How to Make Money with Photography
Once I reached a certain level of competence, and now we are almost out of lock down, my first question was ‘how to make money with photography?’
When I look around me and see the tsunami of digital images on every platform known to man I despaired at making a living with my camera. However, I also see that my images are on par or better than the vast majority. At the same time I also see a constant flow of questions asking for help. Questions ranging from gear recommendations and photography to techniques through to post processing. hence this blog, where I aim to help fellow photographers.
What never seems to be addressed, without the risk of being scammed, is advice on how to make money from photography. I thought I might have a go at addressing that situation.
How to Make Money with Photography as a Freelance Photographer
Freelance photographers are self-employed photographers. They take projects from various organisations and other businesses and individuals on an ad-hoc basis. They are totally in control of their life, for their success and their failures.
Freelancers have the flexibility to choose what project they take. For example, it could be for a media company, a newspaper, an event, or a commercial shoot. They get paid by project/hour/day. To make money, freelance photographers have to market their work. It is important to have a strong portfolio and network to find new projects.
Which Type of Photography/Shoot Sells Best?
Selling your Photographs
There is no one kind of photograph that sells the most universally. It depends on where you are selling your images, which niche you are targeting, and who your customer is. More specifically, if you are selling on stock photography sites, there are a few categories that sell better than others.
For example, pictures of people doing everyday things, nature, animals, transport are especially popular. In addition, images of businessmen and women, electronics, and money are hugely in demand for businesses.
Selling your Studio Shoot
Most photographers who are just starting out and are just learning how to make money with photography, hardly any will have the funds to buy or rent a space in which to house their photo studio. They also struggle to find customers, especially those with any sort of budget. Those types of customer tend to use established photographers who have a track record of success. So what is the answer?
Shoot for Free
I know, I know, what am I talking about, shoot for free! But think about it, how many businesses might take a punt on you if you offer your services for free? Lots, that’s how many. If you do a good job you should get repeat business and recommendations.
Be a Second Lens
Offer your services as a second lens to an established wedding photographer. Charge him nothing but agree that you can use any images in your own portfolio. Not only do you learn from an established photographer, but you get your portfolio off the ground as well.
My suggestions for making money as a photographer in 2022
Here are a few ways a photographer can monetise his skill behind the lens. It doesn’t matter if you’re setting up a portfolio, or struggling to find the work you’re ready for. These suggestions should help you figure out how to make money with photography.
License Through Flickr & Getty Images
As I mentioned above there is a literal tsunami of digital images and as a result stock images have lost a lot of their value. However, that does not mean you shouldn’t submit yours.
Most of these stock agencies give you the opportunity to submit your images exclusively in return for a higher rate of pay.
Two of the most popular are Getty Images and Flikr. Personally I have not bothered with stock photography much following a conversation with a very successful travel photographer who visited our club to give a talk back in 2016. He reckoned that his earnings from stock images had dropped from a healthy £30,000 to just over £2,000 per year, and this was in a period of 12 months. At this point I decided that I wouldn’t be concentrating on stock for my income.
Unsplash
I upload images to Unsplash. I don’t get paid for the images but they are downloaded and used all over the world. I usually get credit as well.
This is the Unsplash home page.
These are my stats for the last 30 days on Unsplash.
Sell Prints Online Through Your Own Website
I have images on a few stock image platforms, although not that many for the reasons I explained above, and I even paid for a Smug site a couple of years ago, (outrageously expensive), but despite the dazzling marketing which promised mega sales, very few images actually sold. Well that could be due to you having crap images I hear you say! I would have agreed with you if I hadn’t built this site and started selling within a month or two of launching it.
Benefits of Having your Own Photography Website
I suspect that there are a few reasons why they are selling now and not before. The first is I am no longer competing with hundreds, if not thousands of photographers on the same platform, who are using the same tags, and copied content. I know for a fact that the more well known people band together and help each other rise up the internal site rankings by liking and sharing each others content to make sure no-one else gets a look in. Another reason is tag spam. How many times have you searched for a particular tag only to see totally irrelevant images appearing in the results.
I think the biggest reasons for my sales is that my site gets ranked for the content I put out every week. Google eats up properly researched and keyworded content like this post, and as a result I feature high in the SERP’s. Is it hard work? Is it relentless? Absolutely! Is it worth it? Absolutely 🙂
If you travel a lot and want to sell your travel images then setting up your own website could be the way to go. A blog on Tumblr or Blogger is okay but the problem there is that you are unable to sell your images through those platforms. Etsy isn’t really the right place either, nor is Amazon or eBay. If you need help setting up a site then please drop me a line and I will do what I can to help.
Creating a website
You could build your new site on one of those quick and easy platforms like Wix or 1-2-1 but these sites just make your site a sub domain or put the files into a folder. If you are not sure what a sub-domain is, her’s a quick explanation.
If you build a site on Wix the actual address is yoursite.wix.com [with wix being the main domain and yoursite being the sub domain.] If however it looks like this 1-2-1.com/yoursite/ [then they have put your site files into a folder.] Simple eh?
The main problem here is that it is the main domain which is getting ranked and not your sub domain. Plus it looks totally unprofessional to have a website address which isn’t yours, and that definitely won’t help your sales!
Take up Wedding Photography
A while ago I was doing wedding photography full time but then I started teaching and so I no longer had the time or motivation to spend all day Saturday shooting and another three days editing. However, that being said wedding photography is relatively good money if you aren’t precious about earning £100 an hour. I now do 4 or 5 a year, charge competitively, (or at least what I think I my time is worth), earn some shillings and have a lot of fun.
WARNING – wedding photography can be very stressful. Brides are not the most stable of creatures on their big day, so be prepared to go above and beyond to keep them happy. A happy couple equals a happy photographer.
Estate Agent Photography
Nice easy gig if you can get it, but with the advent of the digital camera most firms do it themselves. However, if you think you can bring something different to the table which they might see as a way to get a jump on their competition do not be afraid to approach them with your ideas. To be honest a lot of the try to do video but fail miserably so if you are happy to use your DSLR as a video camera this might offer up some work.
Assist Other Photographers
As discussed above.
Write a Blog
If you decide that your won website is the way to go then you should definitely be prepared to write a blog on a weekly/fortnightly/monthly basis. The search engines love new content which is relevant to your audience. Make sure you understand SEO and key wording to get the most from your words.
Start Teaching what You Know
I run workshops. They are mostly virtual because of Covid, but they are a good way to earn money. As a fully qualified teacher I find the workshops very satisfying and fairly easy compared to classes of 30 hormonal teenagers! The workshops I run are:
Develop your Photography Skills (this is the next step)
Learn Long Exposure Photography
Post Editing with Lightroom (CC or Classic)
Enter Photography Competitions
Entering competitions is a good way to get exposure.
Exhibitions
Running an exhibition in a local library or museum is a great way to get exposure. It might cost you a little bit of money but in the right location the payback in potential customers should make it worth it.
Wedding Fairs
Wedding fairs are OK but they are usually locked down by established photographers. It doesn’t stop me wandering around wearing my corporate clothing and handing out cards. Thi si really rewarding as it winds the established photographers who have paid a lot of money for their stands, up the wall!
Product Photography
Product photography is another good earner once you get a decent portfolio together. Once again offering to work for free is a good way to get some market share.
I talk about product photography in an article you can find here.
Share on Social Media
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest etc etc. Enough said.