101 DIY Lighting Tutorials
Oct 8, 2009
Good lighting is one of the most important aspects of any professional production. Unfortunately your budget may not allow for all the expensive equipment required for that perfect look. With that in mind, we created this list of over 100 DIY (”Do It Yourself”) lighting tutorials.
As always, whenever you are dealing with electricity and heat safety always comes first. For your sake and the sake of your crew, never take on one of these projects unless you know what you are doing. Saving a few dollars is not worth causing an injury or worse.
Also check out these great feature articles:
Building Your Kit
- DIY Light Kit (Indy Mogul)
- $25 Lightkit (Indy Mogul)
- Joren Clark Lighting Kit (JorenClark.com)
- Beginner’s DIY Lighting Kit (MediaCollege.com)
- Light Source: Build Your Own Lighting Kit (VideoMaker)
- Lighting for DV (Mediaed.org)
- Low Budget Lighting Article (DVinfo.net)
- Even Cheaper and Cooler DIY Lighting (YouTube)
- Low Budget Lighting (ScottSpears.net)
- Low Budget Lighting (TakeZer0)
- DIY Studio Lights For Cheap (YouTube)
- Lighting on the Cheap (YouTube)
- Fashion lighting on a budget (YouTube)
- DIY Ep. #1: Softbox Light Kit (YouTube)
- Even Cheaper and Cooler DIY Lighting (YouTube)
- DIY Lighting for video (YouTube)
- Ring Flash (David Tejada)
- DIY Ring-Flash with build images and sample shots… (Motley Pixel)
Reflectors
- Building a DIY beauty dish
- DIY: Make Your Own Light Reflector For $5 (Sublime Light)
- Fifty cent flash bounce (Instructables)
- How to make a golden reflector (Lighting-Academy.com)
- Making your own light reflectors (P1/3) (YouTube)
- Making your own light reflectors (P2/3) (YouTube)
- Making your own light reflectors (P3/3) (YouTube)
- DIY: How to make a folding reflector for free (YouTube)
- V Cards (DIYyphotography.net)
- HOW TO: Cheap Bounce Board (Indy Mogul)
Softboxes
- The Best Softbox Ever (DIYyphotography.net)
- Kimel’s Pop Up Flash Soft Box Diffuser (DIYyphotography.net)
- Striplight and Softbox (DIYyphotography.net
- The DIY Strip Light (DIYyphotography.net)
- A Home Grown Softbox (DIYyphotography.net)
- DIY Softbox Prototype Testbed - with build instructions (flickr)
- DIY 50” x 50” Collapsible Soft Box - with build instructions (flickr)
- DIY Large Softbox for Small Strobe 100cm x 60cm - with build instructions (flickr)
- DIY Light Strip Softbox - with build instructions (flickr)
- DIY Light Diffusion in Video Production (Expert Village)
- Even Better Softbox Part One - The Build Process (DIYyphotography.net)
- building a Mini Soft Box (Sonic Artistry)
- Build a Softbox Lamp - DIY design (YouTube)
- The Square Ring Flash (DIYyphotography.net)
- The Strip Light That Won’t Strip You (DIYyphotography.net)
Light Modifiers (Snoots/Barndoors)
- the 15 second DIY adjustable snoot (f1point0.com)
- Homemade Speedlite “Snoot” (DIYyphotography.net)
- Cheap Lighting & Barn Doors (Rever)
- Using A Cooling Honeycomb As A DIY Gridspot (DIYyphotography.net)
- Drinking Beer - Out! Snooting - In! (DIYyphotography.net)
- Gel Holder for Flash (DIYyphotography.net)
- The Food Saver Omnibounce (DIYyphotography.net)
- DIY Wax-Fen Flash Diffuser - Yet Another Bouncy Thingy (DIYyphotography.net)
- Homemade Gridspot (DIYyphotography.net)
- Flash Mounted homemade DIY Beauty Dish (DIYyphotography.net)
- Barndoor Template (CoolLights.biz)
- $5 Barn Doors for Worklights (YouTube)
- How to Build Barndoors on Worklight for Green Screen Youtube Videos (YouTube)
- Scrim or Butterfly Light Diffuser (JorenClark.com)
- Do It Yourself Light Diffuser (YouTube)
- How to modify your studio lights for under $7.00 (YouTube)
- DIY Flash Diffuser - Airline Barf Bags (digital-photography-school.com)
- HOW TO: Diffusion Panel (Indy Mogul)
DIY Grip
- Home Made Cheap DIY Backdrop Stand (DIYyphotography.net)
- Plumbers Light-Backdrop Stand (DIYyphotography.net)
- Greenscreens and Backdrop Stands (DIYyphotography.net)
- Double Your Light Stand As A Portable Backdrop Mount System (DIYyphotography.net)
- DIY Ghetto-Fab Portable Backdrop Stand (DIYyphotography.net)
- $30 C-Stands
- PVC Backdrop/Light Stand (DIYyphotography.net)
- Using Clamps As Flash Light Stands (DIYyphotography.net)
- The Plaster Spatula Lighting Stand (DIYyphotography.net)
- Using light stands outside (meejahor.com)
- The 75¢ Sandbag (f1point0.com)
Backdrops
Cheap Portable Chroma Key Screen (Bluescreen) - More DIY How To Projects
- Cheap DIY Muslin Photography Background (DIYyphotography.net)
- Spice Up Your Home Made Muslin Backdrop (DIYyphotography.net)
- Really Cheap Homemade Diy Studio (DIYyphotography.net)
- Portable Greenscreen with PVC and Cloth
- Large greenscreen (non-portable) for under $30.
- DIY Blue (or Green) Screen
- Greenscreens and Backdrop Stands
DIY Tents
- DIY Cheap Soft Light Panel Frame Designed for Flash (DIYyphotography.net)
- The Origami Studio (An Extrapolation to The $0.02 Macro Studio) (DIYyphotography.net)
- The Mother Of All Light Tents (DIYyphotography.net)
- Sticks, Stones, Concrete and Killer Lighting (DIYyphotography.net)
- The Ghetto Studio (DIYyphotography.net)
DIY FIXTURES
- Home made Kino (DVXuser.com)
- Just Fab’s Turkey Pan Beauty Dish (DIYyphotography.net)
- $6 Movie Light (YouTube)
- DIY Fluorescent Lamp (Instructables)
- DIY Spider Light by Alex Campagna (DIYyphotography.net)
- Cactus Slave Flash Cable Hack (DIYyphotography.net)
- Disposable Camera Ring Flash (DIYyphotography.net)
- Great Way To Build a Ringlight (DIYyphotography.net)
- Cold Halogen Lights (DIYyphotography.net)
- Empower Yourself On Location (Or Two Portable Power Packs) (DIYyphotography.net)
- The Cheapest Ring Light Ever (DIYyphotography.net)
- DIY Dimmable Kino (Ryan E Walters)
- DIY $40 400 watt video light (Vimeo)
- Build Plans: 600 Watt Hand-Squeezer (Indy Mogul)
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6 Comments
101 DIY Lighting Tutorials | Nicolas Hesson
10. Oct, 2009
[…] Read more at Filmmaker IQ […]
Enrique
10. Oct, 2009
You guys have the wrong link for the 75 cent sandbags
Nigel Lew
09. Nov, 2009
Quite the useful post! I am digging the softbox article.
Nigel
Interesting Filmmaking Links | Synaptic Light - a Journey in Filmmaking and Social Media
24. Jan, 2010
[…] 101 DIY Lighting Tutorials: Good Lightning is always important but there is always a balance with cost. […]
androo
06. Feb, 2010
aaaargh, I cant get the sound working on my computer. has anyone got a link to any websites that have these guides written down/with photo’s??!????
Julia
14. Feb, 2010
Thank you very much for your Basic Lighting Kit video. I’m just learning how to do lighting and it’s very helpful to see how different lighting can change the moods.
Two questions:
1. When you used a colored light bulb, do you put that just in the main light?
2. I tried to make a video in a room with yellow walls and I ended up looking yellow. How can I keep the colors in the walls around me from reflecting on me? (I looked very sick in the video!)
Thank you,
Julia
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