Freelance Photography | | #1. The hours are incredibly flexible - and you'll need to be, too. | | If an 8-5 job is not for you, look no further. As a professional freelance photographer, you can expect to make your own hours. Sometimes, though, this means that you have to schedule shoots for times that are convenient for your clientele, which might not be your first choice of hours. Because of the nature of the work, how many or how few hours you work is totally up to you - you could choose only to work a few days a week, or only after noon or before four in the afternoon. To get most available business, you're pretty much consigned to work weekends, but whether or not you choose to take that business is completely up to you. Remember - you're the boss
| | #2. The pay is GREAT. | | Consider for a moment that a photographer can easily charge two thousand dollars for a wedding, which typically lasts an afternoon. After materials and the couple hours of label that it takes to print photos, that still adds up to an incredible amount of money. Throw in frequent portraits, headshots, and sports and performance arts, and not only are you on the inside track to a lot of terribly cool venues, but you'll have more than enough money to retire far earlier than all of your friends with normal jobs. Feel free to charge what you're worth; you have a specialized craft, and because not everyone can do it, you should feel confident in your prices.
| | #3. To reduce job stress, hire an assistant. | | #3. To reduce job stress, hire an assistant.
| | #4. Keeping a steady market means dealing with high-maintenance clientele. | | The problem with photography, you'll find, is that photography isn't something that most people need on a regular basis. A wedding is a one-time deal (or so we would hope), and most performance events have a limited run. So how do you keep your business alive without tapping out the market? Search for those markets that do need repeats, such as actors, who need head-shots redone every 3-6 months, and families with small children, who often like to chart their growth and development through photographs that they can then send to family, friends, and vague acquaintances. Finding a steady market is not at all difficult, but once you've found it, it can be rather frustrating to maintain due to the nature of the clientele. Actors, who are notoriously high-maintenance anyway, become easily agitated when their ability to land future jobs is on the line, and the small children that come in family photos are the bane of any photographer's existance. The upside to all those hours of listening to long-winded complaints and jumping through hoops is that your customer base is also impressively loyal - once they've found someone who can do the job for them, they're not likely to switch to someone else, and will forgive most minor blunders and calls for a reshoot.
| | #5. To make real money, you'll have to sell out a little. | | The real money in freelance photography lies in weddings and portraiture. Neither of these are generally very entertaining, and most involve producing your work exactly per someone else's guidelines. This doesn't leave a whole lot of room for creative input, though you'll have the free time and extra cash to devote to all the creative side projects that you could desire.
| | #6. People will ask when you're going to get a real job. | | We live in a society where professional artists, for whatever reason, aren't taken very seriously by people in suits with 8-5 jobs. You'll meet plenty of people who will ask what you do, only to meet your response with, "But what do you do for a living?" Many people seem to believe that because they can only make their living working behind a desk or a counter, there are no alternatives available to everyone else. It won't matter that you can retire at 40, that you enjoy your job, that your life consists of both excitement and fun, or that you work in a specialized trade and do in fact work very hard at it - something about the nature of your work will elicit eye-rolls and exchanged glances. This downside, however, is easily remedied when you're taking yet another vacation and you realize that you really just don't care what everyone else thinks.
| | #7. You'll gain experience in running your own business. | | There's a lot to be said for running your own company, whether it's something that you do for the rest of your life or whether it's just a stop on the winding path of your career. It's quite convenient to be able to tell future employers that your extensive management experience comes from running your own business; it shows initiative and drive, as well as a lot of business know-how. Some time with your own company is perhaps the best teacher as far as enterprise is concerned. Nothing will teach you the ropes of management quite like having to fend for yourself.
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Photography Tips | | Use a plain background | | Before taking a picture, check the background surrounding your subject. In most instances, choose a plain background. Avoid trees or poles sprouting from your subject's head. A cluttered background will be distracting while a plain background will accentuate your subject.
| | Keep your subject at eye level | | Capture the natural looks of their faces. For kids and pets, that means getting down to their level to snap the picture.
| | Use flash outdoors | | It is a common mistake for point and shoot photographers to just let their camera decide whether to use flash. Even outdoors, use the fill flash setting to improve your pictures. Use it on cloudy days to brighten up faces and make them stand out from the background.
| | Take some 'vertical' pictures | | Most photos are naturally taken in 'horizontal' or 'landscape' mode as it is the most natural way to 'hold' a camera. But some subjects look better in vertical (or 'portrait') mode. The Eiffel Tower comes to mind. So vary your picture taking and make a conscious effort to turn your camera sideways and take some vertical pictures.
| | Know your flash's range | | Pictures taken beyond the maximum flash range will be too dark. For many cameras that's only ten feet - about four steps away. Check your manual to be sure. If the subject is further than ten feet from the camera, the picture may be too dark.
| | Watch the light | | Great light makes great pictures. Study the effects of light in your pictures. For people pictures, choose soft lighting of cloudy days. Avoid overhead sunlight that casts harsh shadows across faces. For scenic pictures, use the long shadows and color of early and late daylight. The most moving pictures are usually taken at dawn or at dusk.
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