so.. i obsessed over this lightring setups for several hours yesterday.. wondered.. hum.. could I DIY that?
The cheapest knock of setup I can find is about $1000 from B&H and thats CHEAP compared to the name brand setup ($5k) But what is it REALLY ??? Does it really need to be THAT expensive..
So without actually seeing the stuff for real, I believe its operating principle is rather simple. Basically you have a backdrop of material that is just like that material they make road reflectors out of. It shines RIGHT back towards the light emitting source. If you've ever been on a freshly laid dark road, at night you can see this stuff work.... anyway.. the light is reflected directly back to the source, so the source of the light has to be on axis with the camera.. hence the need for a RING LIGHT around the lens.
The light ring part is obvious.. a ring of Green or Blue (or both in the case of the product on B&H photo) LED's around the lens, easy enough to DIY that.
The cloth is the hard part.. You can buy the cloth for about $400 from B&H photo, so already a few hours with a soldering iron can save several hundred dollars. But thats still to rich.. I wondered If I could find a suitable. "Retro Reflective" material direct from the manufacture, well, 3M sells the stuff in 1" tape roll, you can by them at a hardware store.. . ok. .closer.. I found a distributor that sells the fabric, in 50" width rolls for about $50 a yard. So for 12'x12' backdrop thats about $450 in material, plus Id still have to sew it together. And I dont even know if it would work. Good news is they will send a FREE sample (1 foot x 9 foot) for free. So I can test it out to see if my DIY option is even possible in theory.
Now, 3M actually sells the INK to print your own safety logos and what not, its the same product, but in ink form. Iv not got a price on that yet. But My guess is thats how the manufacture makes these things, a nice canvas backdrop dyed with the 3M Reflective Ink for Textiles - Series 8000.
There, obsession met. I can move on..