Ask A Photographer Podcast

Today we will be looking into how much equipment you need to start a photography business. Paul sent in a question and said,  I often get asked to photograph different events like parties and dance concerts for friends. They offer to pay me, which has made me wonder.  What would be the least amount of equipment needed to start a photography business?

I have a camera body, 2 lenses and a Macbook.

The minimum equipment needed to start a photography business

The minimum amount of equipment needed to start a photography business is one camera body, one lens, one memory card, one flash and a computer to edit your photos and that’s it, really. 

That’s the utmost minimum you need to get the job done. 

But, We all know that if we’re in business and we want to be professional, and we want to be the type of person that wants to do the right thing for our customers, then having backup equipment is a must.

Minimum equipment

1 camera, 1 lens, 1 flash, 1 memory card and computer

Recommended equipment

2 cameras, 2 – 3 lens, 2 – 4 memory cards, 2 flashes and fast computer

Here is the path I took to build my photography business, through small equipment upgrades.

For about 2 years I used to photograph with a Canon 70 – 200mm, Canon 20D, an 8 gb compact flash card and a computer that was five years old, and thinking about it now just makes me cringe.

If I had to photograph late in the afternoon, it would be a struggle. Anything past 1600 ISO was just so grainy.  Loading photos into the computer was so slow, It took 40 minutes to download the photos off from the memory card. I’d go and have dinner, come back, and it’s still hammering away. Thank God I’ve progressed from there.

When I added another camera body, It was great. I had two camera bodies to work with. But they  weren’t the same model.  There are pros and cons with that which I’ll explain in a bit.  But It was nice to have the ability to use two different lenses at the same time, but also as a backup if only just using one camera.

What I noticed was that because the cameras were a few years apart, the quality of the photos that came out of each camera was worlds apart.

Low level ISO, I could shoot 6400, even higher, and be quite comfortable, with the other camera anything above 1600 ISO, it was just so grainy, you might as well just pack up and go home. It was really bad.

I had two different cameras. One naturally became the backup, which I slowly didn’t use over time, and I got more clients and put more money into the business. It got to a point where I could actually purchase two camera bodies that were exactly the same, and it made photographing and editing a lot easier.

I’m not saying you need that straight away, but having two camera bodies that are the same, because you can set them up the same, you will get the same performance from them, so it doesn’t matter which camera you picked up, as long as you have the correct exposure, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference unless you are at a different focal length.

Also having two camera bodies in case you drop one on the job is a must. Same thing applies with your camera lenses.