How You Can Make Money From Photography

What is more satisfying that knowing you can make a really good income from doing something you absolutely love? You guessed it – nothing!

It doesn’t matter if you are a professional photographer or just an amateur with a good camera, you love the hobby, and having an opportunity to make money with your hobby (or if you’re a pro and this is all you do) is very enticing. Believe it or not, you could make tons of money with photography if you know what you are doing!

Here is a list of the things you can do to make money as a photographer:

1. Weddings
2. Family Portraits
3. Real Estate
4. Couples
5. Boudoir
6. Maternity
7. Babies
8. Fashion
9. Events
10. Headshots
11. School & Grad Portraits
12. Team Portraits
13. Corporate Events & Portraits
14. Pets

So How do YOU make bank with these?

All of these are profitable if you can find the people that are willing to use your services. Some pay more than others but want to know the big money makers?

Wedding Photography

This is a very profitable niche to get into and you’ll have fun doing it. Everyone at a wedding is happy and enjoying themselves so you are almost like an invited guest. It’s a great gig to have. If you have zero experience in this niche and manage to find a friend that will pay you to do the photography, you can still start. Rent your gear (if you don’t have it) and find yourself a mentor.

If the pay you get covers your rental gear and gives the mentor a few bucks, you may break even but you’ve gained two things – experience and a portfolio. You’ll only build this business by these two elements combined with referrals. If you do a good job and your friend recommends him to his friends and so on, well, you get the picture.  This is the best way to start in my opinion if you are new and not experienced.

If you are experienced in photography with your own gear start off with friends and family and offer your services for free for a couple of gigs. Make a deal with your friends that in exchange they promise to give you referrals. Make sure they don’t tell them you did it for free, just keep that on the down low.

Your portfolio and referrals will do the selling for you. Keep in mind this will take a long time as people don’t get married every day but in time it can explode. After a few gigs, you might even consider setting up your own website or Facebook page to showcase your work and advertise. Be sure to get permission if you’re going to post any photos!

Real Estate Photography

Real Estate is booming and with the surge in home prices in certain areas (especially if you live in Toronto or Vancouver, Canada) it would be great to jump on board the Real Estate photography train. You don’t need to be a professional photographer but you may need certain lenses like a fish eye lens for small spaces like bathrooms, etc.

You can ask around 50-100 bucks a gig or in some cases a percentage of the properties sale. 0.1% would be about right in this case. For a house that sells for a million bucks, hey that’s a hefty payday at $1000.00. For this kind of photography marketing skills come into play more than the photography itself, so if you’re good at talking/marketing, this could be an easy gig for you.

Stock Photography

For those that don’t like the “selling” aspect of a photography business such as the two examples above, the selling your photos online is the key. Just google “sell my photos online” and you’ll get a bunch of websites to look at. Sign up with a bunch of them and upload your photos and then collect. It’s that easy. It won’t make you as much as wedding photography for example, but it’s rinse and repeat easy. You could sell the same photo over and over unless you make it exclusive. Some people make over $500 a month doing this.

So I hope you enjoyed this and it gave you some ideas. I’m not really great at photography even though I’ve got an SLR. I just use “auto” mode, yes I am one of those. But if you’re passionate about photography, why not let it work for YOU?