Looking for DIY projects....

Tim Kirkwood · May 22, 2005

I have been looking for DIY projects to save some money. I cant afford to go out and buy anything I need for my camera. So I was wondering if anyone here had built anything for photography? Do you have pics of the process? Do you have links to where you may have learned how to do it?

One thing I have been looking into for now is the best way to make a ring light for some macro work. I have looked online and they are pretty pricey. Some of the continuous lighting ones are just little rings of LEDs but cost at least over $100.

Any ideas are appreciated!

Tim

Jekyll & Hyde · May 23, 2005

Tim Kirkwood wrote:

One thing I have been looking into for now is the best way to make a ring light for some macro work.
Tim

J: You might try building a mini softbox for a standard flash. Here's one I built for macros:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=7868

J&H

Tim Kirkwood · May 24, 2005

Jekyll & Hyde wrote:

J: You might try building a mini softbox for a standard flash. Here's one I built for macros:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=7868

J&H

Thanks J&H, nice job on the soft box.

I just finished building my homemade flash bracket. It needs a few more finishing touches before I can take a few pictures.

Thanks for the soft box ideas looks like you made yours for a 383. Thats what I have also so I can model mine from yours:D

Tim

DavidTO · May 24, 2005

I found this PDF.

DavidTO · May 24, 2005

and this site.

David_S85 · May 25, 2005

How about L.E.D. ring lights? Or....
....and about 10 dozen other strange projects:

http://www.photoprojects.net

Then there's the wacko world of Philo and his LEGO Mindstorm robot photography accessories...

http://www.philohome.com

Those enough for several boring winters worth?

Tim Kirkwood · May 25, 2005

David and david:D

Thanks for the links I will have to check a few of those projects out. I plan to try the ring light first.

Tim

Eric&Susan · May 26, 2005

Here's one more to add to the list:

http://www.digihack.net/2005_02_24_article.php

Eric

NHBubba · May 26, 2005

David_S85 wrote:

Then there's the wacko world of Philo and his LEGO Mindstorm robot photography accessories...
http://www.philohome.com

Philo and his legos so rock! Seriously, geek toys to the max!!!

Tim Kirkwood · May 29, 2005

Thanks for all the links everyone. There is plenty of stuff to try.

Tim

Tim Kirkwood · June 5, 2005

Anyone else have anything interesting?

Tim

gus · June 6, 2005

G'day tim...have a look here. Lets you work up to f/400

Best part is the camera making. Ive seen a refridgerator used as a camera...a room in an apartment (lets you sit beside the image & watch it burn to neg).. as well as an old VW combi van.

Costs...cake tin
coke can
pin
photographic paper ($10)
developer chemicals ($15)

The are no limits with pinholes. Do a google on the subject...there thousands of pages on the net about it.

Gus

David_S85 · June 6, 2005

Ah yes, the Camera Van guy...

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59929,00.html

There is also a guy in Chicago right now, renting out office space 15-20 floors up for a couple of days across from some interesting Chi city scenes and landmarks. He covers all the windows in black except for a 2" hole exactly in the center of the middle window. The whole room then becomes a pinhole camera.

The unique difference is that he uses a small lens behind the pinhole opening to flip the image back right-side up. And instead of film covering the entire back wall, he then photographs the result conventionally (w/ large format) from the pinhole vantage point. He also arranges the furniture so the image is mixing artfully with the office. It is those images he then sells, displays, and places in his books. There was a Chicago Tribune story about the guy a couple weeks back.

Tim, you game with either of those ideas?

Tim Kirkwood · June 7, 2005

Wow thats sounds neat.

I have seen alot of pinhole cams and such. I might just have to give that I try sometime. It may be a good inside winter project. I have book marked your links and will continue to read up about it.

Thanks Guys!!
Tim

Netgarden · June 8, 2005

Heres my ring flash!

Just cut a rectangle hole in a ping pong ball that allows it to slip over your flash . Works great. Have fun! There is n satisfaction greater than not having to "pay" a price for a good photo.

Tim Kirkwood wrote:

Wow thats sounds neat.

I have seen alot of pinhole cams and such. I might just have to give that I try sometime. It may be a good inside winter project. I have book marked your links and will continue to read up about it.

Thanks Guys!!
Tim

Tim Kirkwood · June 8, 2005

Netgarden wrote:

Heres my ring flash! Just cut a rectangle hole in a ping pong ball that allows it to slip over your flash . Works great. Have fun! There is n satisfaction greater than not having to "pay" a price for a good photo.

Hey thanks Net for addin to my thread. I have seen this project several times. I dont use the onborad flash but maybe I could get a wiffle ball or something larger to fit on a sunpak 383.

Nice to see you posting over here as well!

Tim

Stan · June 20, 2005

I have been meaning to try this for ages.

A 52mm Cokin "P" ring, ( I am not that good with vacuum moulded plastic)

Drill lots of 6.5mm holes in the ring and glue the caps into the holes

Insert the LED's

And give it to a friendly electrician to solder the resistors

I will post the finished article, if he can wire it up

patch29 · June 22, 2005

This was a DIY project. We had to get the camera out over the edge, further the tripod could reach, to not see the roof above. The roof access was even worse and more dangerous with an eight foot tall wall.

Safety first, it's only $9000+ sitting out there, five stories up. Pretty simple, a board, a 3/8" bolt, tripod head, some clamps and yes two laptop and cases to weigh it down.

If the camera goes, the laptops may as well too.

Besides the stuff we had the board was cull lumber, so it was $1.01 and the bolt was $.29 (I think), who needs an expensive carbon fiber tripod.

Tim Kirkwood · June 22, 2005

patch29 wrote:

This was a DIY project. We had to get the camera out over the edge, further the tripod could reach, to not see the roof above. The roof access was even worse and more dangerous with an eight foot tall wall.

Safety first, it's only $9000+ sitting out there, five stories up. Pretty simple, a board, a 3/8" bolt, tripod head, some clamps and yes two laptop and cases to weigh it down. If the camera goes, the laptops may as well too.

Besides the stuff we had the board was cull lumber, so it was $1.01 and the bolt was $.29 (I think), who needs an expensive carbon fiber tripod.

I am sure your nieghbors got a laugh outta seeing this rig hanging out the window.

Did you get your shot? Still have it?

Tim

patch29 · June 22, 2005

Tim Kirkwood wrote:

I am sure your nieghbors got a laugh outta seeing this rig hanging out the window.

Did you get your shot? Still have it?

It was a hotel walkway.

We got the shot and the camera stayed put.

Andy · June 22, 2005

patch29 wrote:

mmmmm mr pibb

wholenewlight · June 22, 2005

patch29 wrote:

It was a hotel walkway. We got the shot and the camera stayed put.

Wait a minute, that's not a hotel walkway! I recognize my house in that view outside your window. And that's my bathroom window your camera is aiming at!

I want royalties on all those pics of me that have been floating around the internet!!

Apologies for hijacking this thread with off-topic thoughts!

Tim Kirkwood · June 26, 2005

Flash Bracket....
Well one of my first DIY's was a flash bracket. It came out pretty well I think. I have used it several times and has worked well. Here are several shots of it.

Tim Kirkwood · June 26, 2005

Here it is with a Sunpak 383 attached.

Tim Kirkwood · June 26, 2005

I then moved on to another project. I was kicking around alot of ideas on how to make a flash diffuser. I wanted just something small and portable. I came up with the following but have not done much testing with it yet. Here are some shots.

Tim Kirkwood · June 26, 2005

The housing is a weather proof cover that you put on an outdoor plug. I removed the back plate that you would bolt to the plug and cut a square hole in the front of the clear housing. I then cut a piece of diffuser from a 2x4 lay in fixture. This is the type of fixture you find in stores and offices. You can find this lens as a replacement at a home center, so you dont have to buy the entire light fixture. I cut the lens to the EXACT size of the opening in the cover and snapped it in. The hole in the front is just the right size for my 383.

Tim Kirkwood · June 26, 2005

Here it is on my 383

Tim Kirkwood · June 28, 2005

Stan wrote:

I have been meaning to try this for ages.

A 52mm Cokin "P" ring, ( I am not that good with vacuum moulded plastic)

Drill lots of 6.5mm holes in the ring and glue the caps into the holes

Insert the LED's

And give it to a friendly electrician to solder the resistors

I will post the finished article, if he can wire it up

This is one of my next projects. I like your start. Did you get it finished?

Tim

Stan · June 29, 2005

Tim Kirkwood wrote:

This is one of my next projects. I like your start. Did you get it finished?

Tim

It is alright, I think I messed up the resistors though, I wanted to end up with a 9v battery, but have only got about 6v, which makes for a more cumbersome battery pack.

It allows shots of 1/6 sec F/8, but until I get the battery pack sorted, I haven't a suitable shot to post

Tim Kirkwood · June 29, 2005

Stan wrote:

It is alright, I think I messed up the resistors though, I wanted to end up with a 9v battery, but have only got about 6v, which makes for a more cumbersome battery pack.

It allows shots of 1/6 sec F/8, but until I get the battery pack sorted, I haven't a suitable shot to post

Stan,

Did you have a wiring diagram to follow for the resistors? hows come you cant get 9v leds and just wire them straight to the battery? Did you put any sort of dimmer on the lights to adjust your output? Looks like it came out pretty well so far.

Keep me posted.

Tim

Stan · June 29, 2005

Hi Tim,

I took my inspiration from here

And bought my stuff from here in Germany, I am sure it can be sourced elsewhere but this was much cheaper than the high street

I think I bought This because of the wider degree of luminosity but I think the brighter one at 22000mcd is brobably better. The description thread shows the diagram here using 62ohms 1/8th watt resistors

so I did and it turned out to be 6volts total.

Oh and I bought little clip cups to hold the leds I glued them in place.

Good luck

Stan

Looking for DIY projects....

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