Wedding Photography Equipment for Beginners – How to Choose Your Right Gears Without Burning Your Bank Account

Are you getting stuck searching for references of wedding photography equipment for beginners but no real wedding photographer told you all about?

I’ve been asked by some friends and relatives about how I shoot wedding and what kind of photography gears that I used on beach wedding session in Bali and Maldives many times. I exactly know for all things that you might thinking when start up your photography business because I personally stuck into the same problem back 10 years ago when I’m just graduate from my college and don’t want to work as a 9 to 5 person.

When I just begin my career I think that become a photographer is a cool job because all we need to do is simply shooting for people and than we got paid, in fact if you want to learn in more further than there are a lot of reasons why you should proud of being a photographer.

How to Choose ‘Ur First Wedding Photography Equipment for Beginners

Choosing your first wedding photography equipment for beginners seems to be the hardest part of your life because you may in 2 situations,

You have your own money but too afraid to use it or you don’t have money and need to ask someone’s help to afford it. By the way I was in the second situation back on 10 years ago because I don’t have money at all and need my mom’s money to buy my first Canon Rebel with the kit 18-55 mm lens.

So following this part I’m going to guide you about how to choose your first wedding photography equipment for beginners that will fulfil your needs on capturing moment without burning out your whole money in the bank account.

Due to my references below, you have your own choice to buy the brand new equipment or buy the used one, both of them are have both advantages and disadvantages!

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1. – Choosing Your Camera

To be a wedding photographer than you will definitely need a camera and it’s time to figure out how to choose your first camera because you may thinking about how many megapixels, full frame or non-full frame, entry level or high-end camera, and so on. In fact there is a good saying,

The most important thing is a man behind the gun!

It’s between true and false when we talk about that quote because when you get a good camera on your hand than you will shoot easier than the cheaper one. On this part I’m going to share two kind of cameras from Canon that I personally use for shooting wedding, one of them will be the entry level and the other will the high-end one. I will try my best to share the good and bad things about these two cameras and give you my personal opinion about them.

Camera on a Budget – EOS 7D Mark II Non-Full Frame

I personally use this 7D collection for my own and I’m truly satisfy with this non-full frame camera or used to called as APSC system for shooting wedding. This camera come in various price but I sure you will able to afford it for less than $1000 which is still rely to capturing moment on wedding.

When you consider about budget than I highly suggest you to buy EOS 7D Mark II for your first camera and spend the rest of your budget on lenses, in fact with a nice technique and passion than you will still able to deliver outstanding photographs to your couple.

This picture below is taken during wedding session in Bali for humble Australian couple. So I asked my couple, groomsman, and bridesmaid to stand on the coral stone and shoot through long distance with EOS 7D Mark II with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM.

Camera on a Quality – EOS 5D Mark III Full-Frame

Once I spend a good time with my 7D for few years than I sold it and upgrade into EOS 5D Mark III – I also familiar with its earlier series too and this full frame camera is incredible especially if you love to shoot on RAW mode.

I bring this EOS 5D Mark III to go to Bali and shoot on beach wedding and I’m super excited about this full-frame censor because it works better than my 7D for sure. When you shoot on low light and want to adjust the colours on Photoshop action than I surely could do better way in a full-frame camera, it looks more detail, less noise, and got higher quality for the image.

I captured this photo below on Italian-Indonesian wedding on a fliff-front villa around Uluwatu Bali by using EOS 5D Mark III and Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM. What I expect through this photo is I could deliver great memories about how my couple’s wedding looks like from outside the main venue, so I walk out from the tent and stay low near the infinity pool and once I got the purple spot light from the venue than I push my shutter to get a nice reflection effect on the frame.

The short conclusion about these 2 camera is, if you only got less money to start your business than buying EOS 7D Mark II is quite enough but if you still have more money to spend than buying EOS 5D Mark III will make you into unstoppable photographer who come with superb image quality for sure.

2 – Choosing Your Lens

After you know about how to choose your first camera than now I will guide you about choosing your lens but before I begin please remember my saying about this,

If you really concern on a budget and only able to buy cheaper camera than it just fine, but always give your best effort to buy the superb lens!

This is true, I personally do this way and I saw so many friends also doing the same thing when they buying their first wedding photography equipment for beginners back few years ago. Good lens will able to use for long period even you upgrading your camera than you still can use your earliest lens model for sure. Surely all lenses also upgrading their features but in general their just upgrading for additional features but still come with their own genuine one.

IS or image stabilizer is one good thing on camera that will help you to reduce hand shake or similar but as long as you have steady hand or bring professional tripod like Manfrotto Compact Action than you don’t need to buy the IS lens, instead you still can use your premium “old” lens for shooting wedding.

On the first line of this article I was promise to share about two kind of gears so you will know the difference and you got your own choice to choose what kind of wedding photography equipment for beginners that you will buy, so let’s dig in!

Fixed Lens on a Budget – Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Fixed

I always remember that Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 is my first lens that I bought with my own money after having my kit 18-55mm lens from my previous Rebel series, it is so cheap and it always be but if you concern to make a clear and sharp image than having this lens on your bag is one good thing that you can do on starting your own photography business.

Buying Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 on your first year on photographer career is good because it still cheap and come with extraordinary result, in fact fixed lens will always superb for shooting portrait or detail like dress, shoes, and etc.

Lens on Quality – Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM Fixed

When you’re done with your entry level fixed lens that I mentioned above than when your business is growing good and you have more money to invest on 50mm lens than my next suggestion is Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM.

There is no doubt on using this fixed lens on any situation both low and normal light because this “beast” will work fast on focus, sharp, and surely come with double or might be triple times better than the first one. When you hold this Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM than you gonna feel that this gonna be one of heaviest fixed lens on the planet but it surely give you professional impression and definitely will come with outstanding result.

Let see my photo from the previous wedding party event below,

I shoot this guest during my previous wedding in Bali and we got chilled night on the party when the musician is getting roll on and the guest is start dancing all night long. I know this situation will gonna be trouble is I just shoot with an entry level lens so I put my Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM lens to the camera and start shooting with fun.

This L series lens has an insane aperture feature that come up to 1.2 which is gonna be super sharp and get an insane blur effect but during this frame I only need 1.4 aperture setting and 1/160 exposure time.

So when you just starting your business and only got few hundred bucks to invest on the lens than I surely suggest you to buy Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 but if you concern on quality and what to invest some gears that you can use for long period than buying this ultimate Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM will be your best decision ever.

Last Humble Suggestion from Me Before You Choose Your Own Wedding Photography Equipment

As so many people said that having your first wedding photography equipment for beginners will takes ridiculous time and I also have that situation too. What I mean is don’t worry and stay focus on what you gonna do next, stay calm and check your financial status carefully because gears will just gears and you are the person who gonna be in charge behind that all gears.

Just look at my own couple portrait above,

I make a unique shots for me and my wife in Hong Kong during shooting for group portrait, what I did during that chilled night is taking a slow speed that I set manually on my camera, but you know what camera that I use? It just Canon EOS M mirrorless system which come in super reliable price for sure.

You always can make a great shots!

So keep learning on photography about how to shoot properly, how to capturing moment or how to shoot with flash and just in case you need more further information about it than you can read my previous article below:

• Outdoor Flash Photography Technique for Shooting Wedding
• Wedding Photography Tips for Making a Great Composition
• 8 Wedding Photography Tips for Beginners – Guide to be a Better Wedding Photographer

See you on next post!