Hi, this is Jay P. Morgan. Today on The Slanted Lens we're going to take a look at the equipment
you need to start your studio or to start making money in photography. It might surprise
you how little equipment you really need to be able to get out there and to start making
money on the side, as a side hustle or as a career in photography. I m going to look
at this at three different levels: a very low number, a medium number and a little higher
number, to get in and start your business and start making money in photography. This
is an updated lesson we've done in the past. I m going to look at new cameras, new equipment
and just give us a rundown for these three different categories. So let's get started.
Today's video is sponsored by Masterworks.
The camera I suggested for this category back in 2017 was a Rebel T7i. It was an excellent
camera and really a workhorse camera when it came to beginning photographer cameras.
But today they announced, just today the R10. The R10 is an APS-c sensor. It has a lot of
the same attributes that the T7i or T8i had. But it's a mirrorless camera and it's got
some great specs. It's got 24 megapixels. It has 30 frames a second in 4k 10 bit 4.2.2
codec. I mean that's just an incredible place to be in the market. So that means this camera,
as an entry-level camera, will give you great stills and great video. And it's an RF. It's
an RF mount. So that means that any lenses you buy from here on out, if you decide to
step up to a better Canon camera, you can use them on the cameras you purchase in the
future. This camera does come with, at $1100, it comes with a 18-45mm lens. So that's basically
a 29-72mm lens. Which is a good range. It gives you wider for contextual type portraits.
I like about an 85mm. I wish this lens went just a little further, it was in the 70s.
But it's going to give you a decent kind of head and shoulders type portrait lens. So
for eleven hundred dollars that gets you in a great camera that I think is going to grow
with you. The autofocus is incredible on this camera. It's got 651 phase detection points.
It's just so much better. This is a great camera for this entry level kind of beginning
place.
But you can't just have a camera and a lens. I mean that camera and lens you could, but
you really need something to light with. And the first thing I m going to add to this list
on top of your camera and lens is, I m going to I want a disc. Some kind of a reflector.
And so I use a Westcott 5 in one. It's a round, pop-up reflector. It's got five surfaces in
one. So you've got a translucent, you've got a white hard bounce and you've got a black
if you want to subtract light. That is a great way to get started. It's amazing the number
of things you can light and do with a reflector and just look absolutely beautiful. So there's
our light.
But we can't just have a light because there's not always someone to hold it. So we need
a stand. So I use, and I say this stand and I suggest this stand. It's a stand from Kupo.
It's a universal black stand. It goes up to 12 and a half feet tall. So it's a big stand.
It's made to hold heavier equipment and that means it's going to grow with you. And you'll
be able to update to other strobe heads and things on this stand. This stand will last
you forever.
We're also going to need two SD cards. I suggest two cards. This camera doesn't have two card
slots as I understand it, it only has one. But I think it's important, rather than getting
a 128 gigabyte card, get two 64 gigabyte cards. The reason is because with two 64 cards you
have one being in the camera and when it fills up you can trade it. Too many people use these
cards as storage devices. I want you to take this card and I want you to back it up, erase
it and then bring it back to be able to shoot your next shoot. So it gives you two cards
to be able to be switching back and forth. If one gets lost you got a second one. If
you one fills up you've got a second one. So it's just, it's good to have two cards.
It's a great way to work.
I also want you to have an external hard drive. So an external hard drive is $60. That external
hard drive plugs into wherever you're working. We are not including a computer in this list
because that's a very expensive item. If you want to get in and start making money for
sixteen hundred and sixteen dollars you're not going to be able to buy a computer. You
can go to the library. You can use one at a community college where you go take classes.
You can borrow a friend s, go to your parent s house, I mean there's different ways to
solve the computer. But in order to accomplish that you need an external hard drive for sixty
dollars. We're going to get an external hard drive. Try to get it as large as you can get.
Look for something on sale at least one to four terabytes. And that's going to give you
the place where all of your images, all of your business is going to live on that one
hard drive.
We're going to get an a clamp for six bucks to be able to put our reflector on our stand.
We're going to get a tripod. You have to have a tripod. Tripods just open up a world of
opportunities for you. You can do longer exposures, you can do a flash and longer exposure for
when you work into the night. If you're doing weddings it allows you to drag the shutter
for any kind of party lights that are in the scene. Having a tripod is an integral piece
of equipment. If you want a second set-up, a second camera on a tripod to be able to
shoot a time lapse. I mean you just need a tripod. I suggest the Fotopro. We were introduced
to Fotopro. They are not a sponsor of ours. But we were introduced to them a while back.
I think their equipment is lightweight, it's very durable and they're just great equipment.
So it's the Fotopro X-go.
The last thing is a $20 card reader.
That's the equipment you need. You can make money with that list of equipment for $1616
and get out there and start making money. So that's a great entry point with a better
camera than I suggested in 2017 when it was $300 less. So this is a huge step up for video
and stills and a great place to start if you want to make money really inexpensively.
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The second category is a sweet spot for me because you're spending a little more money,
twice, but you're getting some really great capabilities that open up a lot of doors for
you as far as working commercially. So this is going to add strobes now, which makes a
huge difference, and a full-frame camera. I suggest the Canon EOS R. It's an older camera
and not a perfect camera by any means, but it's a full-frame camera. It's a 30 megapixel
full-frame camera. It has great video capabilities, even though it has an atrocious crop in that
4k video mode. But still it gives you gorgeous images. That 30 megapixels is plenty large
enough to give you great large prints off from a full frame sensor. If you get it with
a kit lens, there's a kit lens it comes with. This is a 24-105 f/4-7.1. Not an ideal lens
by any means. But you get into that for $1890. So you get that one lens, you get that camera
body and it's $1890.
Now we're going to add back in our Westcott five and one reflector for $59.90. Now we're
going to jump to Westcott FJ200 strobes. I suggested back in 2017 the Bajas which were
great strobes. They really were. They don't make them any longer, unfortunately. But the
Westcott's technology wise are one step way beyond the Bajas. The FJ200s are very small
and lightweight. It's easy for a person to carry two or three or four of these heads
around with them. And they're able to set these up, put them on their stands and shoot.
And give you great stuff on location. Because they have lithium-ion batteries they're made
to be on location. So a kit of two FJ200s from Westcott is going to cost you $999.90.
Now that is just the strobes and the reflectors in a little bag. But it does not give you
any kind of way to modify them. So we need an octodome. I love octodomes because it gives
me a round catch light in the eyes. It looks nice on the eye. It's just I like the round
better than a square. So I would start with a 26 inch Softbox or a Rapid Box from Westcott.
It's $119. I would then add as a second a modifier. A modifier that gets overlooked
a lot but I think is extremely effective and this is a white/black umbrella. It's a 45
inch white/black umbrella and it's only $32. You can take the black cover off from it turn
that umbrella around and shoot through it. It gives you a beautiful, beautiful soft light.
Or you put the cover on it, turn around and bounce it and it also gives you a very nice
light. So there's two different modifiers for you. You've got your softbox or your octadome
softbox and you've got your umbrella to either shoot through or bounce. It gives you two
ways to modify your lights.
Now I m going to jump up to two of the Kupo stands. So that gives us, it comes to $164.
Then our same cards, two Delkin cards, $140.
Our same external hard drive for $60.
Then our a clamp for $6 in case we want to use that reflector.
I have the same Fotopro tripod $149.
And then a card reader for $20.
And that comes up to $3,646. That is only $646 dollars higher than when we did this
in 2017. But the capabilities of what you can do with this package is incredible. Those
FJ200s are very small and lightweight. You can carry those with you, put the soft boxes
on, this gives you a beautiful way to light a family doing a portrait in the park. I see
people using these all the time because they're lightweight, they're transportable and it's
just easy to get around to be able to use. So it's a great platform to work with. So
there you have it, there's category number two.
Now you could at this point, I m going to put a sub category on category number two.
So here's my B of category 2. If you're a Sony lover and you want to get into Sony cameras
you can put a Sony a7IV on this list with a kit lens and it's going to cost you $2,698.
Which bumps this price up about $800. Which means we're somewhere around $4,468. But now
you're into a, I think, the a7 IV has incredible video capabilities. It gives you great still
image capabilities. I think that camera is by far a wedding, portrait workhorse camera.
It really is. And you have to make a decision which of these categories you want to be in.
Do you want to be in the Sony or in the Canon. I believe you should be in one of those two
ecosystems. A mirrorless camera direction for sure. But the first category is an entry
point just to get you started. This category is an entry point where you can use this equipment
for a long time and I feel like it's a solid place to stand. So there's a Sony or a Canon
option in that number two.
The third category is a more professional high-end category that has some great advantages
to it. And really, if you can afford to get in at this level it's going to be equipment
that you can use for years and years to come. It's all equipment you won't need to replace.
Equipment that's really workhorse equipment made to help you make money. So in this category
it's going to net out at about $5,976. But it's going to start with an a7 IV. Like I
said earlier, I love the a7 IV. It's a really great workhorse camera. Not too expensive,
but it gives you a full frame. Not too expensive, it's an expensive camera, but it gives you
a full frame. It gives you great video capabilities. But we're not going to use a kit lens with
it. We're going to use a Tamron 28-75 G2 lens. That G2 lens allows you to have a lot of creative
capabilities you don't have with a kit lens. And most of that is the fact that it's an
f/2.8. A f/2.8 lens allows you to have shallow depth of field. It's going to shoot very quickly
in low light situations. It's just a much more effective lens to be able to use in so
many different situations, for events, for weddings, all those kinds of things. It is
a much more capable lens as a working professional lens than a kit lens really is. But that lens
is a 28-75 so you have wide for contextual type portraits but you have a little longer
for just your standard kind of portraits. And then you have a f/2.8 so the background
can fall way out of focus. It's a much better lens and it's going to give you a much better
look in this category. And it's a Sony lens. So you can continue to buy other Sony lenses
and stay in the same ecosystem. And it's going to grow in the future.
Now you could replace this with the R6. That R6 in that same path would be a path that
would work. But I think this Sony right now is a little better camera because the Sony
is a 30 plus megapixel camera. Whereas the R6 is in the 20s. I think the Sony is a little
better. I m hoping to see something from Canon that gets into this category a little better.
But I haven't seen that just yet.
Okay, but I m going to keep now my Wescott 5 and 1 reflector. But we're going to jump
now to FJ400s, two FJ400s with a trigger and a kit. That kit is going to cost us $1379.
But the FJ400, even though it's a bigger, more heavy platform than the FJ200s, it's
a stop brighter. It's better with a high-speed sync. The FJ400s really are professional level
strobes. You can do great work with them. I think they're really a strobe that will
last you forever and I really, I shoot all FJ400. Well, I have FJ200 and FJ400 but I
love the FJ400s. I love the power I get out of them. And I love the portability with the
lithium ion batteries. Great platform. So when you get two of those we're going to add,
we're going to stick with our Wescott Octo the 26 inch softbox. But we're going to also
now add a Wescott Rapid Box, the 36 inch rapid box. It's bigger, it's going to be a more
wrapping light. I ll use that as my key light. Whereas, I ll put the 26 inch in the background
as a rim light. I want that big soft light up front for a lot of the purposes, a lot
of applications and that 36 inch Octa-dome looks fabulous.
All right, then we're going to jump to our same umbrella. Keep that umbrella. That umbrella
gives us another option if you want to be able to throw something up rather than just
a soft box. When you do a shoot through or a bounce it's a great option.
We're going to add another stand. Three of our Kupo stands now so $246 for three Kupo
stands. But those stands will last us forever.
I still have my two Delkin SD cards. I would probably consider at this point the next purchase
of getting another third card or a fourth card so you have more to back up to when you're
shooting.
And then we have our external hard drive for $60.
Our A clamp for $6.
Now for a tripod we're going to step up to the Fotopro Xgo plus. I compared this with
a bunch of other tripods and just trying to see if there's something else out there I
liked better. I didn't find one that I liked better. I carry this tripod with me and it's
a great platform. It's lightweight, it's small, it goes up tall. So it gives me the ability
to shoot high enough to be able to really make it worthwhile. I think it's a great platform.
But it is $259. But that tripod will last you forever. Everything on this list is equipment
that will last you for years and years and be able to make money with for years and years.
Then of course we have a card reader and that wraps us out at $5,976.70
if you were to tell a restaurant owner, a bakery, a dry cleaner, an automobile shop
could you could start your business for $5,976 dollars they would be like really and start
making money? I m going, that's unheard of. It may sound like a lot of money to you and
as a side hustle maybe that is too much money. So drop back to the category two which is
less of an investment. Or if it's just a side hustle and you're trying to figure it out
and you just want to see if it's for you, go to category one. Start there. But category
three is not a high level to get into an industry and to be able to make money in that industry
on a very high level. And it really gives you the total capabilities to do any kind
of wedding, portrait applications there, event photography and those kinds of things you
need some other lenses for. But this gives you a great starting point to be able to really
make money in the industry.
So there you have it, the three different levels to be able to get in and start making
money in photography. You have to pick the one that is best for you, that works for you,
that allows you to get in at what you can afford. You can start at level one, eventually
go up to level two and then level three. You'll add things as you go. My suggestion to you
is to try to get into at least a camera that is going to keep you in a mirrorless line
of lenses that you'll be able to add to and grow with. And that's going to keep you, give
you the ability to progress and to future proof your lens selection in the future.
The only thing here that's not going to last very long is probably some of the lower end
cameras and kit lenses. You're not going to want to stick with those kit lenses very long.
You're going to want to get into better lenses, faster lenses, prime lenses. They'll be things
you want to upgrade to in the future. But this gives you the ability to make money.
If you have one of these sets of equipment you have everything you need to make money
in photography. And it's time to start. Start taking pictures. If you do that you're going
to start making money and you're going to have the money to buy more equipment. And
as you buy more equipment you're going to be able to step up a little bit and you'll
be able to get a better clientele group. And it's going to just snowball on itself. So
choose which one you like. Choose a category. Just get started and start making money in
photography. It doesn't take as much equipment as you might think. So keep those cameras
rollin and keep on clickin .