7 items every Limassol photographer should have

often get a lot of questions from fellow photographers about the gear I use, so without wasting any time I'm going to jump straight into it. in this blog post, I share 7 items every photographer in Limassol should carry.

Strobes

Studio lighting is an absolute requirement for any Limassol photographer that is serious about product, commercial or even interior photography. While some jobs may require a more natural look, you will often find it difficult to achieve a more polished and commercial feel without professional lights. For this reason, I own three Godox AD300 Pros. These lights provide almost identical quality and colour accuracy compared to the highly rated Profoto equivalent, but at a much more affordable price. They provide the perfect balance between power and portability, and do not require to be plugged in to a wall.

Camera Trigger

Strobes aren’t very useful unless you have something to fire them with and sync them to your camera’s shutter. As I am using Godox lights, my set up necessitates a Godox trigger, of which there are many options, but given a preference I would always go for the Godox X2 TTL trigger. Although it is slightly less user-friendly than the Godox Xpro, the additional utility of the shoe mount cannot be underestimated, particularly for those Limassol photographers who want to get into architectural photography, as it allows me to mount other very useful devices on my camera set up, such as the Cam Ranger II, which I use for live review.

Tripod

A tripod is perhaps one of the most obvious tools one would assume a photographer must have, but having said that it is important to note that not all tripods are made equal. In fact, tripods have one of the most diverse price ranges when it comes to photography gear, with some going for less than 50 euros (second hand), while brand new, high end tripods can cost more than 2,000 euros. I have personally found that the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle, as often is the case when it comes to finding value in anything. My current go-to tripod is the Benro Mac 3, which costs almost 500 euros but provides ample sturdiness and portability while maintaining fantastic ergonomics and resistance to the elements while still remaining comparable to its more expensive rivals.

Gear Head

Although I no longer use manfrotto tripods, their gear heads are still some of my favourite to use. For many years I used to use a ball-head tripod head, but often found myself getting frustrated while setting up my horizon and and creating my composition. Since switching to the Manfrotto XPro, setting up my shots has never been easier. The Manfrotto XPro is a gear-head tripod, meaning that framing shots across the pan and tilt axis is made effortless through the adjustment of micrometric knobs for each axis.

Colour gels

Perhaps one of the most underrated tools one can have in their bag is colour gels of various densities, particularly for those involved in product photography or even interior photography. One of the challenges we have as Limassol photographers—especially those who employ strobes in their architectural photography work—is matching the colour of our strobes to not only the ambient light but also the internal lighting of the property, which will often vary in colour temperature. One of the best workarounds for this therefore is to apply colour gels to the strobes according to the overall colour temperature of the room. For example, if using strobes in a room with tungsten lights, one will benefit from using an orange gel filter on the strobes.

Zeiss Lens wipes

There is nothing worse than coming back from a shoot only to see a streak of grease or fingerprint smeared across the photo resulting from a dirty lens. As much as photoshop and AI are improving, we are still not at a point where everything can be rescued in post, which is why we have a responsibility as Limassol photographers to take as many precautions as possible. This is why I always have packed in my bags multiple Zeiss lens wipes (along with a lens blower, which didn’t make it on the list although is very useful). They more than worth their value, as you will inevitably get marks on your lens during a shoot.

Gaffer Tape

One of the trustiest friend’s’ a photographer will ever have is his gaffer tape. Gaffer tape is by far the cheapest tool a photographer will ever own, and yet its utility on photo shoots will far exceed its innate value. Whether it’s organising power chords, holding up a background, locking a focus ring or fixing something that has inexplicably and unexpectedly broken, the amount of times I have needed and used gaffer tape on set are endless.

Conclusion

Needless to say that the above list is not exhaustive by any means. Different jobs will require specialist equipment, particularly more technical projects, such as interior design photography. However, more often than not, I find the items on the above list to be the ones I turn to the most. If you have a project and you are looking for a photographer in Limassol or elsewhere in Cyprus, I'd love to hear more about your project, so do get in touch with me here.