Lighting 101 - Light Stands

Now that you have decided to get the flash off of the camera, you'll need some place to put it. And for most situations the best choice will be to attach it to a light stand.

Most any light stand will safely support a shoe-mount strobe. So look for a stand that that is reasonably priced, can stand up to some abuse and is light and easily transportable.

Two of my favorites are the Bogen 6' Retractable 5-Section Light Stand (3373) and the Bogen 8' Compact Light Stand. The 3373 has been discontinued for another model. It is now sold as a Manfrotto Nano 001 (~$58.00).

There is an off-brand 5-section compact stand that is very similar (and a little more heavy duty, actually) for $39.99. It is called a LumoPro 604. For all practical purposes, the two are exchangeable.

If you are not going to put a stand through a hard duty cycle, there is no reason to spend a lot of money. Stands are notin the optical chain. They hold up the flash -- and a very small flash if you are using speedlights.

The 5-section compact stands are my workhorse (I use two of them regularly) because they fold up to a very compact package and will support a shoe-mount strobe just fine. But if you are looking to get a little extra height and are willing to forego the ultra-compact folding advantages of the compact stands, you have many good choices to suit just about any budget.

The second example, for instance, is a sturdier, taller, general purpose stand will double as a support for larger strobes when I need it, but does not fold as compactly because it has only three sections. There are plenty of good choices. But if you are shopping price, make sure the stand is a full-sized version, and not just a short "background" stand, though.

Besides extreme portability, another reason that I like the 5-section stands is that they use solid aluminum legs to save space. This means that they can be easily drilled (1/4" hole works fine - see detail photo) to take an O-ring so you can attach a strap. This is a great setup, as it allows you to just throw the stand over your shoulder as easily as carrying another camera body.

You can easily attach a strap to a tubular-legged light stand, too. Just use a little gaffer's tale and 3 or 4 inches of a straight section of clothes hanger wire with a little "bump-out" bent into the middle of it. Use needle-nosed pliers and gaffer tape the straight parts to the stand legs. Hook the O-rings to the middle parts.

One advantage of stands other than the 3373 is that it gives you more choices on the umbrella, which we will talk about later. The 5-section, small-folding stands are pretty close to the same size of the double-fold umbrellas. But if you get a normal-sized stand, you have a much wider choice of umbrellas to choose from.

(It would make very little sense to get a compact-folding stand and bungee it to a full-sized umbrella, or vice versa.)

Whichever way you go, either version will be very functional. The 3373's and double-fold umbrellas can be annoyingly difficult to find in stock, as you pretty much have only one model number to choose from for each. But if you do not need that N-th degree of portability, the normal stands and umbrellas will give you a more sturdy support and light softener for less money.

Next: Super Clamps