# Where is the money in photography



## Tyson (Dec 19, 2006)

What are the money makers, stock, portrits, special assignments, photojournelisum ?


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## hyp0rbyte (Dec 19, 2006)

Selling Cameras/lenses/memory sticks/filters/bags/tripods/
books/batteries/hoods/straps/

Isn't that what you spend your money on?


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## Big Mike (Dec 19, 2006)

I think there are several books called 'How to make money with photography'...or something like that.  Check out Amazon.com

Although, it's probably easier to make money by writing a book about how to make money...


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## castrol (Dec 19, 2006)

hyp0rbyte said:
			
		

> Selling Cameras/lenses/memory sticks/filters/bags/tripods/
> books/batteries/hoods/straps/
> 
> Isn't that what you spend your money on?



HAHAHAHAHA... best response ever.

It seems to take a really long time to get things going. I have been taking photos
for quite a little while now and so far, I have made a grand total of $350.00. 

I, however, am not really trying to make money doing this though...


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## elsaspet (Dec 19, 2006)

Commercial, Editorial, Portraits, and weddings.
Forget Photojournalism.  :-(  You can sell craploads and still not have enough moolah to pay the rent.


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 19, 2006)

you can shoot enough stock shots to fill a boat and sell zero... you have to have the exact shot the customer wants, because even a small variation was made by someone else. thanks to the net the buyer can see many many thousands of shots. the odds are against you.

Play the odds. My brother who is a dynamite salesman says see what the successful guys are doing and do it. I would narrow it to, see what the successful guys are doing locally. 

If you live in new york you might want to shoot small clothing houses cateloques... but if you live in rural NC you are probably going to want to shoot weddings and portraits.. Oh hell you get to shoot the occassional double wide for the local realty company as well.

....*What you DONT want to do is go retro*....I only answered this to add that part...


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## neea (Dec 19, 2006)

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> ....*What you DONT want to do is go retro*....I only answered this to add that part...



:lmao: cute.
I like your work mysteryscribe.
I also like your new avatar btw.

And like.. BigMike said I think, selling books about photography would probably make you more money then actual photography. The fun part being that you need to know about photography in order to do this.
Perhaps everyone on TPF should make a collaberation of tips.
And we could all be rich.... ahh to dream.


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## craig (Dec 20, 2006)

The money is in being a good photographer. The work is out there. Getting it takes dedication and a lot of experience and perseverance. 

Also depends on your style of shooting. What are your strong areas of photography? Weddings? still life?... Pick a strong suit and go with it.


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## Iron Flatline (Dec 20, 2006)

High-end fashion photography, candid celebrity (paparazzi) work.


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## uberben (Dec 21, 2006)

I make money doing wedding photography. Not a lot...I net about 1,500 per wedding normally.  This was after doing a bunch of free weddings though and dropping a lot of coin on gear.  I probably just broke even after my last wedding. I wont even touch Stock photography, not worth my time.


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## DocFrankenstein (Dec 21, 2006)

Commercial and editorial. Good luck getting in.


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## JIP (Dec 22, 2006)

I think so far you have gotten every aspect of photograpy as a response and one thing that shoud tell you is that the money in photography is where you make it.  Photography is almost 100% marketing yourself some people get rich shooting $10,000 weddings some people toil away shooting for someone else for a few hundred bucks a pop.  Some people make lot sof money working for sports illustrated as a photographer some people make a few bucks every weekend as a stringer for their local paper.  The bottom line is that if you can sell yourself you can make it it is very rare for you to look in the want ads and see "wanted 9-5 photographer".


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 22, 2006)

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've said, "I'm a great photographer and a lousy businessman."

I wish I had a dime for everytime I've heard others say it. 

The half a million a year photographer is the one who is both. More businessman than photographer I expect. 

That is absolutely not an insult it is pure jealousy. If I had been better at it, at this point in my life I would be on a yaught not the internet.

Oh yeah, if it hadn't been for fast women and slow horses, I might have at least had a bass boat.


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## RMThompson (Dec 22, 2006)

As a writer, there is an old saying by someone much wiser than me said this of writing:

"If there was such a thing as a writer who was a smart businessman, he would know better than to be a writer."

And to some extent, the same thing applies here. If you love taking pictures, really love it, you'll find a way to make money at it. I've actually found it MUCH easier to make money at photography than at writing.

My 2006 totals for writing: $120 dollars.
My 2006 totals for photography: $550 dollars. Since October.

However I make my money TAKING pictures, not selling them, so it's different. I've found out that people are willing to spend money on someone they can trust to take their picture, (especially since a lot of what I do is semi-nude), and its worth it to them to pay for it. 

I don't charge anywhere NEAR the amount of cash as the big pros in my area. They charge about $250.00 for one hour of studio time, while I charge about 50 bucks for 3 hours in my homemade studio... because I am using inferior equipment, and the customers understand I am more amatuer than anything.

However, I honestly have had to turn DOWN work this week because I didn't think I would have time, or my equipment could handle it! It's amazing what word of mouth can do! 

Good luck making money, as I wish you much success in doing what you love for a living.

I, however, have a day job I like too!


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## Karimala (Dec 23, 2006)

A lot of people are earning a pretty decent income through microstock...myself included.  There's a lot of controversy and debate about the micro-payment model and image quality on the microstock sites, but it's working quite well for me as a fairly new photographer.  I'm earning enough to where I recently quit my full-time job and can now work part-time or as a temp...whichever I choose and whenever I choose.  Within the next year, I fully expect to be earning a comfortable living from my microstock income alone.  

My highest earnings come from Shutterstock and IStock (which is now owned by Getty), with StockXPert (owned by Jupiter) and Dreamstime both a close second.  Bigstock Photo and Fotolia round out the remaining top six agencies.   There are also a lot of start-ups going around to choose from, but they don't provide a lot of earnings.  Unless you believe in a particular agency and are willing to support it during the start-up phase (for me, Lucky Oliver falls into that catagory), they are mostly a waste of time.  But the others can and do provide a solid income and are worth checking into. 

If you'd like to learn more from photographers in the microstock business, both amateurs and professionals, the TalkMicro message board is a great place to visit.

Good luck!!!


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## ksmattfish (Dec 24, 2006)

I would agree with the post that said the big money is in selling gear to photographers.  The most famous wedding photographers in the world only shoot a few weddings a year, and spend the rest of their time doing photography workshops, and selling DVDs and gadgets.  They make more off of wedding photogs than weddings.


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## druzilla (Dec 28, 2006)

here is some inspiration:
http://www.dphotojournal.com/sell-photos-online/


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## ZyxKor (Dec 29, 2006)

Something to think about:

1. What is your skill level? If it is low build it up first before you really try to sell you or your work. 

2. What is your passion and how much effort or sacrifice are you willing to put into a career? You might have geographic limitations (no long term far away assignments) or you may like to travel a lot. If you like to stay local then wedding or local photog would be better than photojournalist for a large paper or media conglomerate. 

3. Are you any good at sales or do you want to work for yourself? If you aren't good at sales and you want to work for yourself then you better learn the sales skills quickly. If not then you'll need to figure out who you would want to work for. if you work for someone else the income maybe more stable but again will be limited by market factors. 

4. How much money do you want to make? A local photo will have a limited income based on where they live and current market conditions. A stock photographer can make more theoretically as they create a product once then sell it many times, but they need to know how to sell their product. A wedding photographer can only do so many weddings in a weekend. Both have limits on their income but in different ways. 

What do I mean by market conditions? If you are a local photog then how big is the city you live in? How many Photogs are there in that area? Bigger cities generallly mean more money for work but also more competition and higher cost of living. Smaller cities or areas might mean less competition but also less money for a given job and a lower cost of living. Luckily as a photographer you could do a mix of things but I would suggest that you specialize in one thing and then branch out from there. 

I would highly suggest that you ask a photog in your local area how business conditions are in that area. They are likely to give you good insight into the business, how much money there is in it locally and if you are a student maybe a chance to work with them to get started.


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## fmw (Dec 30, 2006)

Commercial photography has the highest percentage of high earning photographers.  These are independent photographers that do advertising work, mostly for manufacturers and ad agencies.   Their clients can afford the work.  

Understand that commercial photographers are entrepreneurs.  They are founders and operators of companies that provide photographic services.  They aren't employees.


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## RacePhoto (Jan 17, 2007)

ksmattfish said:


> I would agree with the post that said the big money is in selling gear to photographers.  The most famous wedding photographers in the world only shoot a few weddings a year, and spend the rest of their time doing photography workshops, and selling DVDs and gadgets.  They make more off of wedding photogs than weddings.



I guess this leads to an old tale or two and questions.

Back in college the photojournalism teacher, who happened to be a professional photographer, and pretty smart guy, enjoyed doing horse shows and newspaper work. Have to remember this was about 40 years ago.

He hated doing weddings, so he set his price at about three times the going rate. He said, the funny part was, people still kept hiring him, because they thought, if he charged that much, he must be good. 


I played in a band. We did weddings as a rock/wedding band. We played light rock, polkas, accoustic music, did the wedding schtick, and as the night went on, got louder and more rock.
 Most of us were former band members, who did it, just to get out and play. So we only charged $250-$350. You wouldn't believe how many times we heard "I was really worried when I heard the price, because other bands are charging $700 to do a wedding. But your band is better."


So much for pricing and perception.

A few people have mentioned commercial photography. I'm sure this is good and a contract market. Problem is, how does one break in. I suppose the oldest system in the world. Start by working as an assistant, learn the ropes, heavy on lighting, and then set off on your own. Work portfolio is probably important to getting jobs.


Anyone know what sells best on the stock photo sites? Is there any reporting of types of photos or subjects that are most popular or sell the most from the stock photo houses?


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## Ab$olut (Jan 22, 2007)

Iron Flatline said:


> candid celebrity (paparazzi) work.



An investment into a telephoto ,patientence and being in the right place at the right time could set your for life doing this always been an intrest of mine.

I know of a guy that does trackdays for when people take thier cars on track if they have lapped round enough he gets about 12 good photos puts em on a cd and sells them £30 a pop now if you have 20 customers that day thats £600 baring in mind this is if you are GOOD.

Also weddings is a good one


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## OttawaPhotog (Jan 22, 2007)

I like the track Idea!


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## Jim Gratiot (Jan 26, 2007)

craig said:


> The money is in being a good photographer. The work is out there. Getting it takes dedication and a lot of experience and perseverance.
> 
> Also depends on your style of shooting. What are your strong areas of photography? Weddings? still life?... Pick a strong suit and go with it.


 
I respectfully disagree... the money is in knowing how to market yourself. For better or for worse, the actual quality of your work is secondary (within reason, of course).

I do agree w/ part 2... pick your strong points, market it creatively and intensely, and you WILL eventually succeed.

Jim


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## nomav6 (Jan 26, 2007)

porn is where the money is, but some would say its not real photography, dont hate me, I dont shoot it, but thats where money is, and you dont have to spend alot doing it.


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## craig (Jan 27, 2007)

Jim is on point. One of the few rules in photography is; get your work out there! 

I have been in photography my whole life. The work is never secondary on this end.


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