Contrary to popular belief, having good equipment doesn’t automatically make someone’s photos good. Equipment is important, but it’s not everything! The most important tools are vision and imagination. With these, the photographer already forms the image in their mind before actually taking the shot. Of course, all equipment has physical limits, so it makes sense to upgrade your gear only when it starts to hinder achieving the envisioned result.
Many people believe that with a full-frame body or a fast lens that produces a nicely blurred background, they will automatically get beautiful images. This is a misconception. Photography is about shaping light, which means that lighting knowledge and its creative application are essential. Many try to hide the complete lack of this knowledge behind the excuse of “I only shoot with natural light.”
There are tools that a conscientious photographer must have backups of! Technical issues can occur at any time during a job, and we cannot simply tell a client, “Sorry, but the shutter in my camera just died.
This is why I must have two full-frame camera bodies available (currently two Canon 6D bodies), several L-series lenses, and flashes — I can’t leave anything to chance. Many people ask, for example, why I use so many flashes. Key light, fill light, rim light, background light… Others prefer to use presets, filters, or effects in post instead of proper lighting. Sure, it’s cheaper and requires no learning. 🙂
Beyond these, many other accessories are necessary: softboxes, umbrellas, backdrop stands, backdrops, memory cards, spare batteries for the camera bodies and flashes, chargers, card readers, wireless flash triggers — not to mention the IT side: desktop and laptop computers, storage drives, software subscriptions, etc.