If you're like me and don't know what to do with all of those empty fried chicken buckets piling up on your kitchen counter (okay, not really -- I know exactly what to do with them), DIY Photography has shared a great DIY (naturally) lighting solution that repurposes said greasy poultry receptacles into a formidable ring flash. And even though it's designed to be used for flash photography, it should translate well to video. So, find out how to put it together using a cardboard bucket, aluminum foil, a plastic folder, and some tape right after the jump.
There are plenty of ring light solutions out there, plenty to buy and plenty to build, but this DIY option is awesome, because it utilizes stuff that you're likely to have lying around your house -- especially after a football game or BBQ (or just a random Thursday night). Laya Gerlock of DIY Photography walks us through this build, which he says will take you around 2 hours to complete. Here are the materials he used:
- A fried chicken bucket (his was from a 12pcs chicken bucket meal)
- Scissors/Cutter
- Aluminum foil (he also suggests a better solution: aluminum tape)
- Tape and double stick tape
- Tracing paper
- A pen
- Plastic folder/illustration board (optional to be used for the snoot part of the ring flash)
DIY Photography has a step by step photo tutorial that you're going to want to follow, but what you'll essentially do is first cut off the top 1 1/5 inches of the bucket, take that piece and cut out a rectangular portion 2 inches wide to allow the light to enter. You'll then add a smaller circular piece in the center, thus forming the "ring" that will make it a ring light. It'll look something like this:
You'll need to build a snoot in order to carry the light from your light source to the actual ring (the process you can check out on the DIY Photography post). But Gerlock says you can use material from the rest of the bucket, but he also says he prefers to use old plastic folders or illustration board.
This is what your ring light will look like when you're done:
And here are a couple of examples of what your images could look like (this should translate to video, too):
If you don't have a fried chicken bucket on hand, there are certainly many other ways to pull this off -- even just using cardboard from something other than a fried chicken bucket! I'm thinking even some heavy card stock could do the trick if you had large enough sheets.
Do you have any ideas on how to pull this off in a different way? Have you ever done this before? How did it work for you?
Link: Repurposing a KFC Fried Chicken Dinner as a DIY Ring Flash -- DIY Photography
[via Filmmaker IQ]
