Photography is never just about taking pictures. In fact, shooting is less than 5% of your time as a professional, so it makes sense to tool up with accessories that will make your life easier and speed up your workflow.
This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one and buy something, then I make a small commission which then goes towards my charitable efforts to rebuild and/or protect ancient woodland, I hope that’s ok with you.
THE ADOBE PHOTOGRAPHY PLAN
Forget magazine subscriptions, if you’re stuck on what to ask for as a gift, then ask for this. The adobe photography plan is a must for any beginner, intermediate or professional. Starting out at £10/$15 a month, it’s an absolute steal. Photoshop and Lightroom are essential editing tools and thankfully, included in the plan you get the desktop version and the stripped back mobile and tablet version for editing on the go. Not only that but you get a generous 20GB of cloud storage of your photographs to boot.
A UNIVERSAL LENS CAP
Why do you need one of these? Lenses come with caps anyway? This is true, but what is also true is that I guarantee you will lose them, and they only cover the glass. Whilst covering the glass is vitally important for obvious reasons, if you continue on your photographic journey, your camera bag will become full of dust and dirt and maybe biscuit crumbs. Where does this dirt eventually end up? Crusted into the focus and zoom rings of your lens. Some of my lenses have audible grit inside them when I rotate the focus ring. It certainly makes selling them harder. The other reason why these are worthwhile investments? They fit a variety of lens sizes. I’ve been on enough paid shoots to know that you get moved on from locations quickly, sometimes you have to pick up your stuff and get going. Searching for the right lens cap for the right lens is annoying, so get one that fits all of them and you can chop and change without the hassle. Lastly, plastic caps have a habit of pinging off, oh, and these are waterproof too.
Portable power banks
Going on a long trip? Can’t find your plug converter? Get a power bank.
Having travelled for weddings across Europe multiple times, no matter how prepared I am, something always seems to go awry. Plane delays, no hot water at the venue, arrive and the restaurant is closed. Items like power banks take the stress out of travelling as it’s simply one less thing to think about. No matter where you’re going in the world, you know you’ve got back ups for your batteries if you need them. Check out the power packs that can be charged using Solar power for the ultimate back up, or go big on capacity. These are cheap and worth the money considering the peace of mind they give you.
External flashgun
I love shooting with natural or available artificial light, it’s a skill set I’ve developed and I think I’m pretty good at it. Regardless of how proficient you are, you will need at least one flash. I rarely use mine apart from at a wedding when shooting action on the dancefloor. I’ve been at fashion events in the past however, expecting mood lighting, and the venue’s interpretation of that is near pitch black. Even with the fastest lenses, trying to shoot handheld with no lighting becomes too much of a gamble. If you’re just starting out on your photographic journey, there’s no need to break the bank whilst you’re still finding your style, but I guarantee you will need one. Ignore the branded versions, they’re simply overpriced for what they do. Check out the Yongnuo series, battle tested and long lasting and affordable for the vast majority of people.
Yongnuo even make their own wireless triggers (which I also use)
Know that fashion is your game and need more power? They’ve got you covered in that department too. So yeh, I’m a fan.
A PROPER MEMORY CARD CASE
Regardless of where you’re shooting, you need to know that your cards are secure and well protected. I’ve smashed a total of two lenses in my time, both of them my fault, so accidents do happen. With a lens, of course I’m pissed off about it, but if you break your memory cards you’re in a whole new world of pain. Get a hard case that can take being stood on. This is just the ticket, tough as old boots, waterproof, job done.
Many, Many MEMORY CARDS
Image file sizes are ever increasing, 64GB is my smallest capacity card and even that only takes between 7-900 images in RAW, significantly less in dual pixel RAW. I personally prefer to have many cards that have a small capacity, that way even if one dies then I know i haven’t lost the entire day’s work. I know that’s why many people choose to shoot with cameras that have dual memory card slots, but if something goes wrong with the writing to the cards, it doesn’t matter how many backups you have. I am massively paranoid about these things though, probably unnecessarily so, modern tech is so good these issues are pretty rare. Anyway, you’re going to need lots of cards, but thankfully they are cheap. I’ve always used Sandisk and Lexar, other brands are available, but these two have never let me down. As long as it’s a class 10 card it will be fine, check the read and write speeds though if you are dual card shooting or if you’re shooting video.
MULTI-CARD READER
Connecting your camera to your computer and uploading using the camera’s battery is a bad idea. This is the most common way that upload errors occur. Get yourself a separate card reader if your computer doesn’t have one built in. no need to break the bank, but get one with decent reviews as you equally don’t want something that has the potential to damage your cards.
Cheap and efficient archive solutions
This device from Sharkoon is brilliant. What is it you ask? Well you buy regular hard drives, which are much more cost effective than the portable drives, and plug the straight into it. You do have to be more delicate with them as they contain moving parts, but if you’re in a secure home office with no pets or children it’s a no brainer.
The strap that comes with your camera is crap, upgrade it before you get shoulder ache, or it swings into a wall and smashes your camera.
For a wedding, events or even sports photographer, two cameras is almost a necessity. I use the Holdfast moneymaker – crap name, great product. It’s leather and metal, been using it for three years and still functions like new, this thing isn’t going to wear out. But I appreciate not everyone can fork out a few hundred pounds on a strap when first starting out so here is one that’s much more affordable and still looks the part
TRIPOD
I rarely use a tripod except for when I’m teaching, my work requires freedom of movement, tripods at a wedding don’t make any sense. If you’re going hiking on a quest for an epic landscape you want something that’s sturdy but not overly weighty so it doesn’t break your back. I’ve always found Manfrotto tripods (and monopods for my video work) to be outstanding quality, lightweight and durable. Aluminium tripods will do the trick, the longer arms on these heads help a lot when trying to make minor adjustments to composition too. Make sure the head you buy can hold the camera you’re planning on shooting with.
MICROFIBER CLEANING CLOTHS
No matter how hard you try, your lenses will get dirty. No matter how hard you try to clean them with your t-shirt, it wont work. Fingerprints, grease, dirt, pollen, dust – it all lands on your glass. These cloths are cheap and work like magic top tip: keep them in their own bag, otherwise they’ll float around your camera bag and get other crap stuck to them.
A rugged CAMERA BACKPACK
I’ve been a professional photographer for something like twelve years. In that time I’ve owned one bag and one bag only. Lowepro makes outstanding products and even though some of the zips have now lost their thread, the bag is so well made and compact that it doesn’t matter. I’ll replace it when it has a hole in it so it’s no longer weather resistant, until then, it’s still the king.
Get this if you’re a serious outdoorsy traveller/hiker and plan to be away from your office for an extended period. It can fit probably all of your gear in it as well as laptops etc. If you’re just on a city jaunt or day trip you don’t need to go so big, something like this will do the trick nicely it has the added benefit of being accessed from the back, so no one can reach in and steal your camera if your on a busy subway.
A HOT KEYS SHORTCUT KEYBOARD SKIN
Dead cheap and super useful, a great stocking filler at Christmas time. If you’re new to Photoshop you may not be aware that it comes out of the box with keyboard shortcuts built in. If you will be editing your photographs using photoshop or Lightroom this will save you a lot of time over the course of a year. Check your keyboard size before ordering