Zenologue

One of the questions I see asked more and more these days is, “How do I start out as a professional photographer? I have a new camera, love taking photographs and would like to get paid to do it.”

I love to see people being enthusiastic about photography – one of the reasons I became a professional photographer myself is my love of capturing the moment and my enthusiasm for the business. But, before taking the bull by the horns and jumping right in to becoming a professional photographer, it’s important to be aware of what you’re stepping into and the right way to go about it without getting burned.

The Key Word Is Professional:

Before you charge even one cent for a photograph, you need to learn about the business of photography. At least 80% of your time will be spent on business aspects, not taking photographs. Marketing, selling, pricing, advertising, accounting etc. all take time and are critical components to a successful business.

That’s what this is, by the way – a business. Whether you realize it or not, as soon as you charge someone a fee to take a photograph, you are no longer an enthusiastic amateur. You are now a business owner, with a responsibility to both your client and the industry you’ve chosen to engage in.

If you’re serious about becoming a professional photographer, the first thing you should do is to study the industry – learn about the history of it, how it’s changed over the years, some of its most prominent figures. What factors have contributed to its successes and failures? What types of people invest in photography, how much do they typically spend, how can they be targeted and reached? Who is your market?

Understand Your Market:

The classic mistake at the beginning is to think something like this: “I myself couldn’t (or wouldn’t) pay more than $xxx for a photographer to photograph my wedding.” This is a terrible mistake and will eventually cost you thousands of dollars in lost revenue, as well as causing harm to the industry. For more on this subject see “You Are Not Your Market“. By charging very low prices as a photographer you’re actually serving to hurt the industry by conditioning the market to expect lower rates for professional services.

The House That Jack Built:

Professional photography is a skill, like any other trade or profession, and another mistake is to consider yourself as a student in the field. For example, “I don’t have much experience yet, but I can practice on a wedding or two first so that I can learn.” Oh my gosh – no, no no!!!

Think about this statement for second: “I have some good tools in my garage, I like to make stuff, and I think perhaps I’ll practice building a house for someone really cheaply to build my skills up“. How many people would want to live in such a house? What do you think the quality of the house might be like? I wouldn’t even want to live next door to it in case the house fell on mine. It’s the same argument as the wedding photography one; only the names have been changed.

You should never practice on an actual wedding – this is someone’s wedding day, it’s a ONE-SHOT deal, and no matter how cheap your prices are, you will get scorched hard if your client is unhappy with the results. Your business will suffer irreparable damage and the industry as a whole gets another ding in it. Not only that, I doubt you would want to photograph another wedding ever again. To photograph a wedding correctly requires a lot of skills:

• Composition and lighting
• Creativity on the fly and quick thinking
• Diplomacy when dealing with groups and/or sensitive people
• Technical excellence with the camera and equipment
• Being able to work in unfavorable lighting conditions
• Ability to work with difficult people and people who are stressed
• Stamina
• Patience

I’m sure there are plenty more, but you get the idea. Most of these skills come with experience and can be learned – but don’t ever use someone’s actual wedding to practice them unless you are there as someone to observe and perhaps create some incidental images.

If you’re still reading then I congratulate you – you’re still enthusiastic about giving this a go and learning how.

How To Get Started:

So, how should you get started? The problem seems like the chicken and the egg, but it’s not really.

1.  Keep your enthusiasm fired up – it is more critical than you might realize.
2. Realize that charging for your photography carries responsibilities
3. Learn how to use your camera, especially in manual
4. If you don’t know what f/stops and shutter speeds mean – learn!
5.  Photograph anything that moves and anything that doesn’t
6.  Understand lighting – both natural and artificial. Study every photograph you see to understand how it was lit.
7. Try this test – go into your bathroom with your camera and close the door. Start taking photographs of everything you see until the memory card is full and then delete all the images. Start over without repeating the same images you already took. Keep going until you fall over or the camera blows up. What you will find is that you will eventually have to slow down and start to think in order to come up with a new angle, perspective, composition etc. You might think the first images were good, but the ones at the end will be the keepers, the unusual, the creative ones.
8.  Find a good local professional photographer and offer to be an apprentice. This is so important. Don’t expect to be paid very much, if anything – work in exchange for knowledge (so much more valuable than money). I myself have a very enthusiastic and talented apprentice working with me at the moment. If you think working for no money is wrong then you’ve missed the point entirely and should consider a different business.
9.  Learn about marketing, selling and advertising. These might not be as interesting as the latest cameras & lenses, but are more critical to your business.
10.  Learn how to use the telephone properly.

Again, there are probably a lot more things that can be added to this list. If there are any other professional photographers out there who would like to add something, please feel free to leave a comment.

General education, professional photographer