Project: Mini project: ringlight for camera

Hello,

Did you ever try to take a picture close with a camera?
The flash is most times to bright or shadows do not show all parts.
I have made a "quick and dirty" ringlight using 8 vishay leds.

The schematic is very simple:
The current for the leds is set to about 25 - 30 mA.
The leds are capable to handle 50 mA.





The construction is also kept simple:







The results are nice:

With flash:




With the ringlight:




All pictures are taken with my cell phone.


Greetings,
Bertus

Lots better than a flash , Bertus. That is a good idea. I might try one as a light bar on my camera.

I like it. It would be good for the closeups we do all the time on circuits.

Ring lights do work really good when trying to take macro shots of items.... I have been working with a high speed imaging system for our machines and I use a ring light with it to get better images without too many shadowed areas.... one thing I would suggest, just from experience with ring lights, I would suggest adding a couple of red LED's to the circuit (one on each corner opposite each other), you will notice a much more crisper image when you use the red with the white....



B. Morse

Hello,

Thanks for the replies.
@ BMorse, I will have a look at the red leds when I scale it up a bit.

I have done some more tests with the ringlight on a shiny PCB.

With Flash:



With the ring ( this is very shiny):



With a piece of paper as a diffuser ( this affects the total picture):




Any idea's on make the shiny stuff better?

Greetings,
Bertus

Thats it! BMorse: I want a blood sample!

How the? Who in th? Where do you?

Anything you don't have time for?


Bertus, You can spray some hairspray on the leds a couple of coats to diffuse the light more. The stronger the light, the sharper the reflection. But looks good. And good idea.

That's a really good idea, I never use my flash because of this problem.

bertus said:

Hello,

Thanks for the replies.
@ BMorse, I will have a look at the red leds when I scale it up a bit.

I have done some more tests with the ringlight on a shiny PCB.

With Flash:

With the ring ( this is very shiny):

With a piece of paper as a diffuser ( this affects the total picture):

Any idea's on make the shiny stuff better?

Greetings,
Bertus

Click to expand...

You could improve on the shots with shiny stuff if you can auto adjust the "flash time". With these high speed cameras I am using they have a function where they take a sample shot and do some auto calibrations by sampling the reflected light to adjust the "flash time" or the brightness of the LED's.... I am not sure if you are using any kind of "driver" circuit for the ring light but if you are using a uc, maybe you can add a CDS photocell to sample the reflected light and auto calibrate from that.

B. Morse

retched said:

Thats it! BMorse: I want a blood sample!

How the? Who in th? Where do you?

Anything you don't have time for?


Bertus, You can spray some hairspray on the leds a couple of coats to diffuse the light more. The stronger the light, the sharper the reflection. But looks good. And good idea.

Click to expand...

Sleep is the only thing I am lacking time for!! But I figured I will get enough of that when my time comes....

As for the blood sample, I am not sure if that would do you any good even for cloning, copies never come out exactly the same as the original, have you seen the movie multiplicity??

B. Morse

have you seen the movie multiplicity??

Click to expand...

yes....yes I have.... I got my eye on you(s)

A wider footprint, and diffused lighting might help.

Not a bad idea...wonder why I did not think of that.....

bertus said:

Any idea's on make the shiny stuff better?

Click to expand...

You've got to change the angle of the lighting to avoid specular reflection (i.e., there's no way of getting around the physics). The ring light and the flash won't work for such subjects.

A light tent is one common way of avoiding this type of reflection, but you can also use white foam construction board, white styrofoam board, etc. Tracing paper or frosted mylar sheet can make good diffusers.

One trick is to put your camera off the normal to the reflective surface, say 30 to 40 degrees off. Let it shoot with the flash and put a diffuse reflector on the opposite side to help reflect the flash to the sides away from the lens. Then many bitmap editing programs such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop have tools to correct the perspective distortion. Don't zoom in too much if you're going to correct the perspective. I also have to correct a bit of barrel distortion with my little camera when it's zoomed all the way out.

Lighting is one of the key secrets to good photography (good composition is another; the camera is one of the least important). Take a look at a good glossy magazine (the Martha Stewart magazine my wife gets is a good example) and look at the photography in the ads. You'll learn a lot about how the pros light their subjects -- look at the reflections in the specular objects, then try to emulate what they're doing (improvise with stuff around the house).

Looking forward to your 10 X 1W LED ringlight rifaa! That would be amazing.

He he he thanks.
I also have the problem with solder shine .
But ones I get the glue I can make something

Hello Bertus Sir,

Why don't you make video of them??