Basic photography accessories

Sometime the question arises which additional accessories  should be in your photo bag. Of course your camera body and lenses but sometime even small accessories could determine the resulting image.

Introduction

Additional accessories  needed for high qualitiy images there are a lot of different opinions. Most people mention the camera and one or more lenses, but there is more that you should pack into your camera bag.

Reserve battery

OF course you should carry at least one additional battery for your camera, even for a one day trip. For longer tours and/or vacation check that you add a fitting battery charger to the needed equipment. You have to make your own experience depending on your photographic practice how a  battery will probably last. For example with the Lumix camera i’ll take at least 2 addtional batteries with me, because the don’t last very long especially when using the display a lot. Before getting the batteries check that they have benn reloaded. Meanwhile i’m used to rechargeing my batteries right after i’m back from a tour, while importing the images into Lightroom.

The other question is rechargeable batteries from the original camera manufacturer or not? For both of my cameras the Canon 5D MK II and the Lumix G81 i got rechargeable batteries from other companies.

Air bulb,brush and lens cleaning cloth

Once in a while there is a need for cleaning the lens front surface. While a little dust usally is not recognizable under normal light conditions a lot of dust in combination with front light shows up in the images, because the dust particles add additonal object for light refraction. Hard spots or even fingerprints should be removed with a special lens cleaning cloth.

Tripod

For two reasons you should also carry a tripod first of course you’ll need it for long time exposures. But secondly a tripod helps you to concentrate on the scene, work more precise on the image section and maybe think about your point of view.

Which tripod you use is secondary as long it carries your camera/lens combination. And even a so called travel tripod could be stable enough if you place a bag with additional weight underneath the tripod.

Because of weight i use my Feisol tripod more often. If you don’t collapse all the segments it is even stable enough for the 5D MK II. Ok the later one depens on the focla lentgh you use 😉

And if i need an even more stable tripod i use the  Manfrotto X055 which is a good universal tripod. And for close-ups and macro i use the Berlebach Mini.

Cable release/Smartphone

Talking about a tripod you also need a cable release to capture an image without any additional shakre to the tripod/camera combination. Dpending on your photography you probalby don’t need a top model with intetragted intervall timer and other functions. Just look for a long enough cable and a lock for bulb operations.

But recently i use a smartphone or tablet for this purpose more often. You probably carry a smartphone with you and with apps like DSLRController you can tether the camera either by USB cable or with WiFi. And an app like DSLRController offers intervall timing and additional functions HDR sequences.

ND and ND-Grad Filters

For a lot of photographes a neutral densitiy filter and maybe a ND graduated filter is of course part of the equipment. You shouldn’t buy those filters as screw-in-filters just go for the square filte fitting in a filter holder from Lee, Cokin or another manufacturer. As a neutral density filter i use the Haida 3.0.

For the graduated filters i use those from  HiTech and so far there was no need to switch.

Grey/Color card

I use since a X-Rite Colorchecker for 4 years now. This little combination of a color and a greycard is very small, so it fits in every camera bag. In difficult light situations this card helps a lot to white balance the image, if you inlude one image with the colorcard visible,

Pocket lamp

Photo sessions outside the illuminated cities require a pocket lamp, if you shoot at night or arround the blue hour.

I use the shown  Fenix E-21, which is substituted with new version of this lamp. This lmap is bright enough to find your way back to the car and if you like it for lightpainting.

Conclusion

Es gehören neben dBesides the camera and one or more lenses there a  couple of accessories  required or at least useful for your photo sessions.

ciao tuxoche