Light stands explained | What stands best suit YOUR needs?
Light stands can look overwhelming when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking at or what you’re looking for. Sure, just buy any generic stands it will most likely work, but will it be the best to suit what you’re trying to do? What if you’re on uneven ground? What if you only shoot in a studio? What if you need to hang your lights over something?
To make it easy we made a video showcasing all of our stands and what their uses are for. Check out the below video for more.
Intro
From the above video we have grouped the stands in order of appearance in the video. All the way from our small floor stands, right up to the big boys.
Group 1
In group 1 we have the small and budget stands. If you’re not looking to spend much money on a stand and also have a small / inexpensive light you will be using it with then these are probably the best to go for. We also touch on our floor stands which are great for getting lights low to the ground or if you want to light up your background.
Stands featured:
Group 2
This features our generic range of light stands. The Hamburger, if you will, of stands. It does the job but there’s nothing special to them. These will be able to hold the majority of small lights, LED panels, ringlights and light modifiers less than 100cm.
Stands featured:
Group 3
This is our heavy duty range by Meking. These stands have a thicker tube diameter and bigger knuckles. They are made to hold big lights with big modifiers on them. We recommend you will be safe to use any modifier that is over 100cm on these stands.
Stands featured:
Group 4
In this group we discuss our Kupo range of lightstands. From their small floor stands to their bigger heavy duty type stands. Kupo has a better build quality and is recognized on an international standard for their load bearings. This helps bigger production houses and studios when choosing a set of stands as they have the reliability of the certificates from TUV-GS, CE, UL and CUL for several electrical products and Kupo’s popular Wind-up stand, Clamps, Couplers and safety wire. Kupo tends to be a bit pricier but you are buying the security of their stands. You don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on lights just to put them on a $20 stand. You want something sturdy, resilient and rigid.
Stands featured:
Group 5
This group is our Cine range by Kupo. The Cine range will be a lot bigger and heavier stands. You will notice that they also have squared legs rather than round tubes. This adds to the stability of them. They also feature sliding legs which help with uneven surfaces and you need to get your stand up right. There are also options for adding Castor Wheels to the stands or stands that come with them. Great for working in a studio and you need to move your light stands around.
Stands Featured:
- Kupo 185M Low Mighty Baby Stand
- Kupo 161MB Slider Stand
- Kupo Lowboy Junior Roller Studio Stand
- Kupo 226M Master Combo Stand
- Kupo 542MB Master Cine Stand
Group 6
Going back to our trusty Meking brand, we cover the Studio Stands in this group. Likewise with the Kupo Cine stands these also have square legs rather than rounded tubes. They are made out of steel for a sturdier build rather than aluminum. They features a sliding leg as well and have options for adding castor wheels to them or some models that come with wheels already.
Stands featured:
Group 7
Boom stands. Perfect for when you need to hang lights over a subject or scene or even being used as a boom holder for microphones. There are two types of boom stands, the regular ones that have the cross arm or boom arm. The second are ones that look like regular stands but then the last section of the center column can actually be extended out of the stand made into a boom arm, as demonstrated in the video. These are easier to transportation and packing down.
Stands featured:
Group 8
Last but certainly not least we have the Kupo Windup stand. Big enough to hold a small person and tall enough to feed them to a giraffe. The average giraffe is between 4-5m tall and this stand goes up to 3.9m. Theres something I bet you didn’t think you’d learn in this blog.
Stands Featured:
Outro
Hopefully by the end of this you have a much better and well rounded understanding of the different types of light stands that are available to buy from Photogear. If you have any questions or want to know more feel free to pop into one of our stores and we’d love to help you out!