Are you an amateur photographer? Just take casual photos for portraits or landscapes. Maybe, yes. But if you feel some passion for any kind of Photography, you can transform your passion into a career. Here comes the big question-How to start a career in photography? Or, how to make a career in photography?
There are tons of different answers to the above questions. Many people stress education and courses while many emphasize practice and practice. Many give advice to find a mentor and many tells about working alone from home. Let’s not get puzzled by many answers and try to focus on the subject matter in a simple manner.
Presently, many young individuals today are very much enthusiastic about photography and want to extend their career path toward professional photography. As a matter of fact, an expert photographer can earn much more money than a professional in other careers for many reasons.
That’s why we would like to discuss the issues associated with the career path from start to end in order to answer the question- How to start a career in photography? Let’s start with a case study below.
Case study of a wedding and event photographer
Before going deep into the topic, we would like to start with a case study of a photographer who is currently running his own business in the field of wedding and event photography.
The person took photography as a hobby with a beginner-level camera and finally made it his career in just about 2 years. Now he runs his own business with a team of 12 members and own office setup with all the necessary equipment.
Below I will tell you how he crossed different milestones and started his career in wedding photography.
Finding a niche
As discussed earlier, he started photography as a hobby with his beginner-level camera. He used to take portraits and family photographs when he was in high school. His enthusiasm and interest jumped up when he received much thankful appreciation from people and friends for his work.
This way he became more involved with his work and started to experiment with other genres in photography like street and landscape photography to challenge his expertise level.
Online courses
As a continuation of his interest, he took basic online courses in photography for about a month. Then he continued to learn technical things from YouTube videos and relevant websites. But he didn’t take any university degree or diploma in photography.
Work as a freelancer
He began to work as a freelancer photographer in his hometown after about 1.5 years. He has good contacts with some local farms through his friends. He used to work part-time as an assistant photographer when they needed any support for some events. In this way, he made good relations with some clients in his town.
Build a portfolio
By working as a freelancer for a couple of years, he built a portfolio in wedding and event photography. By this time, he made good relations with many clients. Together with his two friends, he took an office to start his own business and bought the necessary equipment.
Finding right clients
With some local marketing and Facebook marketing, he managed to get 3 to 4 clients every month initially for wedding photography. In order to continue the business, he procured 5 more professional cameras, a tripod, a lighting setup like octa boxes and umbrellas, and a gimbal.
Running photography business
After running for two years, he managed to build a good reputation in his local town. So eventually, he began to get about 15 to 20 clients in a month to run his business successfully along with his team.
8 Steps to start a career in photography (how to start a photography career)
Starting a career in photography was not much difficult for the above lucky wedding photographer, as he got things right and managed to run his own business within a short time. But the hard fact is that things could not go smoothly and easily for many photographers. There are some other factors that need to be considered when you want to start a career in photography.
Moreover, competition is getting high in every career due to the availability of education and internet facilities to people all over the world. So we will mention all necessary aspects that could add value in making a career in photography.
One can follow below eight steps to start a career successfully.
Get your First DSLR and experiment a lot
You need to buy a DSLR camera with some decent features for your practice. If you already have one, start practicing by taking a lot of photographs. In the beginning, it is like you don’t have knowledge about composition or a sense of artistic images. So keep it simple and enjoy your shootings.
Many people stress having the knowledge first and then getting a mentor before spending some money for your gear. But as photography is about skill and art, getting a beginner-level camera is worth getting familiar with the settings and practicing for skill development.
When you have a camera, you can experiment a lot with street photography, portrait, and landscape photography and try to find a better quality image from many garbage images.
Select your area of photography
By practicing with your camera, you can develop your interest in a particular area of photography. For example, you wanted to be a photojournalist, but practically you found that it is a very risky job as you need to take photos in the middle of anarchy or chaotic situation in a war.
Maybe you had a very much interest in wildlife animals but again it might be quite difficult to travel to a remote area and take photos without a proper supply of food and water. Not all people have the same adaptability to live in a jungle or remote place.
You wanted to be a portrait photographer but later you discovered that you don’t like to work in a studio rather you are delighted to work with landscape photography. If you are a huge fan of football or other sports, you might find yourself comfortable shooting action sports events.
There are many other sectors from which you may be able to find your passion areas such as wedding or event photography, vehicle or car photography, food photography, macro photography, fashion photography, clothing photography, or astrophotography.
Find your mentor
As we know that nobody is perfect from the beginning. So finding a suitable professional mentor is as important as your practice. If you know someone, who is already doing business in some particular area of photography, you can ask him or her to be your mentor. The main reason for working with a mentor is to get the necessary guidelines and practical work experience.
If you don’t find a suitable mentor around you, you can seek a position of assistant or intern from a job vacancy ad in the newspaper or from the internet. You can apply with your interests and your best sample of images that you have taken. You can join many online forums for getting your questions answered by an expert photographer.
Working as an intern for a couple of months will boost the skills needed for a photographer. From such experience, you can improve your technical skills such as composition, Settings, Shooting angles, working with lights and reflectors, post-processing, etc.
You can also develop your soft skills as a photographer such as communication skills, interpersonal skills, people leadership, etc. These skills are very important for working with a team and contacting clients at different stages of work. So your aim should be to learn as much as possible from the professional photographer and their way of doing business with clients.
Invest in Education
While natural talent and creativity are important, formal education and training can provide you with the technical skills and knowledge needed to excel in photography. Consider enrolling in photography courses, workshops, or degree programs to learn the fundamentals of composition, lighting, camera settings, and post-processing techniques. Additionally, seek mentorship from experienced photographers who can offer valuable insights and guidance.
Courses are conducted through video sessions and are very much helpful and interactive. You can take online free Adorama course 101 and much more.
https://www.adorama.com/alc/series/photography-101/
Also, you can take courses from skillshare with the website Skillshare.com
Or from iphotography: https://www.iphotography.com/photography-courses/
There are many other online platforms that you can find through Google search. But before taking the courses, you need to check carefully if the courses are suitable and cost-effective.
Get professional camera and accessories
Now that you have taken your relevant courses and feel confident to get into professional photography, it’s time to purchase one or more professional cameras and necessary accessories. It’s not wise to buy a lot of gear at the same time.
You need to have at least one full-frame DSLR or Mirrorless camera with a wide-angle and a prime lens. For the accessories, you need to buy a tripod for still pictures and a gimbal for video shooting. You can check the best accessories for camera for more information.
You don’t need to buy all expensive lighting accessories as many of these gears are available from rental services. You need to have the necessary hardware and software for post-production work. Actually, you need to buy the gear based on your priority.
Practice shooting and Photoshop editing
Now you have got the knowledge and necessary gears to start your professional shooting. At this stage, you should have much thrill and energy to enter your new world. You should now practice more and more to enhance your skill and creativity and move on to the next level.
Also, you need to load your images in Photoshop for photo editing practice. Through a good photo editing process, you can change a lot of attributes to an image like background, color, lighting, tone, etc. Hence it is possible to turn a normal image into an attractive image. Hence, photo editing is an integral part of any sector of photography. You can visit adorama.com for basic photo editing for Photoshop
https://www.adorama.com/alc/how-to-edit-your-photos-5-photoshop-editing-steps-for-beginners/
Build your photography Portfolio
Maybe you got talent and skills for wedding photography. But how will people know about your area and expertise level? That’s why; you need to build your photography portfolio and display it properly to show your creativity and skill in a particular area of photography.
In the portfolio, you need to put your best images and sample of work that makes artistic sense and your resume to describe your expertise and experiences to the outside world. With a digital platform, it has been very much convenient to display one’s portfolio in a stylish manner. So, you need to ensure your online presence through your own website, if possible.
You can create your online portfolio with Pixpa with the link: https://www.pixpa.com/
There are many online platforms to sell images online and earn money. Also, it is possible to get clients online for some photography project or activity. You can join an online group or photography forum to build a professional network.
Develop Your Brand
In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is essential for success in photography. Create a professional website or online portfolio to showcase your work, and leverage social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to connect with potential clients and collaborators. Additionally, develop a cohesive brand identity that reflects your style, values, and personality, and use it consistently across all your marketing materials and communications.
Start your business with local clients
When you have your online portfolio ready, you can start marketing for your business. You can have your logo and business card to share with people around your area. You can use digital marketing tools like e-mail marketing, social media marketing, Facebook page, and discussion forums to make yourself visible to many potential clients.
You can request your existing clients to write some comments about their work experiences with you and you can include these in your website or portfolio.
Nowadays there is emerging competition in any business sector. So you need to emphasize skill and creativity as well as effective marketing techniques to make yourself stand out from the competition.
Frequently Asked Questions:
How do I get started in photography?
If you have a great passion for photography and want to make it your career, you can follow the below steps to move forward
- Get a decent DSLR camera and try to practice
- Find your suitable niche of photography
- Find a mentor and work as an intern
- Take some online courses and continue YouTube learning
- Get a professional camera and gear
- Practice photography and editing work
- Build your online portfolio
- Start and promote your local business
Which career is best for photography?
There is no simple answer to it. It depends on person to person for their preference and passion. However, the below areas are popular in photography for making a career.
- Wedding and event photography
- Portrait photography
- Fine art photography
- Product photography
- Photojournalists
What type of photography pays the most?
A professional photographer can earn about 30000 to 60000 USD per year depending on area and expertise. Below you will find the list of best-earning niches in photography.
- Wedding and event photography
- Fine art photography
- Freelance photography
- Photojournalists
- Portrait photography
- Product photography
- Fashion photography
Is it too late to get into photography?
There is a saying, it’s better late than never. So one can start at any time irrespective of age and location. One should have feelings and passion for it. There is not much investment required in the beginning. One can start the game with a decent camera. It’s always good to have a mentor to speed up the learning process.
Then comes the practical part which is practice. Once one becomes confident and expert, one should get a professional camera and gear. Here one needs to invest some money for buying necessary gear, make a portfolio, and do some marketing for business.
Conclusion:
Making a career in photography is a quite challenging task like many other careers. There is no sure rule to success in this area. But there are many suggestions and guidelines available from many experts and professionals. One cannot ensure become successful by taking a degree from a reputed university or institution. Neither one can confirm it by completing a long list of courses and training.
It is all about practice, patience, and passion to win the challenge and stand out. We have sorted out the necessary steps to make a career in photography. Hope you will find it informative and useful.
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