Uebelhart . Net

I just posted this on a photography board, and thought I’d post it here also:

Ever watch the TV show on FoodTV called “Good Eats” with Alton Brown? He shows you ways to use common items you can find in Walmart or HomeDepot in your kitchen instead of high priced “specialty” stuff, and get great results too.

The same can happen for Photography.
Just because an item is labelled for photography and sold through photographic outlets the prices often double or triple. And you can often find the same items (or similarly designed) at discount and hardware stores. Here are some examples from me:

1) Backdrops: Table cloths make great backdrops and come in a variety of colors and textures. I often grab one or two at dollar/99cent stores and dispose of them after a shoot. And as a bonus they usually look differant and good too on the back side and when backlit can have interesting designs and effects. Be careful of vinyl ones though that may cause glare and reflections.

2) Backdrop hangers: Hardware stores sell clamps (spring clip styles) for justa few bucks each. Combine these with a curtain rod and you have a backdrop hanger.

3) Camera Levels: The little levels you place in a hotshoe can cost easily $20-30. Instead by a plastic hotshoe cover from a camera store ($2-3) and some flat circle levels from the hardware store ($2-3) and glue them together for a less costly alternative.

4) Reflectors: Have you seen those eliptical wire framed cloth shades that go in your car front window? Well they can be used as reflectors also. You can often find them for less than $5 and they usually are two sided. I have a gold/silver combo that collapses down to less than 6″ accross but expands to 2-3 feet.

5) White Box: I uses a collapsable (same manor as the sun shades above) white cloth(nylon) laundry basket I bought for $1 at Kroger. I cut a few V shaped slits in the side for alternate camera ports.

6) Bean Bag: You can often find bean bag pillows that work as great camera rests for about $5 at Walmart or Targets. I have not tried the new micro-pellet ones yet, but they look interesting. Also some that are shapped for neck rests are also quite good as lens rests.

7) Diffuser: The top cap from a pringles can, a white coffee filter, or the side of a plastic milk carton make great flash diffusers. Cut to fit over your flash. Playing with tinted versions (like a brown raw coffee filter) can often lead to interesting effects.

Expodisk: I have not tried this, but I hear the pringles lid or the frosting cup from pillsbury cookie rolls work as a good substitute for the $50-100 expodisks when it comes to setting custom white balance.

9) Monopod: Hiking sticks with an embedded screw thread on the top can often be used as a monopod for much cheaper. Stores like REI sell nice carbon fiber walking sticks that often have the screw already installed under the ball/head top.

10) Aiming Assist: Have trouble aiming your camera in the dark for a time lapse/long exposure shot? Use a $3-5 laser pointer rubber banded to your lens. It’ll help you aim.

11) Filter Storage: A CD wallet works great for this!

Also found a page listing more tips/tricks: http://www.vidpro.org/tricks.htm