Stand By Me

You may recall the movie or the song, but remember that every studio needs stands. Camera Stands, light stands, hot dog stands. ( well photography makes you hungry. ) General Custer used to make stands, but his last one was somewhat of a failure. I went looking in the Stirling Street shop for economical stands for the new video venture. Not for me - I have 6 or 8 Manfrotto light stands of various types and they have never failed me. I have a Gitzo tripod that is the same - and a home made studio stand that hasn't fallen over yet. I'm okay - it's my dancer model who needs to build up a dance studio set at her own home. And not at high prices. Could we do it? a. A tripod is needed. I don't care what the adverts show you about putting a mobile phone on a light stand - if you have to support it on the ground and it has to be at least up to navel height, you need a proper tripod. The INCA tripod I discovered is good value. Metal legs, metal spider, clip locks, and a ball head heavy enough to handle the mobile phone with ease. One of the Joby GripTite ONE phone mounts would be the perfect partner for this.. Once set for angle, the phone could be started and never move a millimetre after that. $ 75 is a bargain. b. The Phottix light stand is perfect for the small to medium LED light panels. It has a tilting head with a positive lock, metal legs, and metal pins in the joints. At $ 55 you can afford two of them for the panels. c. The sand bag. The dancer said that the dinky stands she was using blew over when she tried to use them in the garden. I wasn't surprised. She needs large fat cats to drape themselves over the stand legs. Failing that, a Phottix sand bag filled with beach. d.. The panels. Well, you can go to town here and spend as much money as you can carry, or you can get the smaller LED panels that do much the same thing on a smaller scale. The advantage of the Aputure Hue 200's is their amazing ability to change colour. They run on rechargeable internal batteries and have basic colour temperature adjustability... as well as the rainbow built in. A dancer in a bright costume might not need to add extra colour, but if I know my dancers, they will. As an old time user of lighting gels I will be right behind them.