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Edit ArticleHow to Become a ProfessionalPhotographerThree Parts: Focusing on Your Photography Creating a Business Managing Your Business

Professional photography is an excellent career choice for anyone who wants to get paid forusing their creative talents. It's one of the few fields where age and college degrees aren't asimportant as a good eye, a quality product, and self discipline. Photography is a competitive field,so be prepared to start small. Then perfect your craft and build a portfolio of your best work.

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Develop your photography skills. There is no one right way to become a betterphotographer. Some people take a class or get a college art degree with a

photography focus. Others believe that college is a waste of time for becoming aphotographer. You may find that you can teach yourself about photography from books andexperimentation, or you may want to learn from other professionals.

Obtain the appropriate equipment. The type of equipment you need will depend onthe type of photography you are doing,[1] but you will likely need one or two camera

bodies and a variety of lenses for different situations. You will also need a quality photoediting software.[2]

You may need additional equipment for lighting or if you want to create an in-homestudio. Again, this depends upon your photographic specialization.

Purchase equipment frugally. Having quality equipment is important for takinghigh-quality photos, but you need not invest all of your savings in brand new, high-end

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equipment before you really start your career. You can buy used equipment in good workingcondition, purchase older models at a discount after a new model comes out, rentequipment, or even borrow equipment until you are sure that your business will besuccessful.[3]

When you do need to purchase gear, keep track of it for taxes since it is a taxwrite-off.

Know your camera. Before you book your first paid photo session, you should knowevery setting, error message, and quirk of your camera. You should be able to change

lenses with your eyes closed. Fumbling with equipment will make you seem unprofessionaland could affect the quality of your final product.

Read your cameras manual front to back. The manual will give you a lot of detailabout the features and function of your camera in a way that generic photographysources do not.[4]

To become really proficient, practice extensively at home. Experiment with lightand shadow, try different settings on your camera, and learn the ins and outs oftaking pictures with your available equipment.[5]

Research camera technology and photography tips. Pick up books, magazines,and online articles for the most up-to-date information on camera settings, tips, and

tricks. These will help to teach you new ways to use your camera and lenses to create greatphotos.

Make sure you are knowledgeable in how to use your other camera gear, such asa remote flash or different lenses. Having a background in these will significantlyimprove your photos.[6]

Learn to use editing software. Even the best photos may need some minor editing.Using a quality editing software can take your photos from good to great.[7]

However, be wary of over-doing special effects; your clients may not like photographs thatare overly stylized or edited.

Build a complete portfolio. In order to get hired by someone who isn't a close familymember or friend, you will need to have a portfolio to show. Use photographs from

multiple shoots with different subjects to highlight the range of your talents. Make sure thatyour portfolio is comprised of more than just five or ten photos. People will want to see the

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great work you've done.[8]

If you need to round-out your portfolio with modeling or posed shots, hire amateurmodels from local agencies. Offer free prints in exchange for free modeling.

Find your niche. Try multiple areas of photography before settling on one as yourfavorite. For example, you may focus on portrait, wedding, sport, or landscape

photography. Find your area of expertise and use it to your advantage in your business.[9]

Give clients what they want. You may like to take creative portraits of people, butyour clients might just want to look pretty.[10] Remember that, especially when you are

starting out, you need to make money. The best way to do that is to have your clients buyprints (or digital images with rights to print). They are more likely to buy prints if they likewhat they see!

Photography Course on DVDPhotography Lessons, on 15 DVDs. 30 Hours of PhotographyLessons!

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Intern with a professional photographer. If you are an amateur photographer oryoure just starting out, you should intern or apprentice with a professional

photographer to get a sense for how a photography business should be run.[11] Its likelythat you wont agree with the way your mentor does everything in her business, but it willgive you a good idea of the big picture of running a photography business.

Develop your people skills. Much of running a photography business is workingwith people. You should work on your ability to talk to people about their visions and

goals for a photo shoot, to calm down clients who are angry or disappointed, and to buildrepeat business.[12]

Part 2 of 3: Creating a Business


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Set goals. Create several long-term goals. Then, short-term goals that will bring youcloser to achieving the long-term goals. The short-term goals should be measurable

and have a time frame or deadline. For example, a short-term goal would be to book 5 newclients in the next three months. This could help you achieve a larger goal of having anestablished clientele within a year.

Be sure to write down all of your goals. Studies have shown that you're more likelyto complete goals that you've written down.[13]

Set up a work schedule. This will largely depend on your client's needs so you'llneed to be organized and prepared. When setting up a schedule, consider how long

the shoot will need to last and how much time you'll need to edit photos before delivering aproduct to your client. Realize that some types of photography will demand specificschedules. For example, you'll probably work lots of weekends and evenings if you shootweddings.[14]

Remember that one photo shoot includes drive time, photography time, editingtime, meeting time, et cetera. Therefore, it is more than just a 1 hour shoot.


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Advertise your business. Create a website, make business cards, network withlocals, and talk about your photography business with everyone you meet. Being

active on social media will also help you make a name for yourself. Instagram is a greatway to post pictures that a lot of people will see.

Create a watermark to protect your photos so that you can advertise them online.Allow your clients to use your watermarked photos for their own social media sites,essentially doing your advertising for you. Make sure your search engineoptimization (SEO) is high for your website so that your business rises to searchengine queries.

Say yes to new work opportunities. If an opportunity is slightly out of your niche,dont turn it down outright because it isnt your ideal work situation. You may find out

that you like something that you thought was outside of your comfort zone. However, youshouldnt feel forced into doing something simply because it represents a businessopportunity.[15]

Network with everyone. You should take every opportunity to network.[16] If you areworking towards a specific specialization, such as wedding photography, network

with everyone in your town who has an association with weddings. Talk to and give yourcard to wedding planners, cake bakers, caterers, other photographers (they may have aconflict and be asked for a referral), wedding dress shop employees, etc.

Be prepared to network (professionally) at an event as well. For example, if you doa photo shoot for a wedding, take photos of the food and give them to the caterers.They may use the photos as advertisements themselves, and could recommendyou as the photographer who took them.[17]

Riding on the bus, standing in line at the store, or sharing a table at a coffee shopare all great times for you to advertise your business.[18]

Ask for referrals and repeat business. If someone is happy with the photographsyou took for her, ask her to refer you to her friends. Additionally, try to build repeat

business; if you took 6-month portraits for a baby, contact the family 4 or 5 months later andask whether they would like to book a 1-year portrait session. Your business can snowballthrough word-of-mouth.[19]


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Keep your day job at first. You will probably not be able to transition from anamateur photographer to a professional photographer in a manner of weeks.[20] It will

take time to establish and build business before you begin making enough money tosupport yourself. As such, you may want to keep another income source until you becomeestablished as a professional.

This might make your life difficult for a while, but you may find that much of yourphotography work happens during non-work hours anyway. For example, manypeople schedule family photography sessions on weekends, when their childrenare out of school.

Organize your documents and files. Before you can begin working as aprofessional photographer, you need to get your business license and start making

yourself a business. Research your states or countys requirements for a business licenseand the documents you need to have in order to legally call yourself a professional.[21]

Speak with a small business attorney for a better idea of the specific things youneed. For example, if you plan on doing photography solely, make sure you haveinsurance covering your business. This may include equipment and healthinsurance for you and your employees.[22]

You should be meticulous about your record-keeping. Keep contracts, receipts,client emails, and invoices. Organize everything in a way that makes sense to you(by month, by client name, or by location) and consider keeping both electronicand paper copies of the most important paperwork.

Part 3 of 3: Managing Your Business


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Manage your money. Set up a business bank account, create a ledger, andbalance your budget. Every week, you should update your ledger with all monetary

exchanges you made throughout the last seven days.[23]

Make sure that you have enough money saved away to pay for at least one entireyears worth of expenses. This way, should your business fall through or you have abusiness emergency, you'll have enough money to live on until you get another job.Be sure to keep receipts for all business-related expenses. Your accountant canuse receipts to calculate tax deductions for your business expenses.Remember that (depending upon how your business is legally set up) your incomewill be subject to self-employment taxes; consider setting aside money from everyphoto shoot to pay taxes the following year.[24]

Create a contract. Before you agree to go into any photo shoot with someone, makesure that you have a business contract that they must sign. This should include

everything that their money is paying for and the things you are and are not liable for. Forexample, make it clear if you hold liability for photos that are accidentally and irrevocablydeleted, or if after signing the contract it is no longer a problem of yours.[25]

Have an attorney write a contract for you if you want to take the safest path. Joininga photography group also often gives you the opportunity to use a pre-writtencontract available for group members.[26]


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Set your rates. Consider the amount of time required for each shoot, the cost of yourgear, the cost of the prints or CD of images as the end product, and your experience.

Avoid pricing your photography sessions too high or too low. A price that is too high willscare away most clients, while setting a price very low makes you seem desperate orunattractive as a photographer.[27]

Look up other local photographers and see what they charge for their ownbusinesses. Then, base your own pricing based off your skills and abilities incomparison to theirs.

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The secret to being a successful photographer and not lose the passion for the craft is toconstantly work on personal projects. Make the time to shoot what you love for yourselfand your passion will grow by trying various digital photography techniques. At the sametime your confidence as a professional will also grow. This is true for any hobby thatbecomes a business.

Invest in good photo editing programs for your computer. Although most of the "editing"should be done in the manual mode on your camera before you take the pictures, havingthe ability to make quick touch-ups and adjustments to your photos is very valuable.

Be aware that if you are being paid to take photos of others, you will be expected tomeet your client's desires for the photographs rather than your own artistic preferences.

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As the saying goes, "the customer is always right."

Don't be afraid to use your photo camera or a point-and-shoot to take photos in your freetime. Taking photos on a daily basis is ideal, but can't always be done with a heftycamera and busy schedule.

Always start your business slowly, and don't expect it to grow incredibly fast.

Never delete a photo until you've tried to fix it using a program such as Photoshop. Younever know how good a picture can turn out unless you fix minor imperfections, so don'tdelete it too soon. Look at different angles and perspectives before you decide to trasha photo.

How to Become aPhotographer ata Young Age

How to Get a Job As aPhotographer

How to Choose a Camera

How to Take BetterPhotographs

How to Become aWeddingPhotographer

How to Write aPhotographyCritique

1. http://www.thephotoargus.com/freelance/choosing-areas-of-specialization-in-digital-photography/

2. http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/jun/26/starting-photography-studio-business

3. http://photographyconcentrate.com/10-tips-to-save-money-on-camera-gear/

4. http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/tip-of-the-week/top-ten-ways-to-become-a-better-photographer.html#.VTQB1_mjOSo

5. http://petapixel.com/2013/06/25/how-i-transitioned-from-being-a-hobbyist-to-being-a-

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Sources and Citations


pro-photographer/

6. http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2012/03/how-to-become-a-pro-photographer-in-5-easy-steps/

7. http://www.creativebloq.com/software/best-photo-editor-51411752



10. http://improvephotography.com/1521/20-tips-for-starting-a-portrait-photography-business/

11. http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2015/02/02/become-professional-photographer/

12. http://photographyconcentrate.com/26-things-i-wish-id-known-before-starting-my-photography-business-part-1/

13. http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2014/04/08/why-you-should-be-writing-down-your-goals/



16. http://petapixel.com/2013/06/25/how-i-transitioned-from-being-a-hobbyist-to-being-a-pro-photographer/


18. http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-know-you-are-ready-to-become-a-professional-photographer

19. http://photographyconcentrate.com/26-things-i-wish-id-known-before-starting-my-photography-business-part-1/

20. https://jaygoodrich.com/become-a-professional-photographer/

21. http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-legally-become-a-professional-photographer/

22. http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-legally-become-a-professional-photographer/

23. http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-know-you-are-ready-to-become-a-professional-photographer

24. http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/03/the-7-common-tax-mistakes-made-by-photographers/



27. http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-set-the-price-for-your-photography/

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