As an international-award-winning photographer, I am incredibly passionate about what I do. And I have worked for 20 years to build my brand, which includes the systems, gear, and resources I rely on to make it successful.
I’ve always loved the community aspect of our industry, but I also know how challenging it is to be a solo photographer, forging a career path full of trial and error. Helping photographers get their business in order so that they can focus on their art is something I’m equally passionate about. That’s why I’m as transparent as possible about what I use to run my business smoothly. And you’ll find it all here, from my most-recommended cameras to my favorite business apps to my indispensable editing and printing services. I’ve done an endless amount of research and testing over the years, and I am happy to share my must-haves, so that you can build your business faster knowing exactly what will help you do it.
I may have the heart of an artist, but my brain is all business.
Accolades
Sony Artisans of Imagery
International Award-winning photographer
Apple Wedding Photography Partner
Alpha Female founding member
speaker at international conferences
owner of an all-female photography Team
Sara France
is an international award-winning photographer, speaker and entrepreneur.
"Biscuit chocolate bonbon cupcake apple pie icing. Cupcake pie jelly muffin cake macaroon carrot cake ice cream cake. " -Camille S.
Amazon
This is the top of the line Alpha series camera that Sony offers. This will always be my pick of camera if you have the budget for it. Incredible viewfinder, incredible quality, and all the bells and whistles. It has the best of everything that sony offers. At 50MP the files are large so you will need larger SD cards and more HD space for sure so just keep that in mind as well.
Sony Alpha 1
Top Notch
Amazon
The speed of this camera along with it’s flicker control for those energy efficient lights that you do not realized flicker until you start to take a picture with them as your light source. Also a great file size for weddings. The High Speed shutter is out of this world and you will NOT miss that kiss shot no matter how fast they kiss.
SONY A9 II MIRRORLESS CAMERA
Mid-Range
Amazon
The value of this unit is incredible. It has a lot of the same features as the other Sony A series cameras but for a fraction of the price. Incredibly fast Eye Auto Focus. Great file size for weddings. Large enough for wedding needs and small enough to manage the volume of weddings. This is my top pick for an intro wedding photographer or someone just trying to get a great value on a killer camera.
Sony a7 IV Mirrorless
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B&H
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Cameras
Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 SSM
Portrait
Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM Lens
Portrait
Sony 90mm f/2.8-22 Macro GM
Macro
Lighting
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This is also a pretty custom lens but has a few great uses that no other lens can do. Because it is a macro it is great for shooting the rings, engraving details,
This lens was the reason I switched to shooting on mostly prime lenses. The bokeh is beautiful and the lens gives the perfect amount of separation from the background. This lens should be one of your first purchases for portraits or weddings. The is one of the first lenses I grab for when shooting individual portraits, details, toasts, and just about everything in between.
If you are a wedding photographer this is a must own lens. Even if you just use it during ceremony time. There is a lot to capture and you do not have a lot of flexibility to move yourself so a zoom lens is key for moments like this. I also love to shoot this lens zoomed all the way out to 200 and really get the full compression on the image. It really separates them for the background and can also cut out anything distracting around them.
Amazon
Amazon
Amazon
B&H
B&H
B&H
Gear
Lighting
SD Cards
Camera Bags
Harness
Lenses
Cameras
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Amazon
B&H
I wore a side sling bag for years and finally my back started really bothering me. I bought the holdfast to see if I could relieve that and I got so much more. This is now a piece of gear I could not live without and has turned me on to two camera shooting. I now keep a camera on each hip which makes for a quick and easy transition from different lenses and different cameras. My back is 100% better with this new set up and I am a huge fan of this expensive but worth it product!
HoldFast Gear Money Maker Water Buffalo Skinny 2 Camera Harness (Black, Small)
Lighting
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Gear
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B&H
Amazon
B&H
Having a backpack is a must have bag if you do any traveling. It holds not only your laptop but gear as well and you can access the gear from any side of the backpack so you can keep the backpack on and still access the gear from the side of the bag.
Peak Design Everyday Backpack 20L
20L
I have this on me on EVERY shoot I do. I wear it as a fanny pack. It is a must have bag in my opinion. I shoot with two cameras and 2-3 lenses in my Peak Design 10L fanny pack. It allows me to move around quickly and functionally to make sure I am efficient and have all the tools I need to be creative.
Peak Design Everyday Sling 10L
10 L
This was the first bag I purchased from Peak Design and I fell in love with it. I still use it for bringing lighting to a shoot and as my main overflow bag for smaller shoots when I want to have additional gear that will not fit in my everyday sling.
Peak Design Everyday Messenger Bag
13 L
Lighting
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Amazon
Amazon
Gear
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B&H
B&H
B&H
Amazon
B&H
I have recently been shooting with the new Sony Alpha 1 and the file size is much larger than say the a7III or a9. I have wanted a much larger card to give me more images before I need to change the card. I set my camera to simultaneously write to two 256 cards for redundancy so I never have to worry and shoot all day on those two cards.
Sony 277 Standard Memory Card
256 GB
Recently Sony released slightly slower but much more affordable tough cards and I am obsessed with them. I have never hit the buffer with these cards. These are GREAT cards for the price and are now my go to when purchasing new cards especially with the volume of shooting I am doing.
Sony TOUGH-M series SDXC UHS-II Card 64GB
64 GB
The speed and reliability of this card cannot be beat! Sony reengineered the SD card when they came out with the tough cards. They are stronger and faster than any card on the market. I have several of these cards!
Sony 64GB UHS-II Tough G-Series SD Card and USB 3.1 SD Card Reader Bundle
64 GB + USB
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Amazon
B&H
I am obsessed with these lights for everything! I use them at every wedding and at a lot of my commercial shoots. I have always loved consistent light but the stellas combine the softness of continuous light and the power of a strobe. You can use these lights to add a natural feeling light to just about any environment.
Stella Pro lights
Constant Light
Magmod is genius. Everything they make is Magnetic and designed with ease in mind. You can pop one of these softboxes out quickly and easily for a quick headshot and your flashes will magnetically secure to the back quickly and easily. I used this system a lot when first starting out in commercial work in order to have the look of a softbox without the need for a strobe.
MagMod MagBox 24” Octa Pro Kit
Diffuser +
For years I tried to work with flashes to get the quality of light I needed for bigger production shoots. Once I tested the B10s I realized what I had been missing and I could not go back. These are much larger than what you need at a wedding but for commercial work they are perfect. The kit is a backpack that looks professional and has all the light you will need.
Profoto B10 Strobe Kit
B10 Kit
Lighting
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All Lighting
Amazon
Amazon
B&H
B&H
Gear
Lighting
SD Cards
Camera Bags
Harness
Lenses
Cameras
SEE ALL
Amazon
B&H
Get started with Tave
I love Tave because it is super powerful yet still simple if you need it to be. At minimum you can track your leads, send proposals to clients and communicate with clients through the system. But let's talk about why I use Táve and not Honeybook or others. I use it because of the power of automation and reporting that it has. It takes all my Sales Tax, Revenue by brand, allows for multiple brands to be easily managed in one system, has more automation than you could ever even tap into and can make your life a whole lot easier if you really lean in and build out the systems to create a workflow for your clients. It can put your clients on a completely customizable track before and after their wedding day to feel like you are 100% on top of things while you are sipping Margaritas on the beach.
Why I love it...
Táve is one of the most advanced and customizable platforms for managing your photography business. We help you get organized so you can make more ..
WHAT IT'S FOR...
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Printing
Design Software
Albums
Editing
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Photo Business
Wall Mounts
Printing
Design Software
Albums
Editing
Studio Management
Wall Mounts
Get started with Shoot dot edit
I love Shoot Dot Edit because they do the heavy lifting for my team so that we can stay focused on the little touches and unique things we can bring to the table for them. SDE has custom profiles for all three of my brands. They customize our editing based on brand but all are super consistent with skin tone and overall editing. This gets up 80% of the way there without images before we are able to put our finishing touches on the images to send out to clients. The talent of being able to get consistent color over 1000 images is a true skill and SDE are masters of their craft. Our partnership makes my clients and my in-studio staff so much happier. Turn around time is important to us and our clients. SDE helps us provide a 4-6 week turnaround even with a volume of multiple weddings a weekend.
Why I love it...
ShootDotEdit is a professional photo editing service designed for wedding and portrait photographers.
WHAT IT'S FOR...
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Photo Business
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Albums
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Printing
Design Software
Albums
Editing
Studio Management
Wall Mounts
Get started with finao
I have used Finao Albums for years. There are many reasons I love them and stay with them over the competition. Customization is key. Our clients love horizontal layout albums with custom and unique covers that make our albums stand out and give each client a very unique looking one of a kind album. The second is the quality. The albums are always top quality. They do a great job of creating beautiful heirloom albums. I have tried other album companies and liked them for one reason or another but Finao is the only company that has been able to create our favorite album and style. Our current favorite for us and our clients is the 10x15 albums with an Armour cover (full photo cover) with Matte Paper and a custom leather that goes well with the clients favorite Horizontal Image.
Why I love it...
Professional photo albums, wedding and portrait albums. Unique hand-crafted flush mount albums, fine art, self mount, matted albums, folio boxes, art boxes.
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Albums
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Design Software
Albums
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Studio Management
Wall Mounts
Get started with Fundy
This software is a life saver when designing wedding albums or wall designs for clients or for yourself for that matter. You can design and send a proof to a client in under an hour. You can also order directly from the software. It is so much more than just a design software. This software will help you sell and deliver better products and services to your clients. It is super easy to use with or without training. Fundy also provides a ton of training and resources to photographers. All around the simplest and best design software I have worked with for creating professional products for your clients.
Why I love it...
Fundy Designer allows me to produce beautifully designed albums, wall art and magazines. With Fundy, what used to be a time-consuming and tedious process, ...
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Albums
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Printing
Design Software
Albums
Editing
Studio Management
Wall Mounts
Get started with WHCC
I love both these print labs. They are both fast and deliver great quality for your clients. We use them interchangeably depending on what we are ordering. They both use a system called ROES for ordering that is not the easiest to use but once you get how it works it is pretty simple.
Why I love it...
Photographers, artists, and designers worldwide trust WHCC to fulfill their creative vision in a tangible and lasting way.
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Albums
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Wall Mounts
Get started with CG Pro Prints
CG Pro Prints - For years I refused to carry canvas prints. Honestly I did not like the quality of the canvas prints I saw out there till I found CG Pro Prints. This product allows us to offer very large high quality finished canvas wall mounts to our clients for an excellent price. If value is what you are looking for CG Pro Prints does that very well.
Color Plak - Years ago I found this small company out of Temecula and I fell in love with their Color Lite product specifically is my all time favorite wall mount for clients and myself. It is a photo mounted and covered with a luster laminate then finished edges. It is the highest quality finished non framed image I have found. This is always my first choice but can get a bit heavy depending on your clients desires for how they want to use or mount the images.
Why I love it...
CG Pro Prints are a leading professional photography Print Lab. Get high quality Canvas Wraps, Acrylic Prints, and More at everyday low prices.
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Photo Business
Wall Mounts
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Albums
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Wall Mounts
Printing
Design Software
Albums
Editing
Studio Management
Get started with Gsuite
SIGN UP with MY LINK below GET A FREE 14-DAY TRIAL, AND MESSAGE ME TO GET AN EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT WHEN YOU TRY G SUITE FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
I do not know how to do business without this product. For one, this is what I use to create a professional email address. AKA @sarafrance.com or @copper-collective.com. As the owner of multiple brands this software allows me to add people to our team and give them their own email. It also allows me to give people alias email addresses so that the same person can email from and receive email to multiple email addresses. It also allows me access to the whole G SUITE, not just the professional side of gmail. We use Google Docs for all of our shared policies, bios and docs we need to share in general. Sheets are my favorite though. I am a super geek when it comes to spreadsheets. I have a shirt that says “lady is the streets and a freak in the spreadsheets” haha. We use sheets for tracking pay for everyone. Other software in the suite include Forms, Drive, Meet, Slides, and so much more.
Why I love it...
Give your team the tools to create, communicate, and collaborate, all in one place. Get started with Google Workspace to help your team get more done, from anywhere. Innovative Tools. Business-grade security. 99.99% Uptime. Deployment help. Maintenance free.
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Payroll +
Budgeting
Bookkeeping
Task management
GSuite
SMall Business
Payroll +
Budgeting
Bookkeeping
Task management
GSuite
Get started with Spark
I have been through many many email programs. What I love about Spark is that it feels like an advanced version of Apple Mail. It does all the things you wish Apple Mail did but with the same look and feel that you love from Apple’s software design. One of my favorite features is Pinning. You can pin emails that you need to get to. It also has a “Smart Inbox” that will bring the important emails to the top of your inbox via AI and it is really good. If you wake up to 60+ emails in your inbox like this. This program can help you sort through the noise. If you work with a team another really great feature is that you can delegate emails and share responses with your team to get approval on responses.
Why I love it...
Spark helps you take your inbox under control. Instantly see what's important and quickly clean up the rest.
WHAT IT'S FOR...
Spark
Payroll +
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GSuite
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GSuite
Get started with Asana
Task Management with one person is hard. With a team you for sure need something that will help you manage projects and stay on task. A few years back we found Asana. What I love about it is how you can organize your tasks and see them in multiple ways. Adapt it to what works best for you. You can also assign tasks to other people and see what people have checked off. It takes a little getting used to if you are a paper person but an all around great app that integrates with alot of other programs.
Why I love it...
Track, manage, and connect your projects across any team with Asana. Get started for free. From lists to boards, to calendars and gantt charts, organize work your way in Asana. Less friction. More flow. Easy To Use Interface. Plan with Confidence. Manage Work in One Place.
WHAT IT'S FOR...
Payroll +
Budgeting
Asana
Payroll +
Budgeting
Bookkeeping
Task management
GSuite
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Budgeting
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Get started with Bench
I did my own bookkeeping for years in quickbooks. Shoot me. I love love finances so I really thought this was something I needed to hold onto but was I ever wrong about that!!! One year when I was super backed up on my books and the looming tax season was coming I tried Bench and I have never looked back. Bench works seamlessly with you to properly run your business books. Their online system is not quickbooks based so it is not confusing at all. Their reports make total sense to anyone no matter how versed in finance you are. If you have any questions you have a dedicated bookkeeper that you can chat with or schedule a call with. I can not say enough great things about this company and their service. Worth every penny.
Why I love it...
Bench is America's largest professional bookkeeping service for small businesses.
WHAT IT'S FOR...
Payroll +
Budgeting
Bookkeeping
Task management
GSuite
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Budgeting
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GSuite
Get started with ynab
I LOVE finances and budgets. I know, I am weird. I just like the security of knowing where my money is and how it is working for my business. When I added other photographers to my team this became even more important. I love YNAB because it only let’s you budget money you have. It is not like other budgets that let you live in the imaginary world of if I bring in this much then I will have enough. As a business that gets paid before we deliver the product this is perfect. This makes it so you do not look at your bank account and see a big chunk of change and think that is your money. Creating a budget and putting money away for profit (Profit First!), overhead, shooters pay, editing, marketing, products you will need to buy, taxes, gear, education, subscriptions, ect… manag.It also allows you to track what you spend through your credit card and make sure you have that money to spend and pay the card. Making sure we are never going into debt is so important to me and YNAB makes that so much easier to manage.
Why I love it...
You Need a Budget combines easy software with Four Simple Rules to help you quickly gain control of your money, get out of debt, and save more money faster!
WHAT IT'S FOR...
You need a budget
Payroll +
Budgeting
Bookkeeping
Task management
GSuite
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Payroll +
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GSuite
Get started with Gusto
Hiring and managing people aka employees and contractors can seem scary and overwhelming. Gusto is an easy to use system that manages all of that for you. All you do is hit hire and they walk you through the rest. Including making sure you have the right documents filed when they are needed. They have incredible customer service if you need it and even send out your 1099s at the end of the year. You can even invite your accountant to your account and they can pull all the info they need right from there. Stop paying people with Venmo and trying to figure out the rest on the back end. With Gusto your contractors and/or employees can get their paychecks directly deposited to their bank account while you professionally track the inner workings of your business.
Why I love it...
Gusto's people platform helps businesses like yours onboard, pay, insure, and support your hardworking team. Payroll, benefits, and more.
WHAT IT'S FOR...
Payroll +
Budgeting
Bookkeeping
Task management
GSuite
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Payroll +
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GSuite
videos & podcasts with sara france
Wedding and portrait photographer Sara France joins the show to discuss her experiences and challenges with being female in the photography industry.
A chat with wedding and commercial photographer and Sony Artisan of Imagery Sara France. We talk about how she got started, her go-to gear, the different types of work she does and more.
Sony Artisan Sara France shares a technique using hot lights balanced for tungsten.
It’s Sony Artisan Sara France’s job to keep up with all of the moving parts of the day. She’s thought long and hard about which gear is most reliable and will deliver the best results.
