If I had to pick a second priority, it would be lighting.
Here are the most important things to remember about lights...
The larger the light, the softer and more flattering it is.
The brighter the light, the less noisy the image. (Lower ISO)
The closer the light, the larger and brighter it is. (inverse square law)
Which brings me to my biggest lighting pet peeve...
Way back in the early days of YouTube when makeup vloggers were trying to show off their techniques and create compelling tutorials, they discovered an old lighting accessory photographers would use for face close-ups. Usually for fashion shoots where they wanted to show off fancy makeup.
They discovered the magical ring light.
People saw them using these lights and noticed how flattering they could be, so they bought their own ring lights. Except they weren't doing makeup videos. They weren't shooting close-ups of their face. And therein lies their mistake. A mistake that has caused a cascade effect of thousands and thousands of people buying ring lights just because that's what everyone else was doing.
The original ring lights looked something like this.
These lights were moved in as close as humanly possible in order to surround a face with light and eliminate nearly all shadows. It is a very flattering look that creates cool ring catchlights in the eyes and gives a blank shadow-free canvas for makeup.
This is how a ring light is meant to be used.
As you can see, light hits the face from every angle to give you that shadow free effect. But look at how close the ring light needs to be in order to have the desired effect.
Also, the camera must be placed dead center. If you don't put the camera in the hole, why are you using a ring light? The entire point of the hole is for the camera.
If you back the light up even a little bit, or put the camera off to the side, all of the ring light magic disappears.
It then turns into... a normal light.
A normal light without any light coming from the center.
Which means it is not as bright and it is smaller. If the ring light isn't right up in your face, it is even dimmer and smaller yet. And if you remember my rules, bigger and brighter is (almost) always better.
Do you see the mistake now?
People are buying a light specifically designed for tight face close-ups and the majority of them are not using them for tight face close-ups.
If you want something just as compact, you might consider an LED panel.
Look at all that extra light you get by not having a giant hole in the middle! And by putting the light off to the side, you actually get a more dramatic lighting effect. You can even get two or three of these puppies and create all kinds of different lighting setups.
And if you have a bit more space, just get a traditional softbox kit. You can get two giant lights for the price of a decent ring light.
Look at how big and bright those bad boys are!
Do your research. Check out video lighting tutorials and find a style that you like. There is Rembrandt lighting, 3-point lighting, edge lighting, clamshell lighting... all kinds of neat effects to choose from. And based on the style you prefer, make your lighting equipment choices from there.
Get cheap lights to start. Experiment and learn how to use them. And once you have a decent understanding of lighting, then consider getting the more expensive lights that can accept various modifiers.
In conclusion... NO MORE RING LIGHTS.