Putting up light stands or background stands can be a hazardous affair if the centre of gravity is too high, i.e. top heavy. There is nothing worse than stands falling down and destroying equipment or hurting people. This is why you should weight them down, normally with sandbags, but I have another idea. Photography sandbags not only cost quite a bit of money, you still have to source the filling after you’ve bought them, and they are only good for one thing, being a sandbag. If only you could use something else that can also have a function after you’ve used it on your light stands, and chances are, you’ve already got them! Read More...

So I’ve had a roll of lighting gels for years and for some odd reason, I’ve been a bit precious about them. I don’t have many and particularly the colour correction ones are absolutely necessary, so I have never cut them up! I keep them rolled up in a cardboard box, and every time I need to use them I have to take them out, spread them out on the floor, separate them, look for the ones that I need and then put the others back. What a hassle, and not always easy to spread them out. Then once I have the gel in hand it’s a case of C47’s clipping them to the front of the barn doors. Every now and then as the barn doors are altered the gel falls off, it makes the doors harder to operate and overall, a minor pain in the arse. Also, I only have three sheets of each colour correction gel meaning I can only correct three lights. If only there was another way. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but simply cut the gels to fit the lights. Read More...