DIY Ringlight
A fun and easy photography project making a ring light.
I got the idea of making this ring light from a webpage I found in the usual round a bout way I find a lot of things on the internet. The site is here http://www.dansdata.com/ringlight.htm
Thank you very much Dan for all your help and inspiration. I really do suggest visiting his site as he has some great advice on taking close up and product shots as well as some really fantastic tips on digital photography in general.
The ring light is basically a light that fits around the lens of a camera to add light to a subject close to the lens and camera. This ring light cost me about $15 to make from parts I had lying around and the $10 ring light.
I bought the light at a local hardware store for $10 and the rest is just stuff I had lying around for other projects. The battery housing is a simple old flash that no longer worked so I gutted it for the battery housing and used a switch I also had from something else.
I simply removed the inner area of the light with a drill and then an X-acto knife, be careful, and cut a hole just bigger than the lens I use in my product shots. After cutting out the hole and smoothing it with sandpaper I added the ring of foam that is a one inch strip about ten inches long or so. I glued it in place on the inside using a few spots of a hot glue gun to hold it in place but not very much, just three small spots to keep it from falling out.
The foam holds the light on the lens but it will slide off easily and even slip off if you tilt the camera too far down. The ring light works well and the flash battery compartment makes it easy to connect and use. I installed a switch on the flash battery compartment but also have the nine volt battery wires and connector so if I want to use a different holder in the future it will be easy to change.
I had the connectors you see on the wire going to the battery case lying around as well but they only cost a few dollars for several if you want them. The whole project is explained at Dan’s site and the battery compartment is just an addition I threw in as well as the two clips holding the thing together.
They are two C clips from the hardware store that I used with a small indent to hold the two sides together that work very well. This way I did not have to drill more holes and screw the thing together or figure out some other way to keep the two sides of the ring light together.
The entire project took about an hour to complete after I purchased the ring light and the whole DIY photography project was really fun. For an easy and very inexpensive ring light check out Dan’s site for the instructions. I found the tent light at a Northern Tool store in my area but you can also purchase them on line at EBay.