In classical portraiture work a ring flash is seldom used. In the so call ad vangarde or fashion or music artist work this is a gimick used to try to pump some life into medicore work by too many wanna to bes however inthe hands one some one who can make people pop, swing, sing and dance with any other lighting this comes as another way of adding an extra dimension. Too many clients especially in the music industry see this and think hey the picture rocks but if you seen the effect , and look past it to what the content is - some times its still the same sad unexciting half past six work because some photogs are big on concepts but not so big on ability to produce good basic pictures. So what you end up seeing is at best something with potential but missing some bits to make it shine.There is an el cheapo way - think of the round flouresence lights, the color casts adds an additional sense of unreal but you still need to do everything else to make the picture work. In case you need the brand more than anything else then you need to spend money to look good.
