The Equipment in My Food Photography Kit

Ah, the Canon 6D! This is Canon's intro full-frame camera and it packs a powerful punch. It's got 26.2 megapixels so your images will be pretty large, especially shooting RAW. It's equipped with an epic flip out screen (great for overhead shots or vlogging!) The video is 1080p so if you're looking for 4k video quality, see below.  The original Canon 6D is also a great camera for those looking to get their first full frame camera on a budget. 

One of the best cameras Canon makes. It's a full-frame, 30.4 megapixels DSLR that is great for all types of photography. It's a bit on the pricey side but worth the hefty price tag! There isn't a flip out screen like the 6D above but it makes up for it with other robust features. The Canon 5D Mark IV shoots 4k video so your food videos will be looking their best. 

Ah, the Canon EOS RP. The first full-frame mirrorless camera by Canon at an extremely reasonable price. This mirrorless camera is lighter than the Canon 6D and 5D, has a full-frame sensor, records in 4k video, has 27.1 megapixels and a maximum image size of 6240 x 4160. It's less expensive than the EOS R (it's big sister) but packs a big punch. Please note that if you get this camera body and already have or purchase any of the EF lenses below you will need to also get an adapter to be able to use them on your camera body. The new RF lenses are made for this camera.

The newest camera in my kit! Mirrorless cameras are the future and Canon is making that abundantly clear with their newest line of EOS R cameras and RF mount lenses. This mirrorless camera is lighter than the Canon 6D and 5D, has a full-frame sensor, records in 4k video, has 31.7 megapixels and a maximum image size of 6720 x 4480. It's a bit pricier than its little sister the EOS RP. Please note that if you get this camera body and already have or purchase any of the EF lenses below you will need to also get an adapter to be able to use them on your camera body. The new RF lenses are made for this camera.

Everyones favorite lens. This lens allows you to stop down to f2.8 making it a very fast lens that lets you capture a very shallow depth of field. The 100mm macro lens allows you to get super close to your food and explore the details (think water droplets or melty cheese) and also be able to step back a bit to get the other details within the scene while keeping a tact sharp focus paired with a beautiful shallow depth of field. This lens uses a 67mm filter. Filters are discussed below. 

The 50mm! The 50mm will always be my first love when it comes to lenses. Over the years I have upgraded to this one, the 1.2. The 50mm is a great lens for learning composition since it's a prime lens and you'll need to zoom with your feet and move around your subject.

A nice all-around Zoom lens that is great for a lot of things. I use this for portraiture and still life/food work.

A level that sticks onto your hot shoe! Is there anything more inventive? Maybe, but this little guy works pretty well for making sure that your plates aren't sliding off the table in camera.

We all need a million of these little guys. I have all kinds of memory cards ranging from 16 GB to 128 GB. Make sure you're checking your camera and the memory card slots. You may have a Compact Flash slot in addition to the SD slot.

A light meter is an indispensable tool that will help you get accurate exposures while shooting.

This tiny adapter is amazing. You can use it in a few ways, I'm sure, but the way that I use this little guy is by attaching it to my C-Stand, adding the monopod rapid release head below, and then using it to secure the camera. It then basically becomes a large tripod.

This quick head release attached to the rabid adapter above. You can use it in other ways but I will first attach it to my C-Stand and then add this Rapid Release Monopod head and then I can attach my camera to it all and use the C-Stand to stabilize the camera.

You may want to buy a few of these batteries for your camera (it will be different if you use Nikon or Sony) to have as backups. It can be incredibly frustrating when you're working and you forgot to charge your camera battery.

A photography monitor is indispensable. I have been using a laptop for quite a few years so that I can bring it with me should I need to. When I am editing my work, I make sure to connect my laptop to my work station and this monitor. It's 27 inches, and it has shields that block the ambient light in the room for a more precise edit.

This monitor calibrator goes hand in hand with a monitor. You run it to make sure that you're seeing the most accurate representation of the colors on the screen.

The Einstein by Paul C. Buff is a strobe great for high speed photography. If you’re ever going to get into any wine splashes or would need to freeze something moving very fast, this is the strobe you want! The Einstein is a bit pricer that the DigiBees so if your budget is tight you might want to see above. 

The DigiBee! I had been eyeing Paul C. Buff’s AlienBees for so long that they came out with the DigiBee before I purchased them. I finally made my purchase for two B800’s and I couldn’t be more thrilled. These strobes are easy to learn and  use. They have a daylight balanced LED modeling light that could very well be used for a continuous light set up. 

The transceiver works with the Einstein and Digi Bee above to make your camera and strobes sync.

The Trigger Transmitter works with the Einstein and Digi Bee above to make your camera and strobes sync.

This backdrop stand is one of the more sturdier stands I've come across and let's just say I've come across some really poorly made stands for both lights and backdrops!

I picked up a few of the Savage color backdrops as well and I've been having some find creating product work this way.

I use these lights for any video work that I might be getting myself into.

This softbox is the BEST softbox that I've come across. It's a decent size but what makes it fantastic is the "rapid box" umbrella pop-up. What's really great about this softbox is that the mount that you use to put it on the light is interchangeable.

If you're using Digi or alien bees like I am, you'll want to use the appropriate mount. But if you upgraded your lights, all you'd have to do is buy a switch mount replacement and you can still use your rabid box softbox.

Here is another Rapid Box Switch Softbox. I mentioned above why I love these. This size is great for getting specular highlights on bottles!

This is the mount that I was gushing about above for the two rapid box softboxes I mentioned. This link specifically links to the AlienBee/Paul C. Buff insert because those are the lights that I currently use and the lights that I have listed on this page.

If you have another light kit such as a Bowens, ProPhoto, or Elinchrom make sure you are getting the appropriate switch insert. The rabid box works with a speedlight insert as well! 

Remember when I was going on about external hard drives and how vital they are to your photography work? Remember when I mentioned cloud storage? Well, this is it!

BackBlaze is a service that costs only $5 a month and syncs all of your data on your computer and on as many hard drives as you want so that your photos and other data are stored on a server elsewhere. This is important because you never know when a hard drive will fail or when something will happen to your home or office and the drive is in jeopardy.

ChronoSync - ChronoSync will back up all of your hard drives and sync them together on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis! My files are my life so keeping them in sync is crucial to my sanity.

I wouldn’t be able to do any of my creative work without the full Adobe Creative Cloud. The apps I use most: Lightroom, Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro, Rush, Audition, and Illustrator. 

Screenflow is the video editing and screen recording software that I use to make online tutorials. I’ve been using Screenflow for quite a few years now to make screencasts using Photoshop and Lightroom. It works well for recording your webcam videos as well. 

An amazing productivity tool that allows you to track your to-do list, create boards to visually see your list, assign tasks to your team, and schedule out your editorial calendar. 

The best (and FREE!) scheduling application. It’s cute, too! You can embed the calendar into your website, send clients a link to your schedule, and even set it up so that they can pay directly from calendy (paid upgrade). 7

Tailwind is the Pinterest (and Instagram) scheduler of your dreams! All you need to do is make some time in your schedule once a month to set up your monthly queue. Between Pinterest scheduling, Tailwind tribes, analytics, and SmartLoop, you can’t go wrong.  

ConvertKit is my new best friend. When I started to get serious about my email list I couldn’t figure out how to use Mailchimp to do exactly what I wanted to do (automations & sequences)! So, instead I jumped to ConvertKit (which was absolutely painless with their subscribe import capabilities!) 

All of my posts and pages on this website are edited with Grammarly! I used it for every paper in grad school. I pay for the yearly subscription and it has done wonders for my writing. Even if your grammar is perfect it helps with wordy sentences making your text easier to read. And if your grammar could use some work, it explains why it wanted to change a word so you’re actually learning as you edit. 

Hello fabric.com! Picking up a few pieces of fabric is a great idea so you have some bits and pieces on hand to throw down at a moment's notice. The fabric you use doesn’t have to be a perfectly tailored napkin. In fact, free-flowing fabric that is long and can be twisted, tied, bunched up in any way or used as a background/surface, should be your best friend forever. Look for cheesecloth, cotton scrim, or linen for flowy fabrics. Most other fabrics will work well for backgrounds and surfaces.

There are so many beautiful and unique pieces at HarriotGrace.com from wooden bowls, dessert platters, wooded spoons, wooden cutting boards, rolling pins, and much more. 

Gorgeous handmade pottery based out of Asheville, NC!

Lail ceramics is an amazing collection of beautiful handmade and modern ceramics out of the Hudson Valley. They have spoon rests, mugs, large and small plates and bowls, and pots for plants. The glazes they use… the color… I can’t even explain so just go look for yourself and try not to fall in love. I dare you. 

I recently ordered these gorgeous backgrounds and I think they are some of the best I've ever used. Beautiful and unique!

The backgrounds from Soularty are amazing! They are all double-sided so it is great for having options without losing a ton of storage space. The concrete and marble backgrounds are thin and light while the wood is still light but a bit bulkier. 

I have five Ink & Elm vinyl backgrounds, blue patina, white brick, red brick, and a few others but those are my favorites to use! They look decently real and are matte enough to not be reflective. 

I had tried to watch a few classes that were “on air” but failed miserably due to the interruptions of daily life. I broke down and bought that class and diligently watched every single video. Since then I have purchased the annual subscription (called the creator pass).

The annual subscription gives you access to all of their classes for one year. CreativeLive didn’t always have the creator pass option but now that they do, you can jump on the bandwagon too! 

This book all about composition will help give you the extra push you might need to explore new ways of seeing and shooting.

The food stylists bible. In this book, you'll find helpful tricks and other tidbits all about food styling.

Here you'll read all about light and the "science & magic" of it all!

A super helpful book for anyone trying to make money off of their photography and talent!