What equipment (besides a camera) does a professional photographer need?

Areal Photography, an airplane

Nature photography, a lot of patience.

Portrait photography, a good light set up, props and backgrounds.

Architectural photography, a view camera

Medical photography, various microscope attachments and light sources.

Wedding photography, batteries, memory cards, pro quality flash, simple portrait flash set up.

Your question is too broad.

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Life is so simple, but we insist on making it complicated

Confucius
551 - 479 BC
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Peace

Jim


http://www.ChinaBlix.com

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That depends on what kind of photography you do.
Depending on what kind of photography you do you could need the following items.
A backup camera or two (all types)
Film cameras and digital
Medium format cameras
View camera
The proper lenses for what you are shooting.
A good quality flash
Light meter
Lighting equipment (Strobes, Hotlights, Umbrellas, Softbox, Reflectors).
Backdrops
Tripods
Darkroom equipment or a good pro lab to send your stuff to
A fast computer with plenty of backup storage
Photoshop
And a million other things.
You will use different equipment for different subjects or kinds of photography.
Sports you will need large fast lenses
Studio work you will need plenty of lighting equipment
Nature you will need very long lenses and macro lenses
Landscapes you will need wide angle lenses and tripods
Weddings and events you will need to have at least 2 of everything with you at all times. Cameras, lenses, flashes, diffusers, batteries etc.

haha
be prepared to spend ALOT of money


you should have 2 camera bodies at least
flashes with transmitters
brackets and gels for your flashes
minimum of 3 lenses
appropriatte filters.. polariser, nd graduated, i also carry a diffusing filter
a good quality tripod
enough batteries
a light meter
a reflector and diffuser
a grey card
lots of film or memory cards, you might want a photobank
a good quality camera bag (preferably waterproof)
lens cleaning equipment

then you need the computer gear
powerful pc with tons of hard drive space
colour calibrated monitor
photoshop ...at least cs2 these days
big hard drive and an external or 2 for backing up and archiving

there would be lots that slipped my mind also
and it really depends what kind of photography you want to do

do you want to shoot space through a telescope, shoot peoples faces or shoot tiny insects etc ?

you should be more specific

A duplicate of everything...camera, flash,strobes,media cards,flash bracket, tripod,batteries,chargers, sync cords..for starters.

An education on how to use all this equipment and you will know what you need.
If you don't know how to use it the right way you are wasting money.

Impossible to say -- there's are a dozen different types of professional photography and they all require specific gear.

V

It depends on the job you are doing. You need to be more specific.