Adobe Creative Suite 4

Learning Center
Adobe CS4 Now Shipping

Living In Layers - The OFFICIAL Layers Magazine Blog

What I Should Carry In My Camera Bag From Now On…

CATEGORIES: Living In Layers | RC | October 08, 2007

wedding photography camera bag contents
My friends Bruce and Tina McQuiston were married this weekend and I traveled up to Syracuse, NY to go see them. I always bring my D200 around, just on the off chance I need to shoot something.

I don’t know why, but I saw the wedding photographer shooting with what seemed like a D100 and an 18-55 lens 3.5? That wouldn’t have been so bad, but I shuddered immediately when I noticed that he was shooting the wedding with the popup flash on the camera!

I’m sure that there was a perfectly good reason for that, and I’m sure that the pictures are going to come out great. That moment, however, inspired me to think about my own camera gear: what I brought, and (more importantly) what I should be carrying with me.

Digital Camera: If you want to have good pictures, carry one around with you all the time.

Hot Shoe or External Flash: The popup flash just does not give you a great look. It’s OK if you are in a pinch, but ONLY if you’re in a pinch. You have so much more control with an external flash because you can quickly control its direction.

Memory Cards: Need a lot of them, ’nuff said. Shooting RAW, there is never enough.

Diffuser for Flash: Sometimes, the light is going to be too hard, and the external flash may not cut the mustard. You’re going to have to soften that light. To do that, you can use a diffuser. I have been very happy with my Gary Fong Lightsphere. I just checked his site this morning and I noticed he’s got a couple of cool things up his sleeve recently (puffer, whale tail). As soon as I play around with those, I’ll write back with a review.

In the meantime, you can check out the Lightsphere here: http://store.garyfonginc.com/licl.html

Tripod : The best way to take your pictures to the next level is with a tripod – period. A tripod can make a good shot great. I’ve been playing around with the Giottos MT8350 tripod and the MH1301 head. Bang for buck, this is an AMAZING tripod.

Aside from being relatively light, I’d pay someone to try to move the head when you have
it locked. Well… I wouldn’t pay someone per se, but it is that good. It’s held a D200 with a 18-200 with ease. I am going to load the extra battery packs and another lens. As soon as I finish banging on it, I will post my take on it.

You can get the 8361 here at B&H.

Grey Card: One of the things that has made its way into my bag recently is this Photo Master Target. By incorporating it into the start of a shoot, you have a quick way to white balance any situation. I love the fact that it’s collapsible – I can just throw it into my bag. Heck, even the back of the bag that it comes in is colored at an 18% grey. So if I’m feeling entirely too lazy, I can just shoot the outside of the bag!
(Kudos to Jean-Francois for having a nicely-designed product. You can visit his website over at http://www.thestudiocoach.com. I’m going to have to take a look at his DVD’s at some point. They look pretty cool. If I do, I’ll let you know.)

Reflector: I almost always pose someone at an angle. Because of that, I almost always have bad light on one side of the face. You can stop that from happening by using a reflector to bounce some light back onto the dark side. Hey, Joe McNally also uses it as a fan for the client.. that’s two products rolled into one!

So.. I think I am destined to carry all this stuff in my bag from here to eternity – I hope I can leave some room in the bag for a cape.