Collins Complete Photography Course. John Garrett

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       Cammera bag

      Cleaning equipment

      Your camera is a precision instrument. Take care to protect it from dirt, water, and particularly sand, which is a sure killer of unprotected cameras. Keep a plastic bag with you for emergencies.

      A dirty lens covered in fingerprints and grime will act as a diffuser and degrade your images. Keep the lens clean, first by trying not to let it get dirty to start with. Ideally, use a UV filter to protect the lens as it will be much cheaper to replace than a new front lens element – it won’t affect your exposure values and its only function is to reduce haze.

      To clean a lens, use a blower brush first to remove any dust and grit then carefully clean it with a microfibre lens cloth and lens cleaning solution if needed. Don’t scrub it – use gentle strokes or you will risk scratches on the surface.

      The image sensor in a DSLR is particularly vulnerable to dust spots. When you are changing lenses, make sure the camera is turned off and don’t allow dust to enter the camera. You can get specialized sensor-cleaning equipment or have your camera manufacturer’s service department do it.

      Camera bag

      The selection of a camera bag is most important. Buy the best quality bag you can afford to protect that expensive camera. Hard cases that protect camera gear in the worst conditions are heavy to carry about, but some now have built-in wheels. Soft bags in a variety of materials and a huge range of styles are now available. Backpacks are great for hiking and are also useful in urban situations as they aren’t easily identifiable as containing valuables, but shoulder bags are much quicker and more convenient to work from.

      When buying a bag, take your equipment to the shop to make sure that it will fit in and the bag will suit your way of working. A good bag will last a very long time; the Billingham one pictured here has been working hard for 30 years.

      Flashgun

      A separate flashgun has great creative advantages over the built-in flash you may have on your camera. As well as the dedicated flashguns described on p.33 there are also manual and automatic flashguns available; the manual ones have a fixed light output and you find the aperture you need from a table on the flashgun, while on the automatics you set your camera aperture to match the flashgun and it controls the exposure.

      Most flashguns allow you to rotate the flash so you can bounce it off walls or ceilings to get indirect light. The most creative way to use the flashgun is to attach it to an off-camera cable (see pp.116-17), so you will probably want to buy one of these too.

       Flashgun

       Laptop

       Fold-up reflector

      Laptop

      An increasing number of photographers take their laptop computer out and about with them, and you may think it a good idea to do the same. You can download your pictures on the spot, check the shots on the larger screen, save the images to the hard drive and also output to a CD if you want to be sure the pictures are safe. With the right software and cable you can also shoot with your camera tethered to the computer –the image appears on the screen when you make the exposure.

      If you prefer to travel lighter you will need to have some other way of making records of locations and so on. Take a notebook, or something more technological such as a Blackberry, depending on your taste.

      

      Fold-up reflector

      Reflectors bounce light back onto your subject, almost as if they are an extra light. They are usually white or silver, or gold to add a warm glow. This type pictured below is convenient as it has a handle and packs into a pouch for easy carrying. There are many sizes and types available, but you can also use a variety of materials such as card, paper, cloth, kitchen foil and so on.

       Tripod

       Camera support

       Multipurpose tool

      When you use a reflector remember that it bounces the main light back, so position it for maximum effect. For a portrait, for example, placing it below and in front of the subject will lighten the eye-socket shadows. For still life, use pieces of card, foil or small mirrors to add sparkle and soften shadows.

      

      Tripod

      This is an invaluable piece of equipment when you are using slow shutter speeds as it prevents camera movement during exposure. While modern lenses with vibration reduction have helped the photographer handhold the camera at slower speeds than previously, for long exposures a tripod is still needed.

      A tripod is also a great help for shooting a still life. You can set up and compose your subject, then lock the camera onto the shot. This allows you to move lights and reflectors and adjust the subject without having to recompose each time.

      When choosing a tripod you have to consider weight, height and ease of use. The higher, more stable ones are superior but are difficult to carry around for long.

      A cable release or remote control is generally used in conjunction with a tripod to minimize camera movement when the shutter is released. In the absence of one of these, use your self-timer to fire the shutter.

      

      Camera support

      Some photographers carry a bean bag with them. This is nothing more complicated than a small bag half-full of beans, rice, polystyrene beads and so on. It suffices as a camera support when you don’t have a tripod or are in too difficult a position to use one. Alternatively, anything to snuggle the camera into will do, placed on something handy such as a wall or bench; the picture above shows a sweater. This allows you to do long exposures without the camera moving. Again, use a cable release, remote control or self-timer to fire the shutter.

      

      Multipurpose tool

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