Comments on: LED Ring Light

By: Giznevich

Giznevich — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:50:06 +0000

Who cares about proper verbage, or translucent vs.opaque. If you can buy a decent camera, you can purchase a ‘ready-made’ ring light. The point is, as it is with everything else, he learned something valuble in the process, and that alone makes it worth-while.

By: googfan

googfan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:55:38 +0000

GOD DAMNIT!

I was just about to post and submit my build i did last week. It consists of a bendable led srip, a cat food can, a N battery & holder, and some reflective foil….

By: fwank

fwank — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:17:45 +0000

@fartface
because its bloody good fun :)
my one cranks at 9W so 30W would be impressive (and would have some rather interesting heat issues)when you build please post pics
i do like jani’s light since it used components for a purpose other than what they were originally designed, a classic “hack”

By: fartface

fartface — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:17:38 +0000

If you can afford a 40D camera you can afford one of the cheap ring lights available.

Granted the 40D is a cheap junk compared to the 5D or 1Ds but it’s 3X the price of the digital rebel that takes just as good of photos. (Hint, the camera is 10% of the photo, the lens is 90% of it)

I find it odd that some rich guy would waste a ton of time to make a ring light instead of buying one off ebay for $60.00 that is better built and does not waste a couple of hours screwing around.

Honestly, it’s a neat idea, but by the time you chase down all the crap, you might as well buy something already done that is better and does not look home made. Now make that ring light from 10 3W cree lamps so I can do some really cool longer distance stuff and you got a very cool hack!

By: Graham Simpson

Graham Simpson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:15:58 +0000

Well, you’s not using. Diffuser, which won’t help. It’ll make the light less harsh, as well as dimming it slightly.

By: G7

G7 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:42:54 +0000

Nice! I wouldn’t mind trying one out. Are you selling any remakes? Or is there anywhere I can find a similar one for the price range mentioned.

By: stunmonkey

stunmonkey — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:04:36 +0000

Chock full of Awesomenosity.

I have seen a lot of DIY ring lights, but this concept is actually worth using, at least as a base to develop from at any rate. Thanks.

By: MS619

MS619 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:34:36 +0000

i really think that i’ve seen this here before, even though it could have been make:blog. anyways, 4 posts a day is too much. 1 hack a day, plus 2-3 extras posts a week.

By: KF

KF — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:28:12 +0000

This is awesome.

By: fwank

fwank — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:58:50 +0000

i built one on a cokin P-series filter adaptor (84mm dia) for my nikon D60, 100 x 8000mcd white led’s, the light is very harsh but can be touched up afterwards. the main problem is that it is too bright to take photo’s of people, might make a dimmer circuit
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2431/3887597553_e44f36f6ec_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2524/3888392128_56bac2d892_b.jpg

By: M4CGYV3R

M4CGYV3R — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:23:28 +0000

Oh goody, yet another ring light…

By: Maurice

Maurice — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:04:49 +0000

tyco, it totally depends what you are photographing. If you are photographing a painting made of red paint, green paint, blue paint and mixtures of these to get all the other colors then the RGB LEDs will work great. If the painting uses magenta, cyan, yellow, and mixtures of these to get all the other colors then RGB LEDs will only show a black image. In reality most materials have a great mixture of pigments so all LEDs look ok, but there are certainly corner cases that will always look bad with all LEDs. I’ve actually seen art that takes advantage of the narrow frequency of the LED and controlled pigments. The moving lights created a very unusual optical illusion.

By: tyco

tyco — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:48:13 +0000

The reason for the poor color balance is because most white LEDs output a spectrum with a peak at blue, and a peak at yellow. Blue+Yellow=white, but red and green end up sorely lacking and poorly-lit by standard white LEDs.

Better solution: use RGB LEDs and light up all 3 elements to make white.

By: bill hates

bill hates — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:47:17 +0000

Another purpose for old cd cases… Nice build with excellent results..

By: mole

mole — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:29:19 +0000

i was looking forward building a led ring..
nice idea, thanks!