Meet the Manfrotto 175-F spring clamp. More commonly know as the Justin clamp. This is one of my favourite pieces of kit. It’s extremely functional. You can clamp a flash to pretty much anything like chairs, shelfs drainpipes whatever. The F-version even features a mini-ballhead with a coldshoe so you can mount a speedlite on there. I used them mostly to add hair lights or accent lights.
At the back of the clamp there is also a regular fasteners so it does a double duty as a swivel for a regular lightstand. On the other end you have a spigot that can be used to add more gear to it. Joe McNally even used them to mount a Quadra head somewhere in a tree.
Only drawback is that with the ball head it’s not that easy to pack in something like a Lowepro backpack. And they don’t come all that cheap.
At €59,95 they’re quite pricey but I really think they’re worth it.
The picture below (taken for a concept series, but on it’s own it’s basically a regular stock image) is one perfect example of how I used the Justin clamp. To add some more light in the background I added a gelled flash to add power to the lamp in the back. The desk lamp is way overpowered by the main light so I added a second flash in the background, clamped under the desk.
Model: Steffi De Greve
Make-up: Aaike Christens
If you want one you can buy one right here.
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