Monthly Archives: January 2010

Equipment necessary for wedding photography


January 25th, 2010

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While I wait for Lightroom to delete rejected images, which is extremely slow for some reason, I thought I would write about something I struggled with starting my business. It can be very confusing to figure out with all the lenses and cameras Nikon offers, what is really needed for wedding photography.  So I thought I would make a list of what in my opinion is necessary to help out anyone thinking of getting into the business.  This is based on my experience with Nikon, but it’s basically the same for Canon.  I will list what is necessary first, then recommended second.

Camera Bodies:
First of all you need two camera bodies.  If budget is tight one body can be really any Nikon even a D40, you just need a camera with a wide angle lens so you can easily switch cameras during a ceremony.

  • Nikon D300 $1500
  • Recommended: Nikon D700/D3 $2400-$6000
Lenses:
Forget any lenses that come with cameras.  Wedding photography absolutely requires lenses with a fixed f2.8 or below for short depth of field.
  • Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 ED $2000
  • Nikon 50mm f1.8 or f1.4 (Recommended) $90-$400
  • Recommended: Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 ED $2000
  • Any other primes you like are a good investment but not necessary
Flashes:
More than one flash is recommended, but I typically just use a single on camera flash and direct the flash in different directions.  More than one flash is really necessary outdoors at night.
  • Nikon SB600 $200
  • Highly Recommended: Nikon SB900 $400
Other Accessories and Software:
  • Lowepro Bag: $100
  • Lightstand and Umbrella: $100
  • 8GB Sandisk CF Cards: 3 x $50
  • Drobo for data Backup: $400
  • Lightroom: $300
  • Photoshop CS4: $600
  • Presslite Vertex: $50

Article in Coastal Carolina Home and Lifestyle Magazine


January 23rd, 2010

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I haven’t had much to blog about recently, it’s the slow time of the year. I did think it was cool to have another wedding featured in a magazine. This time the Coastal Carolina Home and Lifestyle, a local magazine from the Sun News. They featured an article about a wedding where the couple had a lot of problems with Premier Resorts International and lost a lot of money. The wedding turned out really nice, I can’t say the pictures they picked for the article were my favorite, but I can’t really fix that.