Professional photography is a much maligned career choice these days but, as Matty Graham explains, the truth is you’ve never had a better chance of making it big in the industry… With pro level kit and quality education at your finger tips, a career as a professional photographer can be well within your grasp! Reading about professional photography can be a negative affair and one that could leave you feeling cold.
Trawl through articles in print and online and you can be met with a tide of opinion on how the golden days are gone and that you’d make more money working in a fast food joint than as a full-time image-maker. Not all these tales of woe are false. Yes, there are challenges, big challenges that have been brought on by the increase in people using digital cameras and the downturn in those wanting to part with their cash for the use of your skills.
But to comparing then, to now, is ridicules. The photography game has indeed changed but my opinion is this… You have a better shot at going ‘Pro’ now than ever before. Here’s why…
1 - Education The fact that you’re reading this article on Digital Rev means you’ve already had the opportunity to access a wealth of free photography technique and advice. Back in the day that level of information was only found on college courses or expensive books and magazines. While it’s true not all information is equal, you don’t have to go far to find quality advice that will make a difference to the way you capture images. Plus, if you do have some money to spend, the range and choice of workshops and courses to book onto is huge. The information at your finger tips can be visual, with videos showing you exactly which settings will work best and you can watch and learn at your leisure.
2 - Equipment This is the big one. When I started out 15 years ago, the digital game was still fairly new - I worked as a journalist before learning photography and was used to receiving a bag full of film at the end of a photoshoot from the Pro I was working with, rather than a SD card or a download link. It may be a hard concept to grasp, but I actually had to take these rolls of film to a processing house, then take the negatives to a designer who would scan them in. Full-frame digital cameras were crazy expensive and well out of the reach of aspiring shooters. This kept a barrier between those aiming to step into the industry and those already working in it.
Today, camera brands seem to launch a new model every other month and this causes a trickle down effect on previous models as they depreciate faster than ever. There’s nothing wrong with these DSLRs – just because they aren’t full of the latest features, it doesn’t mean they can’t be used to capture pro-standard imagery. And so, those taking their first steps along the pro road can get their hands on a used full-frame camera for just a few hundred dollars.
Those searching for bargains on lenses will have to look harder, as top-line optics hold their value much better than DSLRs, but great value buys are always out there. Even if you don’t yet have the cash to get the equipment you want, a buoyant rental market will allow to hire a camera at a sensible day rate that won’t chip away at your profit too much!
3 - Software Hands up who remembers how much the Adobe suite used to cost? It was ridiculously expensive, so those starting out were often forced to put up with Adobe Elements. . . urgh! While Creative Cloud has its detractors, there’s no mistaking that it puts every Adobe app (including Lightroom, Photoshop and InDesign) at your fingertips for a (fairly reasonable) monthly cost, enabling aspiring pros to breakdown costs rather than finding a pile of dollars in one big lump.
Image transfer sites makes delivering these images both free and easy and money transfer website means you ‘should’ be able to be made much faster too.
4 - Marketing Before the age of the internet, marketing was done via word of mouth or via an agent. With both still exist and can make a real difference to a professional career, there’s no mistaking the web has completely changed the game. In under an hour, anybody can set-up a portfolio page and blog, upload images to show the world and get their marketing rolling via social media. This means a potential global reach and, as we all know, it only takes one image to go viral for the photo industry to suddenly know your name.
5 - Clients It’s true that magazines are finding it hard in the digital age, something I know through painfull personal experience as I used to edit a UK photo magazine before a combination of falling newsstand sales and reduced advertising caused the hammer to fall. But while some magazines may be closing, others are flourishing and websites are launching all the time. People still want to consume information and look at amazing images so this gives you the opportunity to contact editors, show them your work and hopefully bag commissions.
6 - Protection So, this may not be the sexiest reason that it’s a good time to be a pro photographer, but it’s an important one nonetheless. In terms of insurance, it costs less to acquire liability insurance to protect you in case of a mishap during a shoot. More importantly though, in these days when everyone can film everything they do and the streets are covered with CCTV, professional news shooter can feel safer about their rights to be in difficult situations without the fear of being harassed by authority or a having their cameras ripped from their hands.
7 - Convergence Photographers aren’t restricted to shooting just stills these days and now that every camera shoots high-quality video, the leap to becoming a videographer is far shorter than it used to be. The principles of lighting and composition also transpose seamlessly to video shooting and, just like photography editing software, programs like Adobe Premiere Pro have become far more affordable. Being able to offer potential clients a multitude of skills means you bring more value to the table. Say a company is looking to commission some stills and video for a campaign? By offering both side of the coin, you expand your capacity to make more money and secure future commissions.
8 - Community Communicating with like-minded professionals has never been easier. Whether you meet up at a mixer during a trade show, login to online hangouts or join a more formal organisation, it’s far, far easier to talk to people who are also new to the professional photography industry and those who have been around for a number of years. Just because you are now earning money for your skills, it doesn’t mean you can’t improve these skills further and being part of a community is the best way to achieve this.
To sum up, professional photography enables me to make a living doing something I’m truly passionate about. It’s allowed me to see incredibly countries and capture amazing scenes. Sure there are challenges, but given the choice I’d always take a long day in the wild with my camera than a 9-5 in a stuffy office. Embrace the challenges, find your own niche use the tools that exist thanks to the digital age to make it big - there’s never been a better time to give it a go.
. digitalrev.com2017-4-23 03:00
