Career Choices Using Photography and the Skills Needed to Succeed
There are many different jobs which involve photography,
including:
-Portrait/studio/wedding - focusing on images of
people and selling images to families and individuals
-Sports - action photos, from childrens' leagues up to professional
and olympic levels
-Commercial/product photography - every ad has images taken by someone.
Jewelry, food, automotive, and fashion photography are some examples.
-Artistic/landscape - scenic or artistically oriented images, often
sold as artwork, postcards or tourist items
-Architectural - photos of buildings and other constructed items
-Forensic - used in police/detective work. Crime scene and related
photography.
-Journalism - un-staged real-life images for newspaper and magazines
-School/event - school pictures, sports teams, church and other
groups where high volume is typical.
-Stock photography - images taken that other people will buy and
use for advertising and other purposes
There other other specialties such as astrophtography
and microphotography.
Frequently Asked Questions about careers
in Photography
1) What skills do I need to be successful
as a photographer?
-Conceptual- the ability to understand your clients'
needs and communicate with them
-Technical - the ability to identify, configure and use camera,
lighting, and props to make images
-Editing - the ability to process captured images and edit them
to meet the customers' needs
-Marketing - the ability to get your name out and to connect you
and your business to your potential customer base
-Selling - the ability to earn money from your profession. Includes
pricing, negotiating, meeting with customers, producing their final
products
-Managing - Taking care of the day-to-day needs of a business or
professional, including buying things, paying bills, covering insurance,
taxes, permits, etc.
-Leading - Building and or working in a business environment where
you need to create visions, define goals and actions, and implement
them to grow the business
-Serving - Contacting and growing your customer base, measuring
customer satisfaction, resolving customer issues.
You can see that only the Technical and Editing
skills fall into traditional Photography/Computer skills. However,
because photography involves a high degree of interpersonal communication
and subjective needs of the customer base, you need to develop and
posses good people skills - listening, documenting, creativity,
follow-through, etc.
2) What education do I need to be successful
in photography?
You will need to learn or be taught the technical
aspects of photography - lighting, composition, camera science,
image editing and production. Some people can learn this as they
go. Others pursue a special degree or certificate from certain schools,
or you can get a 4-year degree in arts/photography from a university.
To be very well prepared, you should consider a minor in business
or marketing or a minor in your chosen specialty field such as criminal
justice, sports or journalism. This will give you an edge over any
candidates who do not have this education.
3) What type of experience is required?
To be employable, you need to demonstrate competence
in not just the technical areas of photography, but also the soft
skills. I recommend building and growing a portfolio of your own
images to show your technical and artistic development and skills.
A demonstrated track record in any service industry (food service,
retail, etc.) will demonstrate that you can work with people and
satisfy their needs. Using your photo skills in volunteer areas
will also grow your skills and breadth of experience.
You can often get work as a "second shooter"
or assistant to professionals in your town. Your ability to take
on the dirty work and learn on the job will increase your odds of
success in finding entry level work.
4) What are the job duties of a photographer?
They vary highly from the job areas and the size
of the business, but these are the general duties:
- Prepare marketing plans to advertise and promote
your products and services
- Interact with customers on proposals to secure the job
- Prepare for photo sessions - logistics/planning, coordinating
equipment, props, models, permits, etc.
- Conduct the photo session
- Edit and backup the images
- Publish and/or make the images available for customer review
- Interact with customers to develop the images into their ideal
products
- Transact the sale and collect the payment
- Manage the business accounts - keep the office running
5) What is the outlook for this type of
career?
There are good jobs in all of these areas. The
development of high quality digital cameras has given the average
person the ability to create very good images at a reasonable cost,
but the professional photographer will have the training, talent,
tools and motivation to make better images. Price pressure will
continue to force professionals to be more cost effective.
* * *
John Huegel is a photographer
in the Erie, Pennsylvania area who specializes in Seniors, Dance
Studio, Families and other groups. He is active in many charitable
and volunteer activities in the Erie area. His work can be seen
at http://jhphotomusic.com
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