Workspace and kit storage

Workspace

This is something that is quite often forgotten about but for me it is important. As a photographer I spend a lot of time at my computer, editing, working on social media, planning and research. So it is the most important place apart from the where you shoot.

As you work you develop skills and get used to doing things you will find what things you will need to make your life more comfortable. There are a few things that I would recommend from the start, fist of all a good chair that is comfortable. The second is a nice monitor, it does not have to be a special editing one but there are a few things to look out for.

The key to setting up a good space to work is to tailor it to you and your needs to work as well as make sure that you have enough space. And trust me if you think you have just enough you will need more. You need to find a place that you can work with unwanted interruptions that can suit you. It is OK if it is fully quiet, listening to music or the TV. If you like some sort of sound when you’re working, then a pair of good headphones is a great idea not to affect other people.

An early thing to work on is your lighting, this is soothing that I know a lot of people forget when working on computers, but it is very important to help prevent eye strain. One of the biggest courses is a difference in brightness between your screen and the room. Make sure you have some lights that you can turn on that will not reflect on the screen.

Screens

There are two important things when looking at for a screen is its colours and also contrast. Colours are rated on different scales usually RGB or NTSC and show a percentage of the colours that the screen can show, the more the better. The next is contrast, it will tell you the difference between black and white. With some lower contrast monitors, they can not give you good blacks and instead only give dark greys. There are several different ways of calibrating monitors to get them more accurate but the most important thing is not to get to know your monitor and how the image will look in print or on other screens.

Graphics Tablet

When you get into editing some people find that the mouse is not easy to move as accurately it a flowing motion. To some level, we have all been trained to use a pen or pencil and they give a more flowing movement that is very hard to replicate to with a mouse. They also can read the pressure that your using to give more control of the computer tool that you're using. It is something worth bearing in mind if you are looking for something to help with editing, for photography a smaller table works as well as a large one. Having a few extra controls on the tablet will be very useful for switching tools quicker.

Storage

There are a lot of reasons to have good storage but two main ones. The most obvious is to keep everything safe. The other reason is so that you can find thing easily so that when you are packing you can concentrate on what is going to happen when you are going to shoot.

I know there are bulky item like bags that need to go into cupboards but it is not the best of a lot of kit. Things get lost in the back of cupboards and take time to pull out kit to get to other kit. Put aside some draws or thin shelves for your equipment so they can be seen easily, combine that we place for everything then you will be able to get set up quickly.