Roadmap from amateur to professional photographer

Forgive me if this topic comes up often. I'm sure it does.

Look, I've caught this photography bug pretty bad. I am currently employed full time in a different field but have made a decision to practice photography professionally. I intend to continue the self-study that I've been doing in the coming year and practice a lot more. I have already started learning about the aspects of a business not related to photography, such as its organization, bookkeeping, marketing, etc., planning to start with a simple portrait studio and then evolving into the more demanding branches of photography.

I am thinking that the best approach is to first buy all the equipment that I will need and practice at home, then move the equipment into the studio when ready. I should probably register the business first and buy the equipment, so that any depreciation will count as an expense. I was also considering doing a lot of advertising before I switch to photography full time since this expense can counteract my income from my current job in 2011.

Now, I still have a long way to go but I do have knowledgeable people that I can consult - lawyer, accountant, pro photogs. But what I'm looking for from you is your experiences in this type of endeavor. Have you become a photographer professionally through self-study, practicing at home? Have you moved from a full time job into full time photography? What information did you wish you had before you became a pro?

This might sound bad but here goes. Try getting a part time job with one of those volume portrait studios. Yes I am serious. I know some of them output horrid stuff, but if you find one of the better ones and do their training and work there for a while you will learn so much about photographing people that if coupled with diligent practice with lighting and on your friends as well, you will be very well placed to start a portrait business within a year. (did you know you can even get creative with boring frontal light and white backgrounds? people offer so many possible permutations) Portrait photography can be difficult, lighting composition etc is pig easy and I could teach anyone within a couple of days, but quickly "connecting with" and getting the best expressions out of a range of different types of strangers can take a lot more practice. Who cares if you have a sharp well exposed, well composed, beautifully lit photo if it has an awkward expression or pose. It wont sell, no matter how sweet the bokeh.

Start photographing friends with whatever gear you already have, when you start consistantly getting photos that they love and that their mums love too, start practicing with lighting as well.

Marketing photography, especially portrait photography comes with its own challenges. please dont think offering a good product at a good price will do you any good. No matter what they say, noone wants that.

You really need to engage in some serious business planning. The approach you describe in your initial post seems to be 'winging it.' A business enterprise is a complex venture and needs to be planned systematically. Her is a paragraph from my book, The Real Business of Photograph.

"Step-by-Step Planning

There are six steps in dynamic business planning.

Research: getting the information you need.
Evaluate: determining which information to act upon.
Design: deciding how to carry out the required actions.
Implement: conducting operations to accomplish your plan.
Review: evaluating operational success and making changes as needed.
Adjust: redesigning operations to implement the changes needed.

Steps 5 and 6 are repeated periodically until either you reach your destination, or you determine that the course is not going to get you there and you abandon the plan."

Referring tot he first step, do you have adequate information about the portrait photography business to set up an operation. For example, do you know what average sale you will have to make based upon the number of sales you can make in a year to meet your expenses? Probably not.

Your thoughts about deducting initial expenses are good ones, but deductions don't mean much in the long run unless you have revenues to offset them Focus on your prospective revenue stream to assess viability before you expend money to save taxes.

--
Richard Weisgrau
http://www.weisgrau.com
Author of
The Real Business of Photography
The Photographer's Guide to Negotiating
Selling Your Photography
Licensing Photography

Andrew said:

This might sound bad but here goes. Try getting a part time job with one of those volume portrait studios. Yes I am serious. I know some of them output horrid stuff, but if you find one of the better ones and do their training and work there for a while you will learn so much about photographing people that if coupled with diligent practice with lighting and on your friends as well, you will be very well placed to start a portrait business within a year.

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This is a great suggestion. In fact, I have been thinking about doing that for a while now.

Andrew64673 said:

Marketing photography, especially portrait photography comes with its own challenges. please dont think offering a good product at a good price will do you any good. No matter what they say, noone wants that.

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I follow you somewhat here, but I'm not sure what you mean by "noone wants that".

Thank you for your input. I appreciate it Andrew.
--
Freeze and I'll shoot!

Wow, that is quite a loaded question and one that I will not even attempt to fully answer. But I will say that I was once in the very same position and had I just made the jump, I would probably have failed miserably. My advice is to keep your job and work with some professionals as an assistant or a second shooter. You will learn more than you think possible with every job. Gather the equipment you need now while you have some income because you may go many months struggling just to pay rent on a studio. My career did not really start to get real traction until I took some workshops to really learn some advanced skills with lighting etc. The pros work hard to get clients and they will not let them go without a fight so don't think that it comes easily - well, it did not for me. BTW, I did have a job for years before I dove into it full time. I do not intend to discourage you because it is the most interesting and fun job I could ever wish for, but give yourself time to grow into it. Honestly, had a couple of things not gone my way when I was getting started, I would have been derailed and perhaps never recovered.

research yes, especially market research. How many people are looking for what type of portrait photography and what are they prepared to pay and what is the competition like for product, price, service and how much competition is in your area.

This is crucial, though it is a step left undone by many start up businesses. It is a little more complicated for domestic portrait photography than weddings. You will likely need to market to those not actively looking to buy because portraits usually have no date attached, they are a "someday" purchase. (exceptions being newborns, anniversaries etc)

frugivore said:

frugivore said:

Marketing photography, especially portrait photography comes with its own challenges. please dont think offering a good product at a good price will do you any good. No matter what they say, noone wants that.

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I follow you somewhat here, but I'm not sure what you mean by "noone wants that".

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What I mean is you either have to have a really standout product or an insanely cheap product (probably free, dont laugh this can work in some markets as long as you have something really desirable to sell them as well). good value for money does not cut it as a market position for this type of luxury goods/service

Richard Weisgrau said:

You really need to engage in some serious business planning. The approach you describe in your initial post seems to be 'winging it.' A business enterprise is a complex venture and needs to be planned systematically.

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Richard, you're absolutely right about how my approach appears. I re-read my post and it very much seems like a "hey, I think I'll be a photographer today" post. I understand that random effort like this would lead to failure. And I know that planning is essential to achieving any goal. I fully intend to codify all my goals, plans, targets, etc. in great detail.

Richard Weisgrau said:

Your thoughts about deducting initial expenses are good ones, but deductions don't mean much in the long run unless you have revenues to offset them Focus on your prospective revenue stream to assess viability before you expend money to save taxes.

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Yes, I'm with you on this point as well. An organization must make all this planning into reality. Yes, deductions like those I've mentioned will not make my business succeed, but I think it is something that I should do while I am still employed and paying taxes now, to offset the income tax I'm paying. When I switch professions, this can no longer be done.

In any case, I didn't want to get long winded with my post but there is much more to my plan.

Thanks for the input Richard!

--
Freeze and I'll shoot!

The good news is you are thinking, and asking questions.

A lot of people don't know what a portrait is.

If you want to run a portrait studio, you should know.

There's a very broad range of pictures that count as portraits -- which part of that range do you want? Middle-aged women intheir underwear? Younger woemn? Babies on blankets? Entire families wearing white shirts and blue jeans? Heads andshoulders with names printed under them, for theatre lobbies and stage production programs?

Grandma and Grandpa on theri 50th anniversary?

Mom and the kjids, to sit on dad's desk in the law firm office on the 42nd floor?

What country and what part of that country? The market for portraits varies tremendously.

How maqny of your clients do you want to come to you, and how many will you go to see in their home, office,factory?

When are people free where you are? Can you take pictures between 9 - 5 Monday to Friday, or are all your prospects at work? How will you cover your rent for all the time you do not use your studio? What else can you dothere during the day? Picture framing?

Do you want to take portraits paid for with personal cheques, or company cheques?

EQUIPMENT -- there seems to bo, on this forum, completely irrational thoughts about what equipment is needed to take a portrait, not withstanding what kind of portrait it is.

Do not buy what you do not need.

BAK

The path you follow depends on where you want to go....

If you want to go into a high end magazine or advertising work then you need to think about a photographic degree followed by a period assisting...

If you want to start your own general freelance local studio type of thing then you need to be thinking about a business plan and working on your general skills...

If you want to work in editorial/journalism then you need to be reading all the newspapers and magazines and loooking for local opportunities to sell material into the local papers, build your skills and try to get freelance shift...

So, its as long as your arm....

One suggestion I would make, were you will a) make some money, B) travel, C) get good skills in sales and post production and work ethics... very quickly... is Working in the Cruise ships...

I know several guys who started this way... and its a good kick up the bottom!

General points;

1) Really know photoshop.
2) Take some training in running a small business.
3) Get some video skills...
4) Dont be lazy, be prepared to relocate to anywere to get work.
5) Dont be afraid of critiscm.

--
http://www.pageonephotography.co.uk
Striving hard to be the man that my dog thinks I am.

A lot of people think that because they love photography deeply, that they would be happier if they were a professional than continuing with their current amateur status.

The thing is, there is so much more to being a professional photographer than just loving photography. It is very demanding in terms of people skills, marketing and sales ability, business acumen and discipline, and deep knowledge of and love for the specific area of work you practice in. Superb photographic skills are just the price of entry -- they're a given. The things that really determine success or failure are much harder.

I honestly don't know why so many jump to the the conclusion that pro photography is a logical step -- people love to travel internationally, but few decide that they would like to do it as a pro. Same with mountain climbing, or boating, just to name a couple of pursuits.

I think before you make the leap, you need to spend a couple of weeks with a professional photographer -- and preferably two or three of them working in very different areas. See how they actually spend their time, what skills and attributes they bring to the table, and at the end be honest with yourself if this is something you really want and think you have the stuff for.

I think for most people, holding down a job in another profession, and having the freedom to enjoy photography on your own terms as an advanced amateur is a far better choice in terms of long-term happiness, than entering the demanding, ogten brutal world of pro photography.

To put it simply, I only recommend professional photography for those very few of us who simply can't imagine doing ANYTHING else. Only if you would rather starve as a photographer than prosper as a lawyer, accountant or whatever, should you even consider this for more than a moment.

Finally, the area you say you want to start in, "small portrait studio," is probably the most oversaturated, underpaid area of photography. The relative ease of entry into that area of business means that the market is completely saturated, and your failure is almost guaranteed. If you must do this, look harder at the industry, and try to find a niche that is less saturated.

Finally, if you must do this, you need enough money in the bank to support yourself for at least two years. For most photographers, if they are honest with themselves, it takes three years to do better than break even. If you don't have the cash in hand, don't do it.

Best,
Paul
http://upstatephotographers.com
http://albanyheadshots.com
http://www.facebook.com/upstatephotographers

BAK said:

If you want to run a portrait studio, you should know.

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Agreed. It's shocking to discover people unable to define their occupation or field of work.

BAK said:

There's a very broad range of pictures that count as portraits -- which part of that range do you want?

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...

BAK said:

What country and what part of that country? The market for portraits varies tremendously.

How maqny of your clients do you want to come to you, and how many will you go to see in their home, office,factory?

When are people free where you are? Can you take pictures between 9 - 5 Monday to Friday, or are all your prospects at work? How will you cover your rent for all the time you do not use your studio? What else can you dothere during the day? Picture framing?

Do you want to take portraits paid for with personal cheques, or company cheques?

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So many good questions, all related to how I must be organized to succeed. You are probably accustomed to people being focused completely on the technical aspect of photography and, as you mention below, equipment.

BAK said:

Do not buy what you do not need.

BAK

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Thanks for taking the time to help Brian. Ansel Adams talked about this topic all the time. I think that if you can't take great photos with a Holga, you can't take them with a Hasselblad. Hmm, there's an idea... "Holga Portrait Studio"
--
Freeze and I'll shoot!

Paul Grupp said:

I honestly don't know why so many jump to the the conclusion that pro photography is a logical step -- people love to travel internationally, but few decide that they would like to do it as a pro. Same with mountain climbing, or boating, just to name a couple of pursuits.

I think before you make the leap, you need to spend a couple of weeks with a professional photographer -- and preferably two or three of them working in very different areas. See how they actually spend their time, what skills and attributes they bring to the table, and at the end be honest with yourself if this is something you really want and think you have the stuff for.

I think for most people, holding down a job in another profession, and having the freedom to enjoy photography on your own terms as an advanced amateur is a far better choice in terms of long-term happiness, than entering the demanding, ogten brutal world of pro photography.

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Good points. It's like "I like to cook, so I'm quitting to go be a chef - what spatulas do I need? "

Looks like you know the area of specialty you want to enter and that you want to own the business (as opposed to getting a job working for someone else).

OK - then you need to learn the photography part of it first. There is book smart and there is experience. Booksmart you can learn many ways (internet, books, videos, etc) but experience is what you'll need to work with clients and the only way to get experience is to well, experience it.

So join your local PPA / pro org and attend their events. Network. To spend a week at some PPA schools. You'll learn more in a week or two than years spent here or with your head in a book. Make friend with experienced pros and assist, watch, learn, second shoot if they'll let you. You need to do this anyway and while it's tempting to put an ad on CL and sell your soul for $20 a session to get a portfolio and experience you are the blind leading the blind and building a reputation of being cheap and a portfolio that isn't worthy of a pro. shooting some know-nothing model in an alley for experience is a waste of your time.

Second, you need to learn the business side of things.

Marketing and sales bring in the clients for you to shoot. Do this wrong and you won't get the right clients or enough of them - and you'll fail.

Products and pricing (style of what you shoot, what you physically sell, what you charge, your vendors, workflow, etc) are in this category.

Office - accounting, budgets, planning, taxes, legal paperwork, biz license, name, insurance, etc sit here.

gear - working with the pros, developing a style, your 'product' will determine what gear you need.

Now at some point you need to do a business plan - it can be as detailed or broad stroke as you'd like.

First, who is your ideal customer? Who is your competition for that customer? What does that customer buy and want? What can you offer them as your 'unique selling proposition' - the Why should they come to you and not where they've been going for years issue- if you can't clearly answer this you will have major issues getting customers to come to you.

So now do some simple math - $300 avg sale, takes 4 hours to do that sale, you want to make $40,000 income and COGS is 23% of sales - etc - and you get to the answer that you need 300 sessions a year (or whatever those numbers work out to be). Remember this is a seasonal business for the most part. Babies/kids are not so much, but everything else is. If 70% of your sales are in a 2 1/2 month time frame can you physically do the work that needs done? (you can't shoot 20 weddings in 10 weeks as 80% of weddings are on saturdays. 75% of family portraits are done in november and they want the results for christmas, baseball leagues all want pics at the last saturday in april, etc)

You now have a plan - a goal and a way to measure you progress toward it.

--
If I knew how to take a good picture I'd do it every time.

I love this idea!

Now to sell it....'spend a week at 'pro photo camp!' - kinda like spacecamp is for kids that dream of being astronauts!

No pro wannabe would like it most weeks...I spent last week spending money and working on a bridal show booth and recovering from a root/boot virus on the office computer, attending a sports league meeting till 10 pm and basically working all 7 days including the bridal show yesterday.

This week it's follow up with those brides and working on albums that were ordered in december, clean the studio, deal with an auditor from the state workers insurance fund and preparing for a 6" snow fall (gotta keep the driveway/walk clear for deliveries and customer pickups, bridal meets, etc). The evenings will be spent calling sports leagues and trying to sign up some senior reps (and getting last year's reps to replace themselves).

Cashflow for the month so far is negative and payroll needs run tomorrow (for my assistant that helped at the bridal show).

Oh, you thought being as professional photographer was about taking pictures ? OK, I do have a 1 year old booked for a session this month. And so far that's all I'll be shooting in January. To be fair last week I booked that kid, a family session, a commercial session, the sports league and a wedding plus made contact with a few other prospects 'for when the weather breaks'.

So you want my job? Really?

Paul Grupp said:

I think before you make the leap, you need to spend a couple of weeks with a professional photographer -- and preferably two or three of them working in very different areas. See how they actually spend their time, what skills and attributes they bring to the table, and at the end be honest with yourself if this is something you really want and think you have the stuff for.

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I am an advanced amature, I have been very involved in photograpy for over forty years. I thought I would like to make a part time proffesion out of photography. The local lab which has the only studio in town and does all the work for the schools, grade school through colege, sports, portrait etc, offered me a position as a secound shooter just based on the quality of my work which I have had them print for several years.

Well after eight months I decided it really wasn't what I wanted to do. Especially after coming home from some of the fraternity party shoots smelling like a distillery, and trying to clean booze of my gear. I did enjoy the sports shooting, but the portraits were a real bore to me just trying to get all the kids lined up and run through for photos. I did have an assitant that helped plus the shop owner and his assistant.

I thankfully didn't quit my job. I don't think I have what it takes to make a five or six figures income with photography. As they say it was work, not fun any more.

I am now back to just a hobbiest that sells a few widlife and a few landscapes a month, and really enjoy myself again.

Don't quit yourr job untill you are sure this is what you want to do, and are making enough income that you can live off of.

Start by makeing a home studio instead of paying rent, untill you are established.
Good luck
Dennis

You are like many other people who buys the best of the best and then when you decide photography is not for you, you are stuck with expensive gear and want to unload it. Take it from someone who has been in professional photography since 1982.

Start off simple. You do not need a fancy $5,000 camera plus more expensive accessories to start your business. Once you start generating income, sock away the majority of your profits (I socked away 80%) of my profits the first few years of being paid for assignments.

Upgrade slowly and think about the purchases you are making. You do not need a whole wide range of lenses. Just a few and it does not have to be new. I worked with older cameras to generate income. When I saved enough I bought one new camera body and used used lenses.

When the cash flow is running smoothly, you can start accumulating additional back up bodies and few professional lenses. Within 5 years, I had about 4-5 back up bodies and a few high end professional lenses (Canon). I also bought new lighting equipment (Speedotron).

I rented a studio when needed. But when my studio time increased, that is when I decided I had to have a studio of my own. I rented a commerical space at a local commercial center and based my jobs out of that site. This was after 15 years in the business. By that time I was making a six-digit figure each year and socked away a huge portion of my profits because I wanted to open my own commerical custom lab.

Around 1998 I did that. I put down a chunk of cash for my current location plus cash for several digital processors. BUT I did that after doing my homework and creating a detailed business plan that I had a professional consultant look over. I had all my demographics and clients in place before I spent money on my commerical building and equipment.

If I had to do this all today, I would not get into the business because printing is a dying breed. I am lucky I have the clientel to more than sustain my business. My mortgage is almost paid off and I have only 12 more payments on my digital printers and it is all mine.

Just make sure this business will be sustainable for you and you will not lose interest. Why? I have witnessed so many people in your position fail. They open a store front only to see it fail within 12-18 months. It failed because they did not do their homework!

frugivore said:

I should probably register the business first and buy the equipment, so that any depreciation will count as an expense. I was also considering doing a lot of advertising before I switch to photography full time since this expense can counteract my income from my current job in 2011.

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That all sounds like a good plan, but make sure you do the research before "registering the business," particularly if you have no income yet. Yes, it's great to be able to deduct the expense of your equipment off your taxes. However, the local and federal groups will try everything they can to take whatever they can as soon as you turn it into a business. I had to pay over $150 just to apply to the zoning meeting to be able to conduct "business" in my house. No, I don't have customers coming by on a regular basis - but the local gov't doesn't care. On top of that was a $125 city license + a county license. Then, you have to start keeping track of equipment for annual "business property taxes" - oh, joy. Oh, and we forgot about $600 in business and liability insurance - since your homeowners policy no longer covers your equipment now that you are a business. It's amazing how quick all that crap adds up!

If you have an income from photography, then yes, set up a business so that you can keep as much as you can. Just don't be surprised at the avenues other folks like the gov't have for getting way more of that pie than you at first realize! Why do you think so many businesses fail in the first few years?

Look at starting a photography studio like starting any other business.

If I asked you to invest $30k to 50k in a pizza shop, hair salon, oil change biz, sign shop - or anything else, would you do it? Not without doing some research, huh?

You're biggest question would probably be - how much will I make? What will I lose if it fails? What are the odds of making money vs it failing?

OK, now would you hand that money over to someone to open a restaurant when they've only ever cooked at home? Probably not because you know they have no experience or knowledge on starting a business or running a restaurant.

OK, so you've taken pictures as a hobbyist but have never started a business, run a business (more than just manage employees because that skill isn't very useful in a one man biz...), worked in the industry doing what you plan to do. So why do you think you're chances of succeeding are any better than the cook outlined above?

Lastly, are you willing to make the sacrifices necessary to succeed? Money is one thing (spend and invest and take no pay) but time is the bigger thing - you can plan to spend 100 hours a week for the next 5 years to see your baby grow into a self-sustaining enterprise.

Read up on starting a biz, being an entrepreneur and similar subjects before making a final decision if this is really what you want to do. Go talk to small business owners in your community -restaurant, dry cleaner, construction, lawn care and the like about how they started and what it's like to really own your own business instead of getting a paycheck from someone else.
--
If I knew how to take a good picture I'd do it every time.

Paul has offered some of the best -- that is, most accurate -- insight yet in this thread. (read below)

Here's a sobering task. May take a few hours, but will save lots of trouble in the long run:

Go back about five years in this forum. Look for posts similar to yours... portrait photography, wedding photography, stock photography, etc. Don't worry, you don't have to read every post in the thread... much of it will be identical to this one. What you need to do is follow up on the original poster. What are they doing today? Are they still around? Is their website still active? A couple may be. But the VAST majority, I think you will find, are no longer pursuing photography professionally. Why? Because it's the easiest field in the world to become a "professional", and the also the easiest one at which to fail.

Photography is seductive. It's the art of creation. We love the process of creation. We love seeing our work come into being. And then someone compliments us on our work. It's like a drug. There's lots of cool gadgets and technical mumbo jumbo and sophisticated equipment and so forth.

But part of the problem is, as Paul points out, the utter oversaturation of the particular area in which you are interested. You see, TONS of people get the photography bug. And they want both the self-gratification and the approval/admiration of others that is such that is that "drug". But things like photographed buildings and landscapes can't praise you for making them look so great. Only people can. And so, many photographers are drawn to photographing people. And people want themselves and the the things they do photographed. Next thing you know, another "pro" is born. And another. And another. And another.

Here's another experiment: Find an old phone book. Again, one from the about five years ago. Look up the photography/portraits/weddings section in the yellow pages and start calling. How many are still in business? (Remember, these are the often the more serious photographers.) You might expect to find one for every 10K people in the local population. I think you might discover that the average turnover rate is about 1-2 years. Rare is the one who makes a fulltime living at it successfully. And for portraits, rarer still is the one who makes what we might call good money.

Becoming a pro because you love photography isn't really the best reason to do it. That love will cloud your judgment and distort reality. It'll convince you that you need a 1D IV and a 24-70 L with 600ws strobes and pocket wizards to take elementary school yearbook headshots, (My 1DsII came from a studio that opened and close within a year. Bought it for 1/4 of the original price. They sunk a TON of money into that business only to get out as quickly as possible when their lease came up for renewal.)

No, you've got to love BUSINESS to make it these days. And a person who loves business is going to tell the person who loves photography "Hey... that new Nikon you're drooling over from dpreview... forget it, because we don't need it and you can't afford it!" That business lover will tell you that you've got to spend more time with marketing than actually shooting, and that you can't give away free prints because the client is a friend of a friend of the nephew of your cousin who was going to get his seniors done at Lifetouch, but heard that you were in business. And the business side will cringe every time he sees a soccer mom with a new Canon Rebel and networking opportunities you can only dream about advertising the exact same type of service as you (minus the quality, but that doesn't matter) for next to nothing. And there's five more just down the block where she came from!

Sobering stuff, I hope. Not discouraging you. Just keeping it real. If you're still here, though, maybe you've got the drive to make it.

Just don't lose that day job for a while!

Paul Grupp said:

Finally, the area you say you want to start in, "small portrait studio," is probably the most oversaturated, underpaid area of photography. The relative ease of entry into that area of business means that the market is completely saturated, and your failure is almost guaranteed. If you must do this, look harder at the industry, and try to find a niche that is less saturated.

Finally, if you must do this, you need enough money in the bank to support yourself for at least two years. For most photographers, if they are honest with themselves, it takes three years to do better than break even. If you don't have the cash in hand, don't do it.

Best,
Paul
http://upstatephotographers.com
http://albanyheadshots.com
http://www.facebook.com/upstatephotographers

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--
Michael Thomas Mitchell