Studio Photography Equipment that’s Worth the Splurge for Headshots
As someone who essentially refuses to spend money (especially in my business) on superfluous items, choosing equipment with a higher price tag or replacing cheaper equipment with a higher-cost option doesn’t come easily. My Studio has been built with having the bare minimum that gets the job done in mind, but I have found that certain things were worth splurging on, either from the very beginning or as a result of the initial purchase essentially failing to meet my needs.
In this Blog post, I’ll share a few of the items I found that are worth the higher cost and investment for my headshot photography Studio, with some very good reasons as to why as well!
*Please note that this post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.. but rest assured, I own and have personally purchased every item listed below!
Westcott Eyelighter 3
I found this tool as a result of attending the PPA Imaging Conference and I will say that it has been the biggest game changer for me in terms of quality of work and the look of the images that I’m able to achieve with a one-light setup. It breaks down easily into a small portable package and comes with a carrying case, which is absolutely essential for my on-site headshot jobs. Yes, it’s a fairly large reflector once assembled and not a cheap buy to begin with at around $200, but it’s one of the best investments I’ve made.
Area51 Tethering Cable
I have three Tether Tools tethering cables lying around and have finally made the call to upgrade to a cable from Area51 when my most recent Tether Tools cable kept dropping connection and being overall unreliable. The dumb thing is that the Area51 cables aren’t even that much more expensive (about a $35 difference), but I can tell you right now that there’s a huge difference in quality. Not sure why it took me so long to make the jump, but here we are!
Capture One Pro
As someone who already pays for the entire Adobe Creative Suite, it truly pains me to add a Capture One subscription when I already have Lightroom essentially for free. But as everyone who has used Lightroom while tethering will tell you, Lightroom isn’t really made for directly connecting the camera to the program. Capture One, however, performs flawlessly. Not only that, but the rendering of portraits within the program seems far superior to Lightroom. Somehow Capture One is able to render colors more accurately and with better results (don’t ask me how!) so that I only have to make very slight adjustments to my images before they are ready for retouching.
Manfrotto Cold Shoe Tilt Head
I love using speedlights because they are so light and multipurpose. But I also found that investing in a good quality cold shoe tilt head wasn’t optional in terms of avoiding frustrations with use. This little piece of equipment is easy to adjust and mounts quickly on my light stands. It’s such a little thing but I’ve since replaced all my cheap speedlight attachment heads with these and I couldn’t be happier.
Professional-quality Lighting
I know a lot of photographers start with cheaper strobes and either expand within that same ecosystem or upgrade to a more expensive one. Personally I started with Profoto right off the bat because I knew switching after the fact was going to be a lot more difficult (and expensive!). At the time, the competitors like Godox were also nowhere near the quality they are today. For me, it made sense to invest in one amazing light and use it to it's full abilities before expanding to more. I’ve had my Profoto D2 since 2016 and it still works flawlessly every time. I haven’t had the best of luck with the rest of my Profoto purchases, but they did get fixed eventually and now finally function how they should. So, in the end, no company is going to be perfect, but if you can, get the best you can afford so you won’t have to upgrade later on.
16” Macbook Pro
I’ve been using Apple computers for over 20 years now and when it comes time to do the instant photo review with a client during the headshot session, I am so thankful to have my laptop for selecting images! Make sure you get the most RAM you can and I like at least 2TBs of hard drive space and this laptop will last you for many years. Not only does the screen make everything look great, but the laptop itself looks professional and stylish. As a photographer, you are a creative and your hardware should match that, too. Now, I know there are plenty of PCs that are more than capable, but nothing looks better than a mac.
Flashpoint 20-30" Posing Stool
No headshot photography Studio is complete without a posing stool. As much as I wanted to spend as little as possible on a posing stool for my Studio, I opted to go with the standard option that’s made specifically for portraits. What makes this stool different from the ones that are 1/2 or even 1/3rd of the price? It’s basically ONE thing and that’s the fact that it doesn’t have wheels. This is actually super important because when the person you are photographing sits down on the stool, you don’t want the stool to wheel away and potentially cause an accident. And for this, it is 100% worth the money!
Proper Tripod
I made do with an old hand-me-down tripod from the 80’s for a while, but decided to upgrade when setting it up kept taking forever. New modern tripods have some nice features, but mostly the legs are easy to extend, the base is solid, and the tripod head allows for super easy adjustments. I use the Manfrotto 190go! Aluminum M-Series Tripod and the Manfrotto XPRO Magnesium Ball Head with 200PL-14 Quick Release Plate. I’m sure you can find way more expensive tripods, as well as cheap crappy ones, but I’m very happy with the setup I now have! It’s light enough to travel with and solid enough to not fall over with my huge camera on top of it.
And here are some things I buy on the cheap..
Light modifiers
An umbrella is an umbrella. I’m sure the fancy ones are truly lovely to handle, but I’m fine sticking with my Photek SoftLighter for the foreseeable future. I did finally have to replace my original one that I bought in 2017, but 8 years is a pretty good run I think, especially considering that the brand-name Profoto modifiers are 2-3x the price.
Light Stands
Impact and Avenger make perfectly good stands for photography. I use the Impact Folding Wheeled Base Stand in the Studio and the Avenger Roller Stand for on-location work. Both are around $200 and while that’s not cheap per se (they are solid metal after all!), it’s certainly more reasonable than the $400 alternative stands I see online.
Backgrounds
There are definitely some fancy and expensive hand-painted backdrops out there, but for what I do, a simple Seamless paper background works just fine. And for on-location, I bring a pop up background that cost about $70 and is durable enough to last forever. Now, I do edit the background out most of the time, but it does offer a clean white color surface for headshots on location that will closely match the final look.
I hope you found this blog post helpful! Please leave a comment below if you have any questions or even if you disagree with anything listed above! This is all just my opinion after all.
