Business of photography



Sooner or later we all want to sell our photos. Seeing our images published is a great achievement. Photography as a hobby is much different from making a living from photography. First question you have to ask yourself is if this business will support the lifestyle you want to live. Photography will be your only source of income. Remember that you won't be photographing simply because you love photography but you'll be doing it to pay your rent, car payments, utility bills, etc. Photography is very competitive business and the percentage of people who have become rich doing it is not high, although it's certainly possible. The best way to approach this business is patience. Don't quit your job and start traveling the world and expect to sell your pictures when you get back. Believe it or not, amateurs have one advantage over pros and that is they can be selective and go out whenever they feel like it. Pros need to meet deadlines or have to shoot certain types of subjects for publications which can be very frustrating at times. Start slowly by trying smaller markets rather than going for National Geographic. The best place to start is the smaller calendar, greeting card, poster, and post card companies. Study the guidelines and request information from different companies to find out the type of photos they need. Go to the bookstore and check different calendars and greeting cards from different companies. Make sure to pick a company that uses the type of photos you have in your stock. Don't submit wildlife photos to a post card company which uses travel photos. Many of these companies don't pay much but your chances are better than selling to Hallmark. You can also make a good portfolio for future jobs. Magazine market is another great place to start your career. Look for magazines that use the type of pictures you have. Most publications accept photos for review. I have thousands of bird photos for example, and regularly send them to magazines that specialize in birds. You have a much better chance of getting published if you can submit an article along with your photos. Magazines receive great photos of many subjects, but they prefer a story to go along with them. Submit at least 20 slides and include some vertical shots for the cover if you are submitting to a magazine. Most magazines use vertical shots for their covers, and making the cover shot is every photographers dream, plus you get paid more. Fine art and magazine markets receive thousands of slides each year. Sending a handful of images is not enough. I send a minimum of 20 slides carefully arranged and placed inside a slide sheet. Occasionally I use sheets with black boarders. The black area makes the images stand out and has a more professional look. I use 4X5 black card frames when I submit 6X7 or 4X5 transparencies. Each card holds one slide and has an opening in the middle for viewing. Each card is placed inside a 4X5 sheet for protection.

Another market for selling your pictures is the advertising market. Album covers, brochures, billboards, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, are some of the places that use photos and the pay is very good. Almost any type of images can sell in the advertising market. Companies usually hire advertising agencies. You can contact advertising agencies and request information or contact companies directly to show your portfolio. If I'm going in person to show my work, I use 8X10 prints mounted in black frames and placed inside presentation boxes. You can also use regular photo albums for presenting your work in person.

Stock agencies are also used by photographers for selling their images. Photo buyers contact stock agencies and request certain photos. Agencies sell your photos and keep a percentage. Stock agencies work with photographers that can supply them with a great number of images per month. You need to send at least 300 slides each month if you want to compete with others.

There are many other markets for photography including Books, studio, portrait, and wedding. To succeed in this business you need to submit, submit, submit. The more you send your pictures to buyers the better chance you have getting published. Don't become discouraged if you get rejected. We all get rejected but this doesn't mean our pictures are not good. Even our best images may not be what an editor is looking for. If you can't make a sale to one market, try another and eventually you'll sell. The best place to find buyers is the Photographer's Market. This book is published once a year and includes list of thousands of markets and their guidelines. Check to see how much a buyer is willing to pay. To make money, you need to figure out your cost of films, processing, travel, equipment, and decide how much to price your images. My first sale was $50 for one image. I was hired to do an ad for a small shopping center. It seemed like easy money. I got there first thing in the morning, and set up my equipment. Just as I was ready to shoot, it started to rain. Went back the next day, and the place was full of people and they were getting in my picture. I tried the next day and finally got my pictures. Two rolls of film, $12: processing, $8: gas used for going to the shopping center 3 times, plus going to the lab to drop off and pick up films, $10: time spent on the job, 5 hours. Profit= sale - Cost, in this case $20. I would have made more than $20 at my regular job. Was it worth it? I got published. Sorry, can't show you the picture. I sold the right to the buyer.

I'll be adding more articles on business of photography in the future including query letters, portfolios, how to price photographs, how to submit photos, and type of photos that sell.