Tiny ring light does more than make your selfies shine

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The SELFLASH is essential for selfies plus a whole lot more.
The SELFLASH is essential for selfies plus a whole lot more.
Photo: SELFLASH

Tech accessories tend to solve a single problem really well. The SELFLASH, a small ring light you attach to your smartphone for selfies, is not just around to make you look pretty.

In offering a flattering wink of light in a variety of colors and intensities, the SELFLASH also provides up to 128 GB of storage for file transfers, can serve as a backup battery for your phone and has a Bluetooth tracker. Not satisfied with your smartphone’s camera? A pro model of the SELFLASH also comes with a 15.1-megapixel camera.

The SELFLASH is currently on Indiegogo so the makers can fund production. It starts at $35, which is more than 50 percent off the eventual retail price.

The SELFLASH can help us look our best in dark places.
The SELFLASH can help us look our best in dark places.
Photo: SELFLASH

The increasingly sophisticated cameras in smartphones, especially in the Apple iPhones, have been a great disrupter to the camera industry as millions of people pass on traditional cameras in favor of the cameras in their phones. Even professionals and artists are producing images suitable for publication and gallery walls.

But most flashes built into phones provide too harsh a light or too little light to effectively light up a dark room.

The SELFLASH is designed similar to a ring flash, used in professional photography since the 1950s. At first designed for macro photography, ring flashes have become popular in portrait and fashion photography because of softer shadows and circular highlights in a subject’s eyes.

Not just for smartphone photography. Another feature lets you store and transfer files.
Not just for smartphone photography. Another feature lets you store and transfer files.
Photo: SELFLASH

The adjustable light on the SELFLASH can also shine continuously for video and a separate attachment can put it to work on the hot shoe of a DSLR. It works with a companion app, available in both iOS and Android, that can also serve as a sharing and social network platform.

Based in New Castle in the United Kingdom, the SELFLASH Co. also have a selfie stick that works with any phone and the portable light.

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