What’s In My Camera Bag & Editing Tips

I thought I would start doing more posts outlining some of my most asked questions and today’s is on my camera/video equipment and editing process! Before I go into all the details, I wanted to preface that like most people, Doug and I AREN’T professional photographers. Everything we’ve learned has been through trial and error. Countless shoots going awry because the lighting was off and we had to reshoot, hours of practicing Lightroom and Photoshop, and even more hours of testing out lenses and camera bodies to find out what works best for us. So even if you aren’t a blogger yourself and are interested in investing in a better camera for lifestyle purposes, this is the post for you!

Although I outline everything used in the FAQ section of the “about me” portion of my website, I know not everyone knows to go there so I wanted to explain in detail all about the technology used to create the images and videos on Daily Dose of Darling. I get a series of emails each month asking what exact lenses I use, what do I use to edit my photos, and how I achieve the lighting in my videos so I wanted to detail each question in a blog post!

Who takes my photos? Do I take them with my tripod? Heavens no!! I would be a superhuman if I took my photos with a tripod because it’s hard enough to just get the shots I do with another human behind the camera! haha. My Fiancé Doug takes almost all the pictures you see on this website besides most of the flat lay shots.
What camera do you use? Over the past two years I’ve experimented with a variety of different cameras and lenses and I’ve finally found a camera/lens combo that is AMAZING. Seriously, I’m in love, but I’ll get to that later.

Canon t3i: This was the first camera I started out with for pictures and is still the camera I use to film all the sit down videos you see on my Youtube channel. I first purchased it because a) it was affordable and b) it had a flip out screen for video. A flip out screen is SO important if you’re filming videos of yourself by yourself because it’s difficult to see if you’re in focus if no one’s there to focus you! Otherwise, you’ll have filmed an entire video and when you go to upload it, it’s blurry (trust me, it’s happened). The image shot below was using the t3i and 50mm lens. As you can tell, the image below isn’t as crisp and clear as the following ones because the camera body used wasn’t as high quality.
Canon 6D: Hallelujah! I’ve finally updated my camera body! While the t3i is a great starter camera, it isn’t a full frame camera so that hinders you from taking pictures in low light, decreases the amount of depth of field you can accomplish, and you don’t have as many high end features to utilize. I only purchased the body because I knew I wanted to invest in a different/more updated lens as well. See image below that was shot on the Canon 6D with a 24-105 F4 lens. Do you see the quality jump? I do!

3. What lenses do you use?

50mm Lens: For the first year and a half all of my photos were shot on what is called the “nifty 50”. A tiny little lens with an amazing capability to create those blurry backgrounds you see. This lens is by far the most affordable I’ve seen for it’s value and almost all fashion bloggers have used it or currently use it for many of their shots. See below for a shot taken with a 50mm lens! Look at all that bokeh! (aka: blurry background)
18-135mm Lens: This is the lens I currently use to film the sit down Youtube videos. It’s great because it’s a zoom lens that allows me to zoom in on products throughout videos.
24-105mm F4 Lens: My baby! In my opinion this is a do it all lens. I can get a super blurry background, which helps when I’m shooting in a crowded location or I can make everything crisp and clear (see image below at the detail on my eyelashes!).

3. What programs do you use to edit your pictures, fashion/beauty collages, and Youtube videos?

Adobe Lightroom: This is such an amazing program! Not only can you bulk edit entire groups of images (not that that always works), but you really can perfect an image from the lighting right down to removing a stop sign in the background if need be (haha).

Photoshop: I’m not the best with Photoshop, but I use it sometimes if something needs to be tweaked and it can’t be done in Lightroom.
iMovie: A free program that comes on Macs that I use to edit my lifestyle vlogs!
Final Cut Pro X: This program is a bit more technical and I’m still getting the hang of all the features it has to offer, but it allows you to create amazing videos that helps you control every detail.

4. What do you use to vlog? I use the Canon G7X, which is AMAZING on so many different levels. I was unsure of whether or not to take the plunge and splurge on a handheld camera, but I don’t regret it one bit. This camera has a flip out screen, which is great because you are able to see the lighting of your video and almost a snippet of how the true video is coming about. It also has autofocus and is great at filming in low light settings.