DIY Ring Light

[Iguanasan]

This seemed to have gotten lost in the "What's in yr scrap?" thread that is this month's assignment so I thought I'd put it in it's own thread where it might be noticed.

Pulled a few things out of my junk drawer and tried taking a few shots with my new DIY ring light. Here are the results.

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/attachments/f13/9967-october-2010-photography-assignment-whats-yr-scrap-bin-waste-basket-junk-drawer-img_3404_edited.jpg

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/attachments/f13/9968-october-2010-photography-assignment-whats-yr-scrap-bin-waste-basket-junk-drawer-img_3410_edited.jpg

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/attachments/f13/9969-october-2010-photography-assignment-whats-yr-scrap-bin-waste-basket-junk-drawer-img_3412_edited.jpg

I found the DIY info on building the ring light on this page: Modding Project: Ring Light MetkuMods - Because you love your hardware! (http://metku.net/index.html?path=mods/ring-light/index_eng) and thought I'd give it a try. Here's the result of today's efforts:

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/attachments/f13/9970-october-2010-photography-assignment-whats-yr-scrap-bin-waste-basket-junk-drawer-img_3423_edited.jpg

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/attachments/f13/9971-october-2010-photography-assignment-whats-yr-scrap-bin-waste-basket-junk-drawer-img_4035_edited.jpg

What I've realized though is my nifty fifty is the wrong lens to use this on as the minimum focal length is 1.5ft and while the LEDs are pretty bright they don't throw enough light for 1.5ft. A macro or something that could be at .5ft or something would be best for this project. It was a fun build though.

[casil403]

Cool stuff Iggy.....I've thought of rigging up something similar a few times for macro work. :)

[Bambi]

it is cool. But where did you find the components to build it?

[Iguanasan]

it is cool. But where did you find the components to build it?

There are links in the web article that inspired me, Modding Project: Ring Light MetkuMods - Because you love your hardware! (http://metku.net/index.html?path=mods/ring-light/index_eng), that go to DealExtreme for the LEDs. The other parts are just things I had lying around the house.

[Marko]

Very cool Iggy! Thanks for sharing the pix and technique. Dig that matchbook shot.

[Iguanasan]

Very cool Iggy! Thanks for sharing the pix and technique. Dig that matchbook shot.

Thanks, Marko. Hard to believe that 20 years later we still have a few books in the junk drawer. Easy for us non-smokers I guess. I often wonder why we even keep them around.