What's in My Bag - A Complete List of the Wedding Photography Gear I Use

Introduction

Hello! My name is Zach Nichols, I am a wedding and travel photographer living in Spokane, WA and today I am answering one of the most common questions I receive: “what wedding photography gear do you use?”. In this article I will give a complete list of what I bring to every wedding as well as my reasoning behind every piece of gear I own.

One thing that is important for me to address before I get into my gear is my general mindset behind my gear choices as well as the wedding photography market here in Spokane.

The mindset is quite simple. I buy anything I need to get the job done perfectly while keeping the amount of gear I carry with me to a minimum. I have owned just about every focal length of prime lens from 14mm to 135mm and zoom lens from 15mm to 200mm out there. That being said, when photographing weddings, I choose to only carry prime lenses with me because they give me the result I desire every time and can perform in even the lowest light.

So, a little bit about me and how everything began… When first getting into wedding photography, I started small and added more gear as my prices increased, thus also increasing the quality of the product I could deliver. When I first started off, I only had one camera (a Nikon D750) and two lenses (a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8g and Nikon 85mm f/1.8g) which were perfect for my price point. As my prices rose over $2000, I needed another camera body and eventually started adding on lenses as I found a need for them. Fast forward a couple years and I am in the upper price bracket for wedding photography in my area, charging an average price of $3750 per wedding. At this price point, I can not give any excuses about how the conditions or lighting kept me from achieving an incredible product. So, my gear is all top of the line and tailored to what I need. However, that does not mean that I shoot all Nikon gear. There is a balance between quality and price that I always tell people about when they are considering buying new gear; especially when first getting started. Because why would you buy a brand name piece of gear when you could get two third party items for the price of the one name brand piece (think lenses)? So then, what gear do I use? Let’s get into it!

What Bag(s) I Use

As a quick but important aside before I delve into what gear I have inside my bag, it may be important to tell you what bag(s) I use. For the camera bag that I carry while shooting, I chose to buy a generic camera shoulder bag/satchel. There are SO many bags out there so it really comes down to personal preference here. For me, this is something that serves a purpose. I do not have anything fancy (though it looks nice) but it gets the job done and I wouldn’t be sad if it got dirty or broke.

For carrying my gear from place to place (especially useful on plane rides) I use the “Pelican 1510 Case With Padded Dividers” which can be found on Amazon for $237.95. I bought this because it fits all my gear I need to travel with when photographing elopements or weddings that require air travel; and it is literally unbreakable. My only complaint(s) about the Pelican Case is that it is very high profile and obviously contains expensive gear so you have to keep an eye on it at all times (not that you shouldn’t be careful with you gear in general and have insurance). Also, the wheels on the case are made of hard plastic so it is VERY loud if the ground isn’t perfectly smooth. Those are both very minor complaints and the benefit way outweighs the cost which is why I have held on to it and would recommend it to those who want to keep their gear safe no matter how much abuse the case takes.

What Cameras I Use (Past and Present)

And so it begins… When I first started taking wedding photos, I shot photos for a professional out of Coeur d’ Alene for an entire year. He had the requirement for me to use a full frame camera to work with him (completely fair) so I bought a Nikon D750 which is $1496.95 on Amazon last I checked. It has dropped a good deal since I bought mine. Since then, the D780 came out which is an interesting DSLR/mirrorless hybrid. It seemed like an interesting system when it was released but not worth looking for weddings at in my opinion.

Without diverging too much from the topic, my original decision to go with Nikon was a relatively easy one for me at the time. Sony was very new in the market and was not much of an option so the main debate was whether to go with Canon or Nikon. My decision was based off of a few things including cost for quality and the fact that Nikon camera sensors generally have better dynamic range than do Canon cameras. Since I also love to photograph landscapes and elopements, dynamic range was and still is important to me. So, after the D750, what was my next camera?

The Nikon D850 - My Last DSLR

Enter the Nikon D850… Priced at $2,996.95 on Amazon, this camera is arguably the best DSLR on the market and was my favorite camera I owned for landscapes and travel, and wedding photography. It was robust and took incredible quality images. It was a huge upgrade from the Nikon D750 for landscapes and travel but it felt like a small upgrade with a fancy touchscreen and back-lit buttons in regard to weddings. Though the Nikon D850 was amazing at the time, it is no longer my top choice for either landscapes and travel or wedding photography…

The Nikon Z6 - The Next Generation of Cameras

Nikon Z6 side view (note the size difference from the D850)

As mentioned, when I first started, Sony was not much of a competitor or consideration for me. However, as time went on, Sony began to take over more and more of the market with one revolutionary step at a time. At first they were more of a trendy camera company in my mind offering “mirrorless systems” that were good but not great in many ways. However, when the Sony A7RIII came out with improved battery life and EYE AF feature that not only tracked but focused on a person’s eye as they moved, I began planning my next move... to Sony. I was planning to make the switch at the end of the 2018 wedding season but then… Nikon released their Z6 and Z7 camera bodies. These cameras were Nikon’s first real answer to Sony’s mirrorless systems. The cameras offered the same eye AF options which were a huge draw for me AND, it meant I could keep all of my Nikon lenses and gear. After doing some research, I learned that the cameras had one “major” flaw in the form of only having one single QXD card slot with no back up card slot. This caused me to hold off on buying one until a friend of mine purchased a Z6 after I convinced him to buy one. I got to try out his Z6 at a wedding and, after seeing how ground breaking the eye AF was, I pulled the trigger. The eye AF alone was and is such a large upgrade for weddings over the old DSLR’s that it makes mirrorless systems hands down the best for weddings.

I bought my first Nikon Z6 ($1,846.95 on Amazon) and bought my second shortly afterward. I used my Z6s for almost a year and a half and can easily say they were the best upgrade to the product I gave to my clients since buying a full frame camera. The Nikon D850 had one of the best autofocusing systems in the industry but my Z6s were in a class of their own. Often times I found that my D850 would focus on the tip of the nose or eyebrow of a subject versus the eye which is a very real problem when shooting with prime lenses. Before the Z6s, I would hand-focus my shots to make sure they were perfect (weird, I know, but this is something that I think more people should know how to do… trust me, it comes in handy). However, when photographing subjects that were moving or when I had to use the autofocus, I felt like my D850 would hit focus only 75% of the time. In contrast, my Z6s hit focus 95% of the time no matter the situation or lighting and are so reliable I find myself forgetting to go back and check the focus entirely (something I always check for photos that aren’t “in-the-moment” and can be re-taken). There are so many pro’s to the Z6’s I could honestly write an entire article on them alone… oh and I did. Go check out my Nikon Z6 Camera Review for Wedding Photography. That being said, the Z6 was always a stepping stone for me due to the one major flaw that I mentioned; it only had one card slot.

The Nikon Z6 II - The Best Nikon Camera For Wedding Photography

The Nikon Z6 II ($1996.95 on Amazon) was announced and released in the fall of 2020. I received two copies of this camera (one main and one backup) at the beginning of November and have put this camera to the test. Over the last month, I have been able to photograph a handful of portrait sessions, two weddings, and some outdoor and travel photos. I feel like I have gotten a good feel for what this camera has to offer and how it differs from the previous iteration. Without getting into too much detail on all the specs and updates or giving a full review of the camera (which I did in my article, Nikon Z6 II Review for Wedding Photography) let me say that THIS is the one. I always knew I would upgrade from the Z6 but I do not foresee myself upgrading ever again unless some technology comes out that is as revolutionary as the eye-AF found in these mirrorless systems. Nikon took care of their major downfall in the first iteration by finally including two card slots. Though I feel like this should have been included in the first iteration, it is a welcome update. Overall, it has been an absolute joy to use and is the camera I recommend to anyone with the money to invest if they use Nikon for wedding photography or videography. It is truly the best Nikon camera for wedding photography on the current market.

What Lenses I Use

When talking about lenses it is first important to establish that there are two main types of wedding photographers: those who shoot with prime lenses and those who shoot with zoom lenses. I personally chose to buy and shoot with prime lenses. I'm not going to lie, sometimes I dream of what it would be like to have two lenses covering my range from 24-200mm but I know that it would effect my product too much in low light to do so. Instead, I use my zoom lenses for outdoor and travel, product, and real estate photography. So, what prime lenses do I use?

The 50mm ART - My Most Used Lens

©ZachNichols (November 25, 2020 [17.19.24]) - ZAC_3787.jpg

The first lens I ever bought for wedding photography, and the one I recommend to anyone who takes photos in general, was the 50mm (aka the “nifty fifty”). It is one of the best all around focal lengths and is the one I shoot probably 50-60% of my photos with. I started off with a Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S NIKKOR lens which is $196.95 on Amazon and is a GREAT starter prime lens. After a year of use, I upgraded to the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM ART which runs $603.61 on Amazon and is definitely a nice upgrade. The Sigma Art 50mm lens is sharper across the frame, faster focusing, and offers a 2/3 stop increase in the amount of light picked up in dark situations, which is VERY nice. The quality of this lens over the Nikon is definitely worth the cost to me, but not before I bought other lenses to fill in the “gaps”.

The 105mm ART - Sigma’s Best Portrait Lens - My Personal Favorite

©ZachNichols (November 25, 2020 [17.18.35]) - ZAC_3786.jpg

Last but not least, I also own the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 DG HSM ART which is $1599.00 on Amazon and is, in my opinion, Sigma’s best portrait lens. I use this lens 40-50% of the time at weddings. It is the lens I often use during the ceremony or when I need to “snipe” shots from a distance. I also tend to favor this lens for family and bridal party photos when I have the space to do so. It separates the subject(s) from the rest of the image in a way that no other lens in my bag can; and it does so BEAUTIFULLY. If I could use this lens for everything, I would.

My Past and Future Lenses

Now, you may be thinking… “that can’t be all the lenses you use?” To that, I would have to say, “yes and no”. I use these two lenses and only these two at 90% of all the weddings I photograph. I do bring a Nikon AF-S FX Nikkor 24mm f/1.8G ED lens ($676.95 on Amazon) as well from time to time when I am shooting indoors or downtown just in the case that I need a wide angle. I do realize this may seem strange to many photographers but I love these lenses and the product they create. I used to own 35mm, 85mm, and 135mm Sigma ART lenses but sold them all as I found myself gravitating to the 50mm and 105mm 95% of the time. When I would leave the other lenses at home, I would never miss them so I got rid of them and paired down my library of lenses. I am not the only one who agrees here. My wife is also a wedding photographer and she got to try all of the lenses many times at her own weddings and she chose the 50mm and 105mm combo as well.

Personal Recommendations for Lenses

Now, I am going to answer one of the most common questions I get from people who are just starting their business: “What lenses should I buy?”. Often times I ask what types of things they want to photograph but, for this article, I am going to assume you are interested in weddings or portraiture. I am also going to assume you want to buy prime lenses (otherwise look at Tamron lenses for zoom lenses).

That being said, there are generally two combos of prime lenses that people start off with; one wider angle and one more zoomed in. For wider angled lenses, some people choose to go with a 50mm; that is what I did and I do not regret it. The others tend to go with a 35mm which is obviously wider. The photographers who choose a 50mm often times get a 105mm or 135mm to pair with it while the ones who chose a 35mm tend to go with an 85mm. This is of course a generalization but is a good thing to note. 105mm and 135mm lenses are expensive though no matter which brand you go with. I personally went with the 50mm first and then the 85mm to get a little more zoom until I could afford the 135mm (I bought this first and the 105mm later on). I found that the 85mm was a nice upgrade but I still needed a little more zoom, thus the 105/135mm lenses.

So, what should YOU do? It really depends on your budget and personal preference. I would 100% recommend starting off with an entry level 50mm as it is a very small investment for both Nikon and Canon shooters, being around $150-$200 (don’t be afraid to buy used if it is in good condition). 35mm lenses tend to be more expensive for Nikon shooters, being around $300-400. From there, I would recommend any lens that is more “zoomed in”; either an 85mm, 105mm, or 135mm. As stated, it just depends on your budget there.

So What Else is in My Bag?

As if this article isn’t long enough, I will also give a quick summary of what else is in my bag(s). If you have questions on particular gear choices, feel free to reach out to me to ask! For lighting I use all Flashpoint flashes that I bought through Adorama (Flashpoint lighting is re-branded Godox equipment and is the exact same, but with the benefit of Adorama customer service. Godox is out of China and does not have near as good of customer service). For light modifiers, I use 47” Godox Umbrella Octagon Softboxes and Strip Softboxes that I bought through Amazon as well as flash gels that I bought through Amazon which are used in my more creative shots. I use pretty generic light stands from Amazon and also have Yongnuo ice lights for tricky situations where I cannot use flashes. I actually have a whole article on how I take photos in low light given any circumstance. Other than that, I bring a lot of extra batteries (all rechargeable) and some extra adaptors that aren’t all that interesting or noteworthy other than extension tubes which are a must for getting macro shots of jewelry without having to buy a macro lens.

From time to time, I also do use a photo booth that I bought from photoboothsupplyco. I use these booths in my wedding photography packages as well as in my separate company, Simple Booth Spokane.

Conclusion

Well, we made it! Again, let me know if you have any questions on gear or anything else photography related. I have dealt with all brands of cameras and lenses so even if I don’t own them myself, I can probably answer most any question you might have. I hope that this article proved to be useful to you.

Thank you for following along and taking the time to read what gear I use to photograph weddings. Feel free to check out my wedding portfolio to see what my gear can do.

Another article detailing what I use for my outdoor and travel photography coming soon! Stay tuned.

If you liked this article and are interested in getting started in photography, make sure to go check out my guide on the Best Photography Gear For Beginners In 2020 and my guide on Starting Your Own Photography Business - My 7 Step Guide To Becoming A Full-Time Professional.

-Zach

This article contains Amazon Affiliate links. If you make a purchase via one of these links, I will receive commission at no additional cost to you. As always, thank you for your support!

What's in My Bag - A Complete List of the Wedding Photography Gear I Use

Written by: Zach Nichols

November 25, 2020

Weddings, Photography InfoZach NicholsNovember 25, 2020