Lighting for good photos! Help please

[DaniLouise]

Hi All

I was wondering what lighting everyone uses? I have a newer ring light which is ok but I'm not getting as good lighting as I'm seeing in most people's photos on instagram etc. I have uploaded a couple of photos. In the first this is not my work just a pic I've grabbed from instagram to show what I mean about the lighting. It looks awesome! Do you think this is just very good lighting or a filter applied also? The second photo is a picture I'm taking with my iPhone 7 and the newer ring light as my lighting. Obviously the first is of lashes and the second is brows but I had no saved pics on my phone of lashes
As you can see the lighting is nowhere near as good and even the quality of the photo... not sure what I'm doing wrong. Im assuming the flash isn't used as wouldn't be nice for the clients eyes so I don't use that.
Any advice would be much appreciated xx

 

[Rach Dilks]

I would like help with this also (i'm rubbish at photos)

 

[salonfrog]

Contact your local photography club. You’d be amazed at how helpful they can be. The members tend to be very enthusiastic to help!

They are always looking for models to photograph. Invite them over or take a couple of models to them. Then see what they do.

 

[MirandaElegance]

It definitely looks like the one you uploaded has been edited! A bit of jiggery pokery with filters and editing apps can go a really long way. Try the app called FaceTune, I've found this fantastic for editing pictures of my work. You can whiten the eyes, soften, Brighten, pick out details etc. Using a ring light is great, I've also found that other lighting for pictures of nails such as a daylight lamp makes a big difference too! x

 

[DuncanDOW]

Daylight is your friend, you really can't beat it for rich photos. Also a good camera will make a huge difference!
If you are set on a light, then look at large ring lights (good for getting that fashion look in eyes) and also diffusing daylight lamps (good for even skin tones). You can get these on Amazon, Ebay etc pretty cheaply.