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Watch: Three top tips for using C-Stands during a shoot in less than a minute

C-Stands are a staple in many photography studios and on film sets. They’re just a lot more practical, versatile and useful, not to mention sturdy, than your traditional tripod-style light stands. One of the biggest manufacturers of C-Stands is Matthews, and in this video, we learn three great tips for working with them on set to make our lives easier – and a little safer.

You might think that C-Stands are big and bulky and a bit unwieldy, but as this video demonstrates, this couldn’t be further from the truth when used effectively. Their very design lends itself to an efficient workflow on set while taking up relatively little space and being extremely convenient.

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The Crabs are the best magic arms I’ve ever used

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You know how your camera always wants friends? A monitor, a recorder, transmitters, mics, and more. (And then the friends want their own friends, like batteries, memory cards, and so on, but this is another topic). Well, all those “friends” need a place to live on your setup, and the new iFootage Spider Crabs could easily be the BFF in this group.

The Spider Crabs are a set of magic arms. Those are articulating arms with small ball heads on either side and a central knob if you are not familiar. When you tighten the central “elbow” knob, it locks the entire arm together. This makes it really easy to mount accessories and move them with ease.

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Canon working on universal battery grip, patent suggests

An interesting patent from Canon was recently spotted, one that many photographers could find very useful. Judging from the patent application filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, Canon could be developing a universal battery grip that will fit different camera models.

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Three Grip tricks you wish you’d known before

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Grip is a completely undermined part of what we do as photographers and videographers. My cinema peers know what I’m talking about when I say that grips are absolute geniuses in their craft. I have seen people do amazing things with seemingly nothing, and after years of working next to some pretty professional people, I’ve accumulated a lot of appreciation for the work they do and the solutions they provide.

Manfrotto has an excellent line of grip accessories, everything from magic arms, to nano clamps, pumps, and a bunch more stuff! The problem is that it’s hard to recognize that a piece of equipment labeled as one thing, can actually be used for another. In the video, I discuss three nitty-gritty tactics I use outside of the comfort zone of a product description. And that’s really what I advocate when I try to get people excited about grip. You don’t necessarily have to be solving a problem, you can just be enhancing your workflow or creating options!

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Baby plate bounce card gear hack

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Foamcore are an incredible asset for work inside and outside the studio, but there is always the question of mounting them. One way is using a reflector arm and another is holding them with pony clamps, there is even a DIY holding solution.

Photographer Tony Roslund shares another low-budget option which I really like: Using a baby plate and some gaff tape.

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Use GoPro parts to build the perfect monitor DSLR mount

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Getting a monitor on a DSLR* can be tricky. Base plates, cages, and magic arms all come to mind. If you want something a little more compact, cold-shoe ball mount is the go-to option.

Caleb Pike has a sweet little solution that uses GoPro parts that make a mount that only tilts and does not rotate or pivot. This makes it extra easy to tilt the screen with one hand and not worry about it rotating around. It stays perfectly aligned.

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StandDaddy offers a sturdier alternative to sand bags

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If you are a long time reader of the blog, you know that we love sand bags. I mean, what can ruin a shoot better than a piece of gear flying into the talents eye, right? Especially if they are talking about sand bags….

I thought that there was little to innovate in that area, but we saw the water weight bagel thingy last year, and now comes StandDaddy.

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No tripod? No problem – A lazy approach to overhead photography

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Living on the 9th floor in my apartment, anything that gets left in the car, stays in the car. Even if I later “suddenly” remember that I need it while I am at home. Having the enormous responsibility of my project 365, this is usually bad news for me. I knew that I was going to take a picture of one of my guitars because I had planned to. The only problem is, I wanted a table top. And for that… you need a tripod. I’m sure you know where I am going with this. Yes, the tripod is in the car, and its pouring outside, its cold, and anyway I’m flustered because I decided to postpone the picture till 2:00 am. I’m just not going down to get my tripod!

So it was time to work around it, because honestly, I couldn’t think of anything else to take a picture of…

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Spoil your camera: pimped wooden grip for Fuji

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Nothing says “I love my camera” more than a handmade wooden grip, and this grip by Stefano Borghi  says it perfectly. Stefano build this wooden grip to replace his Fuji Xpro-1 plastic grip. Of course, similar procedure can be implemented to create a wooden grip for the newer Xpro 2 as well, and probably the Xpro3 when it comes. (we are not starting a rumor now!).

It is kinda straight forward, so I am just gonna lay out the photos to show you how it’s done step by step.

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How to build a DIY Teleprompter

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Anyone who remembers my early videos knows that my command of the english language is far from perfect extremely creative. It was after several long days with many takes that I decided to test using a teleprompter. My first test was just placing an iPad with a teleprompter app and giving it a shot. We went down from million takes to three after 15 minutes of fiddling.

There was one caveat though, it was looking weird as my eyes were not looking at the camera anymore. This is when I decided to build a teleprompter. (In whole honesty, after living with my wooden, handcrafted prompter for several months, I did go for a more streamlined option. But for testing sake, several months of usage and about $15 I was quite happy.

If you think that you can benefit from a magical device that whispers your next line when you are doing video, hit the jump button for instructions.

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