Ring lights can be a lot of fun, and they’ve certainly become more popular over the last few years, especially for video. And while ring lights have come down in price a lot, you’re still looking around at least $110 for a basic one that can only do daylight and tungsten (if you’re lucky).
But what if you could make one for less than $30 that would give you every could you could think of? That’s what YouTuber Peter Drazy does in this video, using just an off-the-shelf strip of LEDs and a wire frame for making wreaths. Oh and a whole lot of sticky tape.
The basic process is simple, requiring only a few items.
- Metal wreath ring – $5.87
- LED Light strip – $19.99
- Aluminium foil
- Cardboard
- Sticky tape
The process is pretty simple, although I think Peter uses a little more sticky tape than I would like. With enough layers, I think that tape might cause something of a strange colour cast. Of course, you don’t build something like this for colour accuracy, you build it for wacky colours for effect. Still, it might be worth looking into a hot glue gun as an alternative method of attaching everything.
- Cut a ring out of cardboard to match the size of the wreath ring.
- Cover the cardboard in foil and tape (or glue) it down.
- Attach the LED lights to the wreath ring
- Attach the wreath ring to the cardboard
- Power it up
You’ll want to make sure that all your cables are safely attached. And if you have to use tape, then go for it, but I still think I’d go with the hot glue gun. It’s certainly not the prettiest ringlight out there, but who cares? Nobody’s going to see it – well, not unless you make a video showing people how to make one. All that matters is how the light looks coming off it.
Have you ever made your own ring light?
[via No Film School]
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