Things I would like to improve: I haven’t found a dimmer that doesn’t cause a nasty flicker yet, so for now, I have to use the inverse square rule for now. This also gives a nice rim on the shoulder and if the subject is female, a nice highlight on side of her hair. I also have a stick light mounted vertically on the stand that supports my backlight to put a little kicker on the cheek. A large surface area for key light and a long stick for a backlight that covers the hair and shoulders to separate the subject from the background. I made the type of light I need for the purpose I have. Have you been happy with the results you get from the lights? Another benefit of having long power cables is that it eliminates the need for many extension cords. I also made splitter cables so I can power more than one lighting unit from one power supply. I can hook multiple power cables together, if needed. I made the power cables long so the light can be high on a stand without the power supply hanging in the air halfway down the stand. I have bags of power supplies with power cables. Have your DIY lights evolved over the years? One of the panels costs around $140 USD, and a stick around $50 USD. How much do you estimate did it cost to build? The lights, themselves, can look quite awful, but it won’t affect the quality of the light that they emit. Were they complicated to make? Could anyone do it? I haven’t soldered anything in quite a while, but your technique gets better, the more you do it. Measuring the tape and applying it to the panels or extrusions is the easy part. The big floppy hunk of diffusion gives the same quality of light (except bigger and softer) as a heavy, $400.00 softbox attached to a factory panel.Ī panel takes an hour or so to build. For my key light, I wanted a large source so I velcroed two panels together and attached a large sheet of diffusion over the front. I made some panel lights by applying the tape to some aluminium sheets and I made some sticks using meter long aluminium extrusions. I bought some and experimented with them.
#Diy led light panel series#
From a distance, they look like a solid line rather than a series of dots. The LED’s are tightly packed and very bright. I found a shop in Akihabara (Tokyo) that sold a variety of LED tape I hadn’t seen anywhere else. How did you come up with a concept of what to build and what type of lights you needed?
#Diy led light panel plus#
Plus a third reason: I like making things and experimenting. They can even be taped to the wall or ceiling if needed. Utility – the factory made lights are heavy and bulky (except for the wave of flexible panel lights coming out lately) The lights I built can be flown out on an arm on a light stand easily. For factory-made lights, the price is usually around $1000 for a 1×1 unit. Why did you decide to build your own LED lights? Jeff has been using homemade LED lights for the last few years so I thought it was a good idea to take some photometric measurements and have a look at what he had actually done.īefore we get into the results I asked Jeff a series of questions about his DIY LED lights.
#Diy led light panel trial#
It’s not like you are working off a set of instructions, everything is trial and error. It’s not only time consuming, but you also need to know what you are doing. With so many affordable LED lights on the market, why would you want to build your own? This was a question I posed to Jeff, and his answer simply was “Price and utility.”īuilding your own LED lights certainly isn’t for everyone. When a good friend of mine Jeff Cooke invited me over to check out his homemade LED lights I was of course sceptical. Would you attempt to make your own LED lights? I personally wouldn’t, but that’s probably because I’m not a DIY sort of guy, but some people are. We all love to tinker and make DIY modifications to equipment we buy, but that’s a far cry from building something from scratch.
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