Check out what the pros use.
Every time we go to an event our eyes are on the photogs to see what they use to get the money.
The right stuff. The real deal. the gear. The goods. We ask questions too.
And we have found a couple of items that are pretty easy to find and can make you life easier, save embarrassment, make you taller, pack flat, and correct your color.
Ready?

OK, first up is a step stool. No big deal? Oh yes it is.
Available in 2 sizes, 12 or 16in. heights, these plastic beauties will give you a extra reach for your shots, and they fold flat for travel in rolling camera bag. We keep a 12″ in the outer pocket of a ThinkTank Photo roller.

Holds up to 300 lbs, for when you are carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.

Now here is a good trick: the bottoms feet have a nice rubber grip and if you are in some place where keeping your laptop on your lap, just isn’t cutting it, flip over this bad boy and place your laptop right on the legs. Cools it, gives you room, and the rubber feet keep it in place.
$16-$24 clams for these

Next up we have a perfect tool for travel. If you’ve ever packed all of your chargers, extra batts, Wacom tablet, or just general gear into a suitcase , only to find when you get to the airline luggage counter that you are overweight, rut-roh,.
You look silly trying to re-pack and split stuff between more bags, AND you get to pay dough. Just hope you don’t sit next to one of those people in line. they will not be happy. And either will you if you pay the extra charges.
Check the chart:

We use a Balanzza Digital Compact Airline Luggage Scale,
to weigh the bags at home, and suss out the distribution while we can comfortably shift it from bag to bag.
Good up to 100lbs. and does lbs and kilos. Sweet deal for only about $20.
check this vid:

OK, it DOES explain it. Just in a 70′s kinda way.

Another thing we ALWAYS have in the case and shift to a shirt pocket is a X-Rite M50111 Mini ColorChecker Chart

Set it somewhere in the scene you are shooting, even if just for a frame, and you will have the best fix for your color in post.
And remember: Never use the auto white balance! make a choice! easier to correct that than deal with the crazy AWB choice.
You know those color dropper icons in Lightroom and iPhoto?
If you have a color chart in your scene you now have a standard to adjust to. Set the dropper to the right square and you’ll be very happy.
And this one is about $60. But the time you’ll save in post is worth it.

And there you go. A coupla tips for goods that you may want to add to your kit.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Photo News, Product Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.