DIY Ringlight project
Discussion
For a while now I've been looking for a ringlight (not flash) as with two young kids in the house most of my photographs are taken in low light, and whilst the D800 produces amazing results at high ISO, at f/2.8 it's very unforgiving if you get anything wrong, extra light in these situations is only going to be a bonus. I have a decent Nikkor flash but I find it can be a bit harsh at times.
So I went hunting. I wanted portable, battery powered and cheap. Seems you can have two out of three but not all. It also needs to be big enough to fit over my primary lens (80mm).
Oh well, project time! Before I go much further with this I'm posting here to see if anybody can save me some time and effort by pointing me at a product that I can buy?
The plan is, design a housing in CAD, then get it 3D printed and sent to me. Next, fit some battery powered LEDs (basically, Christmas lights) and then I'm done.
Before I go off designing, I needed to test how many lights would be needed, so out comes a weetabix box, some scissors, and a pen to poke some holes. 15 minutes later I've got this - it's rough but it's good enough to start:
So time to get testing with the only subject I have available. My kids are great - they appear to be out to completely destroy me, but they are great.
First impressions, 50 LEDs isn't enough but I'm on the right track. So next up I'll add another 50 on a bigger ring and see how that works out. Total cost so far, £2.99.
So I went hunting. I wanted portable, battery powered and cheap. Seems you can have two out of three but not all. It also needs to be big enough to fit over my primary lens (80mm).
Oh well, project time! Before I go much further with this I'm posting here to see if anybody can save me some time and effort by pointing me at a product that I can buy?
The plan is, design a housing in CAD, then get it 3D printed and sent to me. Next, fit some battery powered LEDs (basically, Christmas lights) and then I'm done.
Before I go off designing, I needed to test how many lights would be needed, so out comes a weetabix box, some scissors, and a pen to poke some holes. 15 minutes later I've got this - it's rough but it's good enough to start:
So time to get testing with the only subject I have available. My kids are great - they appear to be out to completely destroy me, but they are great.
First impressions, 50 LEDs isn't enough but I'm on the right track. So next up I'll add another 50 on a bigger ring and see how that works out. Total cost so far, £2.99.
My solution -
I have a ringflash ( rayflash ) but I decided I don't really like the flat unnatural light it gives, and although it is very flattering to ladies kids don't need it. It does work great as a fill in bright sunshine though.
Indoors, I set D800 up in commander mode, two Yongnuo 568's in Slave mode, TTL, one in group A one in Group B, set the Youngnuo's off camera bounced off a white wall on opposite sides of the room.
Set all to TTL, flash compensation +1.7 on one, and the other one -1 in commander, camera flash set to off.
Takes seconds to setup and gives a very natural light.
I am looking at adding a Nissin Di866 Mk 2 which can be used as a commander and into a Rayflash at the same time, so I would have some shape to faces and a nice fill at the same time.
For the LED's - you want to chuck those Xmas lights in the bin and get some CREE Leds - proper light output on those although you will need to diffuse a bit to stop them being so harsh.
I have a ringflash ( rayflash ) but I decided I don't really like the flat unnatural light it gives, and although it is very flattering to ladies kids don't need it. It does work great as a fill in bright sunshine though.
Indoors, I set D800 up in commander mode, two Yongnuo 568's in Slave mode, TTL, one in group A one in Group B, set the Youngnuo's off camera bounced off a white wall on opposite sides of the room.
Set all to TTL, flash compensation +1.7 on one, and the other one -1 in commander, camera flash set to off.
Takes seconds to setup and gives a very natural light.
I am looking at adding a Nissin Di866 Mk 2 which can be used as a commander and into a Rayflash at the same time, so I would have some shape to faces and a nice fill at the same time.
For the LED's - you want to chuck those Xmas lights in the bin and get some CREE Leds - proper light output on those although you will need to diffuse a bit to stop them being so harsh.
I like that. I keep reading about people making their own and mean to give it a try at some point. There are some more ideas on here (http://www.diyphotography.net/tag/ringlight/) which may help if you get stuck - the DIY section on that site has some useful stuff if you don't mind skipping past the guff.
Re ringflash, you need to shoot perfectly level or slightly downward on the axis and there's nothing stopping you using it off camera if you want to, it doesn't have to be round the lens. The problem with Rayflash type stuff is that it sucks at least a stop of light bouncing around from the top of the camera to the ring and if you're even slightly pointing up it'll all go to s
t
For the OP - bigger LEDs. If needs be, get rid of the circular idea and just wire up a bank of them in an oblong if. Though I've seen a ringlight done with household bulbs and the catchlights were awesome, F8 @ ISO200 as well without any squinting
t For the OP - bigger LEDs. If needs be, get rid of the circular idea and just wire up a bank of them in an oblong if. Though I've seen a ringlight done with household bulbs and the catchlights were awesome, F8 @ ISO200 as well without any squinting
_dobbo_ said:
So I went hunting. I wanted portable, battery powered and cheap. Seems you can have two out of three but not all. It also needs to be big enough to fit over my primary lens (80mm).
Not what I'd call expensive ....http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neewer%C2%AE-Adapter-MarkI...
Thanks for all the feedback - seems a bit of tweaking is required but I'm on the right path. Not sure about the advice to go for a full off camera flash setup though - I have 3 flashes and getting them set up each time I want to fire off a quick snap seems a bit much! Will check out the CREE LEDs though.
sgrimshaw said:
Not expensive, but also much too small, won't fit around my lens... Message Board | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff