The wedding photography gear that you need depends on your personal style, budget, and preferences. The ideal amount of gear also depends on specific characteristics of the wedding venue, such as the amount of available light, the amount of travel and walking required, and the overall security and safety of the venue. Bringing too much gear can put a strain on your body and get in the way. While not having enough gear can leave you without all of your creative tools. To help you find the right balance, here is a list of the Wedding Photography Gear that we recommend and require for all of our shooters in our studio.
Important Note | Education over Gear!
“What gear do you use on a wedding day?”
Whenever, I’m asked this question, I always start with my strong belief that the gear you own will never be as important as your knowledge and creativity of the photographer. Instead of splurging for the latest flash, lens or accessory, prioritize your budget and time on education, workshops, and practice “styled” shoots to hone your craft. We started our careers with a prosumer Canon 40D, the “nifty fifty” $90 prime, and the kit lenses that came with the camera. We upgraded as we needed, and as our knowledge and skillset for using the additional gear grew.
Today, I have to admit that I’ve accumulated a lot of gear, as you’ll see in the video. But I choose this route because I want to be fully prepared with the right tools to execute my vision for any given moment.
You don’t need all of this gear! And to show you this, we’ll also list the gear used by Shivani, an associate photographer for our company, Lin and Jirsa.
Gear Bag Video
Enjoy the Facebook Live video below (from 2018 – for updates, see the lists below):
Note: For an updated list of gear, please check out our Lin and Jirsa Gear List on B&H.
Wedding Photography Gear | Two Perspectives
To give you a complete picture of the required wedding photography gear, we’re going to list out the gear bags of both Pye Jirsa, partner and founder of Lin and Jirsa and Shivani Reddy, associate shooter for Lin and Jirsa. Both are similar and one gear bag isn’t necessarily better or more complete than the other. They are simply two different choices based on style, budget, and overall preference.
Pye’s Wedding Photography Gear List
Let’s start with Pye’s list of wedding photography gear. Pye shoots with Canon’s mirrorless system, so all of the gear with be compatible with that system. However, every major camera maker (Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm) should have equivalents. In addition the Canon DSLR system will have near equivalents for all the options listed as well (which we’ll list below in Shivani’s bag).
Wedding Photography Camera Body
The camera body for a professional wedding photographer should be a full frame DSLR or Mirrorless camera. While there are many options, here’s Pye’s choice:
- 2x Canon EOS R5 (One for Primary and Another for Backup). See our Canon R5 Review.
Wedding Photography Lenses
Below is a list of lenses separated into two categories, the lenses we bring to every wedding and the lenses we only bring to select weddings.
Lenses we bring to every wedding:
- Canon RF 28-70mm f/2 (Read our Canon RF 28-70mm f/2 Review)
- Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 (Read our Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 Review)
- Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 (Read our Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 Review)
- Canon 35mm L (with RF Adapter)
Lenses we bring to select weddings:
- Canon 100mm Macro
- Canon 50mm L
- Canon 85mm L
- Canon 90mm Tilt Shift
- Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II
- Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L II
For more information, see our article on Wedding Photography Lenses.
Natural Light Modifiers
A reflector is one of the most versatile pieces of wedding photography lighting gear that you can own. Whether you’re using it as a scrim, a gobo, bounce light or other lighting technique, you’ll be glad you have one when you need it. While we like the versatility of the Westcott 5 in 1 mentioned below, there are plenty of other options out there.
Wedding Photography Flash Lighting | (small) Pocket Strobes
Pye prefers the Profoto system for lighting. However, other systems, such as the native flash systems for each camera maker or other 3rd party companies such as Godox, work as well.
- 4x Profoto A1
- 4x Canon 600EX-RT
- 1x Canon 600EX-RT Transmitter
- 32x AA Batteries for flashes and transceivers
- 2x Mag Mod Grid + Gel Kit
- 1x Westcott Rapid Box
- 1x Monopod
- 2x Manfrotto light stands w/ 2 regular brackets
- 1x 3 flash bracket
- 1x Shoot Through Umbrella
- 1x Black Umbrella (non-shoot through)
Wedding Photography Lighting | Medium Strobes
We do not bring medium strobes to every wedding, especially weddings when we need to travel light. However, if your location and timeline presents situations when you need a bit more light, consider adding a reliable medium strobe (and the relevant flash modifiers) to your wedding photography gear bag.
- Profoto B10
- Profoto OCF White Beauty Dish
- Profoto OCF Silver Beauty Dish
- Profoto Canon Remote
- 8x AAA Batteries for Remotes
- Profoto Reflector
- Profoto Snoot
- Profoto Grid + Gel Pack
Wedding Photography Lighting | Full Strobes
Just like with our medium strobes, we do not bring full strobes to every wedding. Instead, we study the timeline and bring what we anticipating needing for the particular wedding.
- Profoto B1
- 3x Profoto B1 Batteries
- Profoto OCF White Beauty Dish
- Profoto OCF Silver Beauty Dish
- Profoto Canon Remote
- 8x AAA Batteries for Remotes
- Profoto Reflector
- Profoto Snoot
- Profoto Grid + Gel Pack
Wedding Photography Accessories
Below are our favorite lenses. While this is a comprehensive list of things we own, like many of the other wedding photography gear items we’ve listed so far, we don’t bring all of them for every wedding.
- Optical Prism
- Small Portable Mirror
- Sparklers/Lighter
- LED String Lights
- Spray Bottle
- Tiffen ND Filters
- Canon Free Lenses (50mm/85mm)
- Peak Design Travel Tripod
- Profoto RFi 3′ Softbox Octa
- 4x MagMod Grid + Gel Kit
- Manfrotto 5001B Nano Black Light Stand
- Manfrotto LBAG90 Quick Stack Light Stand Bag
- Pelican 1510
- Think Tank Photo Production Manager 50 Rolling Gear Case
Shivani’s Gear List
Shivani’s gear list is probably a more common set up for wedding photographers who have been working for enough years to have started with a DSLR system, as opposed to a mirrorless one.
Despite the advances of the latest full-frame mirrorless cameras and lenses, DSLRs represent a two-decade history of the best wedding photography gear on the market. With just the right amount of tools to get the looks you want, this type of setup can now be found for a staggering discount! Indeed, these camera and lesnes are what most of the Lin and Jirsa shooters have used for many years.
NOTE: our lighting assistants prefer this type of setup over Pye’s. 🙂
Wedding Photography Camera Body
While much of the latest professional wedding photography camera technology is going into the mirrorless systems for all camera makers, the latest DSLR cameras will still suffice and will be indistinguishable for most of your clients (and even most photographers) as long as you don’t have any front-focusing or back-focusing issues, haha.
- Canon EOS 5D Mark IV – Primary
- Canon EOS 5D Mark III – Backup
Wedding Photography Lenses
In addition to the following lenses, many photographers would also add in a wide angle option, such as a 16-35mm zoom lens.
- Canon 35mm f/1.4
- Canon 50mm f/1.2
- Canon 100mm f/2.8
- Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II
- Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L II
Wedding Photography Lighting | Natural Light Modifiers
This is the same gear as Pye’s gear listed above.
Wedding Photography Lighting | Pocket Strobes
Shivani prefers the Godox flash system.
- Godox V1
- Godox AD100 pro
- Godox Ving V860IIC TTL
- 4x MagMod Grid + Gel Kit
- 1xMagMod MagSphere
- 1x Westcott Rapid Box
- 1x Monopod
- 2x Manfrotto light stands w/ 2 regular brackets
- 1x Shoot Through Umbrella
Wedding Photography Lighting | Medium Strobes
For medium strobes, Shivani uses the Godox AD200s, which are fully compatible with the Godox V1 listed above.
Wedding Photography Accessories
As mentioned in Pye’s section, accessories are a personal preference, and we do not bring every item to each and every wedding.
- Optical Prism
- Small Portable Mirror
- Sparklers/Lighter
- LED String Lights
- Spray Bottle
- Manfrotto 290 Xtra 3-Section Carbon Fiber Tripod
- Manfrotto 5001B Nano Black Light Stand
- Manfrotto LBAG90 Quick Stack Light Stand Bag
- Pelican 1510
Bonus | Second Shooters Gear Guide For Photographing The Groom
The image above is our Second Shooter Gear Guide and is meant for the shooters in our studio. Once again, it is our recommendation and not every single item on this list is owned by our staff members. We created this guide based on our shooters’ technical ability – can they pull off what we need them to with the gear that they have?
Recap:
Camera
- 1xDual Slot FF Camera
- I.e. Canon 5DM3, 5DM4, 5DS, 1DX
- I.e. Nikon D800, D810, D5, Etc.
Lenses
- f/2.8 to f/4 Wide (16-35, 17-40, 14)
- f/2.8 Zoom (24-70)
- f/2.8 Telephoto (70-200)
- f/1.4 to f/1.2 Prime (50)
- f/2.8 Macro Prime (100)
Memory
- 4x 32GB or 64GB SD + CF Pairs
Lights
- 1x On-Camera Flash w/ Focus Assist
- 2x Off-Camera Flash (Canon 600/Phottix Mitros+)
- Constant Light/LED Panel (Neewer)
Light Modifiers
- 5-in-1 Reflector (Westcott)
- White Satin Umbrella (Westcott)
- 2 Grid/Snoots (MagMod)
- 2x Flash Gel CTO/CTB (MagMod)
- 2x Light Stands (Manfrotto Nano)
Accessories
- Tripod
- ND Filter (3-4 Stops)
- Prism
- LED String Lights
- LED Stick
Bonus – Wedding Photography Software
For those who are interested in the software I use for handling the images after the wedding (the ones I don’t outsource), check out the list below.
- Culling – Photomechanic
- RAW Processing – Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Classic)
- Lightroom Presets – Visual Flow Presets
- Advanced Processing – Adobe Photoshop
- Photoshop Plugins – Imagenomic Noiseware
More Information
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out all of our other wedding photography tips on SLR Lounge, including the Wedding Photography Training System Below.