Photography is a wonderful career path to head down, capturing memories for your clients whether that’s something as special as a wedding day or at corporate business events.
Developing your career as a photographer though takes time and more importantly, it takes talent. If you don’t have that core talent as a photographer and that creative eye, then it’s much harder to make it within the industry.
Here are some helpful tips for developing your career as a photographer this year.
Look at mastering the basics of photography
First and foremost, you want to master the basics of photography. This is important because it’ll give you the core skillset and knowledge needed to start off in the industry.
Mastering the basics means taking some photography courses and assessing what you currently have as a photographer. Perhaps you’ve only got a basic camera and your phone for taking photos. If that’s the case then you definitely want to upgrade your kit.
Knowledge-wise, it’s good to know more about the camera equipment and how you use every single feature that this modern camera equipment nowadays has available.
You also want to understand what niches you could explore and how you could go about developing your experience through these classes. There are free courses but you might want to look at investing into more of the complex class types.
Start networking and offering shoots to people you know
Networking is a great way to develop your career, especially as it can set you up with your first clients.
Any industry involves networking and when you’re trying to become a photographer, you’re relying a lot on word of mouth. Therefore, it’s important to try and network as best as you can, offering shoots to people you know or at least piquing their interest.
There are a lot of photographer events that you can attend and you can create connections. You may also want to consider events where there are businesses that may be actively looking for photographers. Whatever your niche may be, there are plenty of opportunities where you can acquire work through networking.
If you’re not a confident networker, then this is something that will just take you jumping in with both feet and faking it until you naturally have that confidence needed.
Use new technology like drones for epic shots
There is a lot of technology out there and when it comes to developing your career and skills as a photographer, using new tech can certainly help. For example, drones are being used a lot by photographers nowadays to get epic shots that they wouldn’t have otherwise managed to achieve.
For example, the Mavic 3 Multispectral is a great option for drone footage, especially as it’s one of the best on the market currently. Imagine shooting a corporate event or even an outdoor wedding and capturing some epic shots from an eagle-eye perspective.
There’s a lot of technology out there and once you’ve established yourself, you should be finding ways to reinvest into your business as a photographer. Trying out drones is a great way to widen your portfolio of shots.
Get business cards and create a website
To help with promoting your photography, it’s worthwhile getting business cards and creating a website. You may find that by attending the shoots of clients, you’re getting other people coming up to you and enquiring. That’s why it’s essential to have business cards that you can hand out freely.
Nowadays, you’ve also got the benefit of the internet where your business could be seen by anyone in your own geographic or beyond. With that in mind, if you haven’t already got a business website, now is the time to get one.
A business website is a great way to showcase your work and get yourself out there for everyone to see. Everything you put on your website and the keywords you use will influence whether your website is seen by the right people or not.
Therefore, make sure you’re working with an SEO expert to help ensure your photography website ranks high and reaches the people who will want to book you as their photographer.
Utilize social media to showcase your work
Social media is definitely a wonderful tool to make use of when it comes to showcasing your work. While your website might be one form of media, there are multiple social media platforms that could be highly effective to use when developing your career.
The picture-heavy platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, for example, are three platforms to make use of as a photographer. You can also use Snapchat and TikTok too. It’s worth claiming all of the social media platforms that you think may help your photography business, even if you don’t intend to use them just yet.
By claiming your name on the platform, it means you don’t need to worry about anyone trying to imitate or copy you.
Invest in the right camera equipment
Camera equipment is important to look at when it comes to developing your career as a photographer. While editing software is equally important, the photos you take need to be coming out in the best quality possible.
While you might not be able to start out with the most expensive equipment, it’s important to invest in the best equipment you can.
Take a look at the current camera and photography market, scope out the camera equipment you need, and make sure to read the reviews. Don’t forget about camera accessories too, especially lighting equipment that you might need in order to capture those all-important photos that might not be in the best-lit areas.
Of course, you don’t want to be purchasing so much that you don’t have the ability to carry it around yourself. However, there’s nothing wrong with having plenty of choices that you can switch between depending on the job you’re on.
Work with other photographers on events or shoots
When it comes to shooting at events or photoshoots in general, don’t dismiss the idea of working with other photographers. Chances are that might be the case for some jobs you work on.
However, it’s worth connecting and networking with other photographers. Why? Well, for the wedding industry, it’s very common for wedding couples to request two or even more photographers.
While the main photographer may be getting the majority of the cut, they may need to outsource second or third photographers. With that being said, they’ll want to use people they trust and know personally. Having connections with photographers could, in turn, get you more work!
Explore a specific niche
There are plenty of areas in which you could specialize when it comes to developing your career as a photographer. If you’re someone who loves shooting for weddings, for example, you might find that you want to dip your feet fully into this area of photography.
Otherwise, you might find that corporate event shooting is more your cup of tea. Every photographer is different so it’s important to find a niche that you enjoy or multiple niches that you could specialize in as a photographer.
You can connect multiple niches together but you may want to keep these separate when promoting them. That way, you’re maximizing the potential reach you could have when advertising each service in a singular fashion.
Ask for reviews and testimonials
When you’ve completed work for your clients, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. This is important as it can help you better your services, even if you feel there’s not much that you could improve. It’s worth asking for reviews and testimonials from satisfied clients. That way, you can advertise these freely online without any worries.
Asking for reviews and testimonials may seem daunting, especially as it can sometimes come with criticism. However, you won’t improve or acquire more work if you don’t show evidence of previous clients and customers of your photography.
Once you’ve started acquiring reviews and testimonials online, it’s good to start sharing these as promotional ads for your business.
Always be willing to learn
A willingness and eagerness to learn is something that is crucial to have when it comes to developing your career as a photographer. It’s important to find the areas of weakness that you might have as a photographer.
Why is it important? Well, if you’re looking to improve and gain more clients, then improving upon those weaknesses is only going to make you a better photographer.
Look at what opportunities there are to improve upon your work and figure out what you could do now in order to get yourself in a better position as a photographer. From advanced courses to asking fellow photographers for shooting advice. It might not just be the talent of the photographer but the equipment you’re using.
It’s important to do what you can to improve your talents and skills as a photographer. With that being said, do what you can to improve yourself and develop your career successfully as a photographer in 2023.
