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

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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.

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How To Build An Uber Strong Ring Light For $25

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OK, OK, I am a sucker for ring lights, don’t hate me. This build by DIY Perks combines the benefits of LED lighting (i.e. bright, continuous, cool) with the awesomeness of a ring light (smooth light, no shadows, glamorous look).

If you’ve been around the blog for a while, you know that we consider ring lights to be one of the best creative tools, and we have featured ring lights as big as 4 feet, and as small as 4 inches. This one is in the middle of the range, though probably brighter than both.

The makers at DIY Perks (who also made this LED panel) made one of the nicest ring lights I have seen to date.

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How To Make A DIY Square LED Ring Light

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Here’s a quick and easy DIY build you can use to spice up your collection of studio lighting. Kevin Kubota walks us through the process in the 12 minute CreativeLive session, below. He uses four of these 4′ LED strip lights he found at Lowes for $34 each, so this isn’t exactly a cheap only-need-stuff-you-already-own kind of build, but I imagine if you looked around a bit, you could source some less expensive lights. With that being said, however, Kubota prefers the more expensive LED lights of florescent lights for a few reasons. Primarily, that they are much more durable than florescent; also that they draw very little power, making them ideal to use on location with his AlienBees portable power pack. [Read More…]

Can DIY Modifiers Compete Against Pro Grade Modifiers?

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Last week I wrote about why you would want to do a DIY photography project, but can it match up to pro gear? Challenge… Accepted!

This week I did a whole photoshoot using only DIY modifiers for main lights. With the help of my girlfriend and her friends to model for me, the challenge was on.

The idea behind challenge was to prove that making your own modifiers and equipment is not all that bad compared to branded expensive material. (And before the first comment starts coming in, let me say that I do own a couple of Westcott softboxes and umbrellas, and I use them when needed or when working with high end clients, I just really like my DIY’s).

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