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Equipment & Materials

As someone who has been selling pictures in a wide range of markets for more than 20 years, I’m often asked what equipment is required. Back in the days when most photographers were using film it was relatively easy to dispense this kind of advice.

For most kinds of professional photographic work a medium-format camera loaded with 120/220 roll film used to be pretty much essential. The larger negative/transparency sizes – 6 x 4.5cm, 6 x 6cm, 6 x 7cm, 6 x 8cm and 6 x 9cm, depending on the camera used – were capable of producing crisp, detailed, grainless enlargements.

For that reason they were the first choice among social photographers, whose customers often required prints to hang on their walls, stock photographers looking to maximize their sales, commercial photographers whose clients wanted pin-sharp product shots, and publishers of magazines, calendars and posters.

In some areas, such as food photography and architecture, even larger format cameras were required – most commonly 5 x 4in and 10 x 8in view cameras. In addition to the considerably bigger negative/transparency area, these have various ‘tilt’ and ‘shift’ movements that provide extensive control over the perspective.

In certain markets 35mm equipment was acceptable – but more often than not it marked the photographer out as a semi-professional. Postcard publishers, magazines and photo libraries would happily consider 35mm, but it was a non-starter as far as commercial photography was concerned, and considered rather ‘amateurish’ for weddings.

Digital advances

Now that most photographers are shooting digitally, the nearest equivalent we have to camera format is resolution. While it’s not the only factor – the range of features available is also important – the more pixels a camera is able to capture the more areas of professional photography it can be used in. What resolution is required? Unfortunately there’s no definitive answer to that question. It depends on how the image is going to be used – and as technology advances the boundary keeps shifting, with resolution rising steadily with each new wave of equipment that comes on the market.

Amateur v professional

This makes it far from easy to say clearly when a camera ceases to be ‘amateur’ and becomes ‘professional’ – although some of the old distinctions do seem to be re-asserting themselves as the digital market begins to mature. Most companies producing digital SLRs now have a range of models of different resolutions aimed at the consumer, semi-pro and professional markets. In addition, there are digital backs that can be fitted to medium- and large-format cameras, which capture images at even higher resolution.

However, the good news is that even a standard digital SLR is capable of producing files sizes large enough to be saleable. That means you can get started without spending a fortune. You may even have such a camera already – since they’ve been affordable for years now – and have nothing more you need to spend.

The quality you get from a basic DSLR is certainly good enough for portrait and wedding photography, sufficient for magazine work up to full-page reproduction, and fine for things such as postcards and greetings cards where 35mm would previously have been acceptable.

But if you’re serious about selling your work it’s worth investing in a camera that delivers a significantly bigger file size, so you have the option of submitting images for possible use on calendars, taking on commercial assignment commissions if they come along, and shooting for stock. It’s true that some photo libraries will accept pictures taken on budget digital cameras that have been resized to produce a file that’s around 50MB, but others do insist on images being that large without interpolation.

VERSATILITY

For general freelance and professional work, nothing beats the versatility of a 35mm-style SLR.

TOP OF THE RANGE

Professional digital cameras like this Hasselblad offer extremely high resolution but are expensive.

Is film dead?

But what if you’ve got a high quality film SLR? Is there no longer a market for transparencies and prints? Well, the secret of success in any business lies in giving your customers exactly what they want – and the majority these days prefer digital. But in social photography, where the end product is a framed portrait or a wedding album, film still has a foothold, with some practitioners – and their customers – preferring it to digital. In most areas, though, including publishing, commercial photography and stock, nobody is interested in film any more.

PRIME LENS

Don’t compromise when it comes to lenses: buy the best you can afford.

The tools for the job

You may be able to get away with a budget camera if you’re interested only in doing a little freelance photography alongside your existing employment. But you’ll soon find there’s a limit to what you can tackle. You may be able to earn some extra cash, but if you want to go further you’ll find that you eventually hit a brick wall.

To be successful in any profession you need the right tools for the job. Leading tennis players have high specification rackets strung by experts; carpenters use sophisticated power tools that have been designed to get the work done more efficiently, and they are expensive.

Ultimately, anyone who is serious about working professionally as a photographer needs to be willing to invest in a top-end digital camera – along with lenses that are equal to it in quality. There’s no point in spending a fortune on the camera body and then skimping when it comes to the optics. That’s a false economy.

STUDIO SET-UP

If you plan to do studio work, you’ll need lights, reflectors and, ideally, an assistant.

Depending on the kind of pictures you plan to take, it can also be worth spending more to buy lenses with a fast maximum aperture – such as f/2.8 on a telephoto zoom, rather than the more common f/4 or f/4.5. If you regularly find yourself doing work that requires you to shoot hand-held in poor light – such as during a wedding service in a gloomy church – that extra stop of light-gathering power can make the difference between an image blurred by camera-shake and one that’s sharp.

You should also consider, for the same reason, lenses with image stabilization or vibration reduction systems. These typically let you take hand-held shots at shutter speeds around two to three stops slower, allowing a 28–70 mm lens to give acceptable results at 1/5 sec and a 600 mm to be used successfully at 1/125 sec.

How many lenses do you need? And what focal lengths? Many professionals have three zoom lenses – wide-angle, standard and telephoto – which cover most of their needs. Some, such as sports and wildlife photographers, require a longer focal length, such as 400 mm, 500 mm or even 600 mm, to fill the frame with their subjects, while those shooting landscapes or groups often want an ultra-wide lens – 15 mm or less – to fit everything in. In certain areas, specialist equipment is essential: macro lenses in medical or garden photography, or perspective control (PC) lenses in architectural work where a view camera isn’t being used.

In addition, you may need a flashgun, a tripod, removable storage cards, a holdall to carry everything in and – if you’re setting up a studio – several lights, a background system and a host of accessories.

Many of those looking to earn money from photography will have some equipment already, but upgrading it to a professional specification often requires significant investment. Happily, equipment can often be bought in stages, as and when it is required, especially if you’re operating on a part-time freelance basis.

Delivering digital images

You’ve probably got a computer already – most people have – but if not you’ll need to budget for that as well, along with a photo-quality printer, high capacity back-up hard drives, and software to ‘process’ and enhance your images. While there are cheaper programs available, as soon as possible you should invest in Adobe Photoshop, which is pretty much the industry standard and capable of virtually anything you might want and more.

Among other things, Photoshop allows you deliver the files in the way they’re required. Typically, publishers, advertising agencies and commercial clients prefer 300dpi TIFFs, along with an index print for reference. Generally you will be delivering them on CD or DVD, though sometimes you’ll need to email them to meet a deadline, in which case it’s standard practice to send JPEGs compressed at a ratio of 8, 10 or 12, depending on the file size.

CONTROLLING THE ENVIRONMENT

To get soft, attractive light you’ll need umbrellas and softboxes, which come in a wide range of sizes.

Background paper rolls come in a variety of colours to suit every need.

When you’re sending files to a lab for printing, perhaps for wedding or portrait customers, there’s not the same need to be concerned with technicalities, since they will have the expertise to sort things out. So TIFFs and JPEGs will be equally acceptable, at whatever resolution they come out of the camera. Of course, you’ll want to work on them first, making sure the exposure, colour balance and cropping are just how you want them.

STORAGE OPTIONS

Removable cards make it possible to capture a large number of images during a shoot.