this blog post contains affiliate links, all opinions are our own.

While many of you might already own a decent amount of gear, I think we all can remember the days in which all we had was our camera, a cheap tripod, the kitchen table, and whatever we could find around the house. I know I do. 🙋🏽‍♀

So, if you're just getting started with product photography, this post is dedicated to you, although we think anyone can benefit from shooting with minimal equipment from time to time. Let’s get into it!

The Phone Camera

Our phones are incredible pieces of technology and the lenses on those things just keep getting better and better. Not to mention, there are have been so many lens attachments coming out that truly help enhance the camera that you already have in your back pocket. I personally find that using your phone's camera can be one of the easiest ways to do more with less.

In fact, there are many communities of photographers whose entire creative process happens within their phones including capturing images, mobile retouching, and publishing their work online. Think Teresa Freitas for example.

If your phone is all you've got, use it. Working with it will allow you to focus less on the technical aspect of photography and get you honed in on the creative aspects like composition and lighting. You'd be surprised at how much you can achieve. See below for some shots we captured on our phones.

Here’s a few courses on iphone photography if you want to dive deeper into shooting with your phone.

Street Photography with Your Phone: Color and Composition by Joshua Edgoose

Food Styling and Photography for Instagram by Kimberly Espinel

Product Photography: From Mobile Phone to Digital Editing by Karina Meza

The Fancy Camera

If you have a DSLR or are able to invest in one, make sure that the camera you choose is going to work with you and not against you. I think it's easy for many photographers to want to have the next best thing and I don't blame them but sometimes, it's better to master the gear you have so you're not always wasting time re-learning a new gadget.

I've had my DSLR for years and truthfully I still don't know everything about it. Lol! What I'm trying to say is that your gear should never hinder your ability as a photographer. At the end of the day, the equipment we own are just tools to help us achieve certain techniques but it's our creative minds that really do all the work.

So, do your research, find a camera that works within your budget (even if that happens to be a crop-sensor), and stop waiting to have the latest and greatest equipment to create amazing work.

The Lens

Again, I'm not here to tell you what equipment you need because everyone's style and budget is different. Choose the right lens for the type of work you want to do and the look you're going for. For many years, I swore by the nifty 50 because it was clean, crisp, and what I felt was the most true to what our eye sees.

Now, we shoot mostly on our Canon 24-70 because of the flexibility it gives us of being able to zoom in or out as needed. However, you might not care for that flexibility, and that's ok. I highly recommend renting equipment from your local camera shop or from Borrow Lenses and just testing it all out. That's how you get to know what you like and don't.

The Tripod

Depending on what you'll be shooting, one piece of equipment I would highly suggest investing in is a sturdy tripod. Having one can allow you to have a little bit more control over your scene and give your wrists and back a break. Aren't we all fans of that... Haha!

But seriously, a tripod will give you a little bit more creative freedom to really help compose and style your shots with ease. We personally love the tripod we purchased a few years ago and still use today: Manfrotto MT190CXPRO4 Tripod with the Manfrotto 484RC2 Tripod Head.

The reason we chose this tripod over many others was because it had the 90 degree column center in the middle which meant that we could position the tripod overhead for some flatlay styling without having to disassemble anything. We later purchased the Manfrotto 131DB Side Arm for some additional length. While we don't shoot overhead as often these days, it's still nice to have that option if it calls for it.

One other reason for investing in a tripod is that you can explore creative options such as stop motion. We love creating GIFs for our clients and they've gotten increasingly popular over the last year or so because they do really well in ads. Therefore, a tripod is a must to ensure your angles and set don't move while creating your animations.

Oh and if you're shooting with your phone primarily, don't forget to make sure the tripod you purchase has an adapter or attachment that can hold your phone. Also, wow, had to pull out this dinosaur image to show you the times when all we had were Elle's living room to shoot in, rented Profoto lights from Borrow Lenses, our trusty tripod, a crappy 4x6 folding table, our support stand by Photek, and our Savage seamless paper. Good times!

The White Card

Whether you're shooting indoors or outside, a white card is kind of your best friend. Or maybe not, if the moody vibe is your thing. But, in the event that you feel like you want to brighten up your shadows or add a bit of light, white cards are the perfect way to bounce back some light into your scene. They are cheap, lightweight, and basically last for years.

You can find them at any local department store in the office and school supplies section. I'm pretty sure you can even find them at the dollar store. The best kind is the white foam core board that is used for typical school posters and projects. They're sturdier and less flimsy which will help when propping them up.

You can even DIY your own little bi-fold white card by taping the inside and outside of two board edges so that the white card holds itself up nicely in a 90 degree angle. Oh, and if you catch yourself in a pinch, you can always just pull a white bed sheet to help reflect some of that light in. Quick and easy.

The Surface

Like I mentioned previously, sometimes your surface looks like the ground of your living room, your kitchen counter, or a 4x6 foldable table. Work with what you've got until you can get something better, right? As long as you've got something sturdy and it doesn't wobble around too much, you're good to go. Or, as we mentioned in the last post, you can always get yourself some nice cheap particle boards and paint them over and over again.

The Lighting

Ok, so this is a pretty big one because I think most people assume you need all the fancy studio lights to create magic and that's just simply not true. Natural lighting is honestly one of my favorite types of lighting. I have said this many times before but for the longest time, studio equipment just stressed the s**t out of me. It made me very uncomfortable which is why natural lighting was always my comfort zone. Eventually, I got over that fear but to this day, I still love the quality that natural sunlight gives.

There's obviously so many ways to play with natural light but Elle and I love direct sun because of all the fun shadows. I mean, if you couldn't tell, weekends are kind of our thing and anything that makes us feel like it's the weekend usually shows up in our images. Lol! I digress. But seriously, natural sunlight can be so much fun to work with and the fact that you don't even have to pay a penny for it, is quite golden. 😏

Alright, I'll stop with the puns. One thing to note about natural lighting is that because it is constantly moving, you usually have to work pretty quickly. Give yourself ample time by starting your shoot earlier and also making sure that you check weather forecasts so you're not surprised if you expected some sun and ended up getting an overcast day.

Now, if you're able to invest in some studio lighting, there is still so much you can do when you only have one or two studio lights. We invested in the Profoto D1 Air Monolight Kit that includes two strobes and we still often times only use one of them to light our scenes. Because we're typically shooting smaller products, it only takes the one strobe to achieve that hard light and defined shadow look. If you like more of the soft diffused look, just throw on a softbox and you're set. My point is, you don't need a ton of lights to create beautiful images. Sometimes less is more.

The Editing

Lastly, I do want to touch on the editing aspect of photography because again, you don't need the fanciest tools to polish your images. Depending on the type of work that you do and how much of a perfectionist you are, you're more than likely able to achieve the basics using a mobile editing app like VSCO, PS Express, ColorStory, or Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor.

Many of these apps have some of the same tools that you can find in Photoshop or Lightroom which is honestly amazing. Each app has its own set of unique features that I highly suggest going over because they really are something else. When you have the opportunity to invest in a creative editing program, Adobe's Creative Cloud is our personal favorite and I will never use anything other than Lightroom and Photoshop.

I hope this post was helpful for you! If you’re interested in learning more about photography, make sure to check out our courses here.

Is it the weekend yet?

Arabela