How to easily start a photography business in 2024
Starting a business can feel like a daunting experience when you’re starting out as a photographer. The reality is it doesn’t have to be a difficult task!
In my own experience, I ended up starting my business before I even knew I was starting my photography business. As I shared more of my work online, people had found me organically and wanted photos of their cars and were asking how much I charge. In fact I didn’t even know what a fair price for my work was.
As I got booked with more clients, I made some mistakes along the way - which helped me run my photography business better.
Here’s my 5 step process to starting your photography business, which I will dive into further:
Define your niche
Invest in yourself (equipment)
Network within the community
Build an online presence
Advertise your services
Define your niche
There are plenty of photography niches you can dive into. Some photography niches include real estate, stock photos, automotive, wedding, portraits, boudoir, product, and so many more. Before I thought about starting a photography business, I thought why not combine my passion for cars with my skills in photography?
The main thing about defining your photography business niche is that the niche you choose does not define your limits. At the same time, being good at one niche does not automatically make you an expert in another niche.
As an example, I’m known for my skill in automotive photography. One day I put an advertisement out that I was looking for more photography work, to which a bartending business had reached out. I gladly accepted the work, but quickly found out there was quite a bit more to learn about backgrounds, lighting, and photo stacking for product photography. While the content I produced made the client happy, I knew I could have done better if I did more research.
Long story short - choose a niche that interests you. Perfect it. Then as you build a good portfolio, don’t limit yourself to just the one niche, entertain new experiences, but be ready to do some homework prior to the shoot.
Invest in yourself (equipment)
You don’t need the latest and greatest camera equipment to get great photos, but you also can’t expect to be taken seriously showing up using only the camera from your phone. Countless videos on YouTube will illustrate that it is not about the camera you use, but the person using the camera. While this is true, you will need to invest in some photography equipment. In my first two years of business, I found this photography equipment to be the most important when preparing for a photoshoot:
Tripod
DSLR/Mirrorless Camera (preferably full frame)
Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom
Gaming computer
All in, it’s very much possible to get an initial photography setup for somewhere around $1,000 all in. If you have the means to afford great gear, it will help keep you out of the camera shop.
Network within the community
Networking will be key to getting your first paying clients as a photographer. You sometimes hear people say you shouldn’t do work for free. I disagree. If you’re first starting out, no one likely knows about you, and you don’t have much work to show for it (which is part of the next step). Doing some free shoots to gain the confidence, experience, and material will go along way. In most of my experiences, I have turned a client receiving a free photoshoot into a repeat paying client by demonstrating my value as a photographer.
Back to networking - as a car photographer, my ideal space to network with potential leads was at various car events. I would show up at a car meet, spot a nice car I would love to one day take photos of, and chat with the owner. If you’re a photographer who wants to do small business photoshoots, maybe that’s speaking with the owner of a newly opened cafe.
The case I’m trying to make here is that in the beginning you will have to do more outreach and convincing of people to take you on as a photographer.
Build an online presence
So now that you’ve got some work to show, it’s time to build an online presence. This means having a website, and utilizing Instagram or TikTok.
Currently I have 1-3 people reach out per week looking for photoshoots, and not always just for cars. Some come through my website and some find me through Instagram. My recommendation for building your website is to use something like Squarespace (what I use) and tap into the preset designs they have available. There’s no special coding knowledge required, and a basic package can be affordable and enough to get your business online.
For Instagram I suggest sharing your best work and not focusing too much on the likes/comments/followers. If your work is good, it will come naturally. People subscribe to good, consistent content.
Advertise your services
The best, and most organic way to earn business as a photographer is through Word of Mouth promotion. This means someone has used, or seen your service and recommends it to someone else. It’s free, and converts better than any other advertising out there.
Other ways I have promoted my services is in Facebook community groups. If you live in a city, there are likely already groups out there where people are sharing their services. It’s free, and usually gets a lot of eyeballs.
Instagram has a great feature to do sponsored posts to a set target market within a defined area. This can be helpful as a photographer especially when you’re defining the limits of where your willing to travel for a photoshoot.
The number 1 way you can advertise your service by yourself is by mentioning it whenever you can. There are plenty of people out there looking for photography services at one point or another of their life. They just may remember you and look for you when the time comes!
I hope you enjoyed this article and found some useful tips for starting your photography business. I have now been in business for the past several years and have definitely learned a lot!
If you are looking to start your photography business and are looking for specialized guidance in doing so - feel free to reach out to me and book a call!