Photographer’s Toolkit

Many essential photographer’s tools cannot be bought in your local camera supply shop. Here’s an ongoing list of handy items you can find around the house, or at your local hardware store:

• Roll of black duct tape (Gaffer’s Tape)
• Soft cloth in a zip lock bag (for general equipment cleaning)
• Glass cleaner (to clean windows you’ll be shooting out of)
• Opaque black cloth (for focusing, changing film, blocking reflections in glass)
• Rubber lid gripper (for removing stubborn filters and rings)
• Corrugated cardboard (for snoots or homemade grid spots)
• Cardboard tubes (for snoots, or to raise objects in the background for studio shooting)