Quick tip: Use tent pegs to stop your light stands falling over on location
Sep 22, 2020
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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One of the most common questions I see on social media, especially just after somebody’s posted an image shot on location with flash, is “How do you stop your light stands from falling over?” – which isn’t an unreasonable question to expect. When it’s just you and your subject, how do people stop their light stands from falling over?
Well, you could carry a bunch of heavy sandbags around with you, or make sure to hire an assistant for all of your location shoots, but photographer Wayne Speer has another idea – especially when shooting in locations with soft ground. He uses tent pegs and rope.
It’s a great way to keep your stands pegged down – quite literally – so that they don’t fall over due to being top heavy or during a bit of a breeze. I’ve been using this technique myself for about a decade now, although I strap mine down slightly differently to Wayne.
You can see in the images above that Wayne ties his around the upper locking mechanism where the three legs connect to the centre column and then uses two pegs to hold it down. I’m overkill when I do it – but then I’m usually on location with a 4ft octabox. I use six pegs and tie down each leg individually using 2 pegs each along with bungee cord – a bit like this terrible diagram I just made in Photoshop.
I use bungee cord rather than rope because I’d rather it have a little bit of give, instead of risking bending and snapping the light stand’s centre column. They’re usually pretty strong, but when you’ve got that much weight on there, that’s a lot of force. I use them in this position because it helps to keep that centre of gravity pulling against the wind much lower to the ground. And I put it on all three because this is Scotland, so the wind can switch direction at a moment’s notice. So I want to make sure all three are well tied down while I’m shooting.
The disadvantage of using six pegs with bungee cord rather than Wayne’s two pegs with rope, however, is that it takes longer to tie it down and then to remove it again without risking the bungee cord snapping back and hitting you in the face. But usually when I’m setting up a light this way on location, I’m not planning to move it for a while anyway.
Make sure you get tent pegs or spikes suitable for the ground you plan to shoot on. Wayne says that he plans to use sand spikes when he does his beach photo shoots. And, of course, if you’re on concrete, you should probably stick to those heavy sandbags.
A great tip, and one that I didn’t realise so few people knew until I saw Wayne’s post in a Facebook group. You can check out Wayne’s work over on his website.
How do you stop your lights from falling over on location?
Disclaimer: If you do this, you do so at your own risk. Don’t blame us (or Wayne) if you use the wrong pegs, or the rope snaps, or your light comes crashing down to the ground for some other reason. This is the way we do it. If you choose to do it as well, that’s on you.
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John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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18 responses to “Quick tip: Use tent pegs to stop your light stands falling over on location”
Or sandbags lol
Didn’t read it, huh? :)
Screwdrivers for tent pegs …
I guess you could rebrand them as photo pegs and sell them for $30 a piece. I wonder if Gary Fong is looking at this
Simon Collins makes sence thinking about it.
And for cement bring a drill hammer
Great idea. Thanks.
This is the second “DIY” post from DIY Photography this year. Well done, keep it up.
This week. Feel free to submit if you have any tips you’d like to offer. :)
I think he’s using paracord, not rope. But it’s a great idea.
Yes, Paracord is a type of rope. :)
“Paracord is classified as a kermantle rope, which means that it has a core (or kern) and outer sheath (or mantle).”
https://www.paracordplanet.com/blog/paracord-what-is-it/
One of these may be a bit more useful. Just screw it down and secure to center of stand with a stretch cable (bungee cord).
https://www.amazon.com/Camco-42572-Spiral-Pet-Anchor/dp/B000EDUTVS/ref=zg_bs_2975426011_21?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RQD05A3Z6RF9487CW4NX
Those are basically just like the sand spikes Wayne’s planning to use on the beach. They’d be overkill, really, though in regular grass/earth. You’d still want more than one, though. One will only stop it falling in one direction. What if the wind randomly decides it wants to make it fall in a different direction? :)
On the beach you can take empty bags and just fill them in-situ with either sand or pebbles.
On normal soil or turf, the screw-in pet anchors work really well, but are a pain if you need to change position..that said, in breezy conditions the additional security they offer may be the over riding factor. You only need one and screw it into the ground directly under the centre column of the light stand and then it doesn’t matter about the wind direction. In calm conditions, tent pegs will work, but use the angled ones, rather than the simple round ones as they hold better…
I’ve used tent pegs in some very windy conditions. They’re designed for use with tents, which are much larger than your average softbox and catch a lot more wind. If they’re placed in the ground properly at the right angle, they’ll handle a LOT of wind. :)
Overkill is good, it allows for a greater safety factor. If you secure it to the center column with a ratchet strap and choker, you would be applying force to all the legs at once and the chances of it toppling would be reduced considerably. Multiple points just seems like way too much work when a better solution is available. If more is necessary then one is not using the correct gear.
If the chances of toppling are zero, how do you reduce them further? In the last ten years, I’ve never had a light stand fall down using tent pegs with bungee cord, even using a heavy AD600Pro with a 5ft octabox. I’d trust six tent pegs and three bungee cords before a single corkscrew. If it’s a better solution for you, then go for it. For me, it’s not. :)
Very good idea thanks.