What's up, guys?
My name is Chris Hau.
And this week, I'm going to show you
how to build an awesome video and photo
light for under $30 using materials from Ikea.
So let's get right into it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
First things first-- materials.
Now there's only three items that you need.
First item is this giant soft round ball light thing
that's like $7.00 from Ikea.
Second item that you're going to need-- a LED light bulb that
is around 5,000 Calvin, 5,000 K is what
it says on the outside of it.
And this is like $7.00 to $8.00--
something like that, super cheap.
And the last item that you'll need
is this string or the thing that you're actually going
to plug your light bulb into.
This is like 10 bucks.
You get a cheaper one, making it around under $30 bucks-- $30
to $35 for your final piece depending on the materials
that you buy.
You actually might already own some of these.
So just find them lying around your house too.
My favorite thing is what they name these materials.
So the dome is called the "reg-o-lit," "regolit,"
to be like a character in Lord of the Rings-- regolit.
Regolit use soft light.
The other item, this LED light bulb, is called "le-dari,"
ledari.
But what's really important is that this is 1,000 lumens.
So it is very, very bright.
So make sure you get the brightest LED
light that you can.
And I picked the colder light, which is about 5,000 Kelvin.
So get this light-- super cheap and it's awesome.
And the last item that you need is
the sekond, which is our zebra snake that I bought here.
As you can see, look for the zebra-snake pattern.
I really want you to see it.
Those are the three things that you're looking for at Ikea.
So assembly for your item is going to take under a minute.
You're going to take the regolit, which is your dome.
It comes with two pieces-- this hanger
looking thing, which you then shove into the regolit.
Connect that there, and connect that there.
And you've got a perfectly good regolit.
Now guys, this is the advanced part of the tutorial.
We're going to plug the light--
your ledari into your sekond.
And you're just going to screw it in there.
How many takes does it take for Chris Hau
to screw in a light bulb?
Well guys, only one.
Next part-- super easy.
Drop your light in there on your little connection
point here as you can see.
I'll cut to another shot where it looks nicer and easier
to understand how this fits.
And I'm going to plug that in like that.
And guys, your perfectly good video and photo light
is all done.
Let's plug her in.
Boom.
Yo, check it.
Not too bad for a $30 light from Ikea, right?
This is one light, kind of positioned about a 45 degree
angle.
This is called Rembrandt lighting.
And for one light, it's kind of just bouncing on my face.
It's nice and soft.
And hey, I'm diggin' it.
It looks good.
So why is this light so good?
Well, number one, it's diffused.
It's a big bright light source getting shot
through this diffusion or this material that's
like this paper material.
And when that happens, it gets diffused
and spreads out a bunch.
And it kind of wraps around the face,
and I think it looks really, really nice.
Number two reason why this light is so good
is that it's a balanced LED light, which
means that it's 5,000 Kelvin, which means
that if you go into your--
I'm saying "which means" like way too much--
which means you can go into your camera,
go to the Custom white balance setting,
and set it to 5,000 Kelvin.
And it should look really, really good.
Number three, it's become super small.
Throw it in a bag.
You can take it with you anywhere,
and it still looks awesome.
Number four-- four.
That's four, Chris.
Remember when you used to be able to count?
Four-- It's LED, which means it doesn't consume
that much power, which means you can plug it
in and without worrying about breaking the circuit
breaker and all the lights in the house shutting down
and then your family's freaking out
because you built this cheapo Ikea light that just
broke the whole entire house.
No, it's LED, which means it consumes very little power
and is very, very bright.
Number five, it's light weight.
Literally this thing weighs nothing.
You could fit it in a grocery bag if you wanted to
and carry it with your pinky.
That's how wide it is.
And my favorite, number six, is that when you're not using it
as your video and studio light, you
can use it in your kitchen as your kitchen light.
And you don't have to have your girlfriend nagging at you
that you spent all the money on lights.
Like, why did you drop more money on gear and lights
again because we don't need more lights.
But if you spend $30 on an Ikea light
and she can use it in her kitchen,
she's going to love you.
There's no dimmer on this light.
So if you need to compensate how bright or less bright
it should be, just move the light forward or back.
And the closer it is, the brighter it will be.
The further back you move it, the more diffused and less
intense it will be.
You can also compensate on your camera,
so just bring the shutter up, or the F-stop,
or bring it down-- wherever it is--
and get the look that you're happy with.
So in conclusion, this is my $30 Ikea light.
It's not too bad.
It's given me some results that I'm actually really pleased
with and super surprised.
And maybe I'll just keep shooting with this
because it looks so good.
But you don't always need a really expensive video
or photo light.
Start small.
Start with a $30 light from Ikea and get into the different ways
that you can light your subject.
It's the basic principles, and it gets your foot
in the door with different lighting techniques.
And eventually you'll go from the $30 Ikea light
to the $100 softbox light off of Amazon, to the $500 light,
to the $1,000 light, to that $10,000 light.
Go out there, explore the different lighting techniques.
You don't need much to get into it.
And go and have some fun.
If you found this video valuable, go press Like.
Subscribe if you haven't already.
I just launched my channel, so I'd have love for you
to join along on this journey.
And number three, leave a little comment of some other videos
that you might want to see in the future or maybe
some other cool lighting techniques that you've seen.
And guys, that's it for this week.
We'll catch you next time.
Peace.
[MUSIC PLAYING]