Camera Labs

I'm just doin some future speculations. I'd like someday to get into wedding photography with my wife. I wouldn't plan on exploding onto the scene with 10s of thousands of dollars in equipment. I'd like to start small and basic with just the bare essentials. After gaining a little experience shadowing someone else and putting together a portfolio before I decide to go independent what would those basic bare essentials be? I figured having two camera bodies would be a must with a good low-light portrait lens, a powerful telephoto lens (for those sneaky kandid shots) and maybe an extreme wide angle lens (for some more artistic shots). After maybe a couple good external flashes, a tripod, some memory cards and Photoshop, I think I could get away spending no more than $5000. Is that enough? Am I missing something huge? I would look to expand obviously but is $5000 enough to legitimately start into the business?? Thank you for satisfying my curiosities.

$5000 should be enough. Do also consider some investment in a computer upgrade to speed up workflow. A monitor calibrator also comes in hand to get the right printing results.

The fundamentals other than equipment to being successful are good customer interaction and a keen eye for photos. Just having the equipment means nothing without either.

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Nikonian

http://www.edtangphotography.com
http://journeysintophotography.blogspot.com/

Well $5000 is quite a bit.

There are a few ways you could go about it.

Primes 'r' Us - mostly using prime lenses, great big apertures, sharp as a pin, but you'll be zooming with your feet.

Zooms 'r' Us - Mostly using zoom lenses, great for changing perspective or getting closer without "getting closer" but apertures get a lot lower.

You don't have to get everything in my suggestion below but eventually its what you would want to have at least.

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2 x Canon 30D - The 30D is still a great camera, and going cheap now the 40D is out. Doesn't have much to loose against the 40D apart from the live view. The 8MP is more than enough even when cropping down to 5 or 6MP it can still produce great 8x10 or 8x12 prints.


1 x Canon 17-40mm F/4L - Groupshots outdoors or indoors with or without flash and full length to shoulder height portraits.

1 x Sigma 20mm F/1.8 EX DG - Indoor/Low Light group shots or half lengh portraits with the background blurred

1 x Canon 50mm F/1.4 USM - Indoor/Outdoors half length/shoulder Portraits, no flash.

1 x Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM - Indoor/Outdoor shoulder/head shot Portraits, no flash.

1 x Canon 70-200mm F/2.8L - Indoor/Outdoor Shoulder/head shot Portraits, with or without flash.


2 x Canon 580EXII - One as master, one as slave to ensure even lighting.


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Thats about it personally, perhaps an even wider angle lens, and a logner telephoto, but to start with the 17-200 range is fine i would have thought, any wider and distortion starts to creep in, and longer lenses than 200 start to burn a serious hole in your pocket if you want them with IS/Large Apertures or, both!

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

what about those backdrops and what not? like to take pictures of people in front of those textured greyish sheets. i dont know whats that called or how much those cost.

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E-3!
12-60 2.8-4.0
12-60 2.8-40 [Also going]
40-150 3.5-4.5
70-300 4.0-5.6
Fl-48

Personally I detest those things - can you say cheese?

Besides, at a wedding, shooting against plain backgrounds to bring out the detail in the brides dress is the best thing, against white or black, or perhaps colours that match well with the colours of the bridesmaids.

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

ive never been to a wedding that didnt have one of those backdrops for pictures of the whole family and bridal party and what not.

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E-3!
12-60 2.8-4.0
12-60 2.8-40 [Also going]
40-150 3.5-4.5
70-300 4.0-5.6
Fl-48

I would also look into a battery grip

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Nikon D300+MB-D10 | Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 | Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro | Sigma 10-20mm
18-200mm VR | 85mm f/1.8 | 50mm f/1.8 | SB-600 | Manfrotto 681B & 3232 Monopod--190XPROB & 488RC2 Tripod
flickr

Hi,

I'm just a "happy snapper" so this is more of a question than a suggestion but wouldn't a Canon 5D, for top IQ, plus a cropped sensor body as a second camera be a more useful combination than two cropped bodies? I guess it all depends on budget but it might offer more options with fewer lenses.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.