How to become a freelance photographer

travel photographer

Today more and more people, especially digital nomads, become interested in photography and for this purpose spend thousands of dollars on a more or less decent Digital SLR. The reason is simple: the nomadic way of life, which entails moving from country to country and reaching the farthest corners of the globe, gives them an excellent opportunity to take natural and the most astonishing shots, thus making extra $$$ from selling them.  

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Laozi. 

Of Course, even the greatest talents used to be amateurs once. So the second step in becoming a freelance photographer is enrolling in a professional school of photographers (or at least finding a tutor). In fact, this is exactly what I did.

On the one hand, it seems that there is nothing complicated: a smart camera will do almost all the work for you, you will only have to select successful shots. But reality has proven that such method is suitable only in case you are planning to earn by selling pictures on photo banks. If you are aimed to develop as a photographer and start making real money in this craft, you should prepare not only for long-term training but also some financial costs.

For a better understanding of this issue, I turned to an old friend who earns on custom photography and today I’d like to share all my experience with you guys and all those having a strong desire to learn more about the freelance photography.

What does a freelance photographer need?

photo gear

Whether you are self-taught or have passed individual photography courses, your future work depends entirely on the quality of gear you use and its diversity. You may have a talent in photography and you do surprisingly stunning pictures, but if you shoot on "point-and-shoot" camera — do not rush to call yourself a photographer. In order to start a career, you must have at least an Amateur SLR camera, such as Nikon D3300 or D5500. The cost of such cameras varies from $300 to $500 and many are sold with some sort of lens, which is very convenient and cost-effective.

The cameras of an average segment, which value starts from $700, include semi-professional devices such as the Nikon D7200. Well, professional DSLR cameras prices start at $1000 and higher. I should note that such cameras are sold mainly without a lens, so you would need to buy a decent one.

In addition to the camera, even a novice photographer should stock up on a minimum set of necessary things. First of all, these are interchangeable lenses, at least portrait and wide-angle. Also, you will need filters, a tripod, lens hood, flash, and bag.

Soft:

The photo editing takes about 60-80% of the time. You can skip the research phase, partially automate the loading process, but you can't escape the processing.

For processing the photos check out which is the best photo editing software presented at the market.

I guess you have already managed to calculate approximate financial expenses, haven't you? But before you faint, let's talk about our primary goal – potential profit.

What are the rates?

Like any freelancer, the photographer entirely depends on the number of orders and prices. As a rule, a specialist has an hourly wage, and its size is based on his or her experience and quality of the pics made.

Novice photographers, having no reviews and recommendations, working with Amateur gear, take about $10 per hour. The pro freelancers who are engaged in photography for the last 5-10 years and have an impressive portfolio and have necessary skills set for instance adobe photoshop cc, quickly call the price from $20-$30 per hour of their work.

It worth to be mentioned that professionals can have only a few orders per month, while "newbies" can take projects every day. Meanwhile, do not forget that you can estimate a fixed payment for the day of work. And that's a whole new level.

So, the size of the photographer's fee depends on the following factors:

- Quality of equipment: the better it is, the higher your prices.

- Availability of professional portfolio, reviews and recommendations.

- Financial capabilities of the client. Wealthy customers can pay much more for the same level of work. Just give them what they expect.

In all other respects, the work depends only on the specialist. At the same time, everyone needs to correctly assess their capabilities and strength. You could probably think that you can easily run a 7-8 hours photo marathon having money on your mind. However, the reality is much more complicated.

So what you can shoot?

traveler take photos

The most common service among freelance photographers is wedding photography. Anyway, people don't stop getting married. Moreover, the "just married" couples don't expect to get something like this, but a professional photo session, which will be a vivid memory of this beautiful day. If you have enough creativity and talent, you will not be difficult to fulfill someone's dream. A greater part of wedding photos is those made especially for a bride so be sure to think over some cool photo story and learn basic female poses just not to screw up your first wedding photo session.  In addition, the prices for wedding shooting are very generous. For example, my friend for a couple of hours running around with the bride and groom gets about $3000. Given that he has such marathons every weekend, it is not so difficult to calculate his approximate income per month.

Another variant is selling photos to photo stocks, travel magazines and sites. Let's imagine you are a freelancer traveling the world working from coworking spaces and have a few hours free that you can spend on shooting and further photo editing.

Your stock portfolio should consist of no less than 90% of the travel-related photos made while traveling. It is no secret that the lion's share of freelance photographers' earnings falls on travel photos: sights, national parks, traditional clothes, etc.

The easiest way is to shoot backgrounds and textures — there are plenty of them around: wood, grains, stones, tiles, sand... But it's not as good as the story photos. Best selling photos are photos with people, but not just "girl under a bush” or "boy in a hat", but the story which reveals a certain theme of the picture.  

How to negotiate with customers and photo stocks?

Unlike most freelancers, photographers are always in contact with their clients, thus it is necessary to clarify every single detail before shooting. Also, to prevent confusion, you should reach an agreement on the provision of services with the client. It is necessary to strictly adhere to the requirements. If we talk about the photos, the client receives 50-70 pictures per hour, a third of which are fully processed in picture enhancer, and the rest have been processed in – line-color, contrast, cropping. In addition, you'd have to agree that half of the amount will be paid after the shooting, and the second part at the time of transfer to the client ready photos.

If we talk about selling photos to stocks, there are some pitfalls you should be aware of!

The most common causes of rejecting photos are the noise from the high iso, blur, and intellectual property.

Intellectual property is most often concerns architecture and sights because you need the permission of the copyright owner to shoot.

Usually, photos are rejected because of "Title/Keyword Trademark — Title and/or keywords content trademark issues” — when you use the trademark in the description. For example, “Fortress of Klis” where "Game of Thrones” series was filming or Panorama of Kuala Lumpur City Centre with Petronas towers in the left corner.

All these subtleties understand already in the process of working with photo stock.

Earnings on photo stocks can hardly be called passive income. To make money, you need to follow trends, look for new topics, analyze the market, try something new. Once I talked to the guys-stokers, who tried to break through the "dead zone" (their pics were continuously rejected) for two years. Two years Carl!

To put it in a nutshell,

Freelance photography is not an easy job. On the one hand, it may seem that there is nothing complicated: take pictures, upload, get money. But delving into the details, you know what layer of work remains hidden from the eyes. If you are ready to work, you will be able to overcome all difficulties and earn on drains, having punched a "dead zone" good Luck!

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