 Rochelle K. Westgarde |
Equipment for Starting Out I am just starting out - mostly taking family portraits and weddings. Could somebody give me a list of the equipment that I will need? I have a Pentax mz7 with a telephoto lens, and I am looking at the Pentax istD Digital. Thank you.
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Bob Cammarata |
A decent tripod should be your first investment. That should be followed by a few backgrounds, light stands, flash units - along with some type of diffusion (for the portraits). For weddings, a good flash unit, and a bracket to hold the flash off to the side. And some comfortable shoes! :)
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Amanda E. Radovic |
You'll also need a lens range of 28mm to around 200mm or more. The wide angle will help to cover the large group shots but be careful of distortion !! The tele will give you lovely head and shoulder shots and will defocus the background nicely. I would also add a nice fast standard lens for shooting wide open in low light - mine is a God send at f1.4!! Also great for group shots as it is virtually the same as the human eye - you'll need some distance though.A multi reflector is a must too - great for individual portraits - lovely and soft with beautiful catchlights! I have recently purchased the ist D about 3 months ago and love it. I have a small 'kiddies and family portraiture' business and it gives you good peace of mind and you save on stock - mine is paying for itself. Give yourself some time shooting with it before taking it out on a commission though as it handles exposure differently from a film camera. If you need to set the iso to more than 400 you have noise to deal with - grain in film is preferable any day!! You'll also get this noise if the shot is underexposed.......and most importantly for weddings, it is really easy to lose your highlights - it doesn't have the same range as film and is totally unforgiving of overexposure. You'll also get better bw's from film. For group shots it is excellent as you can view them immediately to see if you have blinks or whatever but I'd be inclined to shoot the bridal stuff in film.....my opinion only - maybe I still have some mastering to do! If you have any queries about the ist d then feel free to email me - I am away from home at the moment but you can contaact me on ae_monty69@hotmail.com or through my website contact page found @ www.amandasphotos.com but I wont answer this until after the 23rd. Cheers and good luck - by the way, a BetterPhoto Deluxe website is a great tool for promoting your work to prospective clients!!
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