Light It Up for $15! (Cheap General Purpose Light)

Lights, Camera, Action! Check the Description! ▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼

http://richardstep.com/

Well, I promised to do a quick how to instructional video on this DIY Studio Lighting-style light stand way back in the "Pretty $35 Lights" video... so this is me delivering as stated!

This Light Stand, that I used for a "key light" in the traditional 3-point lighting setup, cost me around $15 to complete. This total was achieved as I had the following items already tucked away in the garage:
- Cheapo lighting fixture that came with the house
- Several 2" #8 screws, and 4 [ea] 1-1/4" #8 screws
- 6 [ea] Maxwell House Coffee Cans... okay so I bought these... but I sure as heck-fire didn't buy them to make a light hehehe
- A bunch of scrap pine-wood 1x10's, 2x4's, and 2x8's

All of the cuts and drilling in this video can be done with a powered jigsaw (or manual saw) and a standard powered drill. I recommend a table saw and drill press, but do what you can with what you have.

So the $15 I spend was on the following items:
- 1 [ea], Outlet Box ($1)
- 1 [ea], 2-pole Switch ($1)
- 1 [ea], 3-prong Power Cord ($5)
- 1 [ea], Outlet Faceplate ($1)
- 6 [ea] Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (I used 2700k color temp, but I HIGHLY recommend something closer to natural lighting @ 6500k - though they are MUCH more expensive) ($7)

And there you have it! A pretty dog-gone cheap light for your video / picture-taking studio or even just plain-old lighting up a room or shop. Hope you liked it and thanks for watching!!

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I created this video and have all distributions right to it. Here is the supporting information requested.

Copyright Information:
- The images and background music in the intro @ ~5s were all created by me from scratch / photos by me.
- BG music from ~5s to the end is Backed Vibes (clean) by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) (used w/permission per CC-3.0 license)
- The image at 4:10 was taken by me in Aruba and the thumb/sub button was created by me.
- The outro music is used by permission from Kris Klasic (http://youtube.com/younghoopa).

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Contact Me:
--Blog: http://richardstep.com/
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TAGS: rstephensonable richardstep rstephenson richard stephenson "light stand" "studio lighting" diy howto "how to" instructions cheap "Maxwell House" "coffee can" fixture "key light" "general purpose" "all purpose"

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• richardstep
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• richard
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• general purpose
• all purpose

[skybitscom]

ur great man!!! love it!!! thanks :)

[rstephensonable]

@skybitscom my pleasure - glad you found it useful!

[TrippingBowser]

Great video you did a vary good job on you annunciation; Although I really think you should have mentioned that people need to adjust their white balance if using florescent light blubs. I don't mean to nit pick but seemed like something that a lot of the people going to this video would not know.

[rstephensonable]

@TrippingBowser Thank you and that's good stuff to know! I don't have the capability on my camera and am not to up to speed on any post adjustments that would help. I admit to being a noob when it comes to light/color correction, etc. Any sources or places you could point us?

[TrippingBowser]

@rstephensonable On the other side if you can't adjust the white balance on your camera or camcorder you will have to do this in post with editing software, Now as far as what to do on the software side there is no universal tutorial or settings. The best thing would be to search for color correction settings for the software and the light source you're using. Since most editing software do no have preset WBalance correction settings having a camera with WB settings is nice!

[rstephensonable]

@TrippingBowser Ahh this is good information. One day I'll have the equipment to make these kinds of adjustments - for now I'll just have to poke around in the software for what looks right. I think my eyes are a little off sometimes so I'll have to hone my "looking" skills, too. It sounds like it's one of those skills that just comes with experience... so here's to the learning process and thank you for helping! :)

[TrippingBowser]

@rstephensonable Well I actually do not have video experience; What I know is purely on the still photography side. Although the principles are are essentially the same. The best way to make sure you have the right white balance is if you have a camera or camcorder with white balance adjustment settings incorporated. A lot of cameras will have custom white balance options as well as presets for specific lighting situations like florescent. I'll continue with another comment

[rstephensonable]

@JoeLasCola That's an awesome thing man - you made my day!  Thank you and glad it helped!

[JoeLasCola]

dude your vid here helped light my band's stage thanks for posting

[rstephensonable]

@08ZXRider Why thank you for the excellent comment! I appreciate the feedback! Have a good one!