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Upgrade Your Tripod: Bogen/Manfrotto 486RC2 Ballhead & 190XB Legs with Low Profile Feature

Back in August I went on a B&H shopping spree and got myself a new tripod legs and ball head.

This was kind-of a big deal for me since I went from my old $40 Walmart Tripod that I was ashamed to use in public to my new beautiful $300 Bogen/Manfrotto tripod legs and ball head.

I looked at all the kits in my price range and unfortunately couldn’t find one with the parts I wanted so bought my legs and ball head separately.

New Equipment

One of my favorite parts of the 190XB Tripod Legs if the low profile feature. It’s super easy to use and really quick to switch to.

Low Profile on 190XB Tripod Legs

Switch to the low angle adapter

First switch to the low angle adapter by detaching it from the bottom of the center column, then pull out the center column (make sure you’ve loosened that screw before you pull), then pop in the low adapter and tighten the screw again. Take a look at the collage below for details, custom made for you visual learners!

Switch the legs to a higher angle

Then to get the tripod low you just need to push in the leg release lever at the top of each leg and pull out the leg. You can hear it click and lock in at 25,46,66 & 88 degrees. With all the legs compacted and at 88 degrees the tripod (without ballhead) has a profile of only 3.3″. Cool huh?

Scott Kelby Recommends Similar Equipment!

In his book, The Digital Photography Book , Scott Kelby recommends similar equipment. Well actually he recommends the older versions of this equipment as his “budget” picks on pages 8 and 9 but B&H refers you to these items…the updated gear!

Smoothie Photo Shoot

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I had planned to photograph the smoothie (which is a raspberry/purple color) in a plain clear tumbler glass, slice of fresh lemon on the edge, with an orange straw that has a pink stripe running down it, against a white background with a little bit of a shadow.

I actually stole a handful of straws from Dunkin’s this morning for this project. Though after doing some Goggling I found some articles that area giving me some different ideas and variations I’d really like to try also!

Food Photography Inspiration and Lessons

Food Photography – An Introduction – This article from the Digital Photography School website shows three photographic samples that all display the food against a lovely complementary/contrasting background color and pattern. There’s some tips too but I found that the images were more powerful than the message the tips.
Sweep & Float – This great lesson from the Still Life With…(Food Styling and Photography) may have been a selling point for my not doing a white background. I don’t think I have the tools, materials and lighting I would need to create a good seamless white background to create the illusion of the subject floating against a white background.
A UK Beer Blogger made photographing beer look easy using the techniques in that lesson!
Despite how easy the beer blogger makes it look, I am less than confident about the materials I have to create the Sweep & Float setup, maybe this is the right time to try and make the DIY $10 macro photo studio. I have a number of boxes from my move still lying around and I know I have plenty of vellum and large sketchpad paper to create this mini-studio.
How to Food Photography – From one of the many informative articles on the food portfolio website this one talks all about lighting: how smaller (closer) lights get detail, and bigger lights reduce detail and cast softer shadows. The article also bring to light (ha ha) some great examples of non traditional direction of lights and fantastic samples of how gels can really spice up a scene.
The article also points out, in a number of shots, how to use the translucency of different foods can be used to really bring that part of the dish to live. Especially with the lettuce and shrimp tale shot and the lemon shot.
Food Photography Tips – This article also speaks of how important the backgrounds as well as some other technical aspects such as lenses, ISO, color balance as well as composition.
Shoot First, Eat Later – And of course a brief from Food & Wine Magazine.

So from those articles I’ve decided I need to stop at a fabric store and grab some interesting orange backdrop. The right orange will provide beautiful contrast to the pink/purple drink and will *hopefully* make the lemon and smoothie really pop. Also, I will create the $10 studio for both the backdropped version as well as an attempt at the floating glass shots. I will try lighting the beverage from a number of different angles, using the translucency of the lemon to try and see if that brings too much attention to the lemon accent, or helps to really lead the eye to the drink.

Photos of the Smoothie

Inspiration on Flickr

On a side note, during my Google search I found this from the food photographer

Cool Photography Equipment & DIY Alternatives

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There’s nothing better than new toys for your camera. Here’s a list of new toys I’d love to get for my camera, great toys I already have, as well as any cost-less DIY alternatives.

We’ve also added some visitor requests – if you have something you’d like to see added to this page drop us a note in the comments!

Lenses

LensBaby – Amazing lens that gives you a different kind of control over your photograph the likes of which you’ve never seen pre-Photoshop! It’s all about compressing the lens or expanding it to get your focal point and it produces the effect of an ultra large aperture and allows you to tilt and shift the lens at it’s “sweet spot” compression to shift the focus to another spot on that plane. A back to basics and “fun” kind of lens.

DIY Lensbaby Style Tilt and Shift Lens

I’m having trouble finding sites that are still active and not 404 errors for DIY tilt/shift lenses. Here’s a post on Make anyways. And another article about a homemade t/s f2.8 but unfortunately neither provide instructions.

Diffusers

Gary Fong’s Lightsphere II – Renowned diffuser for your speedlight flash. The site shows great samples of a face on flash vs a bounced flash vs a studio setup vs the lightsphere and at less than $50 the Lightsphere seems to triumph in the samples.

DIY Dome Diffusers for your Flashes

$2 Gordosphere – $2 version looks GREAT! Doesn’t look cheap and kind-of looks like fun to make, the demo shows how to make a great “clouded” diffuser!
Light Cylinder – Uses an inverted dome to distribute the light, doesn’t look so great but is a great idea to tinker with.
Jason Lightsphere V.2 – This one looks pretty cheap but has easy to access materials to give it a try. A demo I’ve used before and had decent results, but nothing like a good diffuser.

Lumiquest Soft Screen – A great little diffuser that attaches to the hot shoe of your camera and diffuses the on-camera pop-up flash. I picked up one of these on a whim one day at the camera store and have been so glad I did, it provides a basic diffusion on your pop-up flash while still looking professional. Great for situations where you won’t be able to use your speedlight and diffuser.

DIY Soft Screen Pop-up Flash Diffuser

Suck it up and spend $15 okay? 🙂

Lastolite TriGrip Reflector – Great reflectors and diffusers. I personally own one of the diffusers and love it. I find it’s even a bright enough white to be a reflector. The grip is easy to use, and the compact design is great for storage and moving it around on location. The packaging didn’t come with instructions on how to fold the product back up, but the online demo did the trick. It took me well over a dozen tries before I successfully folded it up but after practice it’s very easy to fold up, pack up and be on our way!

Tripods

Gorillapod – Wrapable legs on a tripod to hold onto anything. Seems like a great tripod solution for your Digi Point and Shoot but as far as an SLR, it makes me a little nervous!

DIY Bottle Cap Tripod

Bottle Cap Tripod – I’ve never tried this, and although the bottle can’t wrap around a pole like the Gorillapod it is a very portable solution since I know I almost always have a bottle of water or soda on me.

The Pod – Bean bag tripod, I’ve seen and heard a lot about bean bags via the Tips from the Top Floor podcast (Chris loves his bean bag) but This one has the screw to mount the camera and also a strap to hold your lens safely in place while the bean bag conforms to the surface below.

DIY Beanbag

DIYBeanbag – Make your own beanbag! I like the size and shape in this DIY tutorial, very unique.

Get it Right In Camera

Warm Cards – Warm white balance cards, instead of using the 18% gray cards these are tinted blue to provide a warmer temperature when you set your white balance balance.

DIY White Balance Cards

See also: Post processing, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom or piece of white paper. Maybe just print a card of 18% gray that you’ve tinted ever so slightly blue, Printing on 4×6 index cards has always served me well for recopies, I suppose a white balance card would work too..

Climate Protection

Storm Jacket – Weather gear for your SLR. It’s not water proofing, just water protection. I can imagine this would be great not just for rainy days, but also snowy days, or days when the snow might fall from the trees. On a boat where the surf is of concern? Maybe even sand protection if in a desert climate or on a windy beach.

DIY Camera Protection

See also: Plastic bag, clear shower cap, ziploc bag.
Make your own underwater enclosure – This would make me nervous. VERY nervous…but those MIT kids are wicked smart. I think if I was to do underwater work I’d go buy an underwater camera case.