Assembled ringlight
Front
I mostly do photography. Sometimes I shoot video. For my photography I use off-camera flash. Video needs a different approach. So, decided to make a small ring light for shooting indoors What I end up with is not exactly small. It started with an innocent decision to make an octagon from 30 inch segments of 2×4s. When I was done with it, the ring was over 6 feet in diameter. It would now even feet in the box of my Ford F150 truck if I wanted to move it. So, I decided to make it foldable.
It turns out, it is actually very good to have a ring light that big. It can flood a large area with soft almost shadowless light. The area is big enough to fit tree standing people. It folds into two quarter-circle segment. It is much more manageable storage and moving-wise.
This is what it does:
Ringlight in action
Tight crop
As you see, the ring produces even, soft light across large area of the shooting stage. The shadows open and gentle, highlights are even and have nice fall-off. This is pretty good for glamor shots, don’t you think? To find out how you can build a light like this, read on!
Preparation
First, get enough wood. You need tree 2×4x8 for the ring plus three for the stand. All together 6 pieces. Set you chop saw (mitre saw) to 22.5 degree angle. My saw happened to have a notch and a mark for this angle. Pay attention to cut 30 ” pieces so that the cuts on both sides are going in the opposite directions. It would give you eight pieces looking like this.
Segment Shape
Segment Shape
Lay all pieces on the ground in a large circle. Make sure you have enough room! Now, you are ready to make joints. You will be making three types of joints – solid, folding and loose. Solid joints will be at the intermediate directions of the circle. Folding joints in the North and South (top and bottom). Loose joints at the East and West (left and right). Choose location for these joints and start fastening them.
Solid Joints
Find some scrap plywood or anything else of that kind. If you want to be fancy, you can use metal wood joiners. I went with the plywood. Cut four 2×5″ pieces of plywood and lay them over the joint. Fasten the plywood to the segments using 6-8 screws. 1 1/4″ screws work very well here. If you do not want a ring that comes apart for easy storage, just repeat the same with the remaining joints and skip to the Stand section.
Solid Joint (view from the back)
Back
Folding Joints
Now you are ready to create folding sections. For that you will need two regular 2″ hinges. Make sure to align the pieces well and center hinge over the line where two pieces of wood meet. If you do not do that right, the fold would be skewed. I played with mine for a bit and got it almost right.
Folding Joint (Back)
Back
Folding Joint (Front)
Front
Now, fasten the hinges hinges on the back of the ring. Three screws on each side will provide some rigidity to the structure, but it will still be a bit wobbly. I reinforced the joins with a screw-in tie that I attached on the inner side. When the ring is folded, the tie is removed. When the ring is assembled, the tie is fastened strongly and it adds rigidity to the joint.
Loose Joints
These onces are the easiest! They do not need to be joined at all. Just install the screw-in ties on the inner side of the ring as shown on this picture.
Front
Front
The joint tied together when the ring is assembled. Removing the tie makes the ring to come apart.
Stands
To make the ring stand upright I made two “T”s out of 2×4s of appropriate length. I did not really measure them. I just made sure that when they are installed, the ringlight is about 2″ above the floor level. You can install coasters on the stands, or just leave them as they are.
The stands are fastened to the ring with four yokes that are used for building fences. The yokes are made to exact size of 2×4 and sit on them tight. The trick here is to make the 2×4s move inside of the yokes. To do that I just put a few washers under the bottom of the yoke to raise it higher leaving some room for the 2×4 to move. The yokes are attached to the ring on the back. Make sure you align them so that they are sitting on the equal distance from the loose joints on the both sides.
Top
Top
Bottom
Bottom
Wiring
Wiring for the lights depends on the type of bulb socket you get. I found an assembly that looks like this.
Bulb Assembly
Do whatever it makes sense for you, just make sure you know what you are doing.
YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!
IT IS DANGEROUS AND YOU RISK TO BE ELECTROCUTED OR START A FIRE IF YOU DO THAT WRONG.
You might ask an electrician or a friend with the right skills to do that for you.
Assembling the Ringlight
Disassembled
Disassembled
Bottom Section On
Bottom Section On
Fully Assembled
Assembled ringlight
The light went through another wave of improvements a couple of days ago. It now has twice as many lights (16) and painted black on the front. The light became much more even. I heard a sigh of wander from those who have seen the improved light. It is much better now.