You know the punchline to the old joke: What do you buy the photographer who has everything? Answer: A case to put it all in.
That’s what this final installment of my series on assembling a location lighting kit is all about.
Any case I use for the Location Lighting Kit must be rugged, lightweight (itself), and most importantly, it must conform to airline requirements for carry on luggage. For all of those reasons I chose Lightware’s Multi Format Closed Cell Foam Equipment Case with Dividers (MF-2012).
The MF2012 case will hold a bunch of medium format, digital, or in our case, a lighting kit in a versatile case that’s specifically sized to fit through the 9 x 14 x 22-inch template at the airport terminal’s security check-in point. It’s made with the same high quality interior superstructure as all Lightware Multi Formatcases, so your equipment will be well protected even in all else fails and you decide to check it as luggage. It comes with a set of dividers that you must cut to match the equipment you need including the layout illustrated for the Location Lighting Kit.
The Location Lighting Kit concept is, if anything, flexible. Mary Farace’s kit uses Olympus FL-50R flashes, but a similar kit put together for my friend Paul, a Nikon shooter, holds three SB-800 flashes and somewhat different accessories than used for Mary’s kit. ©2008 Farace/Peregrine
The MF2012 case has an exterior slash pocket to attach other Lightware accessories, such as the Multi Z Pocket, as well as an exterior zippered pocket to securely store flat items. The inside lid has two nifty mesh stash pockets for small accessory items and that’s where Mary stores flash manuals and a folded sheet of Rosco Matte Black Cinefoil. This matte black aluminum material soaks up light and can be quickly molded to make barndoors, flags or snoots. Lightweight, yet durable, Cinefoil is easily kept in place with gaffer’s tape.
I selected the Lightware MF2012 because it fit’s Mary’s requirements but you can choose something you may have laying around or a case with a different configuration. The choice is ultimately up to you and your budget. The same is true of all of the components used in my Location Lighting Kit and you can any or all use my suggestions this week to assemble a similar kit that fits your specific application.
Joe Farace is the author of a new book called “Digital Monochrome Special Effects” published by Lark Books and is available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.
