How does one start earning money as a photographer? And how important is it to have the best equipment?
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Find a scene you want to be apart of. For me I make music and found that offering photography was a great way to get my foot in the door. Now I’m in demand for my photography.
Work for free at first. Build up your portfolio, then leverage that to get small gigs and invest the money you make from shows in gear if you can.
Gross oversimplification but theres a few paths - assist and then eventually start shooting. Staff position. Self employed. or mix and match.
Assisting and staff - equipment is provided.
Self employed you’ll need to buy everything you need.
No such thing as best, the correct equipment for the job is the important thing.
thank you
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Get a local business to let you hang some work (bar, coffee shop, etc).
Book and hang a show at the local arts center if there is one.
Social media although it pretty saturated (no pun intended). Everyone expects a modern photographer to have a social presence.
As for you gear, generally no. You do not need the best (and there is no consensus on what the best is). You need gear you can operate confidently that is appropriate (enough) for your genre. If you must have the best, get a Phase One.
Scroll down this sub. This is pretty much asked every single day.
Gear doesn’t matter the slightest. I know professionals that work with 10 year old gear worth like 5k€ and still ball harder than any of those young gear snobs running around with like 30k€ gear.
If you can’t produce decent results with minimal gear, just go find another hobby.
Can you quantify that part about the 10 year old gears if it was acquired 10 years ago and was top of the line then?
Asking because some good photographers also take good care of their gears that it lasts decades.
Volunteer and do stuff for free when you first start out as an absolute beginner. If your photos are good and get posted by others to social media, sent to friends/family etc, your business will grow by word of mouth. Mine did anyway. Once I started charging I invested in a better camera and 3 solid lenses. For bigger projects I usually rent more expensive lenses online. This is just a side job for me so I can’t justify spending thousands on equipment.
If your town has a local newspaper try showing up to some community events then emailing your photos in case they “might” like to use them. That worked for me as well. I wasn’t paid, but my name was credited and I got calls based on that alone.
Haha, I see what you did there.
When it comes to the photography business, the “business” part is considerably more important than the “photography” part in many cases. If you’re OK at photos and great at marketing, you’ll have more success than someone who’s great with a camera and bad at the other aspects of the job.
Also, general “exposure” is pretty much worthless until you get to a very high level. If you can reach 100,000 random people, that’s one thing. But if you’re trying to start reliably making money on a realistic scale, then finding a specific group of people and figuring out how to get your work in front of them is much more important.
Also: Don’t try to make money from photography. You’ll have a bad time and it’ll make you dislike photography.
Open up your aperture or slow your shutter speed.
I’d like to know
There are hundreds of types of photography and some have potential to make more than others. What do you shoot? Kids? Families? Sunsets? Hard to offer advice with such a broad statement.
Really depends on what sort of photography you are trying to get paid for.
I’d like to know the pathway to selling / publishing outdoor, nature shots. It seems impossible…