if you get a couple of photographers in the room and you want to talk about equipment, I don't know when they're going to get out of it. And so we'll try to keep this case studies short. But I know this is what everyone loves talking about. And it is a question that we got a lot of because we surveyed our audience about, you know what they want to learn in this class and a lot of people were asking about what equipment do I need. Should I upgrade? You know, muralist Diaz alarm, all these things And a lot of these questions we answer in the photography and friends community, which we've mentioned before. Photography and friends dot com takes you to the community and you can ask those questions at the end of the day, our motto has always been shoot with what you have and really you can take amazing photos with any camera and it doesn't matter what brand. It doesn't matter. We'll hit mirror. Let's first DSLR necessarily of course there's some cameras that have some benefits to them versus...

others. But you can really start a business with pretty much any camera their minimum. Really. So this is what you brought today. My base set up. Okay, so this is for wedding for headshots for what I can with this. What's in front of me right now, I can do anything as far as I'm concerned, I am missing a really long lens. That's, you know, the equivalent to 72 200 that I would take on a wedding. But this is the base of everything and I have more equipment that I carry. But I don't know to start, I've moved to mere lys cameras. I used to be on D SLRs, but for me, when I shoot weddings and when I travel this is so light and small, this is my walk around lens. This is the basic thing I carry with me every day. It's a fuji X T two. There is a 63 that's out and there was a fuji X T one that's a predecessor. And when you watch this, there might be a 47 by the time you watch us. But the thing about it is not what brand it is. The fact is that it's small, it's lightweight, it's meaningless. It's quiet during weddings in certain situations and when you're shooting a wedding for you know, 6 to 8 hours, your back won't be killing you. Like it used to with my giant D. SLRs, yep, switch over switch over from um, so this is basically the equivalent to a 24 to 7 and you see how instantly that camera got a lot bigger. This is the mid range, the mid range zoom that I would take on a wedding and it would be my main event and this would be sort of my main shooter and that's all you need, you can get a lot done with just this sons in this camera. If you want to take the next step up I get a vertical grip, battery, battery power, battery length. It also adds power in terms of burst mode, you can do more burst mode. I can now hold it like this now for when I do my headshot sessions, which I've started doing like that. Um, so you know, again that's another level up. Also, it just, it looks cleaner, it gives me a nice good grip on it and I can really hold it, it looks a little bit more professional if people are spending a lot of money on you. Um, but again, that's sort of a personal preference. Normally when I'm shooting a wedding, my full kit is this guy with a flash and this is the 16 to 55 16 to 55 2. mid range. It's like the equivalent of the 24 to for Canon. Um, this will be my kick ass main shooter on a wedding and I would even turn this up and put the Gary Fong diffuser on it. And so now this thing is, remember we started with, let's add something else to. So, so this is like the main shooter that I would run around at a wedding or an event with um this is an icon, Flash on the fuji camera which works. Yeah, I'm used to be an icon. I didn't want to buy a new fuji flash yet because I hate flashes. Yeah, well I was just gonna say you mentioned in the lesson earlier that your main kit for wedding photography would include a flash and I would, I would agree because you never know. Yeah, when you're inside, there's a lot of interiors, you're not gonna be wanting to use this unless it's your style for like the couple's session, portrait session of them necessarily. But if you're in a low light situation at the reception, sometimes you do. And so also what I'm at a wedding is I have my really cool dual camera harness, very cool. I honestly get a lot of compliments on this thing, but the main, the main focus of this is so that it looks professional, which who makes that hold fast, hold fast. Yeah. And you know, you can wear a normal, you can wear a normal, a normal harness or like a normal thing, but if you're running two cameras, um this looks really nice and it kind of looks like you just have suspenders on and your wedding guest and basically you plug this into the bottom of the camera and it hangs down like this and I can whip it up. I get compliments on it because I look like a wedding guests. I don't see my cameras when I walk up to them and it relaxes a lot of people and so I'm able to kind of candidly bring my camera up and take a photo and I think that's a really big benefit too. Shooting weddings is like looking like a professional looking like you belong there and like you blend in because that's my style of shooting. Um so that would be my normal rig that I have two cameras, 24-70 on one side, 7200 on the other side, which I probably have it like this. Um and that's an eight hour deal for me. Um So yeah, but do you bring like a wide, do you ever find yourself bringing like an extreme wide or anything? Not for weddings? I think some people have a style of doing that Anthony uses really wide lenses. Um but the on here is more like 25, 30, 30 ISH. Um and that's been plenty for me. Usually I would like to get like a wider lens at some point, but I think, you know, 1624 is probably the way I still need an event usually Depending on unless you're taking a giant photo of 800 people which I have done and this was not enough and I proceeded to quickly think of my feet and take two or three photos all at once and stitch them together. Um so you will find yourself in that situation at some point. I mean in terms of other equipment, I mean backup batteries, like backup batteries, tons of backup batteries. Sometimes I'll even throw in an older camera as a backup cameras to have. I mean we've talked about horror stories across different courses, live streams we've done but we all have that horror story where our main camera stops working or whatever and you know the Bride's about to walk down the aisle and you wish you had a second camera. So and then you got to go talk to the video guys about giving you a camera. It's not it's not necessary because a lot of people just don't have the budget but maybe it's something you rent. I mean you could get a lot of the lower end models of cameras borrow lenses dot com. You can rent from a lot of those D. SLRs are less than 50 bucks a week. Less than $100 a week. And if you can build that into your pricing it might be worth it. Or if you know if you do upgrade your camera and you're taking that next level and you don't end up getting rid of or selling your old camera just keep it in your car, keep it in your bag, have it ready to go. That's probably not the safest place. Keep it in your bag, keep it close by. You know it it could really benefit you. I mean or literally ask a friend that's why community of photographers around you is so important. I mean people borrow your other you have the X. T. One. I let people borrow it all the time because I want them to shoot fuji. I also borrow your lenses all the time too. Yeah, so that's that's awesome. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I'm sure we're gonna get a lot of questions on equipment. Well this is my, this is my setup. So that's wedding. Yeah, that was wedding. This is my base setup for portrait photography. So this is On Fuji. It's a 1.2. So this is more like an 85 90 sort of setup. And this is what I shoot portraits with. Um Again, it's just the body and this lens and I use natural light. But I do when I am shooting borders, I do, I have this vertical grip on here unless I'm traveling like all the time. And so now this becomes my main photography headshot camera. I've taken all everything you see on my instagram has been taken with this exact setup in my hand. Um, and you know, sometimes you can rock the hood, sometimes it gets even smaller so you can see it's like a very simple sort of set up. I think at the end of the day we talked about it early. This isn't a class where we're teaching you how to be a photographer, take great photos but I will add in there that like so much of taking a great photo is everything else. It's the composition, it's the people, it's the lighting, the background, it's the location all of that. That's going to really make a photo great no matter what camera you're using. So if you do have questions about gear, I would recommend that you head over to photography and friends dot com, join the community and ask it there because we can help you out. Other photographers can help you out. You can also post to the course um as well. But yeah, I think that pretty much covers it. Cool to see what you use. Pretty simple. Also, as I say, it's simple, it's something that you've built up over time has been invested a lot of money. This setup that you're seeing right now. I've probably built over three years. Yeah. Yeah. This is not something I just went out and bought. Yeah. Three years and after doing three years and cameras for a long time. Yeah. And also every business and everything I've shot, I've put more money back into my gear. So this is not just going out and buying stuff like you have to work up to it. Yeah. Start with what you have and Yeah, you can do great with it. Alright. See you later. See you in the next lesson

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Philip Ebiner

Professional video & course creator, photographer & teacher to 1mil+ students; 10+ years experience with 1000+ videos.

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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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Case Study - Equipment

Case Study - Equipment

Lesson Info

19. Case Study - Equipment

Lessons

Welcome

Why Do You Want to Start a Photography Business

What Kind of Photography Business Do You Want to Start

Important Personal Note from Instructor Will

Case Study Starting a Photography Business

Quiz - Chapter 1

Introduction to Basics of Starting a Photography Business

Choose Your Business Name

Choose Your Business Structure

Register Your Business Name

Get Your Federal Tax ID

Get Your Business License

Get Your Business Bank Account

Register Your Online Accounts

Branding Your Business

Set Your Prices

The Photography Gear You Need to Start a Business

Case Study - Business Basics

Case Study - Equipment

Quiz - Chapter 2

Intro to Getting Your First Paying Clients

You Need to Prove Yourself

The Best Place to Find Your First Clients

What to Charge for Your First Clients

On Set - Partnering with Other Creatives

On Set - Getting Work in a Competitive Environment

Use Your First Shoot Wisely

Case Study - Getting Your First Clients

Quiz - Chapter 3

Introduction to Create Your Photography Business Website

Why You Need a Website and Platform Options

What Needs to Be On Your Website

Design the Perfect Portfolio

Case Study - Looking at Photography Websites

Quiz - Chapter 4

Introduction to Expanding Your Online Presence

Use Instagram to Grow Your Business

Use Facebook to Grow Your Business

Get Listed on Google

Get Listed on Yelp

Get Listed on Review Sites

Using Craigslist to Get Work

Case Study - Expanding Your Online Presence

Quiz - Chapter 5

Introduction to the Photography Business Workflow

Step 1 - Meeting Your Client

Step 2 - Booking Your Client

Step 3 - The Shoot

Step 4 - Editing Your Photos

Step 5 - Delivering Your Photos

Case Study - Business Workflow

On Set - the Shoot

On Set - Backdrop Placement

On Set - Paper Backdrop Rolls

On Set - The Back Light

On Set - Interacting with Clients

Quiz - Chapter 6

Intro to Business Infrastructure and Continued Growth

Productivity Tools to Make Your More Efficient

Get Business Insurance

Accounting Tools & Tips

Business Tax Tips

Scaling Your Prices Up

Use Conventions and Meet Ups to Grow Your Business

Case Study - Business Growth

Quiz - Chapter 7

Intro to the Selling Prints Section

Why Should You Sell Your Prints

Choose a Printer

How to Price Your Prints

Selling Your Prints Online

Selling Your Prints in Person

Wrapping up This Section

Quiz - Chapter 8