Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Ring



Armed with nothing but a free weekend and some Strobist determination, I decided to save a few hundred bucks and build my own ring light.

My main goal was to make a ring light that didn’t scream cardboard and paper “diy” construction (not that there’s anything wrong with that), and could be self contained and secure, without having to hold a loose speedlight somewhere around the ring. So, I started off with a trip to the local hardware superstore.
1Total cost for materials: $27.29 (excluding an SB-600)

Materials used:
1. 1 pvc drain about 7 inches in diameter -- $13.98
2. 1 pvc drain about 3 and a half inches in diameter -- $8.55
3. Cheap foam tape - $1.98
4. Black spray paint for aesthetics*
5. 2 “L” brackets with screws*
6. aluminum foil*
7. gorilla glue and spray adhesive*
8. Laminating film -- $2.78
9. Transluscent paper*

*already had these around the house, not included in price

So, the first step was to cut off the square part of the pvc drain so as to make a ring. This proved to be quite a daunting task with a jigsaw and a dremel tool for touching up rough edges. The hardest part of the cutting was making the opening for the speedlight with the jigsaw. Next I painted both the drains black for a more dapper look.
3
The circumference of the second drain fit perfectly around the inside of the bigger drain. (I checked for drains that fit into each other at the store, this is crucial).

Then, I lined the inside of the big drain and the outside of the smaller one with aluminum foil using spray adhesive.

The next step is to glue the small drain (now just a ring) into the bigger one.

With the two L brackets fastened together, I screw one end into my tripod thing on the bottom of my D80, and on the other end screw in the hot shoe attachment for my SB-600.

I have the bracket with my SB-600 positioned so that my speedlight is pointing right up into the hole of the ring, firing light into it and reflecting throughout thanks to all the shiny aluminum foil.

After a few painstaking hours and pvc shavings and black paint on everything, I have my completely homemade ring light!!!!
The only things left were to fit the opening of the ring with foam tape so it sits safely and snugly around my lens, and cover the ring with laminating film and transluscent paper cut out into a ring to hide the aluminum foil and soften the flash a bit.

This is what the effect of the ringlight looks like, with a nice, even, halo effect around the subject. I like it.
I did a few other things that weren’t completely necessary, being a perfectionist and having a tendency to do everything the hard way.


Thanks to my dear ‘ol dad (pictured above) who helped a lot cutting metal and providing super ideas!
You can check out my Flickr page for example shots, along with more pictures of the process and finished product.

Oh, and if you haven’t already, check out Strobist.com for more do-it-yourself lighting mastery and really cool off-camera flash photography.

DSC_8613orig
Update: light diffusion of the ring

58 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot Richard for sharing with us this project, it is great!! :)

Unknown said...

This is great, i have tryed same think to do. Loke at my blog how bad looks my ring flesh...

http://blog.denisferlic.com/

nick said...

sweet! very clean and professional.

sgazzetti said...

I came here via a link on Strobist. Nice write-up! Thanks for taking the time for post it. I love DIY.

Anonymous said...

i am definitely going to build this, i only have one question though. the laminating tape, is that for diffusion or did you use it around the outside so the paint wouldnt chip?

Richard said...

Thanks guys!
aaron: the laminating film and translucent paper served two purposes--
1. soften the harsh light a bit
2. hide the ghetto foil inside!

Unknown said...

Thanks for this great DIY ringlight. I especially like how the focus assist-beam is not blocked by the device.

Jon Senior said...

If you get a chance to play further, it'd be interesting to see what difference the beam angle makes to the light spread. At the minute it is noticeably (and unsurprisingly) bottom heavy. Perhaps having the flash head one notch further to vertical (and presumably a few mm forward) might do it.

Just an idea. Looks very pro!

Unknown said...

Sweet - I think you can reduce the hot spot if you rotate the flash head & put up the whit card just a little.
Looks awesome

Anonymous said...

The speedlight should point toward the camera, it will give you a better light distribution. At least, that is what I did... But mine looks nowhere as good as yours!

William Peloquin said...

What type of PVC drains are you getting? Are they floor drains? You mention cutting the square portion out. Are you referring to the hole where the strobe pokes through?

Richard said...

willie:
yes, i believe they are floor drains, made of pvc. if you look at the picture of the new, untouched supplies straight from the store, you can see that the big drain is square, with a circle in the middle. I had to cut away the square part to get a ring.

David Hobby said...

Richard-

Your ringlight profile shot (2nd from top) is screwed up somehow. It is going blank on my site and yours.

-DH

54 said...

Cool!!

Where you get those pvc drains? I tried looking for them at Home Depo and Lowes, but can't find them. Are they specialty item for decks or industrial settings? Knows who makes them by chance?

Unknown said...

if you have access.
pvc glue and foil duct tape make this way easier.
i love diy.

KJ said...

I got mine at lowes. Bell floor drains in the plumbing section.

Anonymous said...

This is the best looking DIY ringlight I've seen to date. Great job and thanks for sharing. Now my wife has to put up with me making a mess around the house. Thank you very much!

54 said...

Thanks, that helped. With the name. I found it at Lowes, and it's 80% done already... Thanks very much for sharing the idea.

Anonymous said...

where would one find laminating tape and translucent paper?

Anonymous said...

Richard--

Very nice, looks clean. I have a couple of questions/comments:

1) In your first supplies picture, you show the parts resting on a sheet of the diffucion material used in overhead fluorescent lights. Did you use this on the front of the light? (The seconf pic doesn't show up, so I'm guessing it answers this question.)

2) It looks as though the inner surface of the ring has a strip of aluminum tape around it to bounce the light into the rest of the dish. The material all looks pretty smooth-surfaced. Would you get a bit more light distribution if the surface were crinkled somewhat?

Anonymous said...

phil c. -

I didn't use that sheet of plexiglass, once I was a few hours into the project I found out it was not cutable. That was just the only pic i had of all the supplies before I cut and painted everything rendering it unrecognizable from it's original storeboght state.

As for the light distribution, I'l have to try that.

-Richard

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know where to get these drains from in the UK? This is the best ring solution I have seen, and would like to give it a go

54 said...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2246/2220660934_3fa1ce037c_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2117/2219865257_9808b655ca_b.jpg

Thought I'll share with you the ringlight I made following your directions. I do without the smaller drain in the middle and seems to work OK, I was a little lazy, and seeing the flash was a tight fit into the hole, I do with out the mounting bracket, and strap on a plate of aluminum to velcro on the flash.

Thanks so much for sharing this, it's a great design, very professional looking.

blacksheepfoto said...

Hi,

Wondering if you could explain further the mounting bracket? I can't identify how you have the flash attached to the L?

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting. Another option is to build a similar housing and to fill it with white LEDs. This has the advantage that you can see exactly what you're going to get through the viewfinder, though it isn't as bright as a flash. I use this method for photographing PCBs.

DBll said...

When I saw the first pic of your ringlight, I immediately thought of a base module it looked like you used. Try shopping around surplus sources, Craigslist, Freecycle, etc. for an old ring fluorescent workbench magnifier light. Save the lens for some other project, and gut the ring for this job. It' sa little harder to cut, but with a Dremel and/or a jigsaw, it should be do-able.

Unknown said...

just a thought, use mirror or highly reflective spray paint instead of foil or some kind of mirror finish.

Anonymous said...

It would probably double the price of your unit, but you could get some Mirra Chrome paint (which produces about 90% reflection) and paint the inside of the drain. That would help lessen the "ghetto" flavor of the project some.

Anonymous said...

Went out and built one, thanks for the Idea! The thing works (and looks) great!

-Ken

Anonymous said...

I am in the process of building this, but instead of using a flash, I am using LEDs. So far, so good.

Anonymous said...

Interesting project.

I built the simplest one of these guys I could think of (lrg bowl, Plastic CD spindle and tin foil) but then figured out that I had an issue.

If you mount this 'over' the lens how to you access the MF or zoom rings?

Richard said...

You have to take it off for that, yes. But it's a small price to pay in my opinion. It takes like 5 seconds.

erwin said...

Thanks for sharing, sir!

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