I also used to bench with with my ring fingers on the smooth rings, but I'm only 5'6" so that was a really wide grip for me. I also brought my elbows out to where they were almost at right angles to my body. I did it this way because somebody told me that that was the "proper" way. I ended up developing some shoulder problems and thought that this was probably the source. So, when I got back into weight training about 6 months ago I narrowed my hand spacing a bit using a slightly wider than shoulder width, and brought my elbows in towards my body a bit more. Result - although I'm starting to have some post workout shoulder pain again, it's not as bad as in the past and I feel less stress on my shoulders while I'm benching.
The bottom line IMHO is that you should use the hand spacing that feels most comfortable to you and not worry about somebody else's determination of what it is "supposed to be". Experiment with different widths and go with the one that feels best. You might even want to vary the spacing from time to time.