5 Must-Have Pieces of Gear for Stunning Portraits
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Biggest game changers for my portraits were in this order: buying a 50mm 1.8, 70-200 2.8 for outdoor use, and and moving up to full frame with a 5D MKII. This was all done over a period of 3 years.
Personally, what helped me improve my understanding and crafting of light is a light meter. I bought a used Gossen Lunalite SBC and it works for me. Nothing fancy, limited electronics but helps me to get the work done. Also, getting to know the use of the Guide Number of my flash, so I can set it at the right distance.
If you want to do studio portraiture the video was great solid advice. I like to hang out in dark, smokey bars and take pictures of people working their own person "look". I am also old and can't pack a lot of stuff around. What really helped me was a camera body with "ibis" and because I go to dark places I have spent on fast primes, even the fastest of zooms gets me into trouble with iso and shutter speed. Gear is fun but the most important kit you can have is a love of what you are doing and a lot of understanding about what you want to do,.
very good comment, thank you, i expect your work is pretty interesting too!
Term photography defines only taking a photograph. There are as many photography styles and gentes as there are photographers.
My happiest times started when I realized that I don't need to fit into any pre-defined genre.
So all these videos with "best" advises are always silly to me.
@@Roman_4x5 Well said, I don't like to limit myself to just one way of having fun but I do find people fascinating.
Finally, someone close to my own time on the planet... Hi Perry !!!!! nice to meetchu, now get back to work !!! :)
Best bang for buck is my $8 folding plastic step stool that I can stand or sit on, so that I can easily and quickly get shots from different angles. It folds and is light-weight so I take it with me to shoots.
that must be really good as its easy to transport too
I like mine too!
Great vid as always Martin. Game changer for me in the early 2000s was a pro canon speedlight (550ex?) and the ST-E2 infrared trigger. I learned off-camera lighting with this setup, then over time learned how to control it with different modifiers & (eventually) more flashes. There were no inexpensive radio triggers back then: I remember bouncing the IR signal with a pocket mirror so the flash could see it! 😆
thats so weird i was just trying to remember the name of the st-e2 infrared trigger earlier today and couldnt remember it. was googling for it and still didnt find it! Bouncing the signal with a mirror is elite level stuff. You can always tell the photographers that have really been through it because they have stories like this.
My Nikon 24-120 f4 is my favourite best buy. Without moving you can do full length and head and shoulder portrait shot.
If you want a blurry background Photoshop has now a background blur tool which works very well.
Budget Gear !!!!
I'm an amateur so the best thing that happened for my wallet was a NEEWER portrait kit (2 stands and 4 assorted umbrellas) & YONGNUO speedlights and triggers.
I bought 2 Yongnuo YN568 EX2 speedlights and triggers for my Canon 6D. 6 years ago the whole lots, stands, brollies and lights, came to about £200.
I've since added to the kit with more modifiers but that initial setup produced some fabulous looking portraits. (I realise prices have shot up terribly since then but it would still cost significantly less than one Canon Speedlight).
thats a very good setup and you can do anything with it, i never really needed more than a few speedlights and several of my shoots are just on my old sb80dx i cant remember which ones except 1 which i used for examples in this video but some of the other shots are too just not sure which, says something that i cant tell the difference.
Mid range zoom (24-70), a prime (85mm), and some lighting. 👍
yes thats a great setup
I didn't have the room for a paper roll backdrop, I found a cloth window blind and painted it mid grey, use it with a light stand and clamp. Works great and easy to just roll away to store.
this is a common thing, i used a painted grey wall a lot and bounced light off a white wall as in some of the pictures in this video, i personally think that it realy makes you a better photographer having limitations and learning to adapt as it changes the way you think about lighting and photography in general.
Hi David. Two standard size white shower curtains come in handy as a diffuser if using window light and don't take up much space if you are going on location. Enjoy the rest of your week.
Decent light stands made a big difference and lights you can control remotely. Not really expensive but really useful and a massive time saving.
I bought old Elinchrom .. EL250, I believe, with an umbrella .. and that has biggest impact for my portraits and how I started to plan shootings. Thanks for your great content Martin. Take care.
One thing that was great for me was buying a C-Stand with a proper boom arm. Now I can place the light where I want it with out having to worry about if the stand is in the shot. I can do over head back light which is also a way to level up your portraits.
Best purchase for me was a color checker. . Simplified my color balance in mixed light. .and espouse. . Love the suggestion of the grey background
The most salient bits of game-changing kit for me over my career: First, 'way back in 1972, a Yashica twin-lens reflex medium format camera. That was an upgrade from 35mm and put me into the professional range with medium format, which was necessary for portraits and wedding work at the time. That was my first money-making camera. It paid for itself the first time I used it. Second, moving forward half a century, would be the Canon 5D. I'd played around with earlier Canon digital cameras, but none of them was able to replace my Mamiya RZ67 medium format cameras...until the Canon 5D. It was within a gnat's whisker in quality to that big, heavy Mamiya (which was darned nearly the size of a Christmas ham). The inconvenience of the the Mamiya had made me limit its use to sessions that I could count on selling large wall portraits. With the Canon 5D, I could use it 100% of the time and still have wall-portrait quality. After the Yashica TLR, the 5D was the only other camera that paid for itself the first time I used it.
1970, Yashica-D: $29.50 at the PX at Kelly Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. ‘71 Pentax 6x7, 2¼ x2¾, with 105mm f2.4 lens, and case: $279.50 money order by mail order from Korea to Kelly Barracks! My favorite camera of all time. B&W lab on base with Leitz projectors. Agfa paper, 50 cents for a pack of 10 8x10 sheets! Those were the days!
Tamron 90mm - stunning lens and my go to for portraits
The best gear that improved my portrait kit? Definitelly Canon 70-200/2.8L IS II USM. I was strugling with AF in Sigma 85/1,4 EX (not art). It was so not consistent and not repeatable, that was a nightmare to hit the spot. Although it was beautiful image when hit properly. Now with 70-200 bazooka its so much easier and faster, its predictible lens. You can get known it and be sure of effect. Second gear was buying Canon 580EX II speedlight and replacing my Metz 52 AF (flash power varies from shot to shot, or even not fires at all...)
The one piece of gear I have used more than anything else is my Sekonic light meter. I bought the version that provided fill-in flash ratios (because I had no studio and did portraiture on location) but it;ll also do spot metering - so it's invaluable for landscapes. I can of course swap it between whatever cameras I use - and in practice it's a breeze.
I agree with the lighting kit. I sometimes use 4-5 lights and each has a specific sometimes minor purpose. Next having a shared studio space where you can experiment, Paper backgrounds, especially the grey I also use a LOT. Stuff that I thought would help, but ultimately did not was a light meter.
Having acquired the camera(s) and lens(es). lights and stands, backdrop and computer, for me the vital piece of kit is a reliable tether cable!
yep agree, this would have been item 6 had i gone on
For me it was purchasing a Denny Old Masters background. That was in 1982. It was a game changer. Eventually I had a larger one for family portraits. It allowed me to do low key lighting and achieve exactly the portrait work that I wanted to do. I still have those backgrounds but I haven’t used them in at least a decade.
Hey there, just read your comment and was wondering which of the old masters background you found.. As I love them too and am always interested in seeing what others use and whether I would be able to find those too.. Thanks
Many decades ago, I shot with Speedotron Black Line, which was the popular "Profoto" of its day. Back then, the mantra was, "Buy once, keep it for life." But with the constant progress in flash technology today, the question is: Do you _want_ to keep it for life? So, if I know I'm only buying for, say, five years, before I expect technology to entice me to something new, then I don't want to tie up that much cash. Now, you did mention that Profoto has benefits for people who rent, and that's a true consideration.
But owning my own kit (as most portrait photographers do), I know by experience that anything can fall and anything that falls can break. As you discussed, being able to afford spares is a good thing.
you are right everything can fail and i actually prefer to say that everything will fail. In time anything will fail eventually if you use it. This needs to be taken into account as well. How critical is a fast repair, being able to rent like for like or do you not care and any replacement will do. In the end a lot of kit has diminishing returns for most people as you say.
RF 50mm 1.2. Best bit of kit Iv ever purchased. As a wedding photographer 75% of my work is made from that beauty, just has a certain look to it that makes me excited to take pictures
I just had a look at your work its beautiful. Well done.
@ thanks Martin
Great overall advice.
I understand the advice for the mid range zoom, but I don’t own one and I don’t miss it either. In the studio and outdoors I use most of the time my Zeiss 85/1.4, Voigtlander 58/1.4. In some cases I use the Zeiss 35mm/2 that is always in my bag.
yes I think thats a good setup, i do sometimes feel like id like to do a year at 85mm as a sort of weird project. I doubt I would do it but I do think about it quite often actually.
For me a mirrorless camera (EOS R) simply because of the eye focus capability has been the best purchase. Lighting wise a recent purchase of an Elinchrom ELC500, the most useful aspect for me is that it goes from 7w to 500w (7 stops) as against other models 5 stops limit.
GOOD tether gear. I tried tether tools (the orange ones) but i hate them.. Just invest in good tether gear. I now use it on every job or shoot i do, and both client and models love it!
yeah this would have been point 6, i was going to mention it but then i wasnt sure if many would know what it is and i could see people just getting lost with what it is and why but i agree.
so what has worked for you?
@@MartinCastein Totally get it, you could have easily made 10 more things to use!
@@larrykwhittaker6095 Right now i use IQWIRE, the new 10m and 15m cables. Super reliable with some of their extra cable protection stuff.
3:20 Lovely photograph.
The best bit of kit I bought for my photography was a camera, I think I would still be stuck in the same place without it.
Also, I'm going to ignore everything you've said and instead, I'll just buy another camera.
Keep them coming, we'll keep on watching! Cheers!
Oh dear. Do I dare say this? I have gotten back into photography at the behest of my new wife. I have never done portraits of any kind before. Now we are moving into a new (old Victorian style) home and this is something I want to try. Against her will. So most of these suggestions already apply to my other work but the lighting is something I'll need to work on. I am also a bit short on getting willing models for practice. I'm hoping to start trying soon but will need a light system of some sort. Thanks!
Ooh, I've wanted to learn Notion, too. I'll definitely use your link.
A Mannequin, always available, doesn't answer back and superb for practising all types of lighting setups!
Our best kit: Canon R5/RF 24 - 70 f2.8/RF 70 - 200 f2.8 and five Godox AD200's for studio and an AD600/1200 for outdoors. Groups and individuals.
I use LrC, ZNO, Nikon D780, 24-70mm f2.8 TAMRON, 24-120mm f4, 70-200mm f2.8 from TAMRON and speedlights with MagMod. My favorite is 42inch soft-box with 1’x3’ strip box,
Great video as always, Martin you haven't mentioned these two items but I also think they are essentials for any studio and even outdoor shoots. They are the colour passport and light meter, I use the Datacolor Spyder CheckR and Sekonic L-308B and a good light meter Is essential as I do a lot of film photography.
Canon 5D paired with sigma Art 105mm 1.4 , natural light and natural backgrounds. That's all what I use these days.
I have an R5 with a 105 1.4 and I love it. My studio is big enough to use the 105mm. Smaller areas sigma 50 1.4
How do you get accurate focus on the eye with this setup or do you stop down the aperture for more DOF? Question for zbignie……..
Inspiring... thanks
The best change has been moving to the Hasselblad X2D with V90 f/2.5 lens, works brill with the Elinchrom ELB500 twin set.
i have to say the x2d is looking wonderful, i dont know i might add it one day, it just looks very nice indeed. zero intrest in the gfx for some reason.maybe i will buy an x2d....
@ I wanted a camera which was lighter to carry than a Z9 with the two f/1.2 lenses. So got the Blad a couple of weeks ago and have been really impressed for slow portraits. No colour or exposure adjustments required, just a bit of shadow pulling and cropping.
Think I started with a godox tt350 on camera and bounding it of a white wall or reflector a camera with a lens. Added an ad200 and an umbrella softbox 120cm. Just about powerfull enough to play outside in the shade.
Now I do events, festivals and weddings with on camera and (cooperate) headshots.
On camera is also a "hip" look or as fill.
It's good to keep in mind that it is light we are capturing, and once you get control over it. Let fun begin!
Getting a grasp of what you want to capture and what you want to achieve is something entirely different. can be free to improve and can have even a bigger impact. Still learning on that front.
Also what you said. Editing is a big part of the job. Investing in a decent pc/Mac/ monitor and some software is very important.
And than the question. The best bit of kit was a good light stand with boom arm and a decent modifier and a barber head to practice on. (Easy) Control over the direction of light.
A willing model is always a good start.
Absolutely
Great list. Appreciate it
The biggest thing in studio is 3 AD600s and 2 AD200s with light stands and modifiers. Outside the studio, a human helper to hold my strobe, move a light stand or move my gear and help the model.
400 WS Westcott strobe with a controller, octabox and a grid. I do portraits, still life and even macro work with it. Best money I’ve ever spent.
Another great video and I can heartily recommend all of those suggestions. Sponsorship as well Martin? Well done 😉
Thanks again!
For studio portrait photography, mine are:
Tethering to a large monitor, helped me analyze the photos and fine tune my lighting
A tripod with a geared head helped me easily tweak my framing but also stay consistent with it as I work in a very small space.
For outdoor photography, a small magnifying lense with an LCD hood that I carry around my neck that allows me to view my LCD in bright sunlight
How does a magnifying lens help? Is it better than looking through the viewfinder?
@joaomarveloso1049 slightly better and with bigger real estate. It's also very very cheap
@@Elassyahmed thank you, i'll give it a try
I've got 5 profoto lights and they're very nice to use, absolutely reliable, well supported and ferociously expensive, even though I use mostly inexpensive Phottix modifiers with them. A friend has Godox, and they're bit less reliable (he's replaced a couple), much less expensive, but still pretty good. However if I need to hire, the stuff I can get anywhere is Broncolor and when I looked at the price of their stuff to buy outright I decided I didn't want another mortgage.
i never did the profoto thing, i have used them before and i might buy some one day, they are my favourite for sure. i get this thing where i feel like if im getting the desired results then its fine. my bowens are probably more consistent than godox though.
@@MartinCastein Bowens used to have a fairly good rep, good support and reasonable prices. I don't know why they went broke (probably China syndrome), but there were rumours about someone starting the brand up again recently. I'm not sure if anything else is occupying their market slot; perhaps Elinchrom. On the cheaper side I know someone who tried Neewer because price and on paper they looked like an even lower cost Godox alternative, but they were a disaster with failures out of the box and all got sent back to the shop. I definitely wouldn't recommend Profoto as the first lights for beginners, though I love them, simply because of their price. If you can afford them though, or if you can claim them as a tax right off, they're lovely.
Initially a D850 and 85mm sigma art lens then my first AD200pro lights
A nice roundup of good info. I think the photo I wish I'd seen you light was the woman in red. And as I think before writing ... uhh, this I"m writing now, at this time of my 'predilections' for lighting in Daz (i'm so depressed i'm all over it) I tend to pay more attention to the lighting of the subject's skin and then ponder the clothing colors, but that's not protrait PHOTOGRAPHY... i know i know. But, the lighting system 'basically' works more or less the same. So, your lights were nice and warm which auto enhances red, helps it kinda pop and get some character and hopefully adds a few color splashes as it interacts with red color.
One thing I"d be interested in hearing is your process with your clients. Is there a meet to go over the customer's requirements, or do you just set a date and go? I"m not sure and can't presume since a light setup that I would think you'd use would be fast up, fast change, and doing it's job without fuss. It must be interesting to listen to peop;le you've never met, try to describe what they envision as a final result.
Anywhoo... thank you and be safe and most pleased with your day.... or take it out on an American tourist wearing a red bball cap ;)
Hi buddy, yeah i could cover how shoots go in another video as part of it I think. The woman in red was, i think, almost butterlfy lighting but more like loop lighting. I will keep an eye out for the tourists I dont think ive seen the red hat ones here ever maybe they leave the politics at home.
I just purchased the Nikkor 24-70 2.8s today (as a birthday gift) and after watching your f4 lenses video… I wonder if I'm being a gear head for not saving my money and getting the 24-120 that's around half the price. I already have the 35,50, and 85. I've just always wanted a 24-70 2.8 because, as someone that primarily photographs people (non-studio portraits and candid), I liked the idea of having a lens that covers my most used focal lengths and still gave me some separation at 2.8 (when I'm reasonably close to the subject). But, yeah, a 2.8 doesn't give you the same separation that a 1.8 or 1.4 primes would. I guess I've been brainwashed. I heard that even Steve McCurry shot on a 24-120 during his Nikon days. Now he shoots on a 24-90 f/2.8-4 from Leica. I think in some older interview, he said that he walks around with that zoom and a 105 mm prime. I guess I have this feeling like if I'm shooting with an f/4, I may as well just use my phone. Any advice, Sir Castein?
ohhhh no the 24-70 2.8 from nikon is a wonderful lens, keep it and use it more, i have the 24-120f4 on the z and the 24-70 2.8s even though that might not make a lot of sense on the surface the 2.8 is just optically really great and the 24-120 is better focal range but really its just opitically good but doesnt stand out. the 24-120 is better if you do landscape stuff which is what i have it for and id take the 24-70 2.8s all day long over the 24-120 for peopke, its a special lens and the best 24-70 or for that matter zoom lens i think ive every used.stick with it, it will shine when you use it more.
also note shallow depth of field isnt everything.
@@MartinCastein I agree regarding shallow DOF (I have watched far too many gear videos over the years that have colored my subconscious attitudes. Digitalrev was a favorite). Not every background lends itself to getting blurred, and often times you want some context. In fact, there's a certain discipline that is healthy to employ sometimes of shooting at like f/5.6 or f/8 and forcing yourself to find a background that adds to the portrait. Anyhow, do you think there's any sense in keeping all 3 of my 1.8 primes? I love the 85 for close-ups. Sometimes I'll capture a really honest portrait where the eyes are in focus and the rest gradually melts away. There's something special when you capture the feeling in the person's eye, and the selective focus forces you to stay there. Maybe I can achieve some similar with 24-70 at the 70mm end. The 50 was the only lens I used for years when I started getting interested in photograph 15 years ago. The 35mm is something I've wanted to experiment with because I've seen some interesting work done by portrait photographers using the 35mm. Even wide-open, you get more in-focus, but then, when you get close, you get that perspectival separation. At most, i'll probably get 40-45% back on what I paid for each. Cheers.
@@Daniel_Zalman id keep the primes if you can realistically afford to, you might find your tastes or the way you want to shoot changes from time to time as well. sometimes a 1.8 prime alone is nice to carry. but really if you can id keep the primes too
@@MartinCastein Yeah, also, I keep mine in good shape, so there's no need to rush. I can lose half of what I paid for them at some point in the future. Thanks again, Sir Castein.
Martin, do have any suggestions for a modifier for speed light like the Nikon that you used to have? I experimented using an umbrella with the flash facing the inside of the umbrella, but I'd get a lot of spill. Any soft boxes that you like? I was thinking that for my occasionally indoor portraiture, a speed light on a stand, a modifier, and a reflector would give me the look that I'm after without needing to spend too much.
yes go for something like a 3 foot by 2 foot softbox, you will like need an adapter to connect the speedlight to lightstand to softbox, most of them are bowens mount and they are pretty cheap you can get them on amazon or ebay and for the softbox look for something mid range pricing if you can and it should be good. just make sure the mount you buy matches the mount of the adapter you buy.
@@MartinCastein You are so generous with your replies, Martin. If I'm ever in the UK, I'd love to learn from you and take you out for a pint (if you drink). You are a first-class bloke (I think that's like "dude" in British English).
hahaha thank you, yes you got that spot on as well with hahah made me laugh!
Hi Martin, wondering if it's worth investing in a high end monitor?
yes but depends what you do and what system you are on, what are you thinking of?
@@MartinCastein Using a Mac & Nikon. I do landscape/seascape, nature, wildlife when lucky. Eizo or BenQ maybe Apple Studio.
@@Singlehander1 right, personally i would go apple studio but i think do your own research and decide but if you want my opinion its apple studio, hope that helps!
@ I really appreciate your talent, experience and wisdom. I learn a lot when you take us along on your walks.
thank you thats very kind, im going to get back to a LOT of that soon. thats my favourite content to make.
Leica Q2 Monochrom was the game changer ala Greg Williams or Paul Reed.
😮😮😮
Nikon 85mm 1.4
Top 5 comments for support your channel yes
thank you
A light meter , tripod and reflectors
Can you make a small note of the five bits of gear?
Decent light stands made a big difference and lights you can control remotely. Not really expensive but really useful and a massive time saving.