Light stand/Boom ideal specifications for your use?

With so many combinations of stands and booms available it gets overwhelming trying to sort one out when you have never used one.
Tell me about your ideal stand and boom for your usage and what specifications were important for you? Or tell us about the one you bought that did not cut it and what you replaced it with and why?

Why don't you describe how you envision using a boom setup. There are so many possible solutions to many possible applications that this could get quite confusing to you if you don't explain how YOU intend to use a boom. Your question is akin to asking "What car do you drive and why?"

What do you want to hang on the working end of the boom?

How long do you need the boom to be with the load on the working end?

How high do you need the working end and the support end of the boom to be?

Thank you Skip you are right! I'll try to make this a bit more clear.

Looking for a light stand with wheels and boom for studio and on location for portraits. Will hang a einstein and beauty dish etc, with baby pin on the boom.

I have never used or purchased one before so it gets difficult to know what height range, footprint, load range and boom length etc to purchase.

Thank you!

This boom/stand setup is the current version of what I use.

One advantage of this over others commonly used is the counterweight design. Many booms have a weighted bag that hangs on the back end. This boom has a movable counterweight that you can place anywhere on the boom, making it easy to perfectly balance the boom with a variety of loads and boom positions.

Another advantage of this system is the design of the center hub (where you adjust the angle of the boom). It's very easy to make precision boom angle adjustments to any angle you want. Many cheaper boom systems use a hub that has meshing "teeth" and you have to mesh the teeth, limiting the number of positions you can choose.

Check out this thread https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1383624


Make sure to see the second link in post #22

Is there an ideal height for a boom stand? How far typically is the modifier away from the center column for portraits?

silvermesa1 wrote in post #17040842
Is there an ideal height for a boom stand? How far typically is the modifier away from the center column for portraits?

What you need to understand is that the need for a boom is dictated by where you need to put the light and what the surrounding situation is. Knowing that will tell you how high the boom needs to be and how long the boom arm needs to be for your application. Every situation can be different.

^^^ yup.

If you want a monolight and modifier as a hair light directly above/behind the subject on a full body shot, or a larger modifier on camera axis above and in front of the camera, you need a bigger boom.

If you think your hair light will be off to the side or above/behind the background, or your on axis light will be behind the camera you can use a smaller set up.

My advice is start small and work from there. You will always find a use for the smaller stuff once you expand and get more experience.

Like cymbal stands in a drum kit , make sure you have a leg directly under the weight of what you are suspending, whether it is a cymbal or a light modifier. With a boom stand with counter weight, sand bag, you most likely will have leg directly under the counter weight. Both scenarios will keep your precious cymbals, and lights, from toppling over.