Elevate Your Craft Without a New Camera

We all love buying new cameras and lenses, but sometimes upgrading your studio equipment can have an even larger impact on what you’re able to create. I know that might sound crazy. Oftentimes, we overlook the importance of having proper lighting and grip equipment. Today we breakdown some of our most popular lighting and studio pieces (all currently on sale I might add!).

Stands

There are certain things that you can’t go without if you’re looking to build out a comprehensive gear package, one that can cover an array of shooting scenarios. The first thing I’d recommend is a C-stand. These are the foundation of a lighting kit and will serve you for years to come. C-stands are great for mounting lights, especially heavier lighting equipment, as well as acting as a mounting point for light modifiers, such as a scrim or a flag.

Our C-stands are offered in 3 different sizes, 5.5’, 7.5’, and 10.9’, allowing you to choose what best suits your creative needs. Each C-stand has a load capacity of 22lbs, meaning you can mount heavy LED units with a myriad of softboxes and light modifiers. Every kit comes with the stand itself, a 30” extension arm, and two 2.5” grip heads. After some simple assembly out of the box, you are ready to go! Even though these are heavy duty, it is always best to anchor them with additional weight, especially when booming a light off the vertical post. We recommend pairing our C-stands with some sand bags when using them on set.

In addition to a C-stand, having a boom stand is a must for those working in the video space. Boom stands are great for getting a mic into position without it interrupting your frame. Having ample “boomage” as we’ll call it is key. With our studio boom stand you can achieve a maximum boom length of just over 7 feet with an overall working height of 13 ½ feet. This is great for getting a microphone in the perfect position when shooting an interview with multiple camera angles as you have a lot of play in both height and distance from subject to work with. This stand also doubles as a more traditional light stand as the two top sections are collapsible meaning you can mount strobes or continuous lighting to the stand when it's vertically oriented.

Lighting

So you’ve got some stands…how about some fresh lights? Having a system of LEDs that work together is such a convenient way to improve your overall workflow. Luckily for you all of our current LEDs work off of the Light Attendant App allowing you to control them from your fingertips. This includes both our small LEDs such as the Chroma CL36RGB, CL33RGB, and TL9RGB and our larger panels.

Smaller LEDs are such a powerful tool whether you are attaching them to your camera to add some light while shooting a vlog or using them as a practical in your scene. There are endless use cases for them given their ability to be easily mounted or hidden when needed.

Larger LED panels are a great way to light subjects or fill out a scene more thoroughly. I’ll be honest my favorite light of ours is hands down the Ultrasoft US1014RGB. This panel has excellent output and the barn doors make controlling spill and light direction a breeze. It also has a host of features packed into it like 360 hues, bi-color mode, and 19 special effects. This powerhouse is offered as a single light or in a 2-light kit. The 2-light kit comes with a carrying case, light stands, and all the necessary cables to power your Ultrasofts. The 1014 is also offered in a Bi-color variety as well providing excellent output at a more affordable price. You’ll also find our Chroma CL68RGB as another option for those in need of something with lots of output in a compact package.

Backgrounds

Sometimes you're looking to frame up a shot and you're in a space that… just looks unflattering. Using a backdrop is a fast and easy way to make your frame look more professional. Want to go for a traditional black backdrop and take some headshots of your client? Great! You can easily deploy a solid 10’ x 20’ backdrop and transform the look of your image. These backdrops are made of a polyester/cotton blend making them more resistant to wrinkles (something we have all dealt with). They are also offered in a variety of colors such as grey, green, blue, white and even in cloud patterns for a more creative look.

What’s a background without a background stand… useless. Ok maybe that’s a little dramatic but seriously you’ll need a way to hang these backdrops. Our heavy duty background kit is a whopping 12 feet wide and can go 12 feet high as well, meaning you can get plenty of coverage for your photo or video shoots. The kit is also easy to break down and set up if you are moving from one location to the next.

If you’re looking for something even quicker that you can instantly deploy, our solid pop-up backgrounds might be the ticket. As the name suggests these quite literally “pop-up” when you unfold them to create a lightweight backdrop that is easy to hang using a clamp and a C-stand or a designated pop-up background stand. They are a great option for those on-the-go or if you’ll be traveling for a shot and are restricted to a certain amount of gear.

That’s a Wrap

As I stated earlier, having the right lighting equipment can have a larger impact on the result of your images and creative process. If you’re looking to add some new gear to your kit that will actually make a difference this year then we’d definitely recommend updating your studio equipment.