Hasta La Gadget!

Swedish photographer Peter Karlsson has come up with a lightweight, strong and beautifully designed light stand. The skinny tripods are somewhere between a tent and the rigging of a sailing boat.

Peter, like many Strobists, uses small flash units for his work, the kind that slide onto the top of your camera. These small speedlights are surprisingly powerful and very portable. The problem is the stands they sit on, which are – if not exactly heavy – bulky and weighty enough to make you think twice about carrying more than one or two.

So Peter built these featherweight stands from flexible tent poles. They weight just 440 grams (15.5-ounces) each and extend from just 40cm to two meters (1.3-feet to 6.5-feet). This is less than a third the weight of a regular lighting stand.

The stands are standard tent-poles with elastic cord running through the core. To make one, Peter says that the “only needed skills are to cut rope and tie knots.” Instead of using a standard (heavy) clamp to attach the flash and soft-box to the top, Peter hangs it there with more cord. Height adjustment is done by lengthening or shortening this rigging. It’s not for using outside on a windy day, but for indoor location work, its ideal.

The video runs a bit long, but it is exquisitely shot, and explains all you need to know.

Homegrown ultralight lightstands [Svarteld]

Tent Pole Light Stands: More Details [Stobist]