Calling all photography gurus and professionals- few questions please...

[housemouse]

Good morning everyone,

 

I am looking for honest opinions and personal experiences...

 

Is it at all possible for someone to go from basically newbie in photography to good/very good in 6-12 months so it is good enough to turn it into a part time income?? What is the best way to go about it?

 

How realistic is it?  Time commitment?

 

How much investment into the equipment would be needed (considering I already have a very good DSLR camera)?

 

Any other tips and thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

Thank you very much.

[Guest]

I think it would be possible, but it just depends on how committed the person is, how easily they learn, how much they are willing to practice, how much/what quality of feedback the photographer receives. Equipment depends on the niche the photographer intends to have. If the photographer is going for natural light, casual portraiture (such as senior photos for example), a good computer and photo editing software might be the only other necessity beside DSLR camera for a while.

 

At minimum, a professionally-instructed class would be ideal, and perhaps also a Photoshopping class or two. The photographer would need to set up marketing package - website, social media - to help get the word out.

 

I will say this: it is easy to think, "well, this is very good photography; surely people would pay for this," but there are a whole lot of exceedingly good part-time photographers out there. Great photography hinges on very tiny differences sometimes.

[Tita Gidge]

Remember: the photograph comes from the photographer - not the camera (s)he uses. A good photographer can work successfully with any equipment; conversely, a great camera can't rescue an inexperienced photographer.

To that end, pour most of your resources into education. You already own your camera, but it will be tempting to upgrade or to continue adding pricey lenses. Many talented photographers are innately artistic. If this describes you and you also have the basics down, educate yourself in the business side (marketing, packaging), in photo-editing, and in going deeper (beyond basic photography).

 

What type of equipment you truly NEED will depend on what type of photography you'll be doing.  Many moms-turned-PT-photographers start with natural lighting portraits, usually child or family, which is less of a financial investment (but also more limiting in terms of time and locations). What area of photography most interests you?

 

Know what you're entering a trade that is very saturated in many areas. Again, depending upon your area of photography, the more (financially) successful photographer will be the one who has the best business practices and not the best product or talent! Niche photographers also do well, is there an untapped niche - pets? sports action shots? home interiors for realtors?

 

People say they value quality, but the majority will always CHOOSE the cheaper option. It's challenging to earn one's worth in a saturated market. This is where some business education helps. It may also mean a higher time commitment - what sets you apart from the competition? Is it availability? Or a stronger skill set that can go beyond what most other PT MomPhotogs are offering?

 

Digital editing takes a lot of time. Bonus: it's flexible time, not like going to an office job or being on-site at a photo shoot. It takes more time if you're learning as you go. Invest that time on the front-end!

 

Many people seem more interested in digital prints they can share on social media, rather than hard copies. I know many PT MomPhotogs who advertise mostly on FB or IG but I've seen a lot of unsolicited traffic going towards those who also have blogs. That will take some time, too, to set up and to maintain. If a blog is too much, a site like Smugmug will work. It still takes time to set-up, but not as much to maintain. A side benefit to Smugmug is that it is designed for the working photographer. It's not just a photo storage site for your average photo taker.

 

Good luck as (if?) you move forward. It's a flexible way to earn PT income, and like most self-promotion jobs your success will depend more on your ability to sell yourself and your product than it will any skills or talent.

[wendy not in HI]

I have a friend who recently decided to grow her photography business.  She offered mini sessions in the fall when the leaves were so beautiful here near DC.  They were really inexpensive - I think maybe $25 for a half hour session, and she would give you full rights to 5 photos or something like that.  She mainly offered the sessions to people she knew at church.  That was really popular and her dates filled up quickly, so she offered about the same thing at Christmas time for Christmas cards.  She spread the word a little more through a local facebook page.  Some of the people who had her take photos, posted those photos on facebook and basically advertised for her.  She offered more family photo sessions and senior photos this spring, and she offered to do prom photos as well.  Her prices have gone up a little as she has gotten more business.  

 

I'm not sure how much she is making each month, or if she would consider it a good part time job, but it has been really interesting to see her little business grow.  She seems to offer mini session a couple weekends a month.

 

On the other hand, I don't think she's a great photographer, and doesn't seem to quite have photoshop figured out.  My dd went to prom with a large group of kids from church, and that photographer took individual, couple, and group shots of the kids.  Many of the pictures were sort of odd - bad lighting, odd angles, stretched edges, etc.  So, while I might use her for a Christmas card, I didn't ask her to do my daughter's senior photos, and I'm glad I didn't...  If she were asking me advice for her photography business, I would recommend that she spend more time with her camera, possibly taking a community ed class or work her way through a photography book doing all of the challenges, etc, and take a couple of photoshop classes online to improve her skills.

 

I hired a different mom-photographer for my dd's senior photos and they are just lovely!  I paid quite a bit more than I would have if i had used my friend, but the quality of the photos is far above what my friend can offer at this point.

[lailasmum]

I think it would be pushing it to do it in 6 to 12 months simply because you have a lot of technical stuff to learn as well as learning to use software to be able to reliably perform at a high level, you need to find your creative angle and feel how you can use your equipment to get what you want to get and also you'd be buying expensive equipment without the experience to back up your choices.

 

You could probably be a proficient intermediate photographer in a year if you really work at it. I think your progress is also going to vary with your field. I'd also suggest really looking at the money you'd need to invest vs what you could make as an inexperienced part time photographer and you need to factor in things like insurance, marketing and software too. Also don't forget if someone pays you to shoot something you should really have backup equipment too just in case something happens to the camera you already own.

 

You just kind of need to have the experience to cover all eventualities whilst being creative and that takes some time to become innate.

 

Creative live is a really good place to learn photography and I think John Greengo's course on there is one of the best around.

Edited May 31, 2016 by lailasmum

[goldberry]

I have a friend who recently decided to grow her photography business.  She offered mini sessions in the fall when the leaves were so beautiful here near DC.  They were really inexpensive - I think maybe $25 for a half hour session, and she would give you full rights to 5 photos or something like that. 

 

That's super cheap and would hardly cover time costs if she is doing any photoshopping.  

[wendy not in HI]

That's super cheap and would hardly cover time costs if she is doing any photoshopping.  

 

So true!  I think she was looking for a way to get some real life experience, not just taking pictures of her own kids, you know?  Working with families and little kids is a skill that you really learn by doing.  I'm sure it's tricky to balance: getting some experience and charging enough to make it worth your time, but not too much because you really don't know what you are doing...  

[Guest]

So true! I think she was looking for a way to get some real life experience, not just taking pictures of her own kids, you know? Working with families and little kids is a skill that you really learn by doing. I'm sure it's tricky to balance: getting some experience and charging enough to make it worth your time, but not too much because you really don't know what you are doing...

You also then face the conundrum when you aren't so beginner any more: now you need to raise your prices, and if you have gotten good, you definitely should, but your name has been spread around as providing this dirt cheap service, so...

[FriedClams]

No, I don't think it is a reasonable timeline, sorry. Photography is an art, and a fairly technical one. Learning a camera, editing, and printing is a lot. Learning the art, style, and experience of photographing families (not to mention kids our babies) is hard. Lots of people can take pictures, but not all capture the moments and art of photography. Then, there is a whole small business side to learn. Taxes, billing, advertising, etc are all a lot of work. I think to give yourself a timeline is unrealistic. Photography is the most often started, and closed, small business. If you love it, pursue it. Seek out a mentor, take classes (good ones can be expensive), learn the technical side of things (beyond batch processing and lots of purchased actions), practice, practice, and practice, and get lots of honest critique. As a former pro, taking the time to start right and learn before you start is much more important than getting a start and then a bad reputation for non pro work. You can do it, but I think having a timeline to be a "pro" isn't reasonable.

[Xahm]

One thing I would recommend is to know your limits with regards to skill and equipment. By this I mean, if you can take great pics of families outdoors but don't have much experience with lighting, please don't agree to photograph an indoor wedding. We hired a family friend who had just started a photography business for our wedding, and the pics just aren't great. They still bring back great memories for us, but... It was no surprise to me that her business faded away shortly thereafter. I assume that was partly due to her own discouragement at the results. Advertising yourself as able to do it all right off the bat will be bad for you, your clients, and your reputation.

[Garga]

Not 6 months. Maybe 12, but more like 24 months.

 

The person would need to take pictures every single day. Perhaps, start a picture of the day blog so that there's a goal.

 

The person would need to become well-versed in Lightroom or Photoshop or something along those lines. A class would be a must.

 

I would also recommend a class in photography. I happened to be part of a club that gave an honest critique of the pictures and provided a lot of guidance. It took me a solid year to even begin to feel like I sort of knew my way around a camera. Then there was a year of a daily picture and blog. By the end of that year, people started asking me to take things like Senior Portraits. The first session was meh, but I started getting better.

 

After the 3rd year I felt that I could pull off some really lovely pictures, but not fully professional--just semi-professional.

 

And then I realized that I hate taking pictures for other people for money. I enjoy taking them for myself as a creative outlet. Having to deal with other people's expectations sucked all the joy out of it for me.

 

 

Here's what you could do:

 

For the next three months, rope every person you know into various photo shoots and practice taking pictures of them. Go online and find interesting shot on pinterest or somewhere and try to recreate them during those photoshoots. Then you'll start to see exactly what you know or don't know--if you can't recreate the shots, you'll have to start figuring out why.

 

Find someone somewhere who will be brutally honest and tell you what looks good and what looks bad.

 

Figure out some sort of editing software.

 

Take a class.

 

See how far you've come after three months and then decide if you are anywhere where you'd like to be. Sometimes the more you know, the more you discover what you don't know.

[Garga]

Most likely you'll have to figure out how to handle lighting. What do you do if it's in the middle of the day and the sun is creating terrible shadows on someone's face? What do you do if it's inside somewhere and the pictures are too dark and you can't rely on window light because it's evening or a cloudy day?

 

You have to be able to create lighting of some sort most of the time. There are some natural light photographers, but sometimes that just doesn't cut it. You can't only schedule photoshoots outside on cloudy days (which creates the best lighting.).

 

So, for equipment for lighting you'll need some sort of flash and some sort of diffuser or umbrella, etc. You can't just point a flash at someone and shoot. You have to learn how to soften that light and place it correcty. That's usually a pretty big part of photography that needs to be mastered.

Good morning everyone,

 

I am looking for honest opinions and personal experiences...

 

Is it at all possible for someone to go from basically newbie in photography to good/very good in 6-12 months so it is good enough to turn it into a part time income?? What is the best way to go about it?

 

 

 

 

To help us out, I think you need to put a finer point on what kind of "part time income" you hope to get.

 

However, I would point out that a part time photography *business* is primarily a business.  Even if you had the best photography skills in the world, growing the business to be a part-time job where you have work every week would take more than six months.  I would advise that for every hour of learning how to make better images, you spend an hour learning how to operate a small business.  Learning market research, pricing, insurance, risk management, competition, etc. etc., is as important, if not more important than learning about lighting, lenses and all the technical stuff.

[JennSnow]

While it's entirely possible to progress to a semi-professional level with regards to your mastery of the technical and processing aspects of photography I don't think that 6-12 months allows you enough experience to put yourself out there as a professional photographer.  If you're seriously considering going pro then I would allow yourself a good year of "portfolio building" first.  Sit down, and figure out what your ideal full prices would be..taking care to consider how much time you're putting into a session (driving to and from, shooting time, editing time, emailing time, downloading time, delivery time, etc..), equipment costs, marketing costs, copyrighting costs, product costs, etc..  Take a look at other photographers in your area to see what their prices are like.  Once you have your full prices set offer "portfolio building" sessions at a discount (for example a waived session fee and 50% off of print prices).  This way clients will be aware ahead of time that they are getting a discount in exchange for you being able to gain some experience and build up your portfolio.  Also, offering a discount off of your full price takes the surprise out of it later when you do raise your prices back up to your full price.

Keep in mind that the photography business is a really tough business which requires a really thick skin.  Peole will LOVE your photos...until they are their own and then you won't even believe the ridiculous expectations they will put on you (can you photoshop me younger..thinner..change my hair color..change my kid's shirt color..make my husband's eyes more open..can you photoshop happiness and cooperation into my children, lol).  The market is terribly over saturated and you will ALWAYS be competing with photographers offering their services essentially for free (because it's not worth ANYBODY'S time to charge $25 for a mini-session and digital images).  People won't care that their photos are of a much lower quality..they just want more for less $$.  To be competitive you need to be able to put at a minimum 4-6 hours per day into your business...shooting, editing, marketing yourself, networking, improving upon your skill set.

I promise I'm not trying to be a downer here, lol, I'm just trying to give you an accurate idea of what is involved in starting and maintaining a business like this.  I gave it a go for a couple of years and just couldn't do it..the time and energy  I was spending wasn't worth the money I was bringing it and it was sucking away my love of photography.  

Best wishes if you do go forward though!!!! :)

Edited May 31, 2016 by JennSnow

[PeterPan]

Good morning everyone,

 

I am looking for honest opinions and personal experiences...

 

Is it at all possible for someone to go from basically newbie in photography to good/very good in 6-12 months so it is good enough to turn it into a part time income?? What is the best way to go about it?

 

How realistic is it?  Time commitment?

 

How much investment into the equipment would be needed (considering I already have a very good DSLR camera)?

 

Any other tips and thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Well people go to Clickinmoms, take classes aggressively (1-2 every session) and DO make enough progress in a year to shoot something people would pay money for, yes.  You need to be spending several hours a day working on it, and you'll be investing quite a bit in classes and lenses.  And some people just start off with more talent or a more interesting vision or more of an eye for beauty than others.  Some people just get really formulaic and copy what others are doing, without really figuring out who THEY are as photographers.

 

The real issue is how saturated your market is and whether you're going to go down/up on your pricepoint.  To go up and make money, you are going to need some presence (mall kiosk, friends, FB, etc.).  Although many lower priced photographers will only have one camera, a pro would have two and multiple lenses (prime, expensive).  So to earn that back at $50 a cd, that's just not profitable, not to me.  And once you start taking MONEY, your insurance policy has to change, because your home owner's policy will no longer cover your stuff.  

 

The Adobe subscription is under $10 right now, so that's no biggee.  Clickinmoms probably is running classes on Lightroom, which is where you'd start.  So not a lot of expense there.  But prime lenses, your time to edit because you're slow, insurance, marketing, these are real.  

 

Some people just have more interesting vision than others.  I would suggest you start with *one* lens.  That's not a ton of outlay.  Take that one lens, go to Clickinmoms and Creative Live, do classes, and see how far you get with that.  Do that for 1-2 months.  Then you decide ok I'm showing some promise, I'll do xyz.  It sounds like you want to learn more, since you invested in a dSLR at one point.  You should do this!  But just start conservatively and see where it leads!  I enjoy the stuff I learned, but I use it just within the family, just for me. My dd is now pretty snazzy, and actually my ds with ASD is downright shocking.  I have him on my old Nikon d50 (we're talking 10+ years old!) with a 60mm macro, and he makes beautiful stuff!  He has vision, an appreciation of beauty, and he sees light.  Really though, to me that idea of vision, the idea of what do YOU find intriguing, that's the most interesting thing.  That's what makes you compelling as a photographer.  The rest you can teach/correct in a matter of months with some good classes at Clickinmoms.

 

PS.  What is your camera?  Do you have a prime lens?  The classes at CM are going to recommend you start with a 35mm or 50mm, and usually the brands have those pretty inexpensive, even for $100-ish.  If you have crop, go for the 35mm.  If you have full-frame, go for the 50mm.  You'll add more lenses over time, but those are just inexpensive starter points for prime.  Also, I haven't looked at their offerings lately (I did mine a few years ago), but they used to offer them as full participation or the audit where you got all the materials but only could read the boards.  Some people really have opinions on that.  I was fine with only doing the upper classes full.  Beginner classes are pretty mundane and your questions usually get asked by the others.  So that's another way to save some money, if that works for you.

Edited May 31, 2016 by OhElizabeth

[PeterPan]

Click Photo School – online education for photographers - Click Photo School

 

Here's a link to CM.  I would suggest you take the Mastering Manual Exposure and Lightroom Fundamentals.  It says Full is sold out on Mastering Manual but that study along is available.  SA will be fine!  Just do it.  It's only $150 and you'll learn a TON.  It will be ROCKET FUEL for your photography!!  The LR class is available full or study along.  If you have the money, sure do full.  

 

That's how you do it.  Just go in there and start banging out classes.  Next term do Foundations of Composition.  Do just that, because it probably has more daily homework.  You'll get more out of it when you put more into it.  Then when you're done with that, take that Capturing Joy with Lisa Tichane.  I haven't done it, because I'm really not a people photographer, but she spoke a very encouraging word to me when I was starting out and I just love her for it.  Her work is beautiful and that would be good timing, after you've done some foundations of composition and are ready to think about how you bring it all together with PEOPLE.

 

Then, when you have those basics done, just go through and start snagging classes here, classes there on topics.  

 

And remember, if you NEVER do this for money, you're still doing something YOU wanted to learn!   :)

Edited May 31, 2016 by OhElizabeth

[housemouse]

Thank you ladies for all of the great advise. I am guessing I was a bit ambitious on the 6-12 months timeline, especially with the fact that I do not have 3-5 hours a day to concentrate just on photography. I see how I want the photos to turn out - just need to work on all the technical stuff to really get good at it. I have a vision in my head what the end result for the photos would be, it just may take more time to get there.

 

[Katy]

Honestly I think it would take about two years of study to get that technically proficient.

 

CreativeLive.com is a great resource to learn from successful photographers.  Sue Bryce's 28 Days class at Creative Live could probably get you able to take that style of portraits only to a viable business in about a year.  She also has a website of her own where she offers instruction now.

 

But most photographers don't want to be stuck in one niche like that - they want to take baby portraits and weddings and such, and learning everything would probably take 2-3 years at least.  I hired my own wedding photographer as a newbie with a photography degree.  I knew she didn't have the technical skills yet, but she did have a good eye and similar taste. Even though I was happy with the artistic photos, I wouldn't do that again.  The lower-light ceremony photos are mostly very blurry.  She's now better, but she's been shooting 20 weddings a year ever since.