I pretty sure I have all this equipment in my home studio somewhere. It will be interesting to see how my 21” ring light will work with this setup. Thanks for the video. It’s always easier to do something once you’ve watched someone else do it first.
The bigger, the better on the light IMHO. My dad used to always joke about computers saying, "how'd they ever make them without one to go by?" Glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching!
Glad you liked the video. I still use this rig regularly. The only real issue, as mentioned in the video, is that it's not the most stable platform. Using the remote to start/stop the camera fixes that easily though. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for sharing this. I've recently built an overhead solution using two light stands and a background holder. As I was tight on space, I set the traverse diagonally over the desk. For lighting, I am using LED panels, but I like the ringlight solution you presented. I am using a smaller camera (the Sony ZV-1 that comes with a bluetooth remote controller) but I could also use a bigger camera. Using a background holder and two light stands reduces the shake issue that you mentioned.
Having the camera floating out there on the extension arm can be problematic. Having two support stands like you describe is definitely more stable. But, I wanted to be able to roll the whole thing around - so the tradeoff had to be made. Glad you liked the video, thanks for watching!
I guess I can do this with my phone camera too. I'm starting with that for now and will eventually move to using my dslr. Do you turn off room lights? what if I only have zoom and fixed focal length lenses - not 35mm.?
I do usually turn other room lights off when using this rig to avoid color shifts or weird shadows. Using a phone would be totally fine, you just may need to adjust your zoom or the distance you have it from the table top. Hope that helps, thanks for watching!
Thank you for an informative and helpful video! I'm in the process of making my own RUclips channel and I set up a microphone stand with my smartphone. I did my research first. Now I'm trying to set it all up and then I'll be good to go. Thanks for this video.
I'm glad you found my video helpful. There needs to be a balance between the quality of your content and quality of your production. When in doubt, focus on the getting the content right - production value will come. Good luck with your channel. If you're interested, I did a video about 5 reasons why I'm glad I started mine. You can check it out here: ruclips.net/video/_0TTabAxtlc/видео.html
Thanks! It took me a long time to settle on the various components but I really feel like the end result was worth all the research/work. I've also used it for large unboxing videos by working on the floor with the rig about 40" above the floor. It worked great! Keep an eye out for the next video where I take this rig, move the components, and add a friction arm and monitor to use it as a complete RUclips content creation studio. Thanks for watching - have a great day.
Excellent tutorial with explanations I could pretty much follow without knowing a lot of photog jargon. Love the term “Elegant Solution”. Very happy this popped up in the suggestions. Great to see what a pro would use as compared to the very pared down solutions.
I've found that in both photography and videography, problem solving is what it's all about. Thus, elegant solutions are the holy grail for me. The simpler the better! Glad you liked the video and thanks for taking the time to comment.
It continues to work really well for me. I wish that ringlight was still available at the cheap price I paid though. I paid less than $100 for mine and it's super-bright (96 watts!).
Thanks! I always struggle with how much information to include. I want to be thorough, but not include too many details that don't apply. I'm working on another build - a cage for my audio recorder and so far, I've cut more content than I've kept. It was way too much info. Thanks for watching!
I punched that like button, because I found your video to be nice and informative. As I bought the almost exact same ring light in a sale for the same purpose I'm glad to see someone working with it too. The only thing I missed were some sample shots from the attached camera to get an idea of the lighting.
HA - yeah, definitely an oversight on my part to not include the actual results of the build! I used it on an unboxing that I did, you can see it here: ruclips.net/video/N3LFHwRf948/видео.html
Also, I'm guessing your handle is DS9 reference. My youngest daughter and I just finished watching the entire series. Great TV until the end there... Whew, Ezri was no replacement for Jadzia and all that kissing.... good grief.
@@MattSpaugh Nice guess, and though I watched the entire DS9 series, it is not a reference to this. It refers to Supreme Commander instead, a RTS game I like very much. And to be honest, I already forgot about Ezri in DS9. And almost the whole last season. :o
Great video Matt this information was so clear and straight to the point. Really enjoyed the video.... I just wished you would of put some examples of what was filmed inside the video. I just wanted to see how the whole rig performed.
@@dannywellstattoos Thanks. Staying on point is actually pretty difficult for me - I usually end up editing out a LOT of what I deliver to camera. Glad to know the effort is appreciated.
I'm afraid I don't do much phone filming. I would guess all of this would work, but the mount would have to be different, and your height would likely be less. Thanks for watching.
It would depend on the C-Stand that you use. Mine are pretty tall, so I can only get about 48" down. They make shorter c-stands though. You could always just use a longer focal length on your lens which, would work well since it would reduce the amount of distortion near the edges. Hope that helps - thanks for watching!
@@MattSpaugh Thank you, Matt. 48" was about as short as I saw too. I would enjoy watching a video on focal length if you have one. Because you touched on it in this video, and mentioned it again here, but I'm not comfortable with the concept at all.
@@chillbro2275 I don't have one on my channel, but there are a few out there. I'll post one in a separate comment. Focal length determines how much you see in the camera. A low number, like 24mm or 35mm is going to show you a lot - so they're called wide. A bigger number, like 200mm is tele-photo... like a telescope. You see things that are further away, but not as much of the scene. When a lens is wide, like 16mm or 20mm, objects near the edges of the frame get distorted - our of proportion. And things in teh middle get smaller and look further away. I know that's kind of vague but it's the best way I can put it in a comment. HOpefully the video I post below will show up. Sometimes comments with video links get deleted.
@@chillbro2275 I just copied a link. If it doesn't show up, do a search for "Camera Basics - Focal Length" and look for the "Apalapse" channel. Hope that helps.
I'm trying to replicate this set up as closely as possible with items available to me in the UK, and I'm missing just one piece. In the grip on your c-stand where you attach the ring light, you have an extra piece of tubing that you screw the ring light mounting on to. If I was to look for that on Amazon, what would I be searching for? :) My c-stand (a Neweer Pro) didn't seem to come with anything like this. I'm guessing it's some kind of extension?
The grip head attaches to the extension arm, the thing that attaches the light to the grip head is called a pin, or sometimes baby pin. Here's one from amazon us: www.amazon.com/Kupo-5in-Grip-Pin-KG011212/dp/B00VIBME18 Hope that helps. Thanks for watching!
@@aanarchist a search for "Grip Head Baby Pin" should get you some options. This is the one I use, it looks like they have 4 in stock right now: www.amazon.com/dp/B000BIX238
Given your 30" off the table and 35mm lens, what size on the table surface are you getting? Based on your quick demo shots, I'm guessing in the 40" wide range? If I was to try this, but wanted to capture up to 50" of table top, and thus raised the camera up another 5-6", do you think the ring light would be strong enough or would it start to get dark in the corners?
My frame-area measures about 36 wide at 30" high. When I need a larger area I do two things: go to a shorter focal length (but I try to never go shorter than 24mm) and raise the rig higher. My light is bright (96 watts!), it's a shame that they don't make it any more. (this is the exact same thing, but more money: www.adorama.com/saledrlps.html) . If you can find something that bright, you'll have no problem going higher. At some point you'll be tweaking ISO, which in the case of the Sony cameras is really a non-issue. I can get into 3200 territory before I see an appreciable difference. Let me know how it works out. I'm still using this set up and love it. Thanks for watching.
I can see two potential problems - maybe three. First, to answer your question, no, I don't think this would provide enough light for cooking. Mainly because I'm guessing that your camera would need to be higher up. The further you move the light, the less light reaches the subject. The other lighting concerns would be glare (which can sometimes be hard to control with this setup) and overall even-ness of light. Even with white reflectors on each side, this rig provides a concentrated light in the center of the frame - and over a relatively small distance. FWIW, I'm a big James May fan. He did a cooking show last year that I thought was beautifully lit. It's on Prime if you wan to check it out. They used wide light mats which gave good, even illumination over the entire counter top (which included the cook top). You might want to check it out. Wow, this reply got long. Anyway, thanks for watching and good luck with your shoot!
Where are you placing your sandbag? Ive seen examples where they put it on the other side of the extension arm and Ive seen it on the feet of the stand
When using a C-stand with graduated legs, the highest leg should be facing the weight load. I place my sand bags opposite the load. YOu can test it by pushing gently on the shaft of the c-stand. If it feels like it's not stable, move the bag until it is or add more weight. Hope that helps - good luck with it.
I can see that your channel is going to grow. Now is 830 subscribers. I have a vlog too. And I am also thinking to build a rig for the camera above me. Maybe it's gonna be permanent because I have one old camera that needs a purpose (Nikon D7000) and I think it's gonna be ok for this. Lately also I am thinking to buy color checker. To match different cameras. Do you use it? Are you using just one camera at the time or multiple?
And that stand is only 130$, damn I was sure it would have been a super expensive piece because they like to overprice items that are meant for professionals.
You can definitely find much more expensive ones out there. That particular model fits my needs (and budget) nicely. I've got a half a dozen of them around the studio. If you want more insight into what c-stands mean to me, check out this video from last February: ruclips.net/video/r_2xs88tcc0/видео.html Thanks for watching and happy new year!
I pretty sure I have all this equipment in my home studio somewhere. It will be interesting to see how my 21” ring light will work with this setup. Thanks for the video. It’s always easier to do something once you’ve watched someone else do it first.
The bigger, the better on the light IMHO.
My dad used to always joke about computers saying, "how'd they ever make them without one to go by?" Glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching!
I just got in the C-Stand with the mount adapter! It's solid and a great option for the Price. Thanks for the video Matt!
Glad you found it helpful. C-stands are a wonderful thing!
Thanks for watching.
Yes, I need some help with my overhead rig. Thank you for sharing. Have a great weekend. Fully watched video.👍
Glad you liked the video.
I still use this rig regularly. The only real issue, as mentioned in the video, is that it's not the most stable platform. Using the remote to start/stop the camera fixes that easily though.
Thanks for watching!
Awesome video!
Thanks for watching Yolanda, glad you liked it.
I love that you added a bit more minutiae (iso, lens, etc) when covering this topic. I’m subbing!! Great video!
Thanks for noticing! I try to make my videos as complete as possible - which sadly makes them TOO complete sometimes. Have a good one!
Thank you so much. Really great.
Glad it was helpful. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for sharing this. I've recently built an overhead solution using two light stands and a background holder. As I was tight on space, I set the traverse diagonally over the desk. For lighting, I am using LED panels, but I like the ringlight solution you presented. I am using a smaller camera (the Sony ZV-1 that comes with a bluetooth remote controller) but I could also use a bigger camera. Using a background holder and two light stands reduces the shake issue that you mentioned.
Having the camera floating out there on the extension arm can be problematic. Having two support stands like you describe is definitely more stable. But, I wanted to be able to roll the whole thing around - so the tradeoff had to be made.
Glad you liked the video, thanks for watching!
Great idea! Always sandbag a stand!
One of the pivotal moments in my career was when a stand almost clocked a model. Lesson learned!
I guess I can do this with my phone camera too. I'm starting with that for now and will eventually move to using my dslr. Do you turn off room lights? what if I only have zoom and fixed focal length lenses - not 35mm.?
I do usually turn other room lights off when using this rig to avoid color shifts or weird shadows. Using a phone would be totally fine, you just may need to adjust your zoom or the distance you have it from the table top.
Hope that helps, thanks for watching!
Thank you for an informative and helpful video! I'm in the process of making my own RUclips channel and I set up a microphone stand with my smartphone. I did my research first. Now I'm trying to set it all up and then I'll be good to go. Thanks for this video.
I'm glad you found my video helpful.
There needs to be a balance between the quality of your content and quality of your production. When in doubt, focus on the getting the content right - production value will come.
Good luck with your channel. If you're interested, I did a video about 5 reasons why I'm glad I started mine. You can check it out here: ruclips.net/video/_0TTabAxtlc/видео.html
Incredible setup! Thank you so much for the quality, informational video.
Thanks! It took me a long time to settle on the various components but I really feel like the end result was worth all the research/work.
I've also used it for large unboxing videos by working on the floor with the rig about 40" above the floor. It worked great!
Keep an eye out for the next video where I take this rig, move the components, and add a friction arm and monitor to use it as a complete RUclips content creation studio. Thanks for watching - have a great day.
Excellent tutorial with explanations I could pretty much follow without knowing a lot of photog jargon. Love the term “Elegant Solution”. Very happy this popped up in the suggestions. Great to see what a pro would use as compared to the very pared down solutions.
I've found that in both photography and videography, problem solving is what it's all about. Thus, elegant solutions are the holy grail for me. The simpler the better! Glad you liked the video and thanks for taking the time to comment.
Very helpful!. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching.
Great setup, thanks!
It continues to work really well for me. I wish that ringlight was still available at the cheap price I paid though. I paid less than $100 for mine and it's super-bright (96 watts!).
Love the detailed explanation 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Thanks! I always struggle with how much information to include. I want to be thorough, but not include too many details that don't apply.
I'm working on another build - a cage for my audio recorder and so far, I've cut more content than I've kept. It was way too much info.
Thanks for watching!
Like your style little brother, keep it up...
Thanks!
I punched that like button, because I found your video to be nice and informative. As I bought the almost exact same ring light in a sale for the same purpose I'm glad to see someone working with it too. The only thing I missed were some sample shots from the attached camera to get an idea of the lighting.
HA - yeah, definitely an oversight on my part to not include the actual results of the build! I used it on an unboxing that I did, you can see it here: ruclips.net/video/N3LFHwRf948/видео.html
Also, I'm guessing your handle is DS9 reference. My youngest daughter and I just finished watching the entire series. Great TV until the end there... Whew, Ezri was no replacement for Jadzia and all that kissing.... good grief.
@@MattSpaugh Nice guess, and though I watched the entire DS9 series, it is not a reference to this. It refers to Supreme Commander instead, a RTS game I like very much. And to be honest, I already forgot about Ezri in DS9. And almost the whole last season. :o
awesome video! This was the least complicated video I have seen and I've been looking for overhead rigs! thanks =)
Glad you liked it!
Great video Matt this information was so clear and straight to the point. Really enjoyed the video.... I just wished you would of put some examples of what was filmed inside the video. I just wanted to see how the whole rig performed.
You’ve got a lovely voice 😍
Well, I'm glad you're not the all-deaf singer! Thanks for the encouragement, and thanks for watching - and listening.
@@MattSpaugh it was also super succinct. Really nice video.
@@dannywellstattoos Thanks. Staying on point is actually pretty difficult for me - I usually end up editing out a LOT of what I deliver to camera. Glad to know the effort is appreciated.
@@MattSpaugh oh it’s most certainly appreciated pal.
Great video.
Thanks Jamal! I'm still using this on a regular basis. Having everything set up and ready to go has saved me a ton of time.
Very good Thanks
Glad you like it. I still use it regularly - in both configurations! Thanks for watching.
Hello, nice video.
*Do you have a video on how to film in the same way, but with the Settings for a smartphone?*
Thanks!
I'm afraid I don't do much phone filming. I would guess all of this would work, but the mount would have to be different, and your height would likely be less.
Thanks for watching.
Let’s see the shoot next time. Thanks
Nice idea, I would certainly like to do something like this. How short does it get i need to work on the floor?
It would depend on the C-Stand that you use. Mine are pretty tall, so I can only get about 48" down. They make shorter c-stands though.
You could always just use a longer focal length on your lens which, would work well since it would reduce the amount of distortion near the edges.
Hope that helps - thanks for watching!
@@MattSpaugh Thank you, Matt. 48" was about as short as I saw too. I would enjoy watching a video on focal length if you have one. Because you touched on it in this video, and mentioned it again here, but I'm not comfortable with the concept at all.
@@chillbro2275 I don't have one on my channel, but there are a few out there. I'll post one in a separate comment. Focal length determines how much you see in the camera. A low number, like 24mm or 35mm is going to show you a lot - so they're called wide. A bigger number, like 200mm is tele-photo... like a telescope. You see things that are further away, but not as much of the scene.
When a lens is wide, like 16mm or 20mm, objects near the edges of the frame get distorted - our of proportion. And things in teh middle get smaller and look further away.
I know that's kind of vague but it's the best way I can put it in a comment.
HOpefully the video I post below will show up. Sometimes comments with video links get deleted.
@chillbro2275
ruclips.net/video/4CoEsqePADw/видео.html
@@chillbro2275 I just copied a link. If it doesn't show up, do a search for "Camera Basics - Focal Length" and look for the "Apalapse" channel.
Hope that helps.
Where can i find the next video that you mentioned at the end?
It's here: ruclips.net/video/I-9ei5OC8ww/видео.html
I'm trying to replicate this set up as closely as possible with items available to me in the UK, and I'm missing just one piece. In the grip on your c-stand where you attach the ring light, you have an extra piece of tubing that you screw the ring light mounting on to. If I was to look for that on Amazon, what would I be searching for? :) My c-stand (a Neweer Pro) didn't seem to come with anything like this. I'm guessing it's some kind of extension?
The grip head attaches to the extension arm, the thing that attaches the light to the grip head is called a pin, or sometimes baby pin. Here's one from amazon us: www.amazon.com/Kupo-5in-Grip-Pin-KG011212/dp/B00VIBME18
Hope that helps. Thanks for watching!
@@MattSpaugh Can you link me to a different grip pin also? The one you posted is unavailable right now and looking for an alternative.
@@aanarchist a search for "Grip Head Baby Pin" should get you some options. This is the one I use, it looks like they have 4 in stock right now: www.amazon.com/dp/B000BIX238
Given your 30" off the table and 35mm lens, what size on the table surface are you getting? Based on your quick demo shots, I'm guessing in the 40" wide range? If I was to try this, but wanted to capture up to 50" of table top, and thus raised the camera up another 5-6", do you think the ring light would be strong enough or would it start to get dark in the corners?
My frame-area measures about 36 wide at 30" high. When I need a larger area I do two things: go to a shorter focal length (but I try to never go shorter than 24mm) and raise the rig higher. My light is bright (96 watts!), it's a shame that they don't make it any more. (this is the exact same thing, but more money: www.adorama.com/saledrlps.html) . If you can find something that bright, you'll have no problem going higher. At some point you'll be tweaking ISO, which in the case of the Sony cameras is really a non-issue. I can get into 3200 territory before I see an appreciable difference.
Let me know how it works out. I'm still using this set up and love it. Thanks for watching.
Hey Matt, great video! will this set up work for overhead cooking videos as well? or it would not provide enough light?
I can see two potential problems - maybe three. First, to answer your question, no, I don't think this would provide enough light for cooking. Mainly because I'm guessing that your camera would need to be higher up. The further you move the light, the less light reaches the subject.
The other lighting concerns would be glare (which can sometimes be hard to control with this setup) and overall even-ness of light. Even with white reflectors on each side, this rig provides a concentrated light in the center of the frame - and over a relatively small distance.
FWIW, I'm a big James May fan. He did a cooking show last year that I thought was beautifully lit. It's on Prime if you wan to check it out. They used wide light mats which gave good, even illumination over the entire counter top (which included the cook top). You might want to check it out.
Wow, this reply got long. Anyway, thanks for watching and good luck with your shoot!
How do you deal with reflections with having a light directly over your items?
The matte black tabletop definitely is a must. As far as objects go, I just keep an eye on the monitor and adjust the angle of whatever I'm showing.
@@MattSpaugh thanks for the reply
@@RexxReviews No sweat. I wish there was a better answer. It's the trade off for the convenience of having the all in one rig. Have a good one!
Where are you placing your sandbag? Ive seen examples where they put it on the other side of the extension arm and Ive seen it on the feet of the stand
When using a C-stand with graduated legs, the highest leg should be facing the weight load. I place my sand bags opposite the load.
YOu can test it by pushing gently on the shaft of the c-stand. If it feels like it's not stable, move the bag until it is or add more weight. Hope that helps - good luck with it.
I can see that your channel is going to grow. Now is 830 subscribers. I have a vlog too. And I am also thinking to build a rig for the camera above me. Maybe it's gonna be permanent because I have one old camera that needs a purpose (Nikon D7000) and I think it's gonna be ok for this. Lately also I am thinking to buy color checker. To match different cameras. Do you use it? Are you using just one camera at the time or multiple?
I use it on all my cameras. OSMO Action, A7III, my Panasonic - all of them. Thanks for watching!
And that stand is only 130$, damn I was sure it would have been a super expensive piece because they like to overprice items that are meant for professionals.
You can definitely find much more expensive ones out there. That particular model fits my needs (and budget) nicely. I've got a half a dozen of them around the studio.
If you want more insight into what c-stands mean to me, check out this video from last February: ruclips.net/video/r_2xs88tcc0/видео.html
Thanks for watching and happy new year!