Equipment

6 Online Photography Gear Rental Reviews

Photography gear can be expensive – sometimes you just need a special lens, camera body or lighting equipment temporarily. Be it for an assignment, project or just to try before you buy.
Many online photographic rental companies are popping up now – especially with the economy in some turmoil (in the US specifically) cause investing in new equipment isn’t always a priority as landing the right gigs to support more investments. And for those of us who prefer photography as a hobby – rental is often a great solution.

Most rental retailers deal primarily with Nikon and Canon equipment but some places rent Olympus, Sony, AlienBees and much more!
Here’s a list and details on reputable lens and equipment rental companies that do online/shipping for rental equipment across the US.
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Rosco Gel Samples Just Arrived

by Learn More Photo 4 Comments

I, along with every other photog-blogger in the blogosphere, has read about using the Rosco Roscolux Swatchbook available free from Rosco (beware I’ve heard there’s a major wait through Rosco) and for ~~$0.01~~ now $1.95 from B&H to color a background using a flash unit.

Well it’s hard to get a hold of the Roscolux Swatchbook. I’ve seen it sell out on the B&H website in as little as 24 minutes before. Though B&H also has the Rosco Cinegel Swatchbook for the same price, and it was in stock, so I ordered it and got yesterday.

The first thing I did was remove the straight pin holding the samples together and replaced it with a clip I had previously used for embroidery floss. This allows me to remove gels easily while not making a mess of the whole situation.

Accompanying Photographs

You can pick up a loop like that at any craft store like Joann’s near the embroidery or notions storage section.

I haven’t had a chance to play with any lighting with the gels yet. You know…work…sleep. But I’m excited to give it a try tonight or tomorrow.

I learned about these gel sample packs by reading a post on the Photography on the.net forums, using gels to create colored backgrounds. I was immediately inspired, especially by the photos posted to that thread by curtis N, agent.media and flg8r.

That was when the Internet twisted my own arm into buying the background and stand I did the video about last week.

While waiting for my delivery I looked and found some other good posts on forums about using gel samples. This post started as a question regarding the effectiveness of a colored background and saturation of the color by the gel, and includes a sample photo. Another post about using gels shows sample photographs using models and still life and also shows demonstrations where you can fill the background with the color, or hot spot the color, even a demo that appears to snoot with a color.

I also stumbled across another post where the demo was using the gel against a white wall. Though one response pointed out that using the gel on white has a tendency to reflect back onto the subject which can cause highlights in the hair to become the color of the gel. Not always a desired effect. I’m quite glad I went with the dark grey background now!

I’ll probably be working on a holder tonight, I’ve been exploding a few options:

Plastic Sleeve and Velcro – photo 2 – Not a big fan of the idea of putting Velcro on my flash
Plastic name tag – Similar to the above plastic sleeve and Velcro, seems promising
Mat Board and Clip – I’d probably use a magnet instead of a clip, and I’d use black mat board
Plastic as Clips – Appears to work well but I would rather separate the gel from the top of the flash in fear of heat transfer and melting
Mat Board and Snaps for Swivel Action – Is a swivel necessary? Not for me. Glad to see magnets work well though
Plastic Strips and Velcro – Again I’m not sure about the gel flush against the flash

As you can tell I’m kind-of being a big wussie about not melting my gel to my flash but even if is unlikely to happen I’d still rather use preventative measures.

I’ll post up my final solution I settle with. My guess is it will be a lot like the mat board with clip, except with magnets since they’re way easier to change quickly and if they’re attached I can’t lose them!

Researching these holders was a big help and lead me to request sample packets from a few other companies such as Lee and Apollo Design Technologies. We’ll see how long it takes for those sample packs to come in.

Update: Lee Gels vs. Rosco Gel Swatchbooks

The Lee Gel sample pack came almost days later. And I prefer using the Lee gels because they use larger samples which cover the flash (or my gel adapter) nicer. I managed to get my hands on a couple of the Rosco Roscolux Swatchbook and I see why they are recommended, that book has a wider variety of colors and focuses mainly on gels. Maybe I’ll do a full review of the different swatch books once I get the last one I ordered.

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

by Learn More Photo 3 Comments

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!

Cool Photography Equipment & DIY Alternatives

by Learn More Photo 1 Comment

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.