DIY $8 Ringlight Folds Flat in Your Bag
Photographer Tommy Huynh has what may be the coolest adaptation of a DIY ringlight I have seen yet.It is small, light, cheap and folds flat for easy portability.
He has instructions on how to make it, with some neat-o example pics of the look it gives. But I still think I need a drawing, or a guts shot, or something to help me better understand how it goes together.
So, the final product appears to rock. But the instructions need... a little more cowbell. He doesn't have his comments function turned on, so I don't see how to ask for a drawing or... something.
But maybe he'll see the post here and beef up the instructions a little bit. Then, being a guy, I can print them out and throw them away, as I am genetically required to assemble stuff without reading instructions, anyway.
If you are late to the DIY ringlight party, check out this one or this one, both of which were discussed earlier.
There is also a pretty good store-bought version out there.
Labels: DIY
Follow me on Twitter: @Strobist
Now Shipping from USA and UK: Strobist Lighting Seminar DVDs
Feed your brain: My Favorite Lighting/Photo Books
by David, at 4:02 PM.
16 Comments:
So have you actually shot one of the alienbees ring lights? What are your impressions?
I'm a satisfied user of their monolights, and I couldn't justify the extra cost yet...
Great this one seems more easy to do than the "wok" version!
Everyone wants more cowbell!!
Sweet! I almost burnt the house down with mine....but it works nicely!
here
If you want to spend some money, check out ringflash adaptor for Canon 580EX and Nikon SB800
From the blog pictures, it looks like the foldable ringlight is just two pieces of flat plastic cut to shape (it looks like the front and back pieces are the exact same shape) with silvered cloth connecting the two. Think of an old fireplace wood and leather bellows, the kind used to blow air into a struggling fire - except the pointy end spreads apart further than the rounded end.
An extremely neat idea and since it uses a speed light (and we of course have several already in our bags), the extra weight is truly negligible. Man this is brilliant (pardon the pun).
Now to find a local plastic source...
Cheers,
If you want to contact him, just look at his Blogger profile to discover his email.
I'll suggest him to read your suggestion for the DIY tutorial, but I think that your real voice has a good influence on him. ;-)
I've been lusting after the alien bees ringflash but I'll try this out if the instructions get expanded
Neat design but it appears as though the viewfinder is blocked by the ring itself. Certainly a problem unless you have live preview on the LCD. Or am I missing something.
How can it block the viewfinder ?? You're viewing TTL on and SLR and it slides over the lens hood
Looks good, and easy to make if you have the access to the right materials.
The back plate is a single piece of silvered acrylic, and the front is identical except of clear polycarbonate which has been attacked with a sander to make it translucent. Obviously the front that wasn't the sanded ring was see through, but he's stuck a piece of reflective film (mylar) on the front to reflect the light back. The unit is given depth using the reflective material, which is also how it can fold flat. You could do an identical thing with standard issue Tin Foil and Cardboard, it just wouldn't stand up to being folded/unfolded, the foil would tear.
Wow, thanks for the mention, I was wondering why my traffic peaked! :) Sorry for the crappy documentation, as mentioned in the latest entry, I'm away from home but will try to give more cowbell when I get back to Tex. Comments should be enable now too, still trying to figure out this blogging thing, that was my 2nd blog entry ever:)
Marcel and Richard, you guys got it spot on. It's a lot like a bellows (never thought of it that way before though!). If you are in San Antonio, I got my stuff from Plastic Supply of SA on Josephine, nice people.
If you guys got any questions, feel free to post them over there and I'll try my best to answer them.
Thanks!
Tommy
yea to early for me to be commenting, lol TTL !!!!
Very nice work & creativity...
I built one loosely based around this design.
I used a 25cd packaging top for the front of the light, and tinfoil and duct tape for the rest of the body.
It turned out great, it doesn't fold up nice and neat like the one above. However, it cost me virtually $0 cause it's just stuff I had laying around and it seems to work really well. I can't wait to use it.
i just finished my version of this.
i am fortunate enough to have a CNC router so the cutting was easy.
i used reflective metal tape to coat the inside and i rigid 2 inch wood veneer ring in the middle. not as portable, but impressive none the less.
Well I finally added more cowbell to the instructions, hope this helps!
Post a Comment
<< Home