Good Day ! My new wife is considering starting a side business of professional photography. She serves on the EDC and has taken pictures for the city in the past with rave reviews. She has a knack for it. Most of her pics were taken with her I Phone 11, she now wants to get a "real" camera and start working..She has an old Fuji X-A1 with a 50-230 zoom lenses.

She will be doing weddings/parties/and some business promo stuff..

can you suggest a good beginners setup ??? My last camera was a Minolta in the early 80s LOL

thanks !!

First, start a business / see an accountant so that you can write off the equipment.

For starters, she will need two camera bodies. Yes, two. You cannot shoot a wedding and only have one body.

She will need fast zoom lenses. Prime lens work well for standing still shots, and primes lens save money, but during movement, like a reception, zoom is a must.

She will also need flashes to go on top of those cameras.

Whether it is Nikon or Canon is personal preference. Arguments and cases can be made for APC (compact) format, full frame format and probably now also mirrorless. For a starter, probably best to go with APC and buy used, just because it will be the least expensive option.

Check out KEH. You can get used Nikon 7000 series bodies for $400-$500. I got my 7200 on there for that price. I also got my 80-200 2.8 lens on there for around $400 if I recall correctly.

Canon/Nikon...you can't go wrong.

Many folks tout the benefits of mirrorless cameras these days. Me...I'm gonna just stick with my DSLR.

A lot depends on how much $$ you want to put down on equipment.

A good 85mm lens is great for portraits. For business promo maybe a wider angle lens with a close-up feature.

Then there is all the extra gear, like tripods, lighting, backgrounds for portraits, etc.

A good place to begin just looking at some equipment is B+H.

This might help, too Link.

+1 >>>>> "For starters, she will need two camera bodies."

Also, think about what you want for post-production software - Lightroom, DxO, etc.

Make sure she understands what she is getting into. Parties/family photos are not bad but weddings are a serious time commitment both before, during, and after.

She needs to decide on Canon or Nikon and go from there with gear. I'm guessing a good DSLR. Not sure if mirrorless has moved into that area. The one pro I know has both now but weddings are still with DSLR the mirrorless is for fun and landscape stuff.

For weddings your inside mostly. Churches have crappy lighting. You need fast lenses and a good flash setup. Some indoor places are anal about using a flash or setting them up. Also for weddings, you want two setups with different lenses. Can't be changing lenes in the middle like you can for a family shot.

I used to help a friend that did this on the side. They did a few weddings and then decided to stick with family shots. They mostly did outdoor venues at the right time of day to get good lighting.

I never want to shot another wedding. They were a major PIA's. Long days. Multi venues if you go from a church to a reception somewhere else.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
Make sure she understands what she is getting into. Parties/family photos are not bad but weddings are a serious time commitment both before, during, and after.

She needs to decide on Canon or Nikon and go from there with gear. I'm guessing a good DSLR. Not sure if mirrorless has moved into that area. The one pro I know has both now but weddings are still with DSLR the mirrorless is for fun and landscape stuff.

For weddings your inside mostly. Churches have crappy lighting. You need fast lenses and a good flash setup. Some indoor places are anal about using a flash or setting them up. Also for weddings, you want two setups with different lenses. Can't be changing lenes in the middle like you can for a family shot.

I used to help a friend that did this on the side. They did a few weddings and then decided to stick with family shots. They mostly did outdoor venues at the right time of day to get good lighting.

I never want to shot another wedding. They were a major PIA's. Long days. Multi venues if you go from a church to a reception somewhere else.

THIS ^^^^^

Let he know for every hour she spends behind the camera for a wedding, she will spend 1 hour on prep and set up, and two to three on post production, and that is if you are skilled with both the camera and lightroom/ photoshop.

Because of the poor lighting, she is going to be spending a boat load on glass. When I say a boat load, they will have 3 lenses for every event and two cameras. The three lenses will likely be:
40MM F1.4 at the slowest - https://www.sigma-global.com/e...product/art/a_40_14/
85MM-135MM F1.4-1.8 at the slowest
70-200 F2.8

One camera will always have the 70-200 on it, and second will go between the 40MM and the 85MM. You could exchange the 85MM for a really good Macro in the 90-100mm range. Those three lenses will easily set you back $4,000, maybe $5.000.

The level of stress involved burns a lot of people out. I know the because a good friend of mine is a wedding photographer, and I have filled in for his wife once, and will never do that again.

PS: Get lots of insurance if she does weddings...YOU WILL GET SUED EVENTUALLY.

Below is a link to a website that she might find very helpful:

An extensive list of tips on both portrait and wedding photography
Photography Life: Portrait/wedding photography.

A beginners guide
Photography Life: Essential Wedding Photography Tips for Beginners

I second the notion of buying used. As mentioned in an earlier post KEH is a very good source. I would not discount looking at pawn shops and the local camera shops as well.

In terms of gear (might just be some “other” thoughts in this area ) I’d suggest, in alphabetical order:

Canon
Fuji
Nikon
Sony

There are many other companies that produce excellent gear; however, in my mind these are the ones with a broad selection of gear (think lenses first, camera body second) and seem most likely to survive the continued contraction of the dedicated camera industry.

Silent

DSLR's and their resolution these days are more than sufficient for the activities she hopes to focus on.

Because of the types of events, and weddings specifically, I recommend that she go with DSLR's with full-frame chips and not the APS-C chips. The APS-C is great if you shoot sports, since you pick up a free 30-40% of magnification across all of your lenses. The problem is that you lose true wide angle capability due to the magnification factor. The full-frame chip means that a zoom with a 24-85mm zoom will be a true wide angle that you need to capture so many group shots (think wedding pics and team or group photos). With that compact chip, your 24-85 becomes a 34-120 zoom. A bit wide, but not wide enough in my experiences. When your back is against a wall, and you need to get a group shot, and you have 34mm wide but you really need 24mm, ,well, its a bit late at that point.

My normal event kit was a primary DSLR (I did start with APS-C before upgrading to a FF Chip)
Backup DSLR (one with a wide zoom, one with a medium zoom
Lenses (at the end, I was using Canon, so I bought L series glass)
17-35L
24-70 L 2.8
70-200 L 2.8
85 L 1.8
300 L f4 (carried because, well, sometimes you just cant get close!)
Strobes
Canon 580/600EX II flashes
Quantum Turbo external battery packs for flashes
Radio slaves for remote/secondary flash triggering (mostly to throw some light onto backgrounds so they dont go black)
Substantial tripod(s) with QR HEAD PLATES

For times when I could set up areas for portraits or room shots, I would pack 2 or 3 monolights. I used Paul C. Buff Ultra units, 2 of his 600 watt/second units and one 1200. Reflectors, light modifiers, softboxes, etc.
You can never have enough battery power, high quality black gaffer tape, dry towels, mints and gum.

And another important thing, learning and understanding digital image processing and post-processing is probably more important these days than understanding true EV exposure. While everyone hails Photoshop, and it is a true standard, I recommend Lightroom. It was way easier for me to understand and learn. When you see what you can actually do with digital images these days, you might actually question every single photograph you look at again. Capturing the image is now the first step in what "photography" has become. Post processing and correcting is a whole other art.

The future is said to be full-framed mirrorless.

The big three are Canon, Sony and Nikon, and each one has decent releases at this time. However, if you just weight within the upcoming months, the Sony a7IV will be releases along with Canon's EOS R5 and Nikon's Z System professional cameras.

Out of all of them, it is believed that the Canon EOS R5, with its buffering system, dual high speed card slots, great video and great imaging, will be the leader. Still, it is hard to beat the Sony a7RIII, a7RIV, a7III, a9 and a9II.

Sony wasn't looked at seriously for professionals several years ago due to not having very many lenses available, but they have remedied that over time. Their top lens lines is known as 'G Master', and with those, there regular line of lenses and lenses from Tamron, Sigma, etc, you will be more than well equipped for all needs.

Do quick searches about advantages of mirrorless over DSLR. Edge to edge focusing, human and animal eye focus, focusing assistance features like zebra lines, zoom-in manual focus assist, etc and the electronic viewfinder. The EVF allows you to see the image how it will be after you snap the shot. If you use manual, you just get the shot how you want it and bam!

There are great lenses out there for each manufacturer, but again, Tamron and Sigma are releasing lenses that are sometimes better, but with a way lighter price tag.

"Beginner setup" and "wedding photography" do not go together.

Photography is a skill, yes. The photographer is more important than the equipment, yes. But not for wedding photography.

There are no do-overs in wedding photography. One cranky bride and a bad review will tank your business.

Accordingly, a wedding photography setup is built upon relatively high end equipment that is reliable, performs well under poor lighting and fast action, and gives the photographer latitude to fix imperfect shots in post production. This means, at the least, two or three camera bodies, preferably full frame, fast primes and fast zoom lenses, and flashes. Even something like an older Canon 5DmIII, Nikon D850, Sony A7III, will far exceed what someone would consider a "beginner" setup.

BTW - I saw a news article from earlier today that Olympus is selling their camera line. IF you were seriously looking at a line, Canon, Fuji or Sony are the only three full frame cameras to even consider. Fuji does not make a full frame mirrorless, and it would be silly to buy an older DSLR because you will be replacing it within 3-4 years.

Do a bunch of homework upfront and have her try before she buys. My buddy went from Nikon (D4) to a Sony A7iii in 2018 and it cost him $8,000 to replace his set up. He says his gear essentially has a lifespan of no more than 45 months due to accidents, upgrades, and even theft.

A friend did mine. He used three cameras. Two digital, one 35mm film. Backup and redundancy would be the tenets of my business plan. Her old camera? If she loves it and it has decent resolution - 16.3 MB seems plenty - she might want to incorporate it into the three.

I'd recommend seeing if there are any professional wedding photographers associations, and there are a number of them, that she'd be interested in joining. Their trade shows usually provide a lot of training.

I am somewhat of a freelancer, but absolutely refuse to have anything to do with weddings - too many trick bags to fall into, whereas landscape and fine art photo subjects don't talk back. Most of the wedding photogs I know essentially apprenticed with an experienced wedding shooter before setting out on their own.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
"Beginner setup" and "wedding photography" do not go together.

Photography is a skill, yes. The photographer is more important than the equipment, yes. But not for wedding photography.

There are no do-overs in wedding photography. One cranky bride and a bad review will tank your business.

Accordingly, a wedding photography setup is built upon relatively high end equipment that is reliable, performs well under poor lighting and fast action, and gives the photographer latitude to fix imperfect shots in post production. This means, at the least, two or three camera bodies, preferably full frame, fast primes and fast zoom lenses, and flashes. Even something like an older Canon 5DmIII, Nikon D850, Sony A7III, will far exceed what someone would consider a "beginner" setup.

Agreed. I used to shoot some weddings and it is a lot of work, besides. You need reliable equipment and backup equipment. Most of them have an assistant, too. You also have to know just exactly what you are doing.

And, forgive me, but if she is going to go into professional photography, she should know pretty exactly what she wants and needs. If she doesn't know, she isn't ready to start this business and needs to learn more.

I haven't been a serious photographer in more than 30 years, and I wouldn't have more than a general notion of how the wedding guys (for example) are outfitted now.

I have taken a huge interest in photography over the last two years. It had really taken off in the last few months and O have been making decent money selling prints on facebook. That being said, my photographs are not of people, so we are not in the same niche. I do mainly macro, landscape, and ships or airliners. My go to camera is a Nikon D7500 and it amazes me. Sometimes people dog it, but for under a grand, it works great. If I was doing portraits, I would probably opt for a full frame mainly because of the lenses that are available. The portraits I have taken of the kids and family still turn out great on the aps-c, but more light on the sensor and a faster lens would make it so much easier.

I should say that as a part of my actual job, I also do photography, but it is a whole different thing. I am a crime scene detective. I have had 3 homicides this week so far and dozens of people shot. I do a lot in low light or no light, which really tests you as a photographer. One thing I can pass as advice is practice in low light, it makes shooting in daylight a breeze.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
"Beginner setup" and "wedding photography" do not go together.

Photography is a skill, yes. The photographer is more important than the equipment, yes. But not for wedding photography.

There are no do-overs in wedding photography. One cranky bride and a bad review will tank your business.

Accordingly, a wedding photography setup is built upon relatively high end equipment that is reliable, performs well under poor lighting and fast action, and gives the photographer latitude to fix imperfect shots in post production. This means, at the least, two or three camera bodies, preferably full frame, fast primes and fast zoom lenses, and flashes. Even something like an older Canon 5DmIII, Nikon D850, Sony A7III, will far exceed what someone would consider a "beginner" setup.

Agree with everything above.

Weddings are not the place to start gaining experience unless you are the 2nd shooter/apprentice, and the customer can fall back on the dependable work of the primary photographer. Poor lighting + high expectations = large potential for sub-optimal results.

A better place to start is basic portrait photography. Senior pictures and the like.

For a good exercise, grab your camera body and fast lens and head down to the local dog park. Ask permission: people will let you take pooch pictures--the question is, are you good enough? Shallow depth of field (remember: fast lens), and a moving, twitchy subject that you can't communicate with will teach you how to drive your gear when it comes to weddings and other events. And when you are done, you'll have an interesting and marketable aspect to your portfolio: who doesn't like doggy pics?

Jumping right into a wedding is like zeroing your rifle on the first stage of the match. You could get away with satisfactory results, but a lot could go wrong, many people will see it happen, and you won't have any good excuses when they do.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LDD,

I did many weddings back in the 80's, film days, I carried 3 cameras, all 3 were Canon F1's in my opinion the best film camera ever made. 2 had color film 1 with B&W. The F1 was totally manual you set speed and aperture, and you learned how to be a professional photographer, you understood how the camera/optics/flash work to get a desired effect. This is what you need to learn to be a true professional. Not saying you need to run a camera manual to be a pro but you need to know more than putting a camera in auto and using photoshop. As far as weddings, they wear you out, dealing with a brides mother every weekend is not easy money.

Yes, the BEST way to get into wedding photography is by being an assistant to one, but there is no official route. You can use commons sense, wedding experience, movies, youtube videos, books, word of mouth, etc.

The other thing about being a wedding photographer these days is that you also have to be a videographer. Mirrorless and DSLR cameras do both so you don't need a dedicated video camera.

As I have said in other photography related threads, I watch youtube videos every day about photography, and they have helped me immensely over time. Even though I could go pro at a mid to low level, I'm staying away since I have color vision problems. I take only RAW images so they all need processing. Because of that, my colors will be off compared to someone without color vision problems.


Also, just a little info on Sony Alpha cameras, a7 series can and are being used by beginners to serious professionals. The a9 series is considered a serious amateur to serious professional, but beginners wouldn't have any trouble with them over the a7 series - however, the a9 series are geared towards sports. Even so, they are aa very popular wedding camera.

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
PS: Get lots of insurance if she does weddings...YOU WILL GET SUED EVENTUALLY.

wth, sued for what????

quote:

Originally posted by LDD:

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
"Beginner setup" and "wedding photography" do not go together.

Photography is a skill, yes. The photographer is more important than the equipment, yes. But not for wedding photography.

There are no do-overs in wedding photography. One cranky bride and a bad review will tank your business.

Accordingly, a wedding photography setup is built upon relatively high end equipment that is reliable, performs well under poor lighting and fast action, and gives the photographer latitude to fix imperfect shots in post production. This means, at the least, two or three camera bodies, preferably full frame, fast primes and fast zoom lenses, and flashes. Even something like an older Canon 5DmIII, Nikon D850, Sony A7III, will far exceed what someone would consider a "beginner" setup.

Agree with everything above.

Weddings are not the place to start gaining experience unless you are the 2nd shooter/apprentice, and the customer can fall back on the dependable work of the primary photographer. Poor lighting + high expectations = large potential for sub-optimal results.

A better place to start is basic portrait photography. Senior pictures and the like.

For a good exercise, grab your camera body and fast lens and head down to the local dog park. Ask permission: people will let you take pooch pictures--the question is, are you good enough? Shallow depth of field (remember: fast lens), and a moving, twitchy subject that you can't communicate with will teach you how to drive your gear when it comes to weddings and other events. And when you are done, you'll have an interesting and marketable aspect to your portfolio: who doesn't like doggy pics?

Jumping right into a wedding is like zeroing your rifle on the first stage of the match. You could get away with satisfactory results, but a lot could go wrong, many people will see it happen, and you won't have any good excuses when they do.

exec advice