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Congratulations on your photography business! Being a professional photographer, full-time or part-time, is a demanding profession but also very rewarding and enjoyable. As you have finished some assignments, you have probably seen a need for some different gear that could either simplify your workflow or allow certain types of shots.
You might think of these as splurge items, but they could actually help your business. For instance, in our monitor buying guide, we described the advantages of the different monitor panel types as an upgrade to the built-in monitor of a laptop.
In our different buying guides for cameras, lenses, lenses, and lighting or other accessories, perhaps you saw something that could benefit your new business. Let’s look at a few of the must have gear items you might use in your new photography business. Since there are so many different business types, we’re going to cover a few bases.
Best Lens for Weddings
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When using Full Frame format cameras for professional wedding photography, one lens type stands out as a go-to lens for many photographers. The fast zoom in the wide to normal to short telephoto range.
A 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens for Full Frame format cameras is one of the most useful lenses in all of photography. Since this style of zoom lens is primarily marketed towards professional and other serious users, the construction is often more robust than lenses designed for casual use. They are also very sharp and the wide aperture is a boon for lower light shooting.
Best Monitor for Photo Editing
An important tool to upgrade for professional use is your monitor for photography editing. Current laptop computers are excellent tools for photo and video editing but the monitor will be on the small size, somewhere between 14 and 19 inches usually. A larger monitor is better for editing as you can find out in one of our previous monitor buying guides.
ViewSonic monitors always place very high in our monitor buying guides for several reasons. They are extremely sharp, show over 4.39 trillion colors, and the ultra wide curved screens provide what’s known as an immersive viewing experience. See the 34 and 38-inch ViewSonic monitors in our editing studio upgrade.
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Best Lights for Product Photography
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Photo strobes are easy to use for multiple light setups when they are capable of being controlled by the camera for TTL metering. These strobes can be found from the camera manufacturers and third party makers.
Another style of lights that is beneficial for many professional shoots is the LED light. These can be found in several different styles, panel lights, fresnels, soft boxes, and on camera. LED lights work great for product photography and portraits as well as being capable of lighting videography since they are continuous lights.
Best Tripod for Environmental Portraits and Real Estate
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We all balked a little bit when we saw how expensive a better tripod was than the lightweight tripod we got in our original purchase. We need our tripods to be sturdy, secure, and vibration free but we also want them to be easy to transport and use.
Full sized carbon fiber tripods with ball heads, 3-way heads, or a gimbal are excellent for use when shooting in our studio or in the field. Sure, they cost a bit more, but they are one of the most valuable tools for serious photography.
Best Post-Processing Program for Landscapes
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The best post processing programs for landscape photography are also the best for our general photography, weddings, portraits, real estate, and small product photography. The two features we want are non-destructive editing and batch processing. Both of these features speed up processing and manage memory better.
Stay focused on techniques, skills, and workflow in order to stay busy with your new photography. We’re all pulling for each other.
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