Light equipment

Learning goal

For a journey, you will be able to build your bag around the things you will really use instead of taking everything. By looking at the shooting data from your previous trips you will find which focal lengths you use and how often, and cover most of a journey with a single body and two lenses that complement each other. You will choose one for a wide range, and the other for the hours when the light fades and for people. You will separate the things that stay where you are lodging from the things you carry on your back all day, and keep a day's bag light and inconspicuous. You will carry the spares of the small parts whose failure can end the whole day with a care apart from the rest. In the dim evening light you will shoot faces with a wide-aperture lens instead of the camera's flash, protecting the texture and color of the skin.

The question

At the top of the slope among the olive groves, the group takes a break. Your friend gets out of the support vehicle and swings the heavy backpack onto their shoulder again; inside are two cameras including the spare, four separate lenses, a folded tripod, a flash and a computer. Looking at the frames they have shot over the last two days, they notice they never fitted two of the lenses and didn't open the tripod even once. Their shoulder aches, and because the heavy bag slowed them down, they missed a moment in the village square. What should be in the bag?

Context

In the equipment list lesson you tried carrying an accessory for a whole day before buying it and counting how many times you used it, and lightening the bag by weeding out the things you didn't use (Lesson 13.6). In the lens section you met fast lenses, which have a wide maximum aperture and allow a shorter shutter speed in dim light (Lesson 12.6). In the first lesson of this track we also talked about a journey resting on place cues and the rhythm of a place beyond the postcard shot (Lesson T.1).

Travel is where this knowledge is tested. In a studio or at a game the equipment is a few steps from a car; on a journey, every gram is carried all day. A heavy bag doesn't only tire you, it slows the photographer down, draws attention and keeps them away from spontaneous moments.

Simple explanation

Which two lenses?

A complementary lens pair is two lenses that together cover most of a journey and fill in each other's gaps. Usually one is a zoom that covers a wide range, like twenty-four to a hundred and five millimeters on full frame; the other is a small, light, wide-aperture prime, like thirty-five or fifty millimeters and f/1.8. The zoom takes on the daytime landscape, square and market; the prime takes on the dim evening streets, the coffeehouses and close portraits.

Which pair to choose depends on how you shoot, and the most reliable way to know it is your own archive. Looking at the shooting data of the frames from a previous trip and counting the focal lengths often gives a surprising picture: most of the frames may have gathered at a few focal lengths, while the long telephoto end was rarely used. This breakdown decides what goes into the bag not from guesswork but from your own habit.

What is carried all day?

A day bag is the small bag taken along when leaving the lodging in the morning and carried all day. The main suitcase or the vehicle carries the spare lenses, the tripod, the computer and the chargers; the day bag carries only what that day's work needs. For a day to be spent walking in a town, this is the body, two lenses, a spare battery and cards, a cleaning cloth and maybe a water bottle.

As much as the day bag's lightness, its appearance matters too. A big, expensive-looking camera bag both draws attention and can put people off; a plain, everyday backpack or shoulder bag makes the photographer part of the crowd. Carrying the camera close to the body on a cross-body strap rather than a neck strap both leaves the hands free and reduces the risk of snatch theft.

What must have a spare?

A critical spare is the spare of the small parts that, when they fail or run out, stop the whole day's shooting: the battery and the memory card. With a missing telephoto or a forgotten tripod the shoot goes on, but with a dead battery or a broken card it stops. In the cold, batteries run down faster; on a long day a card can fill up or fail.

That is why at least one spare battery and one spare card are carried in the day bag; in cold weather the spare battery is kept in a pocket close to the body. Filled cards are stored in a pocket separate from the empty ones so they aren't written over by mistake.

In the evenings, the small prime of the complementary pair comes forward. In a dim coffeehouse the camera's own flash flattens faces, darkens the background and leaves shiny spots on the skin; on dark skin these spots stand out even more, while light skin turns white. An f/1.8 lens keeps the ISO low without any need for flash and protects the skin's texture and color in the venue's own light.

Visual evidence

In the evening at the guesthouse, your friend opens the last two days' frames and looks at the shooting data. Most of the frames are between twenty-four and seventy millimeters; beyond two hundred millimeters was used only twice, the tripod and the flash never. The next morning they put the spare body, the long telephoto, the tripod and the flash into the main suitcase.

In the day bag there is only a body, a zoom from twenty-four to a hundred and five, a fifty-millimeter f/1.8 prime, two spare batteries, two cards and a cloth. The bag is a plain, gray backpack; the camera is on their chest on a cross-body strap. Their shoulder has lightened, their steps quickened; this time they don't miss a moment with a child and a cat in the square.

In the evening at the coffeehouse, the cyclist who organized the tour, short-haired and dark-skinned, is playing backgammon with the village elders. In the first try your friend had turned on the camera's own flash; there are shiny white spots on the cyclist's forehead and cheeks, the wall behind pitch black. When they turn off the flash and open the fifty-millimeter to f/1.8, at ISO 1600, in the warm light of the yellow lamp, her face is detailed, the backgammon pieces sharp, and the old photos on the coffeehouse wall behind can be picked out.

Common mistakes

Summary

A light bag is built from a single body and two complementary lenses drawn from the shooting data of previous trips: one for a wide range, the other for dim light and people. The main suitcase and a plain day bag are separated, and critical spares like the battery and the card are carried along every day. In the evenings, the wide-aperture prime protects the skin's texture and color in the venue's light without any need for flash.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will build your bag for your next trip from your own data.

1. Look at the shooting data of the frames from a previous trip or a long shooting day; count the focal lengths and write down the ranges you used most.
2. From this breakdown choose a single body and two complementary lenses, prepare a day bag and put the critical spares in it; spend a day with only this bag.
3. In the evening of the day, in a dim venue, shoot someone, with their permission, first with the camera's flash, then with a wide-aperture lens in the venue's light, and compare the skin of the face.

Check yourself

• Did the breakdown from the shooting data change what you put in the bag?
• On the day you spent with the day bag, did you feel the lack of anything?
• In the frame without flash, are the skin's texture and color more natural?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What most reliably decides which lenses to take on a journey?

• A) The most expensive lenses
• B) The focal length breakdown in the shooting data from previous trips
• C) Friends' suggestions
• D) The lenses' weight

2. What is the complementary pair's prime most useful for?

• A) Enlarging distant mountains
• B) Macro
• C) Shooting in dim light and with people, without any need for flash
• D) Long exposure

3. Which is a critical spare?

• A) The battery and the memory card
• B) The tripod
• C) The flash
• D) A long telephoto lens

4. What does the camera's own flash do to faces in a dim coffeehouse?

• A) It shows the skin's color more naturally
• B) It flattens faces, leaves shiny spots on the skin and darkens the background
• C) It lights up the background
• D) It changes nothing

Answers

1. B — The breakdown of your own frames shows which ranges you really use.
2. C — The wide aperture keeps the ISO low and makes working in the venue's own light possible.
3. A — Without them the shoot stops; the lack of the other things can be managed.
4. B — A small, hard source from the front erases volume, shines and doesn't reach the back.

Summary card

• Build the bag from shooting data: which focal lengths were really used?
• A single body, two complementary lenses: a zoom and a fast prime.
• The main suitcase apart, the day bag plain and light; a cross-body strap.
• Critical spares: battery and card, close to the body in the cold.
• In the evening a fast prime instead of flash; the skin's texture and color are protected.

Bridge to the next lesson

In the tour's last town, your friend goes to the square early in the morning but the market hasn't been set up; there was no market that day. In the evening they hear that a wedding procession passed, but they are already on the road. The cyclist who organized the tour laughs: "If only you had asked before you went." Why is research half of the photograph? The next lesson takes up researching locations, hours and traditions before a journey.