Location Photography Gear

LOCATION GEAR: MAX vs MINIMAL

I’ve been a professional photographer for over 30 years. My first job as a pro was with the local newspaper the summer of my Senior year in High School. My job was as a “stringer” for the paper and I covered local school sports events. Back then my gear bag carried my Pentax K1000, 35mm camera, a telephoto zoom lens, a 50mm lens and a flash unit. Well, I also carried several rolls of film back then as well.

The only time I used my flash was when I was interviewing an individual in a low light situation, or when I was covering some other kind of event indoors. Even when I would photograph models for their portfolios it would be rare that I would pull out the flash. Practically all the time I would use only ambient light.

Flash forward, (yes, pun intended), when I incorporated and went into photography full time my focus, (heheh…), was on portraiture. At that juncture of my career I began using studio strobes, and primarily I used a four light setup. My lighting scheme consisted of a Key light, a Fill light, a Hair light, and a Background light.

Even back then I was concerned with economy and portability as my business required that I set up my studio in several different locations, so I had to pack it up and move it every week. For those reasons I opted for moonlights rather than battery pack systems.

Of course along with the strobes I had a variety of light modifiers such as umbrellas, snoots and barndoors, and color filters. I had also moved from the 35mm camera to a medium format camera, and along with that I had a bellows that attached to the front of the lens and acted as a lens hood/shade, and also accommodated various accessories such as vignettes and soft focus filters.

In those days I had a few large cases packed with studio gear that I lugged around from assignment to assignment. And I became nearly obsessed with adding things to my arsenal.

Then about 12 years ago I started doing more outdoor location portrait sessions. At first I wanted to bring along my studio strobes and umbrellas and softboxes, but of course with the monolights I needed to be able to plug them in. So I considered investing in battery packs and strobes, but the problem with that was the weight, and with all that gear the need to always have an assistant.

The alternative was to create a studio-like lighting scheme using light-weight, battery powered flash units. And since I had become so used to and comfortable with using all the umbrellas and softboxes, I wanted to have similar modifiers for my flash units.

At that point I was carrying two cameras, (DSLR 35mm Nikons), three zoom lenses, three flash units, small softboxes and batteries for the flashes, radio transceivers, and three lightstands. Everything except the light modifiers and lightstands fit into my location gear bag that I could fairly easily carry on my shoulder. But I had to carry an additional case for the miniature softboxes and accessories, and of course the lightstands.

There was an additional problem with the little softboxes. Where I live and work most the time there is a breeze blowing. With the softboxes attached to the flash units, it was like putting sails on them and they were constantly wanting to blow over! I can tell you it’s very distracting to have to be constantly on guard to catch lightstands as they get blown around!

Finally I cut the light modifiers from my location gear, and I found that by adjusting the spread of light from the flash units by simply adjusting the “zoom” feature, and using just two flash units, one as a Key and one as a Fill, I am able to create a very natural looking light on my subjects without the need of additional light modifiers! And when I position my subjects so the sun is lighting their hair, I have essentially a three light studio setup!

So now while I still carry three flash units, one of them is primarily there as a backup, and I can carry everything I need in one portable gear bag, and just two light-weight lightstands. This makes it much easier to move from one spot to another while at an outdoor location, removes most of the danger of my flash units being blown over, and eliminates the need to have an assistant on every assignment. And I still get beautiful portrait lighting for my clients!