So, you’ve got a nice camera, you really love photography, and you’ve been thinking that maybe it would be nice to make a little bit of money from this passion you’ve discovered. It couldn’t be that hard…right?
Before you decide to make that leap, read this article. Drawing on my own experiences as a professional photographer, I share six essential items to consider before going pro. By the time you’re done, you may find that you are truly ready to become a professional photographer – or you may realize that you should probably throw that idea out the window.
Before we go any further, I want to clarify something about the photos in this article. First of all, I had to include photos, because every article is better with pictures, right? Secondly, this session was inspiring, fun, and an example of every reason that I love being a photographer. The client who appears does not exemplify any of the cons of the business.
Oh, and one more thing: For this article, a “professional photographer” is defined as someone who gets paid to take photos, particularly portraits.
1. You might not be good enough (yet)
Maybe you love photography, and maybe you get a lot of compliments on your photos, but are you a good enough photographer to actually take money from people? It’s a tricky question to answer, but it’s important to consider before you try to turn your photography hobby into a career.
For instance, do you sometimes take a bunch of photos where the majority of them are garbage? Do you often say to yourself, “I’ll fix that later in Photoshop?” If your photos aren’t consistently in focus, exposed correctly, and great before you get to the post-processing stage, you’re not ready to go pro.
Additionally, if you look at other professional photographers’ work and wonder how they ever managed to get their photos to look like that, you are not ready. I don’t mean that you have to be able to produce photos exactly like the photographers that you admire. I’m saying that you should have an understanding of how they achieve the look they get. You should know how light, depth of field, camera angles, etc., contribute to a photo; you should also have an idea of how much a great photo comes from shooting in the field and how much comes from post-processing.
Here, I want to emphasize one major point: Having a nice camera does not qualify you to be a professional photographer!
2. You might not have enough experience
This goes along with not being good enough (see the previous tip!), but experience and raw talent aren’t the same thing. Experience is uniquely important because, as a professional photographer, you have to be consistent every time. You have to know that every single session you do will result in good photos and that you can roll with the punches if conditions aren’t ideal. You have to know your camera settings inside and out – because when you’re chasing an uncooperative toddler or doing a fashion shoot just before sunset, you don’t have time to carefully figure out what your shutter speed should be.
I’ll admit that I didn’t have enough experience when I started. I did some sessions for friends and family, then requests started coming in. I didn’t really have the goal of making money with my photography, but when people started asking me, I thought, “Hey, why not?” Some of my early sessions are dear to my heart, but when I look at some of the photos, I cringe. I feel bad that people paid money for me to experiment and find out who I was as a photographer.
3. You might lose the love of photography
Once you turn a passion into a job or career, there’s a very real possibility of it turning into something you do because you have to, and not because you want to. I’m not saying this happens to everyone, but I’ve seen enough professional photographers burn out and quit that I know it’s a very real thing. You may think that it will be fantastic to make money doing something you love, but are you ready for the possibility of not loving that thing anymore?
Confession here: I rarely get my camera out anymore for anything except a paid session. When I’m on vacation, sometimes the last thing I want to do is “work” while I’m there, and I certainly don’t want to drag my camera around when I’m supposed to be having fun. Then, if I do take some photos just for the heck of it, they sit there on my computer forever, because I don’t really feel like sorting and editing yet another batch of photos.
This doesn’t happen to every pro photographer, but I’m being real here. Sometimes I wish that I could take photos for the fun of it, but the truth is that I’m often too tired after my paid sessions to get my camera out on the weekend and just shoot. I still love photography, but it’s more that I love my job: I love the photos and what I can create, I love working with people, but I don’t love photography just for photography’s sake anymore.
4. You may not enjoy dealing with business stuff
Taxes, business licenses, contracts, equipment upkeep, scheduling, email, phone calls – they’re all a very real part of running a photography business, and they take far more time and effort than you want to believe. Being a professional photographer is not just happily snapping some photos, collecting money, and then spending all of that money on anything you’d like. There are expenses – lots and lots of them. There are boring, repetitive tasks. There are hours spent doing behind-the-scenes stuff.
No matter how great of a photographer you are, if you aren’t good at the business side of things, you are going to struggle as a professional. It’s hard. It’s frustrating. Sometimes it’s overwhelming. Some days horrible things happen, like your entire photography calendar disappearing from the cloud (yes, speaking from experience). Sometimes you have to ask people for money, and that’s not easy for everyone. You have to be able to run a pretty tight ship with scheduling, collecting money, and sticking to your policies.
You also have to decide on your policies, your fees, and how you are going to do business. Believe me, people will ask you to change all of it for them, and you have to be ready.
5. Dealing with people can be tough
Luckily for me, I really love working with people. Even then, however, some people are hard to deal with sometimes. When people are paying you money to photograph them, sometimes they expect you to do anything and everything they want, and sometimes, even when you’ve done your best, they aren’t happy with you. If you are sensitive – and I am! – that kind of criticism can be very hard to take.
Most of the people you will take photos for are fantastic, wonderful people who love your work and love you, which is why they hired you in the first place. That won’t happen every time, though.
Sometimes you’ll have to spend lots of time on the phone talking to a worried client (“What about the weather? What about a child’s bad haircut? What clothes should they wear? What if they smile awkwardly?”). Other times, you’ll work with someone who has lots of ideas they found on Pinterest and wants to discuss every one of them with you, in depth, even if they don’t remotely match your style of photography.
Sometimes you’ll show a client their gallery after the shoot, and they’ll say they love it – except they want you to Photoshop every single wrinkle off of their face. Questions are great, and most people don’t have unreasonable demands. But you have to know that sometimes people are just not on the same page as you are, and you have to be able to work with them and do your best to keep them happy.
6. Being a professional photographer isn’t the fairytale job you think it is
I hear from people all the time about how much fun it must be to be a photographer and how much they wish they could be a photographer, too.
I also know that many people who jump into the photography business without doing a lot of research and self-evaluation get a harsh slap to the face when they realize that it’s work. A lot of work. Some people step into the “professional photographer” scene on a whim, then step right back out of it within a year or two. Some don’t even last a few months. It’s work to get clients, and it’s work to keep clients. They don’t just fall in your lap, waving hundred dollar bills and smiling their pearly whites for your camera.
You’re going to have competition, and sometimes you’ll have criticism from others. The world of photographers can be pretty nasty. You will find wonderful people to collaborate with and those who encourage you, but you will also find some who will tear you down if they get the chance.
It’s not nice to think about, but it’s important that you have a realistic understanding of the job before you sacrifice significant time and money on a career that isn’t right for you.
So…will you become a professional photographer?
There are many benefits to running your own business, but it’s also hard. You have to know what you are doing, and if something goes wrong, it’s all on your shoulders. Being a professional photographer requires much more than loving to take pictures. When you realize all of the work it’s going to be, you might decide that taking photos for the love of it, and because you’re an artist, is much more fulfilling in the end.
Do I sound a little bitter? I know that I might, but I want to be realistic here. I think being a photographer is such a romanticized notion that there are oodles of people just itching to jump into photography as a business without really knowing what they’re getting into. I’ve learned so much over the years, and sometimes I wonder if I would have taken that first step had I really understood all of the cons.
Then I remember why I do this. Yes, it’s a job, and it’s hard. Yes, I hate the business side of things sometimes. Yes, some days I want to go hide in a hole and bury my camera there. But most of the time I feel blessed beyond measure to be a photographer. I love the people I get to work with. I love creating beautiful photos and capturing real personalities. I love happy clients, and I love that I can create memories for them that will last forever. Right now I wouldn’t trade this job for any other, because now that I’ve learned and lived through the hard parts of my job, I know that it’s all worth it for me.
Now you get to decide: Will it be worth it for you? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
