Paths to going professional

Learning goal

You will be able to get to know the main ways of earning income from photography and choose those that suit your skill, time and interest. You will tell apart commissioned work shot for someone else; stock and print sales, in which the photo itself is sold; teaching and editing services, in which knowledge and labor are sold; and content creation, which meets a brand's ongoing visual needs. You will compare what kind of setup, what kind of risk and what kind of client relationship each path requires, and see that many photographers work with diversified income that combines several paths instead of one. You will accept that earning money from photography isn't a measure of success, and that shooting photos only for yourself is also a valid path. Whichever path you choose, you will understand that showing people of different skin tones in the right color and with respect, and getting the permission of the person photographed, is a professional competence.

The question

The two siblings' mother wants a large print, and the café in the neighborhood is asking about photos for its menu. Your friend shows both messages to the older member at the club. They are excited but undecided: how will they state the price of the print, how much time should they give the café, and are these a beginning or two coincidences?

The older member starts writing on a piece of paper: wedding, product, stock, print, workshop, content, editing, magazine, competition. As they write, the list grows longer, and your friend realizes that earning money with photography doesn't go through a single door. At the top of the paper the older member writes this heading: 10 ways to earn money with photography. Which ones suit your friend, and what does each of these paths ask of them?

Context

In the portrait lesson you learned that getting permission from the person you photograph, that is, consent, is the foundation of a portrait (Lesson 16.1). While studying printing basics you saw how a photo is carried from screen to paper (Lesson 25.3). In the previous lesson, too, you scanned a roll and shared its best three frames after getting the permission of the people in them (Lesson 27.5).

This lesson opens a new module. Until now you have dealt with photography as a skill, a thought and an art; this module suggests also thinking of it as a business. Not every photographer needs to go down this path; photography can also stay complete and valuable as a passion alone. But for those who want to earn income the paths are very varied, and each calls for a different setup. This lesson maps those paths; the following lessons will take up topics such as niche, portfolio, price, contract and workflow one by one.

Simple explanation

What kind of work is shooting for someone else?

Commissioned work is photography done for a person, family or institution, for a purpose they set, in return for a set fee. Portraits, weddings, graduations, events and corporate promotion are the best-known examples of this path. Product and food photography is also mostly done for a client; the café's menu request is of this kind. Shoots done for magazines, newspapers and publishers are also a kind of commissioned work; here the client is a publication and the photo serves a story.

Content creation is producing, within an ongoing relationship, the photos and short videos a brand, a business or a person regularly needs for channels such as social media and a website. Unlike a one-time shoot, here the photographer usually delivers a set number of visuals every month. This path can bring a regular income; in return it asks for speed, routine and fitting in with the brand's language.

What commissioned work has in common is that the photographer works toward someone else's purpose. This also calls for non-photographic skills such as communication, quotes, delivery dates and managing expectations. At the same time it brings responsibility: at a wedding or in a family portrait people of different skin tones stand side by side, and it is the photographer's job for each to appear in their own color, with their own detail. A delivery in which a face is lost in shadow or turns gray isn't only a technical error, but a client not being able to see themselves. Many photographers start commissioned work with shoots done for friends or acquaintances for free or for a very low fee. This can be useful for experience and a first portfolio; but if a limit isn't set from the start, it can lead to free work being expected all the time and labor being seen as worthless. For this, it helps to decide in advance how many times and for what purpose you will do such shoots.

How is the photo itself sold?

Stock photography is photography shot not for a particular client but in a form that someone can later license and use, and uploaded to a stock agency or platform. A single photo can be licensed many times, but each license usually brings in little, and competition in this field is intense. Stock photography also carries the question of representation: a large share of the visuals used in advertisements, books and websites comes from stock, and photos that show people of different skin tones accurately and without clichés change the quality of this pool.

Print sales is a photographer selling photos they have chosen themselves in printed form, usually as limited or signed copies. The mother's request for a large print is a small example of this path. Print sales call for knowledge of paper, printing and framing; they bring the photographer's own style and selection directly to the viewer. Photobooks, publications and, in some cases, competition prizes or project grants can also be counted among the paths that bring income from the photo itself; but these are usually not regular, but occasional income.

How are knowledge and labor sold?

Some photographers sell their knowledge more than their frames. Giving workshops and classes at clubs, at schools or online, teaching beginners to use a camera, light or editing, are among these paths. Teaching calls for the skill of teaching and patience; but it also lets the photographer deepen their own knowledge.

Providing services to other photographers is also a path: accompanying a wedding photographer as a second shooter, assisting in a studio, selecting and editing photos others have shot. These jobs are often also the fastest way to learn the inside of the profession, talking with clients and the real tempo of a shoot.

Diversified income is a photographer running several income paths together instead of depending on a single one. A photographer who does content creation on weekdays, weddings at weekends, a workshop now and then and a few print sales a year follows this path. Diversified income lets the others support when one path weakens; but it can divide time and focus. Which paths are combined depends on what the photographer loves, how much time they have and what risk they can carry; there is no single right mix here. Whichever path is chosen, earning regular income at some point gives rise to official obligations such as tax, invoicing and contracts. These obligations vary by country and by a person's situation; the basic concepts will be explained in the module's later lessons, but for decisions you need to consult an accountant or a lawyer.

Visual evidence

Your friend rewrites the older member's list in their notebook in three columns: shooting for someone else, selling the photo itself, selling knowledge and labor. Next to each path they note what it asks for: the wedding, weekends; stock, patience and keywords; the workshop, the skill of teaching.

First they return to the mother's request. They print the siblings' photo as a test print; they see that the texture on the dark-skinned sibling's cheeks and the detail on the light-skinned sibling's forehead are preserved on paper too, and only after that do they move on to the large print. For the café, on the other hand, they suggest a trial shoot: three dishes from the menu, in window light.

At the end of the two jobs they jot a note in their notebook: the print slow and personal, the café fast and regular. They don't yet know which they love more; but they now see that the two paths ask different things of them.

Common mistakes

Summary

There is no single way to earn income from photography: commissioned work and content creation work toward someone else's purpose, stock photography, print sales, publications and grants bring income from the photo itself, and workshops and editing or assisting services sell knowledge and labor. Many photographers combine these paths in a diversified income; whichever path is chosen, showing people of different skin tones in the right color and with respect, and getting the permission of the person photographed, are part of professional competence.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will draw up your own map of going professional.

1. Write the paths described in this lesson in three columns under the headings shooting for someone else, selling the photo itself, and selling knowledge and labor.
2. Next to each path, mark on a five-point scale how well it suits you and write your reason in one sentence: your time, your skill, your interest, the risk you can carry.
3. Choose the two or three paths you gave the highest score and sketch a diversified income draft: write how much time a week you can give each path.
4. Think of a sample job on one of your chosen paths in which you will photograph people of different skin tones, and write how you will make sure in that job that skin tones look right and that the people give their permission.

Check yourself

• Can you explain the difference between commissioned work, stock photography, print sales and content creation?
• Does your diversified income draft really fit your time and interest?
• Did you write a concrete measure for skin tone and consent on the path you chose?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Which path does a shoot for a café's menu fall under?

• A) Stock photography
• B) Print sales
• C) Commissioned work
• D) Teaching

2. What is the basic difference between stock photography and commissioned work?

• A) It is shot not for a particular client but to be licensed later
• B) It always brings a higher fee
• C) It needs no editing at all
• D) It is only black and white

3. What is a possible cost of diversified income?

• A) It has no cost at all
• B) It automatically lowers photo quality
• C) It makes finding clients impossible
• D) It can divide time and focus

4. If a dark-skinned face is lost in shadow in the delivery of a family portrait, what is this?

• A) Only an aesthetic preference
• B) A delivery error in which the client can't see themselves
• C) The nature of stock photography
• D) An unavoidable situation

Answers

1. C — The café wants a shoot for its own purpose and pays its fee; this is commissioned work.
2. A — Stock photography is shot without a particular client in advance and can be licensed many times.
3. D — Running several paths together provides security but can divide time and attention.
4. B — Every face appearing in its own color is the photographer's responsibility; a lost face is a delivery error.

Summary card

• Shoot for someone else: commissioned work, content creation, publication.
• Sell the photo: stock, print, book, grant.
• Sell your knowledge and labor: workshop, assisting, editing.
• Combine several paths, but protect your time.
• On every path: every face in its own color, every person with permission.

Bridge to the next lesson

When your friend shows their map to the older member, the older member looks at it for a while and smiles: the list has wedding, product, stock and workshop all at once. "Are you going to do all of them at the same time?" they ask. Your friend imagines what a wedding couple, a café owner and a magazine editor would think looking at the same portfolio, and realizes each of them is looking for something different. Why does shooting everything hurt you? The next lesson takes up the effect of choosing a niche on expertise, trust and price.