Pencil boxes can bring order from chaos with your camera gear

    If you are taking your photography seriously, you're going to to be dealing with more gear than just your camera.

    Even if you manage to keep your Gear Acquisition Syndrome in check, you're going to wind up with stuff that you need to find a place for in your bag or studio.

    While camera bags do offer some ways to organize gear, such as dividers to create spots for lenses, cameras and other larger accessories, there are going to be smaller items that you just don't want rattling around loose in your bag.

    Sometimes there are tiny pockets you can use for some accessories such as lens cleaning cloths and memory card holders, but their space is limited, especially if you're packing extra batteries or other accessories.

    There's a solution you can find in the school-supply aisles of big-box, office supply or dollar stores that can help you put everything in its place and make your bag or studio a bit more orderly: Pencil boxes.

    These plastic boxes that are typically used for holding pencils, pens, chalk, erasers and similar classroom sundries can be used to store or carry gear. I use two to corral and organize my gear. 

    I use one box for the audio gear I use when shooting video (recorder, a couple plug-in lavaliere microphones, a USB charger and cable, patch cord and earbuds), and the other contains the batteries I need for my camera, flash and recorder, as well as a battery adapter so I can use AA penlight batteries in one of my DSLRs.

    I made labels for mine by typing up the names of the boxes' content category in a word-processing document and then used clear tape to put labels on each end of the box, so I know which one I'm grabbing regardless of how it got put back. If you have a label maker, either one that prints out the label on tape or the old fashioned ones that embossed each letter on a plastic tape, go for it.

    This setup ensures the stuff doesn't fall out of my bag, and provides some protection in the bag. It also creates a bit of a modular setup, allowing me to make it easier to better customize my gear load for a specific situation. For example, I do the online broadcast of our church services, so I just take my audio kit from my bag, taking just what I need and leaving the rest at home.

    The boxes can also be used to organize gear in your studio or storage space at home, avoiding a photographic junk drawer.

 

    The audio, left, and battery boxes inside my camera bag, sandwiching the case for my speedlight.

Get better portraits with DIY clamshell lighting setup

     One way to get good portrait lighting is to use "clamshell" lighting, and there's a way to do it without without triggering Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

    It's a lighting technique that can work with all sorts of portraits. What it does is uses a light source from above and one from below to light the subject. It's a relatively soft light and does not create harsh shadows.

    But you don't need an elaborate studio setup to pull it off, as Alastair Currill, an English photographer, demonstrates in this Youtube video. You can do it with one flash, a modifer to soften that light and a reflector to bounce the light back up to the subject.

    You can use a speedlight for the flash, and if you don't have an umbrella, you can use the DIY softbox and light stand we talked about earlier. As for the bottom light, you can use a table with a white cover or a foam board from the local big-box or dollar store.

    He also has another video demonstrating the principles behind clamshell lighting, albeit using more expensive studio gear.

Photographer's Companion a Swiss-Army-Knife app for serious shooters

    There are lots of apps on the market that can help with your photography.

    You can find apps that will turn your phone into a light meter, tell you when blue and golden hour are in your area and do a variety of functions.

    But if you have limited space on your phones (because companies will make it virtually impossible to delete some of the apps on your phone even if you'll never use them), you may find yourself picking and choosing which program to use.

    Or, you can just download one that can do most of the tasks you'll need.

    I would submit that the Photographer's Companion, available for both Android and iPhone, fits the bill nicely. Developed by Stef Software, it comes in free and paid versions, with the main difference being that the paid version has no ads and a few extra features.

    Personally, I've found the free version suits my needs, as most of the additional features in the paid version are things I wouldn't use or, in the case of flashlight and level, I already have on my phone or on my camera.

    

    For starters, this program gives you at the very minimum a reflected light meter. If your phone has a light sensor on it (this is usually used to adjust your screen brightness in relation to ambient light), you also get access to an incident light meter. This can come in handy when you're shooting manual or, as I did when I did a little photo project with my mother's old Argus C-3, the camera you're using doesn't have a light meter.

    You can also select your camera model or input the specifications, so it will be able to calculate things such as field of view and depth of field for your specific camera and lens combination. You can also use it to calculate proper flash settings, which is helpful in studio work or if you're using a non-dedicated flash on your camera.

    It can also show you when sunrise and sunset will occur in your area, as well as when to expect blue and golden hours, those times when light is at its most magical for photography. It can also show you the phase of the moon and the optimal exposure time for getting a picture of the moon or a moonlit scene.

    For those into astrophotography, it also uses the NPF rule for calculating the best exposure time to get no star trails.

    And each section has a help button that takes you to the website to get a tutorial on how to use that particular part of the app, as well as explain the principle behind it.

    This is not sponsored content, and I only use the free version, but I recommend it as a way to get some good high-quality photo apps without straining your phone's memory.