How to start a photography business
Photography is practically in everyones life these days, just take a look at the Mobile phone with its camera and face book with millions of photographs loaded on to it every month. The chances are that you have a camera, someone has commented that your photographs are good and you should be a photographer, or your keen to learn photography and want to make a career from Photography.
Photography is one of those subjects where it is always a learning curve, new kit comes out to take the photos and new software comes along. Fashion and styles of photography change and you need to keep up to date on all of this if you are to become professional at photography or take it up as a paid hobby.
Being a professional photographer is made up of a few key ingredient:
- Being able to use a camera
- Being able to communicate and work well with people
- Having business sense and acumen
- Having skill and experience.
While these may seem like simple subjects, they are most definitely not.
Being able to use the camera means fully understanding how it works and how to get different images from it, which should reflect your style of photography.
While taking the picture is clearly one part of becoming a photographer, working with people skills are essential. From wedding and portrait photography, you will have to instruct people and manage large groups of people keeping them happy. If you’re shooting stock of PR photography, you need to talk to managers and art directors.
Also, you need to know about peoples faces and features and how to pose them, the same goes for working with products and everything else… getting the best shot every time.
Photography is a two way legal minefield one one side you have your rights, and other there are the licence rights. Plus there is running your own business which also has a big load of legal paperwork as well as taxes and the day to day running of the business.
There is marketing to do, people to talk to, websites to update, photos to edit, galleries to put online and albums and design work to do. Not forgetting that you still need time to take photos, eat and sleep.
No matter where you go in the world of photography, before you go pro you need to gain experience. Having experience in your chosen area of photography will come in very handy, you will soon learn that it doesn’t always go right; by meeting these problems during training for your professional photography business, you can avoid the problems and see how others deal with them.
The first steps in starting a photography business.
Before you do anything you will need to buy a professional camera, there are lots to pick from and you will properly go with Canon or Nikon camera, maybe even Olympus or Pentax, but once you have made that choice you will stick with it forever as you will invest in lenses and devices that only work with that brand.
Personally, I prefer Nikon Cameras as they offer nicer colours and are used more like a film camera, Canons I find are gadget cameras with lots of buttons that you have to contort your fingers to use. Having used four brands of cameras; Nikon was my choice, Also when training photographers they appear to find Nikon’s more simple and easy to use.
Once you have you camera, its time to start learning how to use it, and more importantly its limits. During this time you can start building up your portfolio of images which you will use.
Photography training is a good way to get a grounding in photography, there are some which are more theory than hands on work and getting out their and using your own head is always a plus.
Just look around you at all the things laying around. All of these have had product images, so why not try to do better?
It is you that have to learn your photography and this will make your style, having your own style can work! If you look at 200 wedding photographers you will see many are the same, and the same goes for product photographers (they’re called Pack shots) but you will see this in many areas of photography. You will also see the unique and photography that looks different, outstanding, appealing, shocking and it is that difference that attracts their clients to them.
So the key to this part is use the camera, take lots of photos. build a portfolio…
When it comes to working with a photographer as a shadow or trainee, you will soon find that this is very hard. Photography is cut throat. There are many photographer and people turning to photography. Usually every year or two I take on a trainee and they learn and see what photography is really like, some go on to start their own businesses and some just give up when they see the real world and all the hard work.
Often I see that many people (clients) quite often do not understand the work involved in photography, they think you turn up press a button pop to a shop and get it printed. people wishing to become a professional photographer sometimes think this is likely to be the case, but they know there is a little more to it, how much.. well 7:10 they Don’t.
With that in mind, before you consider going into business as a professional photographer you may wish to go to collage; Not just to learn photography but also to learn more about business and running a business, and if you have the time, you would be advised to also learn website design and marketing.
So to summarise that last part:
- You need to buy a camera thats right for you and learn to use it.
- You need to get out and use the camera to build a portfolio.
- You should go to collage and learn about business and marketing, even photography
- Look for photographers who would be willing to give you training and experience (expect to get little to no pay)
So you have progressed….
Once you have gained hands on experience of around a year or two, you should be aware of many areas of photography and the business. This should be when you take on a few jobs (photography commissions) Once you have learnt about photography experienced it enough to understand the flow of things, you should be able to under take you pet project and event a paying client…
I Must warn you!!
Some people fall apart and wreck shoots even if they feel they know about the area of photography someone has paid them to do. This can put them in the court house, and in some cases the photographers have found themselves in court with large costs and fines to pay.
You may want to consider stock photography and see how your photos sell. Also getting your images critiqued by professionals, and not on yahoo answers is a good idea, there were lots of websites about now there are few.
First steps in professional photography.
Marketing is the key for your first steps, by pricing your business right, offering a great service and getting people talking about you is going to bring you business. Word of mouth is GREAT!
So you will need a website, most people look online and by now you should already have your Flickr account set up and filled with photos. But you are going to need your own little website and this link: http://www.nationalphotographer.co.uk/09/making-great-photography-website/ will tell you how you should build your website.
You should also read this article so that you price your photography services correctly.
Once you have your website online, the information loaded and picture galleries available, its time to start with the SEO to get it known. Also you will want to find photographer directories to to place adverts for your business. This will all help bring people to your website. Depending on how good your website is, will just be based on how many visitors convert to sales and clients..
Your First steps into photography business..
This is a different ball game to just taking photos for fun, you need to set up your business correctly or you will find yourself in court and can lose everything you own.
GTWCMT offer business advice and services to help people start in business and make sure they cover all areas. This is a big subject and mot within the remit of this article, but to cover some brief areas:
- Company set up type: Limited is good to avoid personal loss
- Tax registration: paying taxes and registering the business
- Business finding: often there is grants available.
- legal: you will need three types of insurance, public, professional and legal. You will also need to draw up licence and contract. (see our stock photography website for some)
How much will it cost to become a professional photographer?
When you set up your photography business you will find that there are a great number of costs. One of the big costs will be having the camera body and lenses, this can run into several thousand pounds. Budget to spend around £5,000
With the legal, insurance and other set up costs coming into another £3,000
then there is marketing, this can cost anything, free directory listing are OK paid are also good, but at around £60.00 a pop after you get through about 8 of the top ones, thats adding to the costs, plus if your advertising in papers, having business cards prints, letter heads etc.. this would and could add up to a sum totalling around £12,000.
Photography Course are another few thou to add to the total costs which you need to cover in order to have a photography business, City photography may offer a cheaper alternative but you still need to have insurance, training, and your own camera equipment. You could try working for a franchise or in a small studio as well.
Feel free to ask questions in the comment box below, or register for an account and start a forum to ask questions and talk about starting your photography business.
Related posts:
- Shooting for stock photography
- Detailing for wedding photographers
- Marketing your website
- Making a great photography website
- Photo signatures
