Wedding photography can be stressful, especially when you're just starting. Capturing the genuine emotion of the day, making sure all the shots the couple wanted are taken, and each guest feature are just some of the many things you need to consider.

When starting as a wedding photographer, likely, you may not have a whole arsenal of cameras, lenses and flashes etc. Often you'll start with only the essential equipment in your bag and lots of creativity.

Our guide is for you if you are starting as a wedding photographer and looking at what you can achieve with a basic kit.

Don't forget we offer great deals on used camera gear that could help you become a fully-fledged wedding photographer.

The perfect cameras for wedding photography

Firstly, it's always good to carry a backup camera should anything go wrong with your primary camera. 

When it comes to weddings, it's more than likely that you'll have to shoot in various lighting levels, from natural sunshine to the darkness of the dance floor. That means having a camera with a good ISO range.

Many professionals are moving over to mirrorless cameras now and getting incredible results. You don't have to go mirrorless to get amazing shots. A good, capable camera body is all you need. 

Ideally, a camera with great AF with good eye/face tracking and easy to alter manual focus will be your go-to.

Canon EOS M50 Mark II Mirrorless Camera

The Canon EOS M50 Mark II Mirrorless Camera produces incredible image quality. Intelligent tech automatically captures the moment's atmosphere, even in the most challenging light. Smooth, cinematic Dual Pixel CMOS AF with Eye/Face tracking keeps subjects sharp. It has ten fps shooting, enabling you to capture fast-moving action and fleeting moments, perfect for reportage style photography.

Nikon D5 Camera

Equipped with Nikon's incredible next-generation 153-point AF system, the D5 keeps you on track in situations where your subjects are always on the move. Coverage is exceptionally wide, and a new buffer allows up to 200 NEF (RAW) images to be captured during one high-speed burst. New image and metering sensors deliver phenomenally accurate subject recognition and image detail. The highest expanded sensitivity in Nikon's history frees you to shoot from bright sunlight to astronomical twilight.

Fujifilm X-T4 Camera

The Fujifilm X-T4 Camera has a super-fast, durable and quiet shutter unit, perfect during wedding ceremonies. The in-body image stabilisation means less shake and blur. A new algorithm and phase-detection AF's processing capability have led to autofocus performance as fast as 0.02 seconds. The Face / Eye AF performance has also been dramatically improved from previous models. 

This enhanced tracking ability has made focusing and taking portraits even quicker and easier than ever before. Essential for weddings. 

Essential Wedding Photography Lenses

dslr camera in focus, camera in photographer's hand, wedding guests in background

Unless you can guarantee lighting, distance and movement of your subjects throughout the day, you'll need a good range of lenses in your kit bag. Essential lenses would be medium zoom, telephoto and wide-angle and prime lenses.

Medium Zoom Lenses

You'll typically use this lens most of the day. This focal length is great for wedding portraits and reportage style images, offering wide and tight perspectives. The pretty wide aperture gives some flexibility in spaces that aren't very well lit.

Telephoto Lenses

You will need a longer lens to capture any events from a distance, particularly the ceremony. Ideally, it's best to try and stand toward the back or sides of a ceremony to avoid blocking anyone's view and taking photos from a distance with a 70-200mm lens. This can also be useful for capturing closeups of the first dance.

Wide-angle Lenses

These are not as essential for a wedding but are certainly nice to have in your kit. The wide-angle can get you shots of architectural details of the venue or big group shots. A wide-angle can also be great for storytelling in reportage images.

Prime Lenses

The prime lens can allow you to shoot in dark spaces and give you dreamy depth of field. A prime lens is one with a fixed focal length. They're considered a higher quality lens, which takes clearer photos. They're also lightweight and sometimes more affordable than a zoom lens.

Reliable Memory Cards and Batteries For Wedding Photography

If you're photographing weddings, your images are your product. It pays to opt for good quality memory cards and extra batteries. Always take more memory cards and batteries than you think you need. It seems obvious, but make sure the batteries are all charged up in advance.

Wedding Photography Lighting

In an ideal world, we'd be shooting in the perfect natural light but the fact is if you're photographing weddings, you will find yourself in some crazy dark situations, so a Speedlight is a must. An external light will be your saviour if you're shooting in a church that can often be dark or into the evening. The alternative is dark or grainy images.

Speedlights are powerful little beacons of light, but to get the most out of them, you need to be able to get them off your camera. Moving a Speedlight off your camera gives you unlimited lighting angles and directions options. You'll want to keep a flash off-camera on a light stand during the reception so that you can move around easily and fit into any tricky lighting situation.

Following on the theme of speedlights and getting the best results from them, a light stand is an essential piece of equipment for getting your flash off your camera and positioned wherever you need it at any given moment.

Starting as a wedding photographer

When you start out as a wedding photographer, you'll also need a decent, easy to organise kit bag, a very comfortable neck strap, memory card cases to protect your images and a healthy dose of confidence. We can't sell you the latter, but we can offer you great deals on new and used cameras, lenses and accessories. Visit one of our stores in London, Essex or Stevenage or take a look online. All our advisors are passionate about photography and always happy to pass on their wealth of knowledge.

Camera equipment on a wooden surface