I've noticed lots of comments about various lighting techniques but haven't seen any info on lens light rings / flashes. Does anyone use such a lighting system?

AIR, light rings were hot for a little while and then they fell into the specialist camp. AIR the two major complaints were, (1) the lighting is flat which ruins the artistic effect of shadow and highlight, and (2) the ring highlight that it leaves in people's eyes is unattractive. As always YMMV

I have one which I bought with the intent to use for macro shots. I agree that it tends to make things look a bit flat. I now mainly use it for portraits even thought the look gets old quick if over-used.

I just gave it a quick try and I did not like the results for the full pens shots. It casts an odd shadow around the pen. Maybe a combination of some spots and the ring would work well but I have no time to test it right now.

/Woody

When I think about using flash, it's for subjects that are moving and not well-lit enough to use a shutter speed needed to freeze their motion. A ring flash might be good to capture a macro of an insect on foliage, but you don't need any kind of flash for pen photography.

Whether the intended use is pen photography or the photography of any static subject, you only need continuous light, not flash. Doesn't matter if it's natural light, a light bulb (tungsten or fluorescent), or what the quantity of light is - well, ok, you need enough ambient light to achieve focus. It's true that really long exposures can lead to the buildup of noise due to the heating of the image sensor, but that's not a concern with shutter speeds below, say, 30 seconds. As long as you can diffuse the light reasonably to control reflections, you can always set a shutter speed to capture a properly-exposed image without the use of flash.

I am completely new to macro-photography and took this quick and dirty handheld snap of an old Pilot 78G using an even older Nikon Coolpix 4500 and SL1 ringlight (that was thrown into a deal for a fisheye lens). I think that it does get light onto the subject quite well but I will need to do a lot of experimenting before I become happy with it.



I usually take shots more like this one from last night (with the same old 4megapixel camera).



Edited: It's a Nikon ringlight, not a flash. I learn something every day...

I do, but not for pens. I have a rechargeable LED-ringlight, and a triple head ring flash. I use both for high magnification macro shots, mostly for a.) tiny moving critters, and b.) for handheld high magnification shots.

For pen shots I use a combination of single flash units, one or two controlled by the camera, and up to 5 with little slave units (the latter make it possible to use discontinued and second hand flashes, which can't be used on a digital camera due to high voltages over the contacts, cheap ones IOW), for lighting up shadows and creating a little halo around the pen if required. Oh, I do use diffusers and/or a light tent for best results. Heads-on no diffuser flashes are rather harsh on any tiny scratches etc. on the nib .

HTH, warm regards, Wim

Lots of excellent information! Thank you all.
-Jay