The Tech Edit
Lighting
I’m a big fan of Neewer for affordable lighting options. If you’re just diving into lighting for the first time, they are a great brand for their ease of use, plug and go type of style and the fact they are SO darn affordable. The lighting is great for content, but you may need more heavy duty stuff if you want to do beauty photography and more high quality stuff. Linked below are some of my favourites for content! tried and trusted over years of testing!
If you are just getting started, I’d recommend grabbing a panel light, (the set with the tripods is great value!) and the smaller handheld LED light (this is AMAZING for grabbing content on a wedding morning!)
Tripods & Mounts
You’re gonna want at least one tripod for content creation. I’d advise getting the first tripod you see down below, with an iPhone/phone mount (most tripods don’t come with one) This will give you lots of flex for creating content, filming models but also - filming yourself! My favourite mount is the last one you see here, as it’s a bit more flexible than the static one (but a bit more expensive too). I have also inclkuded a hand tripod here, which is handy (forgive the pun) when travelling and vlogging.
Prefer to shop on Amazon?
What about the bigger stuff?
I’m an Apple girlie - for a few reasons.
The Apple Eco-System
If you have an iPhone - having a laptop or tablet that can receive your content and sync it across devices is handy. To me, I can be editing on my phone, then switch out to my iMac by simply airdropping. If you do a lot of file transfer - Apple is wicked. This saves me SO much time.
Longevity
IFYYK. My business was built on a 10 year old MacBook Air! Apple products are usually… built to last! In my experience, I’m still using an iPhone 12 as my personal phone, and my computer software hasn’t slowed down despite being a couple of years old now. I really like that usually, when I spend on Apple - I do get Apple quality.
Built for Creatives
Things like their 5K Retina display on their iMacs (means things like editing, the colour is so crystal clear!), their M4 and soon to be M5 chip, mean their laptops can handle power intensive tasks like Premiere Pro and heavy editing. All of this and they look pretty slick too!
The interface
The simplicity and ease to use, is really really nice. Once you get the hang of apple products, they really are easy. I like how clean, slick, fast and reliable it is generally as a brand.
Apple iMac for my main computer. I do the bulk of my heavy editing on this. And it’s pink lol! I love her because she’s fast. There’s never any lag, any crashes, she edits so smoothly. Great if you do a lot of editing like podcasts or videos. You don’t really need something this powerful if you’re not.
MacBook Air for travelling and home use. I got the basic £999 one and let me tell you. She edits as fast as my iMac. If I feel like editing on the sofa, and want to hit up a coffee shop - she’s got my back. Oh and she’s pink lol.
iPhone 15 Pro Max for content. I always upgrade my iPhones, mainly because I vlog with it! Always get a pro max if you want a content phone, just trust me. Also, I always pay the extra and get the biggest storage available. I’ve ALWAYS regretted it if I didn't.
iPad for travel. You don’t need this - but I had a voucher. I don’t really use this for work, just travel - but it’s super handy for checking in on work stuff whilst I’m away!
Kayleigh Uses:
What the heck is an M1 chip? let alone M2, M3, M4?
These are Apple's processors that power newer Mac computers, iPads, and some other devices. Basically in a nutshell, it’s some super cool Apple tech, that combines how speedy and efficient the computer is. The number corresponds to the new generation of chip, with M1 being their first chip of this technology, and m4 being their latest. The newer the chip, the faster and more powerful the device is!
What is a Retina display and what does it mean?
It’s basically Apple’s fancy way of saying screen. lol. Their Retina displays have such a high pixel density that the individual pixels are almost invisible to the human eye at a normal viewing distance. This means images, text, and video are incredibly sharp and clear—important for content creators working in design or video.
Jargon check:
What Storage should I get?
Good question! Storage is SO important. I always try and get the biggest storage for any of my devices, because you’ll ALWAYS need it. Your lowest storage will be MB, followed by GB, and now currently your biggest is TB (stands for megabyte, gigabyte and terabyte). Let’s break them down!
64GB: Imagine a small box. It can hold some of your favorite things, like a few photos, a couple of games, and maybe a few apps, but it fills up quickly if you keep adding more stuff. This will fill up FASTas videos get bigger and bigger, the better in quality they go. If you’re filming in 4K for example, this will only be a few 10min videos.
128GB: This is like a medium-sized box. It can hold a lot more - like more photos, games, apps, and maybe even some videos. But if you keep adding tons of things, it might get full after a while. Again, for me, this storage size is not enough, especially as apps continue to get bigger too!
256GB: This is a big box. It holds lots of things - like tons of photos, a lot of apps, games, and videos. It's a great size for people who like to keep a lot of stuff on their device.
512GB: This is an even bigger box. It can hold a huge amount of photos, videos, apps, and music. It's perfect for people who work with a lot of content, like video creators or people who take tons of pictures. This is your baseline imo. Honestly you will struggle to fill it!
1TB (Terabyte): This is a super huge box! It can hold a massive amount of stuff - like all your photos, videos, apps, music, and more. People who store lots of big files, like high-quality videos or large projects, love this size. My iPhone is this size and it’s almost never reached full capacity and I weekly vlog on it!
What computer do I need?
Great question. I’ve had pretty much ALL Apple computers, so here’s a breakdown!
MacBook Air
Lightweight slim laptop. Great for your basic admin, watching videos, writing and trust me, you can edit on it - but don’t expect to do HUGE amounts (i’m talking movies and longer form). I use mine to edit podcasts, and even my vlogs just fine. I think most makeup artists would do great with this option, I have the cheapest £999 one and honestly, the only issue I have is storage fills up quick so I have to do a lot of file transfers to my hard drive. Great, inexpensive and will serve most purposes.
Great for: Admin, Basic Tasks and Gentle Editing.
MacBook Pro
This is the air’s more powerful, professional sister. MUCH heavier, and much more powerful. This thing can handle really tough tasks. It’s great for things like editing videos, designing graphics, coding, and other complex projects that need a lot of power. General its speedier than the air, the screen is better, generally all the inside bits and pieces are better. You’re getting a far more powerful device. If I was to upgrade my air, especially as I dive more into Youtube, this is what I would get!
Perfect for: Professionals and creators who need a high-powered laptop to handle more demanding work, like video editors, graphic designers, and musicians.
iMac
This is your big, all-in-one desktop computer. It has a HUGE screen and all the power you need to do anything from designing to video editing. Everything is built into the screen, so you don’t need a separate computer tower, so it’s slick AF. It’s perfect for people who want a super powerful computer but don’t need to carry it around. It’s got a big, beautiful display and is super fast, making it great for creative work. I have one and don’t regret it. It DID blow up over Christmas once, but I was told that was incredibly rare and probably the result of my plug malfunctioning. It’s fast, the screen is immense, and it makes editing such a joy.
Perfect for: People who work at a desk all day and need a big, powerful machine to create or manage their work. Great for editors or those doing a lot of video editing/content.
The iMac mini and Mac Pro, are both very very powerful devices. The Mac mini is a tiny magic box, that has all the power of the iMac, but without the screen. This is greta if you have a screen already that you would like to connect it to!
Mac Pro
The most powerful desktop Apple makes. If you need to do the most powerful and complex work, like high-end video production, animation, or 3D modeling, this box can do it. It’s super customizable and has lots of room for upgrades.
Perfect for: Professionals in creative fields who need an extremely powerful machine, like film studios or advanced designers.
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All of my favourite tools for content
Scheduler
Wanna stay on track with your social posts? I have used Planoly religiously since 2019. You can visually see your grid so it’s great for makeup artists and planning exactly what your grid will look like, perfect if you’re a perfectionist. I also love that it gives you prime times to post, and really takes the edge off manual posting, keeping you consistent.
Music
Want cool music for your reels and Youtube videos? Epidemic sound has great royalty free music that you won’t hear anywhere else. I love lofi, but I hear the same 2 tracks everywhere, so this is great for giving you actually GOOD music for your content.
Editing
Adobe
I use Adobe Premiere to edit my vlogs, Adobe Audition to edit my podcasts and Adobe Audition to manage my PDF’s. Additionally, I love Adobe Stock for music and Lightroom for random editing. Overall, I use Adobe a lot and it’s an essential for any content creator.
Podcasting
Riverside FM is my go-to for recording remote podcast interviews. It’s clean, records video and excellent quality. Plus it generate transcripts and has a fab AI tool that creates social clips! Can’t rave enough!
All of my favourite tools for artists
CRM/Booking System
Studio Ninja
Honestly, how did I live without this thing. This is how I organise all my brides, their email workflows, their contracts, their payment - it makes bridal admin a complete breeze. Use my code here to get 20% off your CRM system (I promise its worth it, just listen to the podcast, I mention this every episode!)
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