Make money as a photographer

As part of my making money series, here is another way to make some spare cash. Please comment, resteem or vote if you enjoyed the post!

If you’re great with a camera, why not turn your creativity into a successful photography business and make some money from it (or even get to travel!)? This article will walk you through exactly what you need to do to convert your flair for photography into a viable business that will earn you regular money for doing what you love.

Gear

You’ll need a decent camera of course, and a good DSLR is essential, as are good lenses. The ones you choose will of course depend on the type of photography you’re doing. A good flashgun (or studio lights) is another must, as is a tripod, a decent spec computer, a printer, some quality editing software (e.g. Adobe Photoshop) and a reliable hard drive for backups.

If you’re considering shelling out thousands for your camera, hold back. Cameras become obsolete so quickly – lenses on the other hand can make a real difference and will last a lifetime. In addition, once you have a fair quality camera, most pros would agree that a good photo is mostly about composition and when you’re starting out without any paid work, there’s no point unnecessarily getting into debt. Around £1 – £1.5k will get you a really decent model to start out – current popular choices include the Sony Alpha A7r, Canon EOS 6D, Nikon D610, Olympus OM-D E-M1 Compact, Fujifilm XT1 or the Panasonic Lumix GH4 and any of these will serve you well.

Specialising

Start off by going through as many other photography websites as you can for inspiration and to get a strong sense of the type of projects you’d like to complete. Many photographers specialise, for example in portraits and events, and then often in babies/children, families, weddings, parties and so on. It doesn’t mean you can’t do all of the above if asked, but it’s far easier to market to a specific group and you’ll find a lot of professional photographers follow this model.

Portfolio

In the photography business, you’ll pick up most of your custom through word-of-mouth recommendations and through examples of your past work. In other words, you won’t pick up new work until you’ve already done some successful shoots. The best way to build up your portfolio therefore is to work for free initially.

If you’d like to do portrait photography, enlist your friends and family as models to produce a range of test shots. You may want to diversify – for example, using a range of ages, outdoors and indoors, natural and posed, colour and black and white.

If you want to photograph weddings and events, never agree to be the main photographer until you’ve built up some experience. Ask friends and family if you can create an official set of photographs in addition to those taken the photographer they have hired, and use these to build up your experience and portfolio before agreeing to shoot an event solo.

Marketing

Although word of mouth is a huge part of establishing yourself, you’ll still need to market your business to get it established. Consider doing the following – and make sure all of your photos are watermarked with your business name and website address for maximum exposure:

• Create a website for your business showcasing your best work. If you’re on a shoestring budget, WordPress is the easiest way to do this – there are some brilliant portfolio-based themes perfect for visual sites, and there are some fantastic gallery plugins to help you display your work effectively. Use a social sharing plugin like Sharebar to make it easy for people to like and share your work on social websites.
• Start up a Facebook page where you can share your images. Get your friends and family to like and share the page.
• Ask friends and family to share any photos from free shoots you have done for them (again, ensure the photos they share are watermarked to help get your name out there).
• List your new business on Google My Business and ensure you have a Google Plus page, again showcasing some of your best work.
• Use Flickr to get your watermarked pictures out there. Join groups, post your pics into user group pools and be as active as possible in the community to try and build a following. You may also wish to consider allowing a small number of your pics (without the watermarks) to be available under creative commons licensing, with a link/name attribution.
• Look for local networking groups and events in your area – breakfast business clubs, evening business groups and so on. These are a really good way of picking up work, especially if it turns out that you’re the only photographer to attend.
• Try and pair up with complementary businesses – for example, local web designers who do a lot of corporate websites may be willing to recommend you to do corporate headshots, in exchange for you recommending them to your own clients and on your website.

As you start to establish yourself, it’s worth paying someone to design a custom website template for your WordPress installation. Your website will be your most powerful marketing tool and the investment is worth it, plus it’ll help you stand out from the thousands of other photographers competing for the same business. Opt for a responsive site that works well on different devices such as mobile phones and tablets as these will make up a significant enough portion of your website visitors not to ignore them.

Admin

When you start making money from your photography, an accountant is a great investment. They’ll be able to help you write off against your tax a portion of the equipment you’ve purchased (through depreciation), together with your travel and insurance expenses, and if you’re doing some of the admin from home, you can usually write off a portion of your home expenses too (yes you have to pay tax!). An affordable accountant is a worthwhile investment and will usually save you more money than they will cost you. You’ll also need to get public liability insurance when you start doing paid jobs, and insure your camera equipment too. Finally, check out the guidance on the Association of Photographers’ website regarding copyright as it is essential you understand and adhere to this as a pro.

Image from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pheezy/58884652/sizes/l