storhaug
New member
Hello, I recently bought a D5300 bundle, along with a small tripod and a aputure halo ring light, as I finally had the money to start my own macro setup. However, I just put the ring light together and tested it for the first time and I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong. With the light on flash mode, the pics don't seem illuminated at all, almost as if the timing doesn't match. I put the camera into live view mode to try to get a better look, but for some reason after I did that the shot seems to take 1-2seconds, as if the shutter were set really slow (I didn't change any settings), and the shots are black. I then tried taking shots with the light on continuous lighting at full blast, and somehow I still ended up with black or very dark pictures. How is this possible? I'm testing it on objects from 3 inches to 2 feet away and the issue is the same. I am trying to keep the ISO at 100, but I tried opening up the aperture all the way and slowing down the shutter, but STILL had dark shots. I don't see how this can happen because on full-blast it is literally as if a flashlight is pointed straight at the object, yet it turns out dark. What am I doing wrong? What settings do I seem ignorant to?