DIY 12 volt fluoro light for light painting cars

I put this light together recently and thought it might be of interest to some folks.

It's a normal 18W household fluoro which runs on AA batts, lasts about an hour, and is quite good for light painting cars or even the normal kinds of light painting.

This is the Rig-Pro of light painting!

ahmad0420 wrote in post #14949406
This is the Rig-Pro of light painting!

Rig-Pro! Lets not get too carried away. I'm thinking more Automotive Rigs, maybe even Fat Gecko.

JJ

This is pretty awesome. I'll definitely take a look at this!

Good work with that. The car looks pretty good.

rodizzle wrote in post #14949518
This is pretty awesome. I'll definitely take a look at this!

PhotosGuy wrote in post #14954712
Good work with that. The car looks pretty good.

Thanks folks.

@jjphoto - Where did you end up buying the inverter at? Or did you make your own?


Thanks

this is a pretty cool concept!

NormanRC51 wrote in post #15004671
@jjphoto - Where did you end up buying the inverter at? Or did you make your own?
Thanks

I simply bought the inverter from a store specialising in low voltage gear, batteries, lighting etc (as explained in the link).

twidge wrote in post #15054482
this is a pretty cool concept!

Ta.

JJ

OK, so now I've made a larger 36 Watt version (that's a 1200mm tube).

Interesting! What is the difference between this technique and using strobes (which I just bought, :lol?

jjphoto wrote in post #15078040
One of the images was light painted (reflection in front and side windows) and the other was shot only with strobes (1 front, 1 side and 1 strobe per tyre behind the car).

Awesome example! It seems that both are winners! Thank you for the post!

You can also get ready made fluorescent and LED lights such as made for RV's and such with the 12 volt ballasts (for the fluorescents) already built in, such as these http://www.solar-electric.com/thfiandac​.html Looks like they also sell 12 volt ballasts.

I tried one of the small LED versions with the built in diffuser on a night time motorcycle shot in the desert, and it turned out pretty decent, but LED's tend to be more bluish so had to adjust the color balance. Instead of the built in rechargable batteries I used a small (4 amp-hour'ish) motorcycle battery on a belt clip.

Let me just chime in here and say that your PhotoCornucopia.com site is a treasure trove of information and a must read for all the folks around here wanting to get into automotive photography. Thanks for making this information available and easy to understand.