The best ring lights for teaching offer a way to create high-quality video interactions and assets with a professional finish.
From teaching online video lessons to creating video guidance resources that students can watch later, a ring light can help improve image quality. The idea is to offer a consistent light source that creates a more natural finish and ultimately allows students to feel like you're more realistic and engaging when you're on video.
Ring lights are primarily designed for facial clarity, but of course, this light source can be used to add great visibility to the assets used in your video, from books to experiments, if you set it up correctly.
While laptop and smartphone cameras, as well as dedicated webcams, are better than ever, they are all limited by the light source. Improving that light source gives the camera the best chance of doing its job well, creating a more immersive video experience for students to enjoy.
But which one is best for you? Read on to find the best ring light for teachers.
1. Neewer Ring Light Kit: Best ring light option for distance teaching
The Neewer Ring Light Kit is one of the best available, as it is designed for professional-level makeup work. The massive 20-inch ring light uses an array of 352 LEDs to create a wide, even distribution of 44W of light ranging from 3200K to 5600K, allowing you to avoid the overly white light that some ring lights offer.
It runs on both mains power and battery power, making it ideal if you want the option to move around or sit somewhere that isn’t near a power source. The size of this light offers a wide spread that can offer a more even finish, ideal for any teacher who wants to illuminate more than just their face. So for a science teacher taking a class through a live experiment, for example, this is a great option.
2. Rotolight Neo 2: the best light ring for video classes
The Rotolight Neo 2 is a product created by a company with years of experience creating professional-grade lighting, for photographers and others. As such, it represents a huge amount of research and experience condensed into a very small, highly efficient and super effective form factor. Small enough to sit on a desk, in fact.
Place this next to your screen, laptop, webcam, smartphone (whatever) and it will illuminate you as a subject with perfectly balanced light that creates the most realistic rendering. We haven't missed the fact that it's not technically a ring light, but it does the exact same job, just without the option to place your smartphone in the center.
Whether on battery or mains power, this is super portable. However, it offers a whopping 1,840 lux of bi-color light that's good for clear images up to one meter, making it ideal for video lessons.
3. UBeesize Selfie Ring Light – Best Affordable Ring Light
The UBeesize Selfie Ring Light is a great option for teachers who don't want to spend too much. This compact 10.2-inch ring light still manages to offer enough power for teachers on a video call with the options of three levels of warmth from 3000K to 6000K and 11 levels of brightness.
Some versions come with a tripod and are still very affordable. A USB power cable is supplied which can be connected to a mains charger, portable battery, laptop, tablet or smartphone, making it very versatile and portable.
The tripod also includes a phone holder, perfect if you want to teach a class, watch students while looking at the light and camera and not have your hands full. For its low price, it comes with a three-year parts replacement warranty, which is even more impressive.
4. Xinbaohong Clip-On Selfie Light – Great for iPhone and Laptop
The Xinbaohong Clip-on Selfie Light is a mega-portable and super-affordable ring light that easily clips onto smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other devices. Basically, anything that’s 0.7 inches or less, will clip onto it. This makes it a very easy-to-use device, powered by a USB cable, that delivers a powerful 6000K light that’s great for video teaching.
This device offers both bright and dark modes, although when used on the bright option, the battery doesn't last very long. Yes, it's battery-powered only, so it's great for travel, but since you'll likely be using it with a USB-compatible device, charging shouldn't be an issue. At this price, it's so easy to try it out that it's hard to think of a reason not to.
5. ESDDI 18 Ring Light – Best Powerful Dimmable Ring Light for Video
The ESDDI 18 Ring Light offers a large and very powerful ring light at a reasonable price when you consider that the padded carrying case, six-foot stand, and phone clip are also included. The light itself offers a wide color range, from 3000 to 6500K, as well as the ability to vary the brightness from 10 to 100. That’s a huge range from the powerful 432 LEDs that put out a whopping 48W of light output.
All of this makes it equally capable of illuminating a teacher for a remote class or covering a larger area to demonstrate an experiment. The only downside is that you will need power as that is the only option on this ring light.
6. Smoovie Color Stream LED Ring Light – Best Color Light
The Smoovie Color Stream LED Ring Light is ideal for those looking to offset the color of a room. This could mean helping to normalize color, but it could also be used as a feature to create ambiance for a presentation, for example. This also allows you to choose three color modes within the white spectrum to vary the warmth and get ideal face coverage when needed.
It runs on USB, however some versions (at the time of publishing) also come with a 3000mAh battery charger, making it truly mobile. There are 6-inch or 8-inch size variants, which are bright enough for most rooms.
7. Erligpowht 10″ Selfie Ring Light – Best Value for Money
The Erligpowht 10″ Selfie Ring Light is a well-balanced option that offers many powerful features at an affordable price. This model comes with a 10-inch LED ring light capable of three color modes, ranging from white bright to a softer yellow.
This device sits on a tripod that can extend from 45cm high to 127cm. Also includes a smartphone holder. It also includes a remote control for remote use that connects to the phone via Bluetooth.
It has plenty of benefits while keeping the price low, making it an ideal entry-level model for anyone looking to try out a ring light without breaking the bank.