DIY Frankenstand: Combining Tripod Legs and a Light Stand Column

I’ve been doing increasingly more portraiture outdoors over the years and most often have been relying on speedlights for their small size and portability. One problem I always faced was choosing a stand to use for supporting the speedlight.

In too many cases, on rough terrain, I found traditional light stands unstable and C-Stands not much better. Because of this I began to experiment with tripods. Tripods have a larger footprint and are more stable, but then height is usually an issue.

Finally, I decided to try and combine the features I needed from tripods and light stands to get the best of both worlds. I used a center column from a small light stand for height and combined it with the legs of a tripod to create a larger footprint for added stability.

Here’s what my stand looks like when extended to 9 feet (2.75 meters):

That’s the maximum height of my unit, but I wouldn’t use it that high unless there was no wind to be concerned about.

Here’s a photo of the compact tripod legs (with spiked feet):

The light stand works well. A couple of things I’d may like to add in the future are:

1) A hook at the bottom of the center column to hang a weight on.
2) An extension to screw onto the bottom of the center column with a spike that you can drive into the ground for increased stability.

Here’s a short 3-minute video in which I talk about and demonstrate my run-and-gun light stand:

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