Photography is one of the hardest skills to learn. It may take a very long time to learn because taking photos is not photography but taking photos at the right time, right place, good lighting conditions, good angles, etc are very important. Photography can be the best source of earning if you know all the ways to make money as a photographer.
These days making money with the help of photography becomes very simple because of the high-quality cameras in mobile phones, top editing apps, and software at low cost, different types of cameras in phones, different modes in cameras like micro cameras, and many more.
If you also love taking photos of anything then you can convert it into a money-making source. With the help of social media platforms and many websites, it becomes very easy to make money using any skills like photography, gaming, writing, etc.
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There are many types of photography and many ways to make money with photography. In some cases, maybe you need some resources in the journey to make money but mostly it will be a one-time investment. In case you can not afford any resources then choose any other way to make money.
Make Money as a Photographer
Hope you know there are more than 20 – 30 types of photographers and the skills in each type of photography are different and need different equipment too. The methods we shared below to make money as a photographer can work with maximum types of photography. There is a separate guide for some types of photography in detail.
In case, you are doing photography using your mobile phone then you can also use the below methods to make money through photography. Hope you understand that a Mobile phone and its camera have a lot of limitations so, you can not do the maximum type of photography using it. But it is enough to make money.
In case, you are learning photography then you should only focus on learning it. Give your best in learning photography can in a few months you’ll be able to capture awesome photos. In this case, at the same time learning photography if you also focus on making money with it most probably your learning will be affected a lot.
Note: We recommend you choose only one method to make money as a photographer and give your best in it. Once you start getting decent results, you can expand it very easily.
1. Photoshoot for Clients
This is one of the easy ways to make quick money from photography. In photoshoots for clients, most of the time you’ll be paid in advance or just after the photoshoot. In many places like tourist places, resorts, weddings, special events, etc people prefer to hire a photographer for the photoshoot.
For people hiring a photographer is very easy and affordable. The photographer has also the skills to take better photos and give some ideas for the best photoshoot. One more reason is that not everyone can afford a good camera and most important operate to take good photos.
Photoshoots for clients can be done in the studio and outdoors too. For the studio shoot, need a lot of equipment, and manpower to manage it. But, for the outdoor photoshoot, you only need a camera, lenses, camera stands, and other equipment. It is more affordable than the studio photoshoot.
To get clients for photoshoots you should have good photos you have taken to show clients to get an opportunity. You can also create a website and share your photos (after obtaining client permission) there and the social media platforms to get some clients.
Note: You can advertise your previous work using online advertisement to get clients or reach more people.
Types of Photoshoots for Clients
- Event Photoshoot
- Wedding photoshoot
- Newborn photoshoot
- Engagement Photoshoot
- Tourist place photoshoot
- and many more…
2. Sell Your Photos
Nowadays with the help of many trustable websites selling photos online becomes very simple. There are a lot of websites where you can upload or sell images and when anyone buys your photos you’ll be paid. On these types of websites, millions of users buy photos from the websites regularly. If your photo will be unique and according to their need they will buy it.
Not only normal people many agencies, freelancers, startups, websites, news media, etc buy the images to use on their platforms. In short, selling photos is very easy but only one thing is required i.e. quality photo, original photo, etc.
Below are a few popular websites where you can sell your images to get paid. To sell images you need to create an account as a contributor on the sites and fill in some information about you and the image. Once, you upload the image they will review it and let you know when it is approved or not.
- iStock
- Bigstock
- Shutterstock
Tips to Sell Photos
- Sell photos that are in demand like events, trading topics, etc.
- Use a high-quality camera to take high-quality images. High-quality images are required.
- Upload proper info about the image while selling.
- Use keywords that describe the image.
- Upload the image in original quality.
3. Start a Photography YouTube Channel
Most people’s hobby is photography but they don’t have any photography skills to take awesome photos. As a result these people always look for resources like blogs, and YouTube channels which can teach them photography from scratch.
Just to make money from YouTube many people started a photography YouTube channel without having any photography skills. As a result, people who want to learn the skills face a lot of problems and always look for a good photography YouTube channel to learn real photography skills.
In case, you have some photography skills then you can start a YouTube channel and teach people about photography. Starting a YouTube channel is very easy and making it successful is very easy if you have knowledge and skills on which topic your channel is created.
There are many ways to make money as a photographer using a YouTube channel. i.e. Aflaite Marketing, Sponsor posts, getting new projects and clients, etc.
4. Sell Printed Photos
In most of the homes, you can find the printed photos very easily. Not in only homes, you can also find printed photos in schools, offices, agencies, startups, and most places. In short, there is also a huge demand for printed framed photos everywhere.
Selling printed photos can be a little bit costly I people do not like the photo you captured. In this case, your investments to print photos can be lost. In a few words, there are huge risks in selling printed photos and it also takes a lot of time, manpower, and investments.
To decrease risk in the method you can sell printed photos on an eCommerce website or you can have your own eCommerce website too.
5. Wedding Photography
Every year millions of people get married and the number increases with the increase in the population. In wedding photography, there is a huge scope because anyone can handle one marriage at a time. If at any place a 10+ marriage going to happen it needs a 10+ photographer.
In marriage photography, there is a lot of hard work but the good thing is that it is easy to get clients and money.
The cost of wedding photography depends on the requirements of the clients for example. if the client wants drone photos or video then the price will increase. As you know marriage is very important for anyone as a result they hire a photographer to capture every movement.
6. Photo Retouching and Restoration
People capture the memory in the form of images and videos, as of now there are a lot of technologies available to store your large data in the storage device. But there is a problem with these types of storage i.e. images get old with time and in case people have very old photos then it can be very difficult to store them for a long time.
In a few words, with time the images get old. As a result, the images look very poor due to the low-quality images. You can provide services for retouching and restoring old images and making them very high-quality images.
Retouching an image means making it better and higher quality by performing some actions on the image using any tool, software, etc.
Restoration of an image means restoring an image if the image is damaged. This type of case happens usually when the image is in the physical form.
As of now, there are enough technologies available that can easily retouch any image or restore any image. You can also use AI to do the task in a very short time but make sure you have good knowledge of the image.
7. Freelance for Agencies
Most probably you know that thousands of agencies sell images to many companies who need images regularly like news companies, news websites, etc.
So, you can work for those agencies who do the same job. The demand for these agencies is very high as there are millions of small and big companies that need the images in bulk to make their content.
These companies buy these images because taking images for them can be very costly so, it is beneficial for both.
8. 360-Degree Photography
As you know on social media every day you can see different things trading and millions of people see these trends and also follow them. In photography, 360-degree photography is very popular and millions of people are spending thousands of dollars for 360-degree photos.
360-degree images mean that an image has the complete surrounding area captured in the image. In these types of images, everything is captured and anyone can move the image and see all the area captured in the image.
360-degree photography is very costly and these services are not available online but creating a 360-degree image services are available online.
FAQs
Above we shared various methods to make money as a photographer. You can follow any method according to your knowledge and interest. With the above methods, you can earn up to $75,000 from photography in a year.
If you have your own taken photos then you can sell them on websites like iStock and when anyone buys your image you’ll be paid. On these websites, millions of buyers buy images.
Yes, it is a very good career option but you need to work very hard to learn photography because it requires a perfect angle, lighting, etc. These skills take a lot of time to learn.
Final Words: Photography is one of the best skills everyone wants to have and most people have. As of now with the help of a mobile phone, anyone can capture good quality photos. If you also love photography and take photos you should check the above methods to make money as a photographer.