fbpx

DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

Search

 

Submit A Story

Cheap LED Lights: What is CRI and does it matter

by 2 Comments

As a long time reader of the blog, you probably already know that not all LED are made equal. One of the prime parameter indicating the quality of light that an LED panel gives out is its CRI (Color Rendering Index) rating. The higher the CRI, the more colors that light is able to render, giving a more precise image for the camera to capture.

If you heard about the green tint or the purple hue LED horror stories, those are both a result (or the cause) for a low CRI rating.

The folks at Videomaker put a colorful object under 4 types of light: tungsten (very close to CRI of 100), and three LED lights: a 77 CRI light, a 99 CRI light and a light with a unknown CRI (which probably means very low) and compared the results.

[Read More…]

How To Build A Mega 84cm, 480 LEDs Ring Light For $35

by 17 Comments

Here is a smart ring light fitted for the LED era. I mean we shared a huge kick a$$ ring light build before, but this one is powered by LEDs rather than CFLs and it is just as huge and just as awesome.

This huge contraption was invented by Gvido Mūrnieks who also made a DIY Light Blaster and who I now consider a master woodman/tinkerer/maker kind of guy.

The build starts with a huge piece of plywood which you can get (along with some aluminum angles) from the scraps section of your local DIY store or carpentry.

[Read More…]

Watch This LED Panel Being Thrown, Punched, Ran Over And Continue To Work

by Leave a Comment

I am not completely sure how to tag this video, but I am sure that it show at least one specific benefit of LED lights over any other type of light: Durability.

Filmmaker Nitsan Simantov took an Amaran AL-H160 for a spin and while the review does not cover CRI,  color temperature or brightness, it does prove one thing and proves it very well. The AL-160 is one tough light.

What starts as an innocent light stand drop, evolves into using the LED as a punch bag, oar, golf ball and Frisbee – the light survived them all, albeit the batteries do fall off on impact every now and then.

[Read More…]

DIY 7,500 Lumens 100W LED Flashlight That Only Costs About $10 To Build

by 8 Comments

Ready for the latest installment of a DIY lighting project? Assuming you have a couple 18V Nickel Cadmium power tool batteries laying around, as I suspect many of you DIYers do, you can build this powerful flashlight on the cheap. Plus, aside from being  inexpensive to build and it’s also surprisingly simple to make.

Take a look at the video to see how it’s done:

[Read More…]

How I Took These Photos Of Electric Capoeira Fighters

by 7 Comments

Throughout my years as a photographer, I am in a constant search for the source of my inspiration, for the place where my ideas for my personal projects come from. I keep asking myself why I do these projects, and whether they are worth the large investment they require.

I remember that as a small child I used to love playing with Lego, and assembling them to various constructions. Lego gave me the ability to connect between life situations, such as feelings, images, things I like, and even situations that make me nervous.

In this project called “Electric Capoeira” I combined and connected three all my passions – the passion for making things with my own hands, the passion for Capoeira (a sport I practiced and love) and the passion for photography.

[Read More…]

Not All LED Panels Are Made Equal. Here’s How To Tell The Difference

by 26 Comments

Today I want to talk about LEDs and CRI. You see not all LEDs were created equal. Most of the time when we talk about LEDs we talk brightness and color temperature, and that makes sense as those are easily measured and have great impact on our photos.

One thing that we often overlook is CRI. And what is CRI you ask? Well CRI stands for Color rendering index and it the number that has the bigger impact on the quality of light.

Let me explain.

[Read More…]

Build Your Own Lighting Setup With This Awesome DIY 1000w Equivalent LED Flashlight

by 9 Comments

Okay, this project may be a bit challenging for novices, but if DIY is your thing, this video tutorial certainly delivers the goods. In it, DIY Perks  (who has an LED fever – he also made these kick a$$ LED panel and ring light) shows us the step by step process of building a seriously legit 1000w equivalent LED light source. The flashlight really packs a punch– it can be operated with one hand, has adjustable brightness (and a lot of it), plus, it works on batteries or an AC adapter. Did we mention it doesn’t flicker (thank you voltage based dimmer) and it boasts spotlight and floodlight mode?

It works great for shooting video or stills, indoors or outdoors. Overall, it’s a great addition to your lighting setup and sounds like a pretty fun build. Now, let’s get to it:[Read More…]

How To: Dramatic Portrait Lighting Using Nothing But Lamps

by 4 Comments

Before I started working with speedlights the first ever off-camera lighting equipment I used was  a desk lamp, this was 7 years ago. So, after 7 years into photography I wanted to challenge myself to shooting portraits using nothing but desk lamps again. Here is a DIY dramatic lighting tutorial using lamps.

[Read More…]

Test Your Flash Duration With An Arduino And a 50c Diode

by Leave a Comment

By now you already know that Flashes don’t just pop for a fraction of a second. This fraction has a value and its value determines how well it will stop motion (say a splash of liquid). This time is called T.5 (and T.1) and they are explained here.

So every flash manufacturer shares their T.5, and as with many devices there is some variance. Matt Kane of vela.io recently built a device for testing the actual flash duration using an Arduino board and a cheapo diode. The reason for this was to test how the output from strobes (and the vela LED airgap) behave.

Interestingly LED strobes behave differently than Xenon strobes and their fall off patterns is different. They are also much faster (see title image).

[Read More…]

Recent Posts