002 The Equipment

Beauty blogger zoe newlove adds to her photography series discussing the blogging equipment essentials

 

How ironic that for a photography post I had issues uploading my photos….
Nevertheless, here it is, as promised. Round two of The Photography Series. Catch up on my first instalment here if you have no idea what I am talking about. For those who have been waiting for part two, this week I am discussing the equipment I use – from lens to the editing software. Please don’t be shy, feel free to pick my brains on here in the comment section or over on Twitter. 

 

+ The Main Camera
+ The Camera for On The Go
+ Accessories
+ Lighting
+Editing
+ Wish List
 



Beauty blogger zoe newlove adds to her photography series discussing the blogging equipment essentials

 

 

The Main Camera, The Posh One.

DSLR. Do you need one? 
Personally, when I read other blogs, the first thing I notice is the photography. It is usually the factor that draws me in. The majority of the time if a blog has poor quality images, I will not stick around to read the full post. There are some exceptions. For instance, there are some blogs I read purely because of the knowledge I gain from them, and also for the writing style. The photos that accompany them may not be that strong but I am a loyal reader regardless.
I found the second I started using a DSLR for my own blog, and the quality of my photos significantly improved, so did my readership. I always highly recommend investing in a DSLR as it really did benefit me and I fell head over heels for photography.
So as always with every aspect of blogging, it really is personal opinion on whether you feel you want your focus to be on your photos or not. You don’t need one, but you will only see great benefits if you do get one.
For me, and my blog, the photos are definitely a focus and that is why I could not be without my posh camera.
Nikon vs Canon. I am not one of these camera dudes that solely use Canon or Nikon. I began using a Nikon D7000, a fab camera and one I still love. Two years ago I changed to a Canon 700D and that is what I have been shooting on ever since.I used my Canon 700D and 40mm lens to shoot the images for this post, hence why they are not photographed… 

Beauty blogger zoe newlove adds to her photography series discussing the blogging equipment essentials

 

The Camera for On The Go

Olympus Pen E-PL7

Not an essential at all, and one that I kindly got as a gift from my boyfriend at the time. I really wanted this camera as my friend Lydia had one and her photos looked awesome. I will be writing a full review soon on this piece of kit, I do love it, but it also bugs me a little. I do advise getting a lighter camera if you are keen to take photos on the go – attending events or whilst vlogging – as carrying a really expensive DSLR is not advisable. I take this camera with me to events, out with friends to snap those precious food shots for Instagram, and I attempted my very first vlog using it.
Beauty blogger zoe newlove adds to her photography series discussing the blogging equipment essentials
Beauty blogger zoe newlove adds to her photography series discussing the blogging equipment essentials

 

Accessories

Lenses. On my posh camera I mainly use a 40mm pancake lens. I also have the kit lens. On my Olympus Pen I currently only own the kit lens. See Wish List for the lenses I want and recommend.
Tripod. Absolute essential for my “pro selfies” and for when I want to take a photo set using a very low shutter speed. If you also went to venture into YouTube then you will definitely need a tripod to hold up your camera whilst filming.
Remote Control. Oh my goodness, I had such a nightmare yesterday. I thought I had lost mine and for 48 hours I was going a little crazy. It turned up only an hour ago – just in time for this post – and it was hidden in my skincare basket. I use this to control my camera when taking my beauty selfies and for during filming too. It gets the camera to focus perfectly.
SD Cards – I have at least 3 of varying memory sizes. I definitely recommend having at least one 64GB as you can store so much on this size.
Batteries – It was only recently I learned how invaluable it is to have a few spare batteries. That way, when you hit low, you always have a fully charged one to save you.

Lighting 

I currently only use soft box lighting or natural light. I am not a massive fan of ring lights and much prefer the  natural effect of LED lighting. A neat old trick is to get a big piece of white cardboard which you can use to reflect and bounce the light across where you need it. These are the lights I use here. I will be writing an entire post around lighting so just hang fire for more information on this.

Editing

I am now a proud new owner of a MacBookPro 15″ and it is super shiny and I just love it. Regardless of what PC or laptop you use, one thing I cannot be without is Adobe Photoshop. I use this in my job on a daily basis and to edit all of my blog photographs. Without PS I am nothing, NOTHING. I believe some bloggers use the simpler version, Photoshop Elements which I have never used. I will be going into great detail on how I use Photoshop and how I edit my photos later on in this series.

 

Wish List

The dream kit would consist of the Canon 5D Mark III – plus a 35mm and 85mm pancake lens. The 85mm gives the perfect milky blurred backgrounds that those super bloggers have. This will be my next investment for sure. I also want the 40mm fixed pancake lens for my Olympus as well as the 75mm lens. I want some LED lights for when I start filming regularly again for YouTube. I also want little things such as a camera bag to hold my entire kit in and a new fancy strap for my Pen.
So there you have it guys, a full list of what I currently use and what I am lusting after. If you have any questions then this evening over on Twitter I will be hosting a chat between 8-9pm. Use the hash tag NewlovesPhotos.

 

01 Comment

  • kate_winford

    I love this post! I actually use the Photoshop Express App on my iPhone and it does an amazing job (in my opinion)!

    Kate
    katelovesmakeup.com