How to Start a Photography Business ?

If you are starting a photography business, you need to make money first to not go out of business quickly. So make a list of the ways to make a living from photography and place them in order of potential income and enjoyability. Find the one that is the most practical for your situation. That is goal number one, or you will not be around long enough to truly get a chance to succeed. There’s no time at first to figure out anything else.

When you’re transporting your camera from place to place, you need to make sure it’s protected. So invest in a good camera bag that you can use to keep your camera from getting broken or damaged.

Once you get that part in place and off the ground, then you can start to work on numbers two and three on the list. But if you try to do all of them at once, you will be too fragmented to succeed at any of them.

Lighting is an essential element of any good photograph. And while natural lighting is usually preferred, you’ll also likely want to invest in some studio lighting for when there isn’t sufficient sunlight.

You need to figure out who else is out there so you can learn from them. The other people doing what you want to do are the ones who you can learn the most from. Go through their work, and make a folder on your computer of photographs that you would like to learn how to do. Then go create them. Figure out what you will need to do to get your work to that level. Take the best aspects of each photographer, and bring them together in how you approach your photography.

Lighting is an essential element of any good photograph. And while natural lighting is usually preferred, you’ll also likely want to invest in some studio lighting for when there isn’t sufficient sunlight.

See which websites work the best, try to figure out what type of clients they work with and if there are any hints about how they reach those clients. How do they use social media and where is their work being shared? Researching people is not a bad thing. You can research your colleagues. You’re not trying to copy them or steal work from them. You’re only trying to educate yourself about the market.

There are plenty of different lenses you can use to get different types of images on your camera. So it can be a good idea to invest in some different lenses to improve the quality of your photos.

If you’re a young photographer, you can even consider assisting for these photographers. Assisting is by far the best way to learn, both from the artistic and the business side, and it can help you transition to your own businesses eventually as the photographer may start to send you jobs that they cannot do.

Depending on what types of photos you plan on taking, you might find it necessary to purchase or create some backdrops that you can use for studio or portrait photographs.

It can also be a good idea to have a variety of different props on hand. The types of props you choose can depend on your niche. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, you probably won’t want the same props that a pet photographer uses. But having a few different options can be a good idea.

Google a template for a photography business plan, and make an official one for yourself. You need to have a workable plan for how you are going to be successful. This plan with change over time as you become more experienced and learn more about what is possible and what isn’t. What minimum income will you need to achieve to survive, and what is the realistic income that you would like to make in the first year?

You might also find it necessary to rent or purchase some studio space for your photography business, especially if you plan on having clients travel to you for photos.

Take these numbers and work backwards from there. Figure out an average profit per job and how many jobs you will need to do to achieve that income. From here, create a pricing plan for yourself. This will be very important when you have people trying to lowball you. Cheap clients are everywhere, and they know how to abuse young photographers. These are the jobs that somehow end up taking up all your time.

Alternatively, you might be more interested in starting a photography business where you travel to clients. In that case, you’ll need some reliable transportation in order to get to and from your shoots.

Having this break-even number and business plan will give you a clear understanding of what prices are unreasonable. In addition, you need to be making an amount that will allow you to actually enjoy the job so you will be able to put your all into it. How can you achieve a good result for your client and your portfolio if you are not making enough to live on?

While you aren’t likely to use a smartphone or mobile device as your main camera for your photography business, it can still be a good tool.

In addition, by doing this you are empowering the entire photographic community by letting clients know that their prices are unreasonable. You don’t have to actually tell them they are unreasonable. You can just educate the client on the amount of effort that goes into a job and why you need to charge what you do. They need to know why your price is fair. Some clients will move on and look for a lower priced photographer, while others may just have been ignorant to the amount of work that goes into a job, and are now educated. Photography is not just a hobby.

Since social media can be a great tool for sharing photos and behind the scenes shots, it can be useful to have a smartphone that can take decent photos for those purposes.

Keep your costs low at first. Of course, everyone wants the latest and greatest, but it’s so common for new photographers to spend way too much money on equipment that they don’t need. The equipment does not make the photographer. Camera technology has already peaked. You need a professional level camera and lens, but you don’t need the latest and greatest 50-megapixel camera. In fact, 50 megapixels can be a pain in the butt! I prefer cameras with around 20-24 megapixels, and I find anything more than that to be cumbersome due to the files sizes.

Since social media can be a great tool for sharing photos and behind the scenes shots, it can be useful to have a smartphone that can take decent photos for those purposes.

You also probably don’t need a wide-angle zoom, a midrange zoom, a telephoto zoom, and three prime lenses. I use a 24-70mm lens for a majority of my photography jobs. You can rent lenses that you rarely use when they are needed for a job. You only need to purchase a new lens if you find yourself using it on a regular basis. I also will wait for a new version of my favorite camera to come out, and then I will purchase the previous version since the price will drop. I even know photographers who purchase used Apple laptops instead of new ones.

Once you’ve taken your photos, you’ll also need a software program that lets you edit and fine-tune those images. Programs like Photoshop and Lightroom can be good investments for photographers.

The best photographers make it a habit to do some personal work. This is your chance to do what you love on your terms. It is a chance to take the work of other photographers that you admire, and to create something similar with your own twist. This work is what will ultimately get you hired. It will be your best quality work due to the fact that you have no boundaries, and it will form the foundation for your business.

That also means that you need a computer you can use to actually edit and store those digital photos.