Making Money in Photography

[RobbieKB]

So last month I decided I want to pursue what I love while I'm in a position to do so; namely photography. I've whittled my outgoing down and I've started cracking on. I've got 3 'companies' going: my photography, an old photo restoration service and a portrait website I've run for nearly 2 years. I've had a few jobs for both of the first 2 but -- as to be expected -- money is going to be tight for a while. So here's my question:

What are the ways you all make money from photography?

Apart from the above, I've got images on lots of stock websites (Getty, Alamy etc.), I've got a few images being used for greetings cards, I regularly check Imagebrief and I have images for sale for prints on 500px though I've only ever sold one.

Are there any other methods you guys have found effective? Even small amounts of money are useful at the moment as I can put it in to marketing.

[Simpo Two]

Before I put my feet up the revenue was about 90% from weddings, 10% from studio product photography.

I think that unless you are a fully-fledged professional commercial photographer, then the best way to make anything approaching a living wage is to do weddings - but it requires more skills than just taking photos.

[RobbieKB]

Simpo Two said:

Before I put my feet up the revenue was about 90% from weddings, 10% from studio product photography.

I think that unless you are a fully-fledged professional commercial photographer, then the best way to make anything approaching a living wage is to do weddings - but it requires more skills than just taking photos.

I've thought a lot about weddings and it is something I'm considering. It's just quite a daunting jump to make, doing your first wedding.

The dream is fully-fledged professional commercial photographer, which incidentally, will now be on my business card should I achieve that.

As it stands, I don't expect to make much money from photography directly quite yet and I'm instead trying to create multiple revenue streams. In fact, my restoration business is making more than my photography already. I just wondered if there were ways I hadn't thought of. Product photography is something I was also considering as it goes.

Thanks for the reply Simpo.

[FrankAbagnale]

I think there is a living to be made in property photography.

Working with estate agents to photo houses for their brochures etc.

Most use companies like "ehouse" whose end product is average but they're easy to work with/always available.

Go to local agents, offer them a call to vendors within an hour of request, guaranteed availability within 24 hours and same day turnaround on photography. You're then better, faster and probably as cost effective.

[Simpo Two]

RobbieKB said:

In fact, my restoration business is making more than my photography already.

It may be better to build the one that's going best already, rather than diversify into areas that may be less successful. Everybody wants to be a photographer but who can do restoration?

[sgrimshaw]

Simpo Two said:

Everybody wants to be a photographer but who can do restoration?

Probably a lot more than who could be photographers

All the skills for restoration can be learnt easily, to be a successful photographer (regardless of the type) you need creative talent.

[Drumroll]

Can't agree with that, creativity is one thing, but to make money particularly from commercial photography you need to be able to produce what the client wants.

[cteagles]

Throw yourself at it with everything you have. Contacts and networking are key. I currently make my money from Cars, weddings and assisting work.

Good luck!

[sgrimshaw]

Drumroll said:

Can't agree with that, creativity is one thing, but to make money particularly from commercial photography you need to be able to produce what the client wants.

Without some creative talent it's unlikely one could translate what the clients wants into something they're happy to pay for.

I'd argue that little or no creative talent is "required" for restoration work, it's more about the application of a set of tools.

ETA - no offence implied or intended to anyone who does restoration work, it's something I personally enjoy doing too.

Edited by sgrimshaw on Monday 7th September 17:26

[DibblyDobbler]

It will always just be a hobby for me but I wish you all the best Rob - you are definitely good enough

[tog]

Simpo Two said:

Before I put my feet up the revenue was about 90% from weddings, 10% from studio product photography.

I think that unless you are a fully-fledged professional commercial photographer, then the best way to make anything approaching a living wage is to do weddings - but it requires more skills than just taking photos.

To make a living from any sort of photography takes more skills than just taking photos. The picture taking is the easy bit – finding clients, keeping clients and running a business are the hard parts. Good luck!

[Simpo Two]

tog said:

To make a living from any sort of photography takes more skills than just taking photos. The picture taking is the easy bit – finding clients, keeping clients and running a business are the hard parts

+1. The marketing and sales came naturally to me as I'd done it for 15+ years, but for a PAYE type straight out of the hutch it could be a killer. One disadvantage of wedding work is that you only get one job per customer.

[RobbieKB]

FrankAbagnale said:

I think there is a living to be made in property photography.

Working with estate agents to photo houses for their brochures etc.

Most use companies like "ehouse" whose end product is average but they're easy to work with/always available.

Go to local agents, offer them a call to vendors within an hour of request, guaranteed availability within 24 hours and same day turnaround on photography. You're then better, faster and probably as cost effective.

Thank you for this advice -- I will do that.

cteagles said:

Throw yourself at it with everything you have. Contacts and networking are key. I currently make my money from Cars, weddings and assisting work.

Good luck!

Networking is certainly important and I'm doing what I can; it's an area I need to improve on.

DibblyDobbler said:

It will always just be a hobby for me but I wish you all the best Rob - you are definitely good enough

Thank you Mike. I said the same but I changed my mind.

Simpo Two said:

tog said:

To make a living from any sort of photography takes more skills than just taking photos. The picture taking is the easy bit – finding clients, keeping clients and running a business are the hard parts

+1. The marketing and sales came naturally to me as I'd done it for 15+ years, but for a PAYE type straight out of the hutch it could be a killer. One disadvantage of wedding work is that you only get one job per customer.

Absolutely. In fact, I've been reading and watching a lot on the business of photography and most successful photographers say it's 80-90% being good at business, 10-20% being good at photography. I'm reading a lot of business books and I come from a background of sales like you Simpo, albeit not as many years.


With regards to my restoration service, I guess it's a bit of both. It's technical skill but some of what I offer is more than just repair. For example, this is a recent piece of work I did:



Thanks for all the replies guys -- I appreciate it and I am taking it all on board.

[ExPat2B]

One thing that is available is becoming a Google Trusted Photographer. This means you can perform 360 business views for local shops, I think it going to be a big growth market with repeat business as shops update frontage, and its good networking to call the local businesses. Needs to be driven by yourself with cold calling, but not a bad start.

https://www.google.com/maps/about/partners/busines...

Google will put you through a training course and require certain canon equipment.

[maffski]

Can you shoot video? Quite a few websites these days are adding it.

Same with properties - for a nice place a video walk through can be very effective.

And what about drone photography/video - expensive to get into but I suspect there's money to be made in posh house sales and things like hotel marketing.

[RobDickinson]

maffski said:

Can you shoot video? Quite a few websites these days are adding it.

Same with properties - for a nice place a video walk through can be very effective.

And what about drone photography/video - expensive to get into but I suspect there's money to be made in posh house sales and things like hotel marketing.

To do video properly is a nightmare imo. You need a lot of kit and time and the skill to go with it. People are used to seeing very well produced and lit video skilfully shot all day and night on TV

The drone side of things is interesting but not sure where the legislation for commercial use is in the uk. a recent change in NZ has all but killed off the commercial aspects for now for most.

Rob good luck! I'm probably looking at doing the same in 2-3 years. Though in a different area as said marketing and business are skills you will need, which I dont have

[maffski]

RobDickinson said:

To do video properly is a nightmare imo. You need a lot of kit and time and the skill to go with it. People are used to seeing very well produced and lit video skilfully shot all day and night on TV

The drone side of things is interesting but not sure where the legislation for commercial use is in the uk. a recent change in NZ has all but killed off the commercial aspects for now for most.

Rob good luck! I'm probably looking at doing the same in 2-3 years. Though in a different area as said marketing and business are skills you will need, which I dont have

I don't do photography, I build websites mainly. In the past it was very rare for customers to want video on their site but it's a big growth area -

either background videos - for example http://www.matter.to/ or http://fernando.is/all-about/ (not my sites, just picked at random), or more general talking heads stuff.

Re drones - in the UK it's regulated by the CAA

[WillAron]

I remember asking the same kind of question a year ago pal. I was young and had lot to learn when it came to being a photographer and I still have more to learn.

All I can say is go for it if you really want to do it. Photography can be a fun and wonderful thing, but it can be tough when it comes to making money out of it or building a business. It won't happen overnight. The restoration work sounds good from what I'm hearing. There's no harm in doing both. Don't be afraid in doing so.

It is very difficult like many other things, but there are some great things that come out of it. Yes you do need to pay the bills, but as long as you enjoy doing what you want to do then that's the main part. It'll take time for money to come in but don't be disheartened with how long it'll take. I still have a part time job to keep me going whilst I'm doing photography as well as other things. However I don't mind and someday it'll change. When I don't know.

Another key thing is try not to let other people get you down. Have confidence with yourself and if anyone wants to criticise you then ignore it. That doesn't mean however to ignore advice people give to you, even if it does sound sour.

Hope this helps pal.

[Derek Smith]

maffski said:

I don't do photography, I build websites mainly. In the past it was very rare for customers to want video on their site but it's a big growth area -

either background videos - for example http://www.matter.to/ or http://fernando.is/all-about/ (not my sites, just picked at random), or more general talking heads stuff.

Re drones - in the UK it's regulated by the CAA

Got to say that video seems to be growing for lots of aspects of marketing. I've recently researched a series of articles on the use of video in email marketing - on the rise - and my eyes have been opened. Now might be the time to start establishing a presence.

[HewManHeMan]

At the risk of taking a monumental kicking from anybody who's actually done it, I'm reasonably confident I could take some entirely worthy pictures of a wedding. Lighting, composition, focus etc etc. All fine.

But orchestrating large groups for the shots... Not a chance. I'm just not someone people would listen to.

And it's the little things; at the last wedding I was at (as a guest, I'll add) the photographer asked everyone to blink on the 'two' on his count to three. Obviously reducing the chance of catching people sleeping... what a great idea! And one I'd forget if ever put in that position, to get that one great shot (also, the photographer was taking one or two photos per setup. If I take my camera anywhere, I can take two thousand photos and find ten worth editing and publishing)

That said, didn't stop me offering to shoot my mates wedding next year for fifty quid less than the pro his missus had in mind (£850 I was asking). He was all for it (as he was quite drunk) but she veto'd it the next day.