Gear You Should Have as a Wedding Photographer
I’ve been shooting weddings for about two years now and during that period of time I did enough weddings to be able to tell you what gear you should definitely have as a wedding photographer.
- CAMERAS
Yeah, you read me right! I said cameras, in plural.
The reason for that is simple: when you’re shooting a wedding, you’re simply covering one of the most important days of the couple’s life. They usually spent a whole year planning that event, they put a lot of effort, money, thoughts and love into that.
If they hire you as their wedding photographer, YOU want to MAKE SURE you will be able to cover that moment no matter what!
So having two cameras is a MUST for weddings. Because if one of your cameras stops working, you have a second one ready to go to use instead.
My main camera is a Canon 5D Mark IV and my second camera is a Canon 80D. Some photographers like to use both cameras at the same time, usually with a prime lens in one of them and with a zoom lens in the other, or both with prime lenses with different focal lengths. It is not my case, I like to shoot with one camera only.
So what I do is I always have my second camera absolutely READY to go. That way, in case something happens with my main camera, I just need to grab my second camera, turn it on and it’s there with a full battery, clean SD hard inserted and settings pretty much ready to go!
Another important thing I’d say about cameras is: if you didn’t buy your camera yet, try going for a camera that has two card slots and USE the dual card slot! Have your photos recorded to two cards at the same time, that way, even if you have one of your cards broken, you still have the other one as a backup. I never had a problem with losing images from a card, but it can happen, so I think it’s crucial to be prepared. Have your data recorded in two simultaneous slots.
2. LENSES
Because I shoot with a camera only, my favorite lens and the one I use for about 80% of the wedding day is the 24–70mm f/2.8. I absolutely recommend this lens for ANYONE shooting weddings! Especially, but not only, if you’re shooting with a unique camera.
The 24–70mm gives you enough range to cover pretty much anything you need. From big churches and groups of people to intimate moments and closer looks. It is my number one lens when it comes to weddings, I ALWAYS use it 95% of the time — if not 100% — during the ceremony and I could go with it for the rest of the day without missing pretty much anything if it was the only lens I had. If you need ONE lens to start with, in my opinion, this is the one!
Then, of course, there are some other lenses I use for specific moments, such as the 16–35mm 2.8. I use it when I want to take shots of an entire place that is too big to be covered with the 24–70mm, or when I want to emphasize something bringing the lens real close to the subject and still being able to see all that’s happening around them, for example.
This lens, especially if used in 16mm, distorts things a lot, though. So you have to be careful on how and when to use it. It can be SUPER cool! I LOVE IT! But it’s a more specific lens.
I also use my 50mm f/1.4 for 2 reasons. The aperture and the weight. As it is a f/1.4, it gives me a very shallow depth of field when shooting outdoors, even though I tend not to go lower than f/1.8 especially when shooting couples to guarantee I’ll get them both in focus… and also when shooting indoors, this wide open aperture helps me to get nice shots when I do not want or cannot use the flash.
Besides that, I tend to use it for quite a while especially during portraits and during the party because it is a very LIGHT lens. After 8 hours shooting with a 5d Mark IV, a 24–70mm lens and an external flash mounted to my camera, being able to use a lighter lens for a while is very relieving to me. After about 8 hours carrying my camera around, my neck starts cracking and I just try using my 50mm a little bit more, so I can rest a little from the weight that doesn’t hurt you in the beginning, but surely can be felt after a couple of hours shooting nonstop.
And finally, I always take my 100mm f/2.8 macro with me. The only moment I use this lens, though, if for the ring shot. As it is a macro lens, it is perfect for shooting details from the ring, showing the couple’s names on it… and maybe even the bride’s jewelry… but it is not a MUST HAVE lens for weddings. I think it’s a PLUS, so if you’re starting, I truly believe you will do great starting with the 24–70mm.
3. EXTERNAL FLASH
This is extremely important! Don’t you even think of shooting a wedding without having a external flash, unless it is going to be outdoors during the day! A flash can save you in so many ways and occasions, you will thank me if you listen to me.
Especially if you’re not shooting with a prime lens that would be a 1.2, 1.4 or 1.8 aperture, with a 24–70mm 2.8, for example, if you’re inside a church or if you’re shooting the bridal party, you will definitely want to have a flash mounted to your camera the whole time! That is what I do! I try to avoid using the flash for as long as I can. But I don’t like to go too high on my ISO and have too much grain on my photos, so I ALWAYS have my Canon 600EX2-RT mounted to the hot shoe of my camera and, if I need some extra light, I can just point it to the ceiling or to a wall with the diffuser out like this, and I’ll get some extra light created for my shots. And I won’t go into further details about what settings, how and when I use flash for my weddings, but if that’s something that you’d like to know more about just let me know and I can do another video talking specifically about that.
Oh, and here, I’d say: play safe and have 2 flashes as well. If your flash stops working and the venue doesn’t have enough light, you might be in big trouble! But don’t worry, you don’t need to have another 500 bucks flash as a second flash.
As a matter of fact, you better off with 2 cheap flashes than with 1 expensive flash. So if you’re tight on budget, make some research on the YONGNUO YN600EX-RTII Speedlite. It’s an awesome flash! I have that flash as a second flash and if you want to know more about how it is compared to the Canon, I have a video talking only about that in the link that will be up here and also in the description.
4. EXTRA BATTERIES AND CHARGER
If I’m doing an 8 hour wedding, with my 5D Mark IV, I’ll never use more than 2 batteries. If I do a 12 hour wedding I might end up using 2 full batteries and start a 3rd one. But I really suggest you won’t shoot a wedding without having at least 2 batteries. If you only have two, when you have that first one drilled, whenever you have a minute, get your charger and leave it charging somewhere in case you need a third one. Don’t even think about shooting an 8 hour wedding with an unique battery. It’s not gonna end up well.
5. EXTRA SD CARDS
Have in mind that on a wedding day you will make a LOT of photos! So please don’t go shoot a wedding with one only 64GB card. For a 12 hour wedding, I usually get 2 cards of 64GB pretty much full, which means I have 2 SD full cards + 2 compact cards, that is the card I need for the second slot of my canon 5d MARK IV. I always shoot RAW in medium size and I can take about 1300 photos with one 64G card with that size of file.
Also, I always have another 2 or 3 extra cards with me, in case I need more space or in case one of the cards gets corrupted, which is something that has already happened to me before.
6. CLEANING MATERIAL
In case your lenses get dirty or wet, you need to be prepared. So I always keep this cleaning kit with me. Before each wedding I always check all my lenses and clean them up entirely, but I always take at least this and this to my weddings, so I can deal with any dirt in an emergency.
7. WATER AND FOOD
I know this is not an equipment, but I believe this is very important to mention. When you shoot weddings, especially long ones when you start in the morning, you will want to keep hydrated and fed. Otherwise, by the end of the ceremony you might be out of energy already. So keep some water or isotonic drinks with you, keep some snacks such as grains, fruits and cereal bars that are easy to eat and whenever you have some free time, fuel up.
Usually the couple will offer you dinner, but really, I wouldn’t rely on that. For one of the first weddings I did as a second photographer, I did not take any food and the couple ended up not offering us food.
So We started working at around 10am and the wedding ended at around 9pm. During the whole day, all we had was a piece of chocolate and we were completely exhausted and out of energy by the end of it! We hardly made it.
So keep in mind you will walk a lot, you won’t have much free time to eat until dinner and you need to have food that you can easily grab and eat on the go when your energy starts to go down. It is a must for weddings and I strongly recommend it!
8. EXTERNAL HD & CLOUD FOR STORAGE
Whenever I get back from a wedding, the first thing I do, even before I take a shower, is to back up my files to an external HD. Along with that, I always upload the files also to the cloud. I use google drive, but you can upload it to the service that fits you best. That way, I have a physical copy of the files and also a virtual one.
Plus: As I said, I always record my photos to two simultaneous cards.
I usually do not delete the photos from at least one of them before I get the photos edited and delivered to my client, as an extra safety measure.
That way, until I deliver the photos, I have 3 copies of the photos: on my SD card, on my external HD and on the cloud. After I deliver them, then I just keep the photos to my external HD and to the cloud for another 2–3 years in RAW and forever in HD JPEG.
9. THE BAG
This might sound obvious and might sound like unnecessary to be talked about butI ended up deciding to talk about this because recently I got a bag that, to me, was a life saver… or maybe I should say a BACK saver.
I used to use a bag that was a good bag but that I’d just need to carry at my back.
But the point is, I usually go to my weddings using public transport and if that’s your case, then having a bag on wheels might prevent you from ending up having painkillers from carrying your heavy bag with all of your heavy equipment all around when going to and coming back from the wedding venue and also throughout the wedding day, going from one place to another.
So ever since I got this bag, I never had a problem with that anymore… and, of course, make some research about how to get to the wedding venue and about the wedding venue itself because, even though this bag has back straps I can take out to use it at my back, if I end up having to use this bag at my back all day long, it might not be the best choice, because it’s a pretty heavy bag to carry like that. But if you can just carry it on the floor most of the time, than this is the bag to go! Here in Stockholm the public transport is very good and the places are usually very accessible even when I get the train to travel around Sweden, so in 90% of the cases, this bag works perfectly for me. If that’s also the case in your region, then I strongly recommend the LowePro Runner RL X450. If you want to take a look at it, the link for it will be in the description of this video.
As a matter of fact, if you want to do some research or even if you want to buy any of the items I talked about in this video, I will have the link for all of them here in my description, so just feel free to check them out. If you end up buying any items through my links, you will not have to pay anything extra to it, but I will get a commission from Amazon to help to keep running this channel with weekly fresh new content for you. So that will be highly appreciated.
Also, It will be highly appreciated if you will like this video, subscribe to this channel and click the little bell down here to be notified when I come up with new content. That would also help me a WHOLE lot so, yeah, please do it!
I hope you liked this, I hope it helps you to make wise choices about the gear you should have to shoot your weddings and… I thank you so much for watching me up to the end!
(Transcripted from YouTube video)
MY GEAR
MAIN CAMERA I USE: https://geni.us/Dq2Yzfn
SECOND CAMERA: https://geni.us/UlPvn
MY MOST VERSATILE LENS: https://geni.us/qsounF
LENS FOR WIDER SHOTS: https://geni.us/3UfKGNg
BOKEH MASTER: https://geni.us/tTYipt
THE RING LENS: https://geni.us/BRrc
MAIN SPEEDLITE: https://geni.us/wz2aE3
SECOND SPEEDLITE: https://geni.us/jDou
SPEEDLITE TRIGGERS: https://geni.us/Sj4kieM
SD CARDS I USE: https://geni.us/hkDy
CAMERA BAG: https://geni.us/imDzO61
LIGHT GODOX SL60W: https://geni.us/ZSooax
OCTABOX: https://geni.us/7ZGtdhE
AMBIENT LIGHTS: https://geni.us/jIyQbGd
COMPUTER: https://geni.us/OkRNr
COMPUTER MOUSE: https://geni.us/yu2fB
PORTABLE EXTERNAL HD: https://geni.us/oY7WC8
MAIN TRIPOD: https://geni.us/UT7hf23
MINI TRIPOD: https://geni.us/LHIY
LINKS USED IN THE DESCRIPTION MAY OR MAY NOT BE AFFILIATE LINKS By using the affiliate links I earn a small fee of your purchase, it does not cost you anything extra for you to use them. They help me to be able to create more content for you. Thank you so much for the support!
