DIY LED Lighting Stand for Video Recording & Photography Quality Improvement

I'm a DIY & Woodworking hobbyist, and I record my projects in videos for my YouTube channel.

As a small YouTuber / YouTube video creator, I always try to improve my videos shooting quality, with minimal expenses.

The lighting where I work is not very good. It's not exactly my workshop, but a place that I use sometimes, so I needed to find a simple lighting solution. I built a portable & adjustable lighting stand, to assist me in my videos shooting quality improvement.

When I record my work, I can move the stand closer to the items I shoot, and it can also be pushed under tables and provide light directly above it.

(BTW, In this project, I didn't care too much about the final look, but more about the usability of the stand.)

You're welcome to visit my YouTube Channel, and watch my additional different DIY & Woodworking projects.

The stand is made from reused materials, as I usually like.

I reused some wood profiles picked up from the garbage, and some old Led light panels.

General List of tools I'm using - https://www.itzikdiy.com/tools-list?m=1

Tools in this Instructable:

• Drill Driver / Impact drill
• Sliding miter saw or other saw
• Measuring tape
• Utility knife

Materials:

• ~5*5cm pine wood profile
• Wood glue
• Wood screws
• 4 Led Panels

You can watch the making process, in this video.

Let me know what do you think about this project...  

You're welcome to visit my YouTube Channel, and watch my additional different DIY & Woodworking projects.

I saw these wood profiles thrown pretty close to our house. They were part of old wooden benches that were around the city, and were replaced lately by the Municipality services.

I called my son and we picked them up, before someone else does :)

Before cutting the wood for my project, I had to remove a lot of big screws that were part of the benches.

For the lighting, I used 4 squared Led panels, that were removed from our old apartment.

I connected them one to the other, from their sides using screws. I connected all of their drivers, in parallel, to one wire source.

I measured the length of 2 Led panels, and cut 2 wood pieces in that side.

I connected the wood with screws from the inner side of the Led panels, to the wood.

I made a wooden "U" shape that will hold the frame with the Led panels and have an axis that will allow tilting of the Led panels.

I drilled a pilot hole and added washers between the U and the Led frame connected with screw, so it will be easily tilted.

I disconnected the "U" from the Led panels (I will re-connect it again later), and connected it to 2 long poles (~180 cm long) with screws.

I order to make the stand more stable, I cut 2 small pieces with 45 degrees cuts on both sides, and connected them between the "U" holder, and the poles.

I cut 2 pieces of ~1 meter wood as a base, and connected them to the poles with screws.

I cut another piece of wood to connect the 2 poles.

Like I did at the top (previous step), I cut additional 2 small pieces with 45 degrees cuts on both sides, and connected them between base pieces, and the poles.

The stand without lighting is ready.

You can see the top and bottom sides at the pictures.

After I finished the structure of the stand, I reconnected the Led panels with the wood frame, to the "U" at the top as before.

The stand wasn't stable, moving to the sides, so I added 2 wooden triangles between the bottom connections, with wood glue and long screws.

I did the same on the top connections.

These triangle supporters made the stand very stable!

I connected the Led to the power, for initial testing, before I close it's back side.

I took a piece of drywall that I had, and using a utility knife I cut it to the size of the squared size of 4 Led panels, and connected it to their frame with screws.

As you can see, when I record my work, I can move the stand closer to the items I shoot, and it can also be pushed under the table and provide light directly above the items or tools.

Here are some snapshots taken from my video recording, without and with the new light.

In my opinion, it improved the quality of the image with more details and less video image "noise" / grain.

On my YouTube's video you can see the noise & "pixels movement" when the light is low, and much less noise with the light turned on.

If you ask yourself what are these BIG LEGO bricks 😊, you can see this project on my previous Instructable

You can watch the making process, in this video.

Let me know what do you think about this project...  

You're welcome to visit my YouTube Channel, and watch my additional different DIY & Woodworking projects.