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How to Set Up a C-stand
Oct 7, 2021
Going over all the steps to set up a C-stand properly and safely. Follow along as Matt shares how to put your new C-stand together in this easy tutorial. When building out the studio, we got our C-stands from B&H: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=c%20stand&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma Don't forget to get sand bags too: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=sand%20bags&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma Leave a comment below if you have any questions about setting up a C-stand, or want to see more tutorials on how to attach lights, backdrops, etc. Follow Tony Luong https://www.instagram.com/_tonyluong/ Follow Matt Moloney https://www.instagram.com/matt_moloney/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Follow FilterGrade! Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/filtergrade Twitter - https://twitter.com/filtergrade Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/filtergrade/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/filtergrade/
View Video Transcript
0:00
today we're going to be going over how
0:02
to set up a c-stand and c-stands are
0:05
essential for any studio photographer
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videographer you know producer whoever
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assistant production assistant anything
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like that if you're working on a video
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set photo set you're gonna need to know
0:16
how to set up a c-stand um i remember
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the first time i was assisting for
0:22
tony long a photographer in boston and
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he had me set up some c-stands and a
0:27
backdrop for him and i had no idea what
0:29
i was doing
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um
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it was definitely an embarrassing
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experience but it was also a really good
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learning experience and i remember
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coming home and just going on google and
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youtube like how to set up c-stand how
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to do all this other studio
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photography type stuff because i was so
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inexperienced and
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i definitely think that's what led me to
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kind of make this video because i want
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to help everybody out there that's
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looking
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for you know studio tips and things like
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that and a c-stand is the perfect spot
0:59
to start so today we're just going to be
1:01
going over how to set up a c-stand for
1:04
you know whatever you're going to be
1:05
using it for whether it's a gripping
1:07
thing for your backdrop
1:09
if you're going to rig a light to it or
1:12
just to hold up a reflector or diffuser
1:14
let's just go ahead and get into it
1:19
okay so this is
1:21
the c-stand when it's fully set up as
1:24
you can see
1:25
i'm going to break it down and show you
1:27
how to you know break it down and set it
1:28
back up in a second but basically
1:31
this is a c stand it's short for century
1:34
stand not sure why but i went and had i
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got this on b h you can order them there
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too as well i'll link them below in the
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description but it came with
1:45
you know everything the main rod
1:47
the turtle base it didn't come with the
1:50
sandbag that was separate but i
1:51
definitely recommend getting the sandbag
1:55
as well because that's definitely
1:56
essential it came with kind of like the
1:58
rigging rod and then the bar cramp as
2:00
well so you can really
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do a lot with this not only can you
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mount a camera on it you can mount to
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light
2:09
hang a backdrop do anything really with
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it so it's a super essential piece of
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equipment
2:15
we went ahead and broke the whole
2:17
c-stand apart and now we're just going
2:20
to go over the individual parts and then
2:22
actually build it all up
2:24
so basically this is where you're going
2:26
to want to start this is the the turtle
2:28
base or just the you know the three leg
2:31
base that you're going to want to start
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with
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to
2:34
actually get it unlocked i was really
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confused at first and didn't know how to
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some of them are different some of them
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have like a screw top for this one it's
2:45
the impact c-stand um you're just gonna
2:48
pull up on this little lever right here
2:52
and then all of the legs will kind of
2:55
just like
2:56
ring out like that
3:00
then
3:01
it will just automatically lock into
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place once all the legs are like
3:06
equally separated which is super helpful
3:09
and then once you have that
3:11
just set it on the ground get
3:13
get all your other pieces ready the next
3:16
main
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the next main piece that you're gonna be
3:19
working with is just the main the main
3:21
rod um this is gonna have
3:24
your levers that are gonna help extend
3:26
it up super high and at the bottom it's
3:29
just gonna keep everything super locked
3:31
in place so for this part super
3:34
self-explanatory kind of just put it in
3:36
the base
3:37
um you're going to want to un like
3:39
loosen this
3:41
screw on the base
3:43
on the turtle base first
3:45
and then
3:47
go ahead and just place that in and then
3:49
bring this
3:51
back and get it super tight you don't
3:52
want this to
3:55
all right
3:56
so now you got
3:58
the main rod connected to the turtle
4:01
base and now it's it's starting to get a
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little bit heavy
4:04
it's
4:05
fully set up like that
4:07
right now i'll usually put the
4:09
sandbag on the main leg and while you're
4:12
going gonna do that is so it doesn't
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fall over or anything like that a while
4:17
you're setting it up and then b
4:20
while you're actually shooting and i'm
4:22
gonna go over in a little bit
4:24
um kind of some
4:28
just like c-stand basics once we
4:30
actually get it set up but let's just
4:32
keep keep setting everything up
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if you were gonna be mounting a camera
4:36
or a light on the c-stand this would
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actually be
4:39
good good to go for the most part
4:42
you'll probably just need to get some
4:44
some sort of mounting plate or something
4:46
for your camera
4:48
on here for light
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most some lights will just go right on
4:52
top of it and you just screw it on
4:53
similar to this mechanism
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however
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for the sake of the video
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i am going to also put the
5:02
kind of like rigging rod and the
5:06
grip head onto the actual c-stand just
5:08
to show you what that looks like so
5:12
to do that you're gonna just wanna
5:15
with this it's kind of confusing because
5:18
there's two spots that i guess the
5:21
c-stand could go into
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and basically
5:25
the spot with that's right here that has
5:27
different like little circles
5:30
along the side of it that's going to be
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for the gripping rod just because it's
5:34
super super tight and this other side is
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going to be for
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mounting the grip head to the actual
5:41
c-stand so let's go ahead and do that
5:42
now you need to
5:45
loosen up this
5:46
screw before doing so
5:49
place that on
5:51
and i usually like to
5:54
i usually like to line up all the the
5:56
screws so i'm just going to go ahead and
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do that right now make sure that's super
6:00
super tight
6:03
perfect all right so that's in and now
6:05
to actually get the gripping you know
6:08
bar
6:09
on to here you're going to loosen the
6:11
other side
6:12
where those little circles kind of like
6:15
the little circle designs were or
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whatever and you can really just stick
6:19
it through
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the holes so that it can come out the
6:22
other side and then
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and as you can see now
6:33
when you loosen it you can either put it
6:34
down low or you can put it up high
6:37
you can go super far out
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or if you need to you can just do a
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little bit either way it's super super
6:44
convenient for gripping things and and
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you know it's really like can be a
6:49
studio assistant if you don't have
6:51
anybody to help you out you know you can
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have
6:53
this hold your diffuser or your
6:55
reflector or your blackout or whatever
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you need to have
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if you don't have somebody to do it for
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you so
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this is the actual setup of the c-stand
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once you're here you're pretty much good
7:09
to do whatever you need with it
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something i want to go over is
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right here if you're trying to turn the
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gripping bar left to right
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don't just force it you really shouldn't
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be forcing anything with this if
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something feels like
7:25
really hard to pull it's because it's
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locked not just because it's
7:29
you know tight and
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and will come out if you need to move
7:33
this kind of side to side
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you're going to undo the top lever
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and you can go side to side where once
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you have it where you need it make sure
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you tighten it
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that's also going to be the left the
7:46
same lever that pulls it all the way off
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so just make sure
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you know you're always tightening that
7:52
back up because you don't want to be
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loose
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same goes for these two side
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side screws if you want to lift it up
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then you just undo this
8:03
and you pull up on that and this will go
8:06
up you know really far i definitely
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recommend starting with
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the
8:11
the the highest one so that you don't
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have to do you know both of them or
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whatever
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um unless you need to but i'll just pull
8:19
this back down for now
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same goes for the other lever once you
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have that unscrewed then it'll just go
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up but like i said always start with the
8:29
top or else
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you know once it gets up too high
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then i can't you know you're not gonna
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be able to reach all the way up there
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after to to make it go higher without
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bringing it back down
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and then
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the last point that i really really
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really want to stress that i learned
8:49
when i first started shooting
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is
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it has to do with kind of um
8:56
i guess
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just like the direction or or the basics
9:00
on how to actually use the c-stand so
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when i first started shooting um like
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studio photography and stuff like that i
9:09
helped out a few photographers and i
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always saw c stands they were always
9:14
around and i never really know
9:16
you know i never knew what they were for
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never like i knew what they were for but
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i didn't know exactly like how to use
9:22
them and
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and
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i just didn't know enough about them
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like i wish i did and the one main main
9:28
tip that i actually learned
9:31
when it comes to c-stands is how you
9:34
should use them so for example
9:36
you you have three legs at the bottom
9:39
one being the biggest one being a middle
9:41
leg and one being a small leg
9:44
and essentially
9:46
when you're shooting in the studio you
9:48
never want to have you know a piece of
9:51
equipment fall on a person
9:53
which is why you're going to want to
9:54
make sure that you get the sandbags
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that's
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tip number one but on a further note if
10:01
you don't have the sandbags here's what
10:03
here's the point that i want to
10:04
illustrate
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you always want to have the biggest leg
10:08
facing towards your subject right so say
10:12
that this were a light and i had the
10:14
light attached to either the edge of the
10:16
gripping plate you know or the gripping
10:18
bar or if i just had it on the c-stand
10:20
right i want to face
10:22
this leg
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towards the client or towards the
10:26
subject because
10:28
that way is going to hold more
10:30
or that leg is going to hold more weight
10:32
than the little leg is so to show this
10:35
in in real time if i push this way
10:38
you know with the big leg forward then
10:40
it's just going to move forward right
10:43
it's not going to tip over and fall on
10:46
anybody it's just going to go forward
10:48
but if i if i do the same thing
10:51
and i have the little leg facing the
10:54
client or facing the subject right then
10:56
it has
10:57
potential to fall over especially if
10:59
it's really you know if something really
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big hits it
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and that that's where things get
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um a little sticky because obviously
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the goal is not to hit
11:11
anything or you know to have everything
11:13
properly balanced but you never know
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when something is going to be
11:18
you know heavier than you predicted and
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it just pulls the c stand over so always
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make sure
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you remember about
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having a sandbag for one and for two you
11:32
you want to make sure that you have that
11:34
big the biggest leg facing your subject
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to make sure nothing falls now that you
11:38
have this
11:39
the sandbag if i push it you can see it
11:41
barely even moves which is what you want
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that's ideal the whole for me
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when it comes to gripping and anything
11:49
with c-stand equipment it's all about
11:51
having the most perfect you know
11:54
like lock
11:55
and i don't
11:56
even even for this i hate having that
11:58
much movement but sometimes you just
12:00
have to deal with it
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making sure everything tight when it
12:04
comes to gripping is super essential
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though so if you have any questions
12:08
about
12:09
the c-stand in general
12:11
how to set it up even just how to break
12:13
it down whatever if you have any more
12:15
questions leave them in the comments
12:16
below and i'll be sure to get back to
12:19
you