How to Become a Professional Photographer

Professional photographers are a great career choice for those looking to do creative work. This is one of the few fields where age and degree are not as important as an eye for art, quality products, and personal discipline. Photography is a highly competitive field, so be prepared. Perfect your work and create a profile of your best photos.

Table of Contents

Focus on your photography

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Develop photography skills. There is no “right way” or “wrong way” to be a good photographer. Many people go to school to get certificates and degrees. Others believe that college is just a waste of time if you want to be a photographer. You can learn photography on your own from books, experiment on your own, or want to learn from an expert. Whatever your choice, if you work hard you can achieve it.

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Buy the right equipment. The type of gear you need depends on the style of photography you do, ^{[1] X Research Source} but you will need one or two bodies and a variety of lenses to use for different situations. You need quality photo editing software. ^{[2] X Research Source}

You may have to add lighting equipment or create your own home studio. This completely depends on your photography expertise.

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Buy enough equipment. Quality equipment is an important step to taking great photos, but you don’t need to pour all your money into new brands or high-end gear before you officially start your career. You can buy used equipment in good condition, buy a used camera model at a discount after a new model is released, rent or even borrow equipment until your career is successful. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

When you need to buy a set of cameras, keep an eye on the taxes to find the right time.
Investing in lenses is often more important than investing in camera bodies because lenses can be reused when you buy a new camera and often result in better image quality.

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Knowledge of cameras. Before ordering your first camera, you must understand the camera’s settings, error messages or malfunctions. You must know how to change lenses. If you fumble with your own equipment, it will make you unprofessional and affect the quality of the product.

Read the user manual from start to finish. The manual gives you a lot of detail about the camera’s functions and features in a way that general photography sources don’t. ^{[4] X Research Sources}
To become proficient, you need to strictly practice at home. Experiment with lighting and shadows, try different settings on your camera, and get a thorough understanding of photography with available equipment. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

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Research camera technology and photography tips. Read books, magazines, and articles online to find the latest information on camera setup, photography tips and advice. This job teaches you new ways to use your camera and lens to take pictures.

Make sure you know how to use other imaging equipment, such as a telephoto flash or another lens. Having knowledge of photographic equipment will help you improve your photography skills significantly. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

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Learn how to use editing software. Even the best photo needs some editing. Using quality photo editing software can turn a “beautiful” photo into a “super product”. ^{[7] X Research Source} Be careful when using special effects, though, as your client may not like stylized or over-edited photos.

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Create a complete profile. To get noticed by an employer other than family or friends, you need to show them your resume. Use photos from multiple shoots with different themes to highlight your range of talents. Make sure your profile has lots of photos, not just 5-10 photos. People want to see the beautiful photos you take. ^{[8] X Research Sources}

If you want to complete your profile with a photo of your pose, you can hire an amateur model from a local agency. Offer to print a gift photo to hire a free model.

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Find your field. Try different styles of photos before choosing your favorite. For example, you might focus on portraits, weddings, sports or landscapes. Find your area of expertise and see it as a business advantage. ^{[9] X Research Source}

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Give customers what they want. Maybe you want to take creative portraits, but the client just wants them to be pretty. ^{[10] X Research Resources} You need to keep this in mind, especially when you’re just starting out, you need to make money. The best way is to print photos and sell them to customers (or print them digitally). Customers will want to buy prints if they like it!

Create a business

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Intern with a professional photographer. If you are an amateur photographer or just starting out, you should practice or apprentice with a professional photographer to understand how the photography business works. ^{[11] X Research Sources} You may not be satisfied with the way your mentor does business, but it will give you a good idea of the “big picture” of the photography business.

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Develop “communication skills”. The photography business is mostly about working with people. You should do your best to communicate with people about their photo session vision and goals, learn how to calm angry or frustrated guests, and keep repeating the work. ^{[12] X Research Source}

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Set goals. Create long-term goals. Then, set more short-term goals to get closer to your long-term goals. Short-term goals should be calculated and have a specific timetable or deadline. For example, a short-term goal might be to shoot for 5 clients over the next 3 months. This helps you to achieve a bigger goal by enticing repeat customers for 1 year.

Write your goal down on paper. Research proves that you are more likely to accomplish your goals if you put them on paper. ^{[13] X Research Source}

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Schedule work. This depends largely on the client so you need to be organized and prepared. When scheduling work, consider the time it takes to complete the shoot and the time it takes to edit the photo before returning the photo to the client. Each school of photography will require a different specific time. For example, you’ll work mostly on weekends in the evenings if you’re photographing weddings. ^{[14] X Research Source}

Keep in mind that each photo shoot includes travel time, photo shoot time, editing time, meeting time, etc. So it’s not just a “one hour photo session”.

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Advertise your business. Create a website, make business cards, get in touch with the locals, and talk about your services with everyone you meet. Being active on social media also helps you “polish” your name. Instagram is a great way to share photos with many people.

Insert a watermark on the image and then advertise on the network. Allow your customers to share your invitation stamped photos on social media, which is a great way to promote your business. It is necessary to ensure a high level of search engine optimization (SEO) for your website to increase search queries.

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“Agree” to new job opportunities. If there’s an opportunity that’s not in your field, don’t turn it down because it’s not your favorite situation. You might like something that you once thought was out of your comfort zone. However, you shouldn’t feel forced to do something just because of the image of your business. ^{[15] X Research Source}

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Connect with people. You should seize the opportunity to build a relationship. ^{[16] X Research Sources} If you work in a specific field, such as wedding photography, network with people in the city who are related to weddings. Talk and exchange business cards with wedding planners, bakers, caterers, other photographers, wedding dress shops, and more.

Prepare to network (professionally) at the event. For example, if you are photographing a wedding, take a photo of the food and show it to the caterer. Maybe they will use your photo to advertise their store, and name you as the author. ^{[17] X Research Source}
Riding the bus, queuing in front of a store, or sitting at a table at a coffee shop are all great opportunities to advertise your business. ^{[18] X Research Sources}

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Ask for referrals and build patrons. If someone likes a photo you take of them, ask them to recommend it to their friends. Furthermore, try to keep patrons; if you’re doing a portrait of a 6-month-old baby, contact the family after 4.5 months and ask if they’d like to have a 1-year-old baby photoshoot. Your business can thrive on word of mouth. ^{[19] X Research Source}

Business Management

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Stay mentally strong. You can’t go from amateur to professional in just a few weeks. ^{[20] X Research Sources} It will take a long time to start and build a business before earning enough money to support yourself. You can earn another source of income until you become a professional photographer.

This can make your life difficult for a while, possibly having to work overtime continuously. For example, many people schedule family photos on the weekend, when the kids aren’t in school.

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Organize documents and files. Before you start working as a professional photographer, you need to get a business license and start creating a business. Research the local business licensing requirements and documentation you need to legalize a professional photographer title. ^{[21] X Research Source}

Talk to a business attorney for advice on what to prepare. For example, if you plan to only run a photography business, you should purchase business insurance, which includes equipment insurance and health insurance for you and your employees. ^{[22] X Research Source}
You should be meticulous in keeping records. Retain contracts, receipts, customer emails and invoices. Organize everything as you see fit (by month, by client name, or by location) and consider storing both hard and soft copies of important documents.

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Money management. Set up bank accounts, create ledgers and balance budgets. Every week, you have to record monetary transactions in the ledger. ^{[23] X Research Sources}

You need to have enough savings to last for at least 1 year. That way, even if the business fails or has problems, you still have enough money to live until you find another job.
Keep receipts of business-related expenses. Accountants can use receipts to deduct taxes on business expenses.
Bear in mind that (depending on how your business is registered) your income may be subject to personal income tax; You should consider paying taxes by year. ^{[24] X Research Source}

Advice

The secret to being a successful photographer and not losing your passion for creativity is to work regularly on personal projects. Take the time to shoot what you love and nurture your passion by trying out a variety of shooting techniques. Confidence and professionalism will grow at the same time. This is true of any hobby doing business.
Invest in good photo editing software on your computer. While “editing” steps can be performed on the camera’s manual mode before shooting, the quick photo editing capabilities are well worth the investment.
Be careful when getting paid to photograph others, you need to fulfill the wishes of the client, not your own photographic art. Therefore, “customer is always king”.
Don’t be afraid to use your digital camera to take pictures in your spare time. Taking pictures every day is ideal, but you don’t always have to carry an expensive camera with you and a busy schedule.
Start your business slowly and don’t expect it to magically grow.

Warning

Never delete a photo until you try to edit it with software like Photoshop. You never know what the photo will look like after editing, so don’t rush to delete it. Observe different angles and perspectives before deleting photos.

Steps

Focus on your photography

Create a business

Business Management

Advice

Warning

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