So of course, you're gonna need equipment to start your business. Now, I'd like to talk about equipment in this section because it is important to have the right equipment creatively. But it's also important to understand what you need investment wise for equipment. Now, you can go out and you can shoot a wedding with a basic camera and just a kit lens. Totally, you can totally get out there and shoot your friend's wedding and it'll be fine. But as you grow, as a photographer, you're gonna want to increase your investment in your kit now to start off with you absolutely need a camera with interchangeable lenses. I think that's like the basic place that you're gonna need to be starting at. It would be great if you had a 24 to 72.8 like a midrange zoom type of lens. And you can really shoot weddings on crop sensors, full frame sensors or even smaller sensors. But as you grow, as a wedding photographer, you are going to need to start to upgrade your kit and you'll start to see that you'll...

have limitations with just a body and a midrange zoom. The next thing you're probably gonna want to look at is a longer zoom. So like something like a 70 to 200. Uh this is gonna help you step back and be able to really shoot from afar during the ceremonies during things that you don't necessarily need to be that close in. So now we're at one body, a 24 to 70 a 70 to 200. Now, honestly, I think that that is the bare minimum for a successful wedding photographer to start making money at as you go along though, you are probably going to want to expand that kit. Now, we're gonna go over my kit a little bit later. But as you go on, you're gonna start to see that you may want a portrait lens, something like a 35 or a 50 or an 85 or even 100 prime lens because that is gonna really up your game and make your portraits look even better. And by doing that, you're putting value into what your photographs look like and you're also putting value into yourself as a wedding photographer, which will allow you to charge more money or it will allow you to have your clients see that you are worth charging them more money. So we're at a 24 to 70 a 7201 body and potentially a portrait lens as we move on, you're gonna start thinking like man, I really want to be able to shoot those macro really close up shots of the wedding rings of the shoes. Well, now I need a macro lens and there are lenses out there like millimeters macro where you can get both a nice portrait lens and a macro lens in one lens. But it's something to think about and you can see how you start to like add on to your kit as you go on. So start with the basics and progress with adding lenses as you move on outside of lenses, you will find yourself in some precarious situations for wedding photography and by precarious, I mean, low levels of light, honestly. So having those fast lenses is great, having a 2. midrange and a 2.8 long lens is better than an F four or an F 56 kit lens. But when you get into certain situations, you may need artificial light. And for me, it's not my favorite. I really don't like shooting with flash flash units as you know, probably from seeing our other classes, but you're gonna get into a situation where you absolutely need to have one. And it is smart to have a speed light for your camera on top of your camera with potentially a diffusion uh to spread out the light. It's just something that's gonna happen. A lot of weddings go into the night. A lot of weddings are indoors in, you know, rooms with really terrible light. So the next thing you're gonna want to look at is getting a flash with some sort of diffusion to go on that flash. So now we're at one body, a midrange lens, a zoom lens, potentially a portrait lens, maybe a macro lens and your flash as you get more advanced, you really start to see what you need and you'll really start to see what's holding you back when you're shooting weddings. I think the next safety thing to have would actually be another body. And I like to shoot weddings with two cameras on my side, one with a midrange zoom and one with the long zoom and then I can switch my lenses in between. So I always have one running that can get really expensive. And now we're in the business section of this. So are you ready to invest in your business if you are? That means that you are probably looking at making this a full time gig. And if you are making this a full time gig, I think it is highly worth investing in your equipment to start off. If you're gonna start shooting as a second, uh photographer at different weddings, maybe you really only need one body for now. But if you're fully pulling on big weddings, having two bodies is great. Not only to shoot the wedding, but if one goes down, you need a backup because a lot of times if you or something happens to your camera and you don't have another camera. It's wedding day like that's it. You have to be there to take photos and that is why having a second camera body is so worthwhile. You can shoot the wedding, but it will also be a backup for you. If something were to happen to your main camera, that's the main kit that you should start thinking about building and we'll get more into why you want to use those specific things. But those are the things that I target for shooting my weddings. Now, if we go on from there, if you start to get into specialty things, we can start thinking about off board strobes or, or flashes. So that means putting it on a stand and remote shooting a flash, getting really creative with some of those portraits, you can think about getting uh tilt shift type lenses to make things look cool. You can think about getting drones where you can do aerial shots. You can really think about all sorts of different things. Sometimes I bring a film camera with me or like a Polaroid. So little tiny, like intricate specialty things that you can toss in your kit as you go on. Now, I wouldn't start doing that right away. I would focus on being um confident in your own wedding, photography, uh skills with what you already have. And as you're building the kit up, but you'll start to get creative and you'll start to feel like, oh, maybe I'll bring a Polaroid with me or something like that. Something to think about in the future to add to your kit.

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Philip Ebiner

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Will Carnahan

11+ years experience as a cinematographer, camera operator, and photographer. Working with Disney, Nike, ESPN, PredPol and many others.

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Building your kit

Building your kit

Lesson Info

4. Building your kit

Lessons

What this course is about and how to succeed

Why you should become a wedding photographer

Business Section Intro