a bit and talk about that remote control.
The lights wireless remote allows you to make all quick changes to color or brightness from wherever your camera is set up. For me this is super helpful because if Im trying to create a certain atmosphere I dont need to move from where I am to change the brightness or colour. Keep in mind though the remote has this little switch on the side, if you forget to turn it off the remote stays on and you will probably be annoyed at the fact that youll need to change the batteries in it every time you use it.
The YN608C can operate at either 3300 Kelvin or 5500 Kelvin colour temperatures or a mix of both at the same time. What does that even mean? Well basically you can make the light really warm or really cool. As I mentioned earlier you can create really diverse effects and atmospheres by taking advantage of this. Here is an example. Lets quickly take a look at how the temperature and brightness affects a scene.
Okay so whats not good about it. I only have 1 issue with the YN608. The remote control. Okay let me explain. The remote is a really fantastic idea and it works great.
“Why are you complaining about it then Christina?” well its because the remote is the only way to control the light. Allow me to elaborate a little. Ill try not to bore you.The light itself has an on/off switch. That’s it. No controls at all. Nothing. Its like a barren wasteland. Well not really. You get the idea though. Pretty much every other ring light we used and tested before we purchased this one had manual controls on the light itself.
“So why did you buy it anyways?” Well not having manual controls didn’t matter to us. It wasn’t the deal breaker because of the most important killer feature every single ring light should have…… Girth…….
Hey hey, get your mind outta the gutter. I see you giggling. Lets be serious for a second. Girth is the measurement around the middle of something not whatever you were thinking. Rude.
The YN608C’s girth is impressive. Earlier when I mentioned that a ring light is like a hula hoop of light, well the YN608C is literally a hula hoop. The inside diameter is 53cm or 21 inches for you imperial folks. What does that all mean? Well lets put it simply if you have a huge camera setup like we do then it will most likely be able to shoot through it with any issues at all.
“So who is this light for?” Its for virtually every serious makeup artist on YouTube as it instantly enhances facial features and helps show the true colors of the skin as well as what products they are using.
Its for reviewers just like me. If you want your audience to know youre serious about making high quality content then the Yougnuo YN608C is for you
“Okay Okay, What about the price? It sounds expensive!” Its pretty cheap for what you get. Let me explain. At the time of filming we paid $200 australian dollars for it. If you look at any of the other well know brands youll be paying upwards of $400 for a light that isnt as bright, doesnt have temperature controls and is half the size. For me it actually makes no sense to buy any of the other ring lights.
In conclusion. Let’s keep it short.
The Yongnuo YN608C is the only ring light you’ll ever need. Period.
You peek, we seek
