What’s in Your Gadget Bag? OK, I confess I took that from the television commercial for the Capitol One Credit Card, “What’s in Your Wallet.” What’s in the photographer’s gadget bag is just as important as what’s in his or her wallet. Bag in the days when I got my start a photographer’s gadget bag was big and heavy, bulging with gadgets of every kind. Every serious amateur, not just professional photographer, carried gadget bags stuffed with filters, cable releases, lens shades, gray scale cards, light meters, focusing aids, etc. gadget bags have shrunk in size and weight. Popular gadget bags today are just big enough to carry a couple of extra lens and a few other essentials. Professional photographers, some of them anyway, still carry large, heavy gadget bags stuffed with essential gadgets. The gadgets they carry have changed with the advent of the digital camera but the new gadgets are just as important as the old.
Actually one gadget bag isn’t enough anymore. At least that’s the case for me (no pun intended) and most pros. Which case I carry depends on what kind of photo op I’m on. For weddings, parties, traditional photo ops, I carry the traditional gadget bag but in other situation, I choose a more fitting bag. When in the woods and on mountain trails, I prefer a pro backpack designed to carry and protect my expensive camera gear. My favorite is the Domke ProPack 418. This is a professional backpack that’s large enough to carry everything a pro might need when fauna and flora and carry it comfortably.
Autumn is one of my favorite times of years to photograph nature. With the leaves starting to change colors the photo ops are limited less but wide range of colors also present their own unique set of problems for the photographer. To make photos that record all the colors accurately we need our gadgets to get an accurate WB (White Balance) reading so we can switch our camera’s WB control from automatic to manual. AWB (Automatic White Balance) control works well in many situations but is easily led astray in the panorama of colors that nature presents to us in the fall. There are many gadgets available to help us make WB measurements and settings but I’m going to concentrate four of my favorites in this article. Like I said, there are other aids that work equally well, but these are four of my personal favorites.
The BRNO BaLens is one of the best WB adjusting aids that I have ever encountered. Being able to achieve the proper WB setting for the color temperature of the scene that you are shooting is extremely important because a camera’s ccd (Close Coupled Device), the camera’s sensor, doesn’t automatically register colors the same way the human eye perceives them. The BaLens is a handy way to achieve this because it duplicates a device you already carry, a lens cap. The BRNO BaLens allows the camera to perceive colors the way the human eye does. Using this gadget is relatively easy but the actual steps vary from one camera to another. The BRNO BaLens comes with detailed instructions for most advanced consumer, pro-sumer, and pro DSLR cameras. To illustrate how simple and easy it is to use; here’s how you would use it with a Nikon D40.
1. With the baLens cap installed on your lens, set your camera to P, S, or A mode. If you prefer to use manual exposure, put the camera in M mode and set the exposure yourself.
2. From the “Shooting Menu” select “White Balance”
3. From the “White Balance” menu select “PRE”
4. Select “White Balance preset”
5. Select “measure”
6. Select “Overwrite Existing Data”
7. Pre will blink for ten seconds. While it is blinking, take a reference shot of the light falling on your subject. If all you see is a lighted white dome, you’re doing everything correctly. For more specific information about this step, take a look at your baLens Cap user’s guide. You may need to aim your camera differently depending on your light source.
8. Remove the baLens Cap. If you prefer to shoot in auto focus, be sure to put your camera back in auto focus mode.
9. Press the shutter release gently to exit the shooting menu.
There you have it. Your camera is now ready to make perfect picture with true, vivid, and accurate colors.
The ExpoDisc Neutral Professional White Balance Filter works much the way as the BaLens Cap. Like with the BaLens cap snapping the ExpoDisc Neutral filter in place and following the same steps as you used with the BaLens Cap. The ExpoDisc Neutral filter also comes with a Lanyard for hanging it from around your neck so it’s always close at hand when you’re working.
The LALLY Cap is a one size fits all gadgets that works just as the ExpoDisc filter and the BaLens cap except for the fact that one size fits all lenses seizes. With the ExpoDisc and BaLens cap you would have buy one for each filter ring size but the LALLY Cap stretches to fit any diameter lens. The LALLY caps reminds me of a woman’s shower cap but it works every bit as good as the ExpoDisc and the BaLens. The only trick to using the LALLY Cap is that you must keep it stretched tautly across the lens.
If you prefer using White Balance Grey Cards, the WhiBal™ G6 Pocket Kit is the way to go. It comes in a neat little storage pouch and a lanyard that allows you to hang them around your neck when you’re in full shooting mode. They are always within easy reach when you need them and don’t have the time to rummage through a fully loaded gadget bag looking for them.
The really great thing about these four gadgets is that they are all under $30 on the street.
