Useful Essentials for every photographer
This is a straight forward guide to everything you will need to operate as a photographer based off of my experiences. This guide will include references to links and other recommended tools.
1. Having a editing program for RAW files
There's a good amount of editing programs for photography and I'm going to name a few you can download right now and start editing.
Rawtherapee
This program can do relatively the same amount of work equivalent to light room, but it's free! I believe if your starting out in photography and unsure on making the decision of getting adobe creative cloud. I think maybe you should try some free programs like Rawtherapee.
Rawtherapee tutorial
Rawtherapee download
https://rawtherapee.com/downloads
Another useful editing software for photography other than Photoshop or light room is Vsco
primarily used to edit within your phone. Although has a lot of useful effects you can use on your images.
2. Having a color calibrator
I can not stress enough to get a color calibrator for your monitor for editing after I've used one I could see why there are differences from how you see your image on your computer. From your phone or any other display people will see your image. When you have a color calibrator for your monitor your colors displayed after calibrating will be accurate to what you are actually seeing on your monitor. A well known calibrator that you should consider getting is a Spyder5 pro there are other versions of this calibrator but it is really up to you to decide which one is best for your budget. There are 3 color gamut the calibrator will compare your monitor with. sRGB, Adobe RGB and NTSC. it will weigh them out by a % of how much your monitor can actually see. After you've finished your calibration you will definitely see a dramatic difference.
How to calibrate your monitor
3. 85mm 35mm and 50mm
For anyone starting out photography the best lens to start off with is a 50mm the cheapest lens that does very well is the famous nifty fifty. An 85 from my experience is very good vocal point for portraits. 35mm is also around a good range to do photo's with people.
4. Contracts
You need to have a grip on having a solid contract when dealing with clients. Not just to protect you legally but to not leave any room for confusion.
Some sites you can use to arrange your contract
https://www.shootproof.com/features/contracts-for-photographers
https://fstoppers.com/product/sign-contracts-electronically-free-signnow-3852
https://www.wufoo.com/gallery/templates/forms/online-photography-contract/