Best Sony Portrait Kit under $1000

The Best Way to Spend Under $1000 for Portraits with Sony Cameras

When many people think about shooting great portraits with a Sony mirrorless camera like the Sony A7riii or the A7iii, they think of the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM lens.   While I’m certain the $1,800 85 G-Master lens is spectacular, if you can’t afford to spend thousands on lenses and accessories, one can get much better results while spending a lot less.  I see too many enthusiasts put too much weight on the lens for image quality, forgetting cheaper and more important accessories.

I recently completed a graduation shoot for two sisters.  Every image in the shoot, and every image in this post, was shot with the same set-up.   In this post, I’ll explore the ideal and affordable kit for outdoor portraits with the Sony system.

Sony Portraits Best Value Lens

Step back a bit, and 85mm still allows for plenty of environment in the image

I love the Sony FE 85mm F/1.8.  (My review here).  At $550, it is $1250 cheaper than the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM but should generally perform just as capably.  You lose the 1.4 aperture and you’ll lose some of the extreme bokeh potential, but you won’t complain about the sharpness, contrast or overall image quality.   With an aperture of 1.8, you still have great opportunities for bokeh and narrow depth of field.

Most importantly, 85mm is simply the ideal single focal length for shooting outdoor portraits.  As long as you have space to maneuver, 85mm gives you comfortable working distances for everything from headshots to full body portraits to environmental shots.  Foot zoom is always preferable to a zoom lens in my book.   (My article about prime vs zoom) Shorter lenses require the photographer to get too close to the subject for headshots, leading to unflattering distortion.  Longer focal lengths require extremely long working distances for environmental portraits.  85mm is “just right” in my book.   It is not uncommon for me to do a lengthy outdoor portrait session using the 85mm as my only lens.

Headshots are still comfortable with 85mm lens

The Ideal Lighting for On-location Portraits

In a perfect world, every portrait session would be done at the exact moment of golden hour, where you could illuminate your subject’s face with golden sunbeams at a perfect lateral angle.   Unfortunately, more often than not, timing and location don’t work out perfectly.   In this graduation shoot, we had to schedule for noon, where the sun was high and threatened the ugliest of shadows.  We were shooting by the waterfront where there was absolutely no open shade.

Even with off camera lighting, the shadows from the sun could not be completely overcome

For great outdoor portraits, proper use of off camera light and light manipulation will improve image quality far more than a $2,000 lens.   Many photographers pride themselves on being “natural light” photographers.  Many will claim they abhor the look of flash photography.  And when done poorly, flash photography can indeed look horrible.   Further, by sticking purely to natural light without any other assistive devices, the photographer does simplify their work flow.  But when done properly, off camera lighting greatly improves final images and allows the photographer to shoot at locations they couldn’t otherwise use.   It would have been nearly impossible for me to get good photos in this session without manipulating the light.

Sun was strong from her top right, requiring fill on the left size. Zoom in on her eyes and you will see the sources of the fill

You can click any of the images in this post for full size.  If you look carefully at the above photo, zooming in to the eyes, you will see two sets of catch lights, from two sources of fill light.  The sun was pounding down from the young woman’s top right side.  Looking at her feet, you can see the shadow being cast from her right to her left.   I didn’t want the left side of her face buried in shadow.

The first really simple and affordable tool I used was the Newer 32″ Reflector, a simple $15 device.  Someone was holding it lower to the ground, off to her left side.    This simple device may be enough to provide necessary fill light in many situations.  Even “natural light” photographers generally don’t object to use of a reflector.

But a reflector alone often is not enough.  It’s not powerful enough to overcome strong sunlight, it depends on finely adjusting the angle to get the right reflection, you can’t really manipulate its power.

The Godox AD200 was powerful enough to overcome the sun, underexposing the background slightly and making the model pop

As far as I’m concerned, a Chinese company, Godox fairly recently released one of the greatest tools for outdoor and portable portrait shooting, a portable strobe, the Godox AD200.  At only $299, it is cheaper than Sony branded flashes but much more powerful.  Many strobes require lots of wires:  wired battery packs, wired accessories for off camera triggers.  The AD200 is portable, fairly compact (just a bit bigger than most speedlights), and completely wireless.

For $69, pair it with the Godox X-Pro trigger, and enjoy powerful versatile wireless control from your Sony camera body.  Best of all, Godox makes a full lineup of Sony compatible speedlights, all with radio wireless capability, all compatible with the Godox trigger.  Most Sony flashes (same as Canon and Nikon) are only compatible with optical wireless — requiring line of sight and working poorly in brightly lit outdoor situations.  Radio wireless works whether or not you have direct line of sight and even if powerful sunlight might otherwise interfere with optical signals.

So once I have this powerful strobe and trigger, I need a way to actually position it and use it.   One can certainly get a traditional light stand, but as long as I have someone who can assist me on a shoot, I use the simple portable Godox Light pole.

One still need a light modifier for flattering soft light on the subject.  There are lots of very expensive softboxes out there, but the Godox 24″ softbox is cheap, portable and does the job nicely.

Godeox AD200 in a softbox was able to overcome strong backlighting and provide even illumination

Larger soft boxes will give the opportunity for softer light with more even fall off.   But I like the 24″ for the portability.  It was windy by the water as we shot.  A larger softbox would have been constantly blown by the wind, more difficult to maneuver.  My 11-year-old daughter assisted me on this shoot, and she easily managed the 24″ soft box atop a pole with the Godox AD200.

 

Balanced light, from sun, reflector and strobe

Would any of photos have been better with the Sony 85mm F 1.4 GM but without the supplemental lighting?  I don’t think so. A few hundred dollars on proper lighting was much more beneficial than spending almost $2,000 on a single lens.

Pricing it All Out

Everything I used in addition to my Sony A7riii:

Everything on that list can be assembled for under $1,000. If you are spending $2,000+ on a body, $1,000 is a pretty affordable number to truly elevate your portraits. So for about half the price of the Sony 85mm F/1.4, it’s everything you need to take spectacular outdoor portraits with the Sony full frame mirrorless system.

 

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