How to become a professional photographer?

If you are passionate about photography and want to become a professional photographer, you will have a long way to go. The important thing in this process is that you don’t lose the desire to take the kind of photos you like and that you let yourself be advised by experienced colleagues and experts in this profession.

To reach your dream of become a professional photographer, it is important that you acquire extensive training and create a profitable photography business. But in order to reach your goal and work on what you really like, it is also important to have the ability to face the obstacles that arise and to always maintain your enthusiasm at every moment of the process.

In today’s article we are going to give you a series of keys to make the road to becoming the photographer you have always dreamed of much easier and more bearable.

Fulfil your dream and become a professional photographer with the help of Arcadina.

Steps to building your career as a professional photographer

When starting the process of becoming a professional photographer, the first thing you need to consider is a series of preliminary questions, such as, for example:

• What kind of reportage would you like to specialise in: weddings, children, product, fashion, portraits, landscape, sport, etc.? As you can see, there are many disciplines in which you can specialise and although you don’t have to choose a single option, it is interesting that you define a little about the path you want your career as a photographer to take.

• What style of photography do you feel most comfortable working with: photojournalism, artistic photography, creative, fine art, etc.? This is another decision that you have to make and that, above all, experience and training will help you to answer.

• How would you like to approach your photography business – photography studio, digital business, destination photographer, etc.? It is also important that you give shape to what your photography business will be. You can research how your peers are doing it and what business model you would like to propose.

Once you have answered these and other similar questions, the next steps to take to become a great professional photographer can be: training as a photographer, setting up your studio and creating your own photography business.

Let’s see how you can tackle and plan these 3 big steps to see what do you need to be a photographer.

Training for photographers who want to make a living from photography

Once you have decided which way you want to focus your future in this profession, the first step you have to take is to train yourself. On the one hand, you have to acquire all kinds of knowledge related to photography, such as:

• Manual control of your camera.
• Lighting.
• Photographic compositions.
• Retouching and editing.
• Use of editing programmes.
• Photography course focused on your speciality.
• Learn from the great photographers.
• Etc.

On the other hand, if you want your career as a professional photographer to go far, it is essential that you learn how to run a business. These are some of the skills you need to learn:

• Marketing for photographers.
• Creating a profitable business.
• How to monetise your photographs.
• Accounting and business management.
• Advertising and social media.
• Etc.

In this second part of your training to becoming a professional photographer, you will be able to delegate certain jobs to professionals, such as accounting or advertising, but first it is important that you know how each part of your business works and then assess which types of jobs can be outsourced to other professionals.

Another aspect that you have to keep in mind during the whole learning process is practice. It is essential that you gain experience in real photo shoots and one idea to advance your professional career is to do an internship as a second photographer.

Become a professional photographer! Here are a couple of very interesting articles about training for photographers:

>> Training for photographers

>> Further training for photographers

Studio and photographic equipment to becoming a professional photographer

As well as acquiring extensive training and continuing with it throughout your career as a photographer, you also need to start building your business and the first step will be to get yourself some good photographic equipment. Here is some of the equipment you will need:

• Cameras.
• Batteries and memory cards.
• Objectives.
• Tripod.
• Lighting.
• Flash.
• Backpack.
• Studio material such as props, decorative elements, backdrops, etc.
• Computer.
• Etc.

Depending on the speciality you choose, this material may vary according to the needs of each type of photo shoot.

Another decision you need to think about is whether you want to open a photography studio or not. This will also be closely linked to the type of specialisation you choose, because there are certain types of reportage that do not require a studio open to the public, for example: landscape photography, sports photography or even wedding reportage.

On the other hand, there are other types of sessions, such as newborn sessions, where a studio will be essential to be able to set up a proper reportage.

If you are not going to use the studio 100%, you can also choose to rent one for certain reports or even offer your services at home.

Here are some more ideas for creating your own photo studio.

>> How to set up a photo studio?

Become a professional photographer and get your digital business up and running

Until a few years ago, setting up a photography studio was more than enough to keep the business afloat. But nowadays, photographers who don’t have a professional website and don’t advertise on social media have a really hard time keeping going.

In order to start a digital business, a number of aspects need to be taken into account, for example:

• Choose a good domain for photographers.
• Create a photography website.
• Find a way to sell your photographs on the Internet.
• Use social media to gain greater visibility.
• Learn SEO techniques to improve your Google ranking.
• Create advertisements to promote your campaigns.
• Etc.

Many of these actions you will also be able to delegate in the future, but in order to always have full control of your photography business, it is important that you have certain notions of each of them.

At Arcadina we offer you a series of business solutions for photographers that will allow you to create your digital business and live as a professional photographer. Here are some of our options.

Photography websites and blogs for image professionals

What do you need to be a photographer? In Arcadina we offer you the possibility of creating your own photography website without having to acquire technical knowledge of programming or having to rely on third parties. Our websites are very easy to customise and best of all, they are designed and adapted for professional photographers’ businesses.

These are some of the features that photographers who are already using them like the most and that will help you solve the “how much should a beginner photographer charge?” question.

• Unlimited image galleries with the possibility of enlarging photos to full screen.
• Pages to introduce yourself, explain your services visible in the main menu and with the possibility to send privately (hidden in the menu) a landing page with the information of your dossier to the clients.
• Various designs available for: website, galleries, blog, menu and homepage with all elements fully customisable.
• Simple and intuitive content editor with ready-to-use templates.
• Integration with Lightroom so you can directly upload your photos to the web.
• Possibility to create pop-up ads on the website to promote your discounts or promotions.
• Home page with the possibility of including shortcuts to the most important parts of your business.
• Photography blog integrated and adapted to photography businesses with the possibility of including image galleries in the articles.
• WhatsApp Business extra service to have a more direct communication with your customers and visitors.
• Etc.

If you think these are not enough reasons to trust us with your digital photography business, in the following article we give you even more reasons.

>> Why do you need to create a photography website if you are a photographer?

Public and private galleries to do business every day of the year

Our business section is the “jewel in the crown” and is why so many photographers choose to entrust us with their digital business. Thanks to the wide variety of private galleries (presentation, selection, download, sale and multiple), your clients will no longer have to come to your studio to view and collect their images. Thanks to our client galleries they will be able to carry out all the steps (selection, download and purchase of images) and even continue buying your products and services at any time and from their homes.

And with the sales galleries, you will be able to sell not only your photos, but also your products and photo shoots and have everything for sale at all times. Forget about being hung up on the phone all day taking orders and go for public sales galleries.

In the following article we explain 6 more advantages of creating an online photography business with us.

>> 6 advantages of having your own online photography business with Arcadina

With Arcadina, you have the possibility to use all our business solutions free of charge for 14 days. Would you like to try them?

Start now with Arcadina

Techniques for getting a job as a photographer

When it comes to getting a job as a photographer today, it is going to be very important that you get as much visibility as possible on the Internet.

You can use several techniques to help your customers find you, but ideally you should use a mix of all of them:

• Achieve a good positioning of your photography website.
• Publish articles on the blog with interesting information taking into account a series of keywords to reach your ideal customer prototype.
• Promote yourself on social networks.
• Create paid ads for major campaigns.
• Network. Meeting colleagues and sharing your experiences will help you to get new ideas and avoid making certain mistakes.

If you want more recommendations on how to get clients, in the following post we give you 11 tips.

>> 10+1 tips to get a job as a photographer

Start building your career as a professional photographer today

Photography is a very competitive industry and only if you become a professional photographer will you be able to make a living from it. Never stop training, buy quality equipment and take advantage of all the benefits you can get if you set up your own digital photography business. Learn to value your time and your profession as a photographer.

>> Is the profession of photographer valued today?

Today we want to share with you an interview with a great professional photographer. This is Manu Sáez.

>> “Arcadina is the member of our team who cares the most about our work”, Manu Sáez

And to say goodbye for today, let’s have one last question: How do you see your profession as a photographer in 5 years’ time? We’ll read you in the comments.

Headache for your photography business? Take an Arcadina

Headache for your photography business? Take an Arcadina

Fulfil your dream of becoming a professional photographer with the help of our business solutions. Now you can create a website and business for free for 14 days with no commitment of permanence.

Thanks to Arcadina’s business solutions for photographers, your business headaches will disappear.

If you have any queries, our Customer Service Team is always ready to help you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We listen to you.