Photo Kit Instructions

Step 1: Mount your phone

Mount your phone into the phone clip by pressing the red button to widen the clamp, and then firmly compress the clamp onto your phone until it is secure.

Step 2: Mount the CPL clip

Mount the CPL phone clip to your phone and take the lens cap off. Ensure that it evenly covers your phones camera lenses so that the field of view is not obstructed. You may need to experiment to find the best placement depending on your phone model and camera lens arrangement.

Step 3: Turn on the lights

Turn on both lights but pressing and holding the power button. Adjust the color temperature and brightness to your desire by using the < or > buttons. Short press the power button to toggle between brightness and temperature settings. I recommend 5000-5400k temperature for most applications.

Step 4: Orient the CPL and shoot

Acquire your subject in your camera and ensure the lights are luminating your subject. While viewing your photo preview on your phone’s screen, adjust the CPL filter by gently spinning the bezel until you can see that it is oriented to reduce the most glare possible. At this point, enjoy taking photos of your hard work as usual!

For best results, dim, turn off or block all ambient light and only luminate the subject with the lights in this kit. Room lighting and sunlight is not filtered and will produce some glare.

Tips and Tricks

  • To spread the light around a bit so that it’s not so focused, slightly tilt one up and the other down.

  • It can be helpful to keep the light rig and the phone separate. This allows you to luminate your work with a lot more freedom. You can soften the intensity of the light by pulling it away from the subject while keeping your camera up close. When you do this, you can find that “anti-glare sweet spot” by simply rotating the light rig.

  • I’ve found great results by keeping the Temperature setting at 4500K, and the brightness level at 50%. I use a Samsung S21 Ultra phone, and I like to take my photos at 3x zoom. Play with the settings to optimize your photos. Photography is an art all on its own….my way might be only right for me. Become familiar with your gear to express your own style and aesthetic.

  • If the CPL filter doesn’t cover all your phones camera lenses, it can be helpful to play around and see which lenses are actually worth covering. On a Samsung S21 Ultra, there are 4 lenses which are meant for Ultra Wide, Wide, Telephoto, Telephoto Max. I only need to cover the lenses responsible for Wide and Telephoto. It might also be helpful for you to see where you can access your phones “pro” camera - allowing your phone to only view through a single lens and not switch lenses automatically while you shoot. A 3rd and final option - Purchase a 52mm CPL camera phone clip from amazon.

  • This light rig can be utilized with professional DSLR cameras as well. CPL filter lenses can be purchased for most cameras.

How the heck do these polarized filters even work???

A little physics first…

Light is considered both a particle (photon) and a wave. To understand it in this context, we need to consider it being a wave. We also need to know that light emitted from any source is mostly considered scattered light - meaning that these waves are traveling in a variety of orientations. Imagine these waves moving through space like snakes. Some slither left to right, some squiggle up and down, and some at every other angle in between. Imagine a polarizing filter like prison bars - If those bars are up/down, only waves traveling in an up/down orientation will be able to sift through. All other orientations of light are then blocked.

How this applies here…

So, when we take a photo, some natural scattered light luminates the skin, and some of that light is reflected back to the camera. That reflected light bounces off the surface and straight into our camera lens to create glare. How do we get rid of that? If we can polarize that reflected light to a known orientation, then we can also block it completely. First step - filter the light source. Assume we filter it at orientation 0 degrees. That means we are luminating our tattoo with light oriented at 0 degrees - some of that light will not luminate the tattoo, but will reflect off the surface and create glare. This is where the CPL filter comes in. Knowing that the glare is light polarized at 0 degrees, we simply need to orientate our CPL to 90 degrees. Remember those prison bars… Any light that is not oriented to the filter will not pass through. The thing is, we don’t know how to measure 90 degrees on the CPL, so we need to let our eyes do the measuring. This is where we look at the image on our screen while we turn the CPL until the glare is maximally reduced. That point is the point of 90 degrees, where the reflected light can be completely blocked.

How else can I apply this?

Knowing the basics of how polarized lights and filters can help your photography, you can create your own custom solutions. You can put these filters on ring lights, LED panels, and even create a whole bunch of light sources for maximum illumination! Just remember that your light sources all need to have the filters oriented the exact same way.

Why do I even need this kit then???

You can absolutely source out all your own gear. What you’re paying for is quality parts with everything set up and ready to go. I’ve saved you time on shopping and research. I’ve saved you from buying things that are sub-par or just don’t cut it. I’ve also packed it up in an easy to carry, ultra-portable kit that’s great for travel, guest spot appearances, and conventions. I stand by the value of this kit and I know you’ll be pleased with it’s ease of use and durability.