The Tymkrs are hard at work setting up their home studio, and since they’ll be shooting a few videos, they need some lights. The lights themselves aren’t very special; for YouTube videos, anything bright enough will work. The real challenge is making a mount and putting them in the right place, With a shop full of tools, making some video lights isn’t that hard and easily translates into a neat video project.
The lights began their lives as large fluorescent fixtures, the kind that would normally house long fluorescent tubes. The Tymkrs cut the metal reflector of this fixture in half, capped the ends with wood, and installed normal incandescent sockets in one end.
The inside of this reflector was coated with a reflective material, and a beautiful rice paper diffuser was glued on. The Tymkrs attached a metal bracket to these lights and screwed the bracket to the ceiling. There’s enough friction to keep the lights in one spot, but there’s also enough play in the joints to position them at just the right angle.
“The Tymkrs cut he metal…”
Okay, how long until somebody asks “What is HE METAL?”? ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbowF6rR7JA
Meanwhile, I am trying to decide which fabric to buy for my greenscreen background, at the local discount fabric warehouse. My home video studio is very much a “Work In Progress” itself. Thanks for the ideas, Tymkrs!
Wow, El Charlie on HaD, everything is possible…
Let us know what you decide re: greenscreen fabric, we’ve got plans to incorporate that into the studio as well!
I brought home a bunch of swatches for color testing under various lighting conditions, but I have not decided on software yet. I love DIY (i.e NIH), but using “other peoples’ code” can save a lot of precious time…
The thing I worry about with greenscreen is reflections off my projects leaving virtual holes where they break immersion and presence (yeah, my video projects will be s3d360, for VR)…
I will publish my test results. Too many projects and too little time…
I still have a bunch of professional rack panel greenscreen boxen, but they are all PAL (Euro) analog video, and I prefer 4k video (or at least 1080p). Software greenscreen is obvious these days.
And for more information on the step-by-step: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Video-Lights-from-an-Old-Fluorescent-Light/
A smooth shout out to Tymkrs! My current job, (yes, I’m working again!) flops between swing and night shift, so I really don’t have time to stop by at this time.
Congrats on your job :) And no worries, come when you can :)
Love the old PCB sacrificial throat plate embedded in the router table! I did the same thing for my band saw.
3d printers people, 3d printers.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:683874