Most photographers don't make as much or look as good as Juile Caitlin Brown - by Craig Damon
Those of you new to the business may be wondering how much money photographers make. The answer will likely depend on a number of factors such as where you live, how long you’ve been in the business, and your area of specialty.
The bottom line answer: Not a lot. Especially when compared to other career options, like nursing. Not only is the pay meager but the stress level is quite high. In a recent CNN Money survey, commercial photographer was the only job that got a 100 percent stressful rating. Higher than fundraisers, parole officers, and a near par with prison guards, who also make more money.
Incomes from photography can vary widely. The lower 10 percent averages just under $18,000/year. Even the very top earners average out to around $64,000/year. Compare that to nursing, where the average nursing salary is $65,651 and the low end of the scale is over $56,000.
The best paid photographers live in the District of Columbia, New York, California and Hawaii, so at least you can’t complain about the scenery. The very best paying photography jobs are, somewhat ironically, in the motion picture and video industries.
The salary information answers some of the important questions like, “Is getting a degree in photography worth it?” If the answer is you’ll be making about the same as someone working at McDonald’s, what do you think?
What skews these numbers are very large, high-end studios, most of which are located in New York and California. They make a lot of money and work for large commercial customers. Those slick, glossy brochures with stunning photos of new cars don’t happen by accident. But they also give people a skewed idea of the industry.
One benefit to being a professional photographer, if you can prove you actually make your living that way to the IRS, much of your equipment becomes deductible. And you don’t have to punch a clock or put up with a boss you don’t like.
In the beginning this was precision flash control - By Thuringius
Back in the day there were manual flash’s were simple. An electrical contact inside the camera closed a wired connection with a battery pack in the flash handle which then sent a jolt of current through a glass bulb stuffed with magnesium filaments. A blast of light ensued that would have you seeing a giant blue dot in your field of vision for five minutes and was hot enough to make the glass bubble. You would set the exposure on the camera.
Flash bulbs were replaced by flash tubes and eventually the camera and flash units learned to talk to one another across the hot shoe. The flash could “see” the scene through the camera lens and the flash power and duration were set automatically. It wasn’t long before someone came up with a connector cord that let you put the flash on a bracket handle with a diffuser.
One advantage wires had was the ability to act as an extension of the hot shoe. The camera and flash could still work together, albeit thorough a coiled cord connecting them. The camera could tell the flash the proper exposure and flash power, just as if the flash was reading the scene through the camera lens.
The wires connecting the camera to the flash unit were eventually replaced with wireless transmitters and that’s where the confusion began. Companies like Canon had their own proprietary wireless e-TTL technologies and, for a long time, no one could figure out how to get that to work across a radio link. It was either buy a Canon flash or forget it.
Early on, and in most inexpensive wireless flash controllers today, all the wireless connector does is tell the flash to fire. The flash fires at maximum, unless you manually scale the power back.
Cowboy wireless flash trigger
Even today professional photographers don’t use anything more complex than units like this Cowboy Wireless Flash Controller because they still prefer to use a light meter and set the flash power manually. Shooting that way is perfectly okay.
Some of the newer units like these can give you control over the sync and flash power (not full TTL support) over the wireless link.
But along came a photographer who was annoyed that his e-TTL would not work across a radio link and, even though many others had failed, he partnered up with an engineer and figured out how to get it working. They called it The Radio Popper.
RadioPopper JrX studio kit
Other companies have since figured out the wireless TTL magic and now wireless TTL is available for almost any combination of camera and flash, if you want to spend the money.
Some people, even those who have the money, still prefer to use a light meter.
Infrared flash controller
A wireless data link is not your only option. If line-of-sight is not an issue, you can still go with an infrared transmitter. There really just isn’t much incentive to buy infrared over radio these days. It’s so convenient to be able to put a flash unit out of sight in the background that limiting yourself to line-of-sight seems silly.
Nikon announced the release of its latest version of its photo sharing service called My Picturetown. Aimed squarely at the consumer market, new features include greater sharing and creativity features including some tailored to some of the new software features of cameras like the Nikon System 1.
The latest iteration of Picturetown expands GPS support to display log data from cameras like the Coolpix AW100 which has built-in GPS support. The log data will be displayed in map view, allowing users to track their route and share the adventure with friends and family. There’s also an altitude graph and capability to display heading information and location names.
Another new feature is the integrated movie playback option that automatically packages video for streaming instead of download. There’s also a feature to display the new Motion Snapshot files, the new feature in the System 1 that combines still images and a few frames of video to create motion graphics reminiscent of the paintings in a Harry Potter movie.
One interesting feature serious photographers will appreciate is Picturetown supports NEF and NRW RAW formats besides JPEG and TIFF.
Picturetown comes packed with variety of options to share photos, including PhotoMovie which combines photos, music, and messages that can then be shared with family and friends. Other social features include shared albums with a slideshow feature and if the photos include location info, users can toggle between the slideshow and map view.
There is also built-in integration with Facebook and permalink features to embed photos in blogs and web sites.
The storage may prove a bit anemic for pro shooters with free accounts limited to 2 GB and a scaled price point up to $29.95 a month for 200 GB.
Wedding photography is a tough business - by Lee J Haywood
Wedding photography is often the first paying job for many interested in a career in photography and the bread and butter for most professional photographers. It’s also the one facet of photography that you’re most likely to fall into by happenstance.
Many times a career in photography has started with a friend or relative getting married but are too poor to afford a photographer. If you’re interested in pursuing a career as a professional photographer, that’s probably where your journey will begin as well: As the unpaid photographer for someone you know getting married on a tight budget. That will be in spite of many good reasons not to take that job.
If you’re still determined to pursue this career option, here are my tips for getting started in the business.
Expect Fierce Competition
While you may be able to luck your way into a decent portfolio, luck will not keep you in the business. Wedding photography is a brutally competitive field, more so now than in times past. As full-time employment becomes harder to find, more people are looking for ways to start their own business and, for anyone with a decent camera and good eye for taking pictures, one of those ideas will inevitably be wedding photography.
Complaining about people new to the business is a part-time occupation for professional photographers, but what I’m hearing lately from my associates in the business is a level up from the normal background griping. Many are having a tough time making ends meet right now, bookings are down across the board. Competition is one of the the greatest challenges you’ll face getting started in the business.
Learn About Running a Business
On top of being able to sell yourself and compete, you have to understand cash flow, advertising, billing, collections, taxes, insurance, licensing, liability, and incorporation; the basics of running any business.
Take general business classes at night and see if your state or county has any programs to help new businesses get started. This will be a lot easier to do if you still have your day job.
Learning about contracting is absolutely crucial. That can be the difference between making it and getting sued for everything you’re worth. You don’t have to become a legal expert, but you have to know and implement the basics.
You can also think about investing in some books specific to wedding photography, like this one by Dane Sanders.
Get Insurance
Organizations like Professional Photographers of America (PPA) can help with training and connections but the most valuable aspect to joining is the insurance coverage. Memberships now come with $15,000 in equipment coverage and E&O insurance. They also offer group discount rates on liability insurance.
Good insurance can save you when things go wrong. When you’re holding the broken components of your Nikon D300 with a wedding to shoot that weekend, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Study The Industry Tirelessly
My friends in the wedding photography business are fantastic photographers. Not just good, scary good. On top of that you still have to stay on top of the trends and expectations in your own business.
Many of those trends that more brides want require a substantial investment in equipment or partner companies to supply that gear. That means rental equipment, contracts, and extra time and effort moving gear around. Does your liability and theft insurance cover rented equipment? Better know the answer to that before you pick it up.
You can’t just learn about the industry, you have to live and breathe it and that includes the technical aspects of the business, the expectations of your customers, and any value added service you can provide to give yourself a leg up on the competition.
Avoid Debt Like a Plague
Being in photography requires a continuous balancing act between cash flow, eating, and investing in equipment. The biggest mistake I see people new to the business make is going into debt to get started. All it takes is one mistake, one bad month where you miss that payment, and you’re out of business.
In wedding photography, cash flow is going to be a big deal. You’ll be slammed for four months out of the year, sometimes double-booked on some weekends, covering morning and afternoon ceremonies. It’s critical to get in the habit of putting away a cash stash to last through the fall and winter when there will be fewer bookings. Learn this skill or die your first year.
Some photographers slip into the habit of borrowing money during the slow season and pay it back over the spring and summer. Don’t do that. One bad year, one accident where you can’t work, and your business and financial future are dead.
If your kids are wearing mask, take a couple shots with the mask off so you can identify them years from now
Even though adults have pretty much co-opted Halloween these days, it originally was more of a kid thing, and still is in a lot of ways. Parents will want to preserve those memories, if for nothing else as blackmail when they get older.
Move The Flash
For the best results you’ll want to use an external flash, preferably one capable of communicating with your camera’s e-TTL system. Those don’t have to be expensive, you can find a reasonably good external flash for most Canon and Nikon models for around $80 and a sync cord that also works with e-TTL for about $20. For less than $100 you can have an external flash you can move around to different angles. If you want to spend a bit more you can get a wireless flash controller.
Having a flash you can move around will give you the option to hold it below the subject, which is called “ghoul lighting” for a reason, or off to the side for a more dramatic effect.
Get In Close
The biggest mistake most photographers make is being too far from the subject. Move in closer, frame the shot so tight that you start losing part of your subject around the edges.
Better to be too close than back so far your pictures have a lot of distracting background.
Break Up The Police Line
Most people group everyone together in a pose reminiscent of a police lineup. Here are some tips from a previous article to break up the line.
It also gives you the chance to let the kids do something fun and be more expressive.
If They’re Wearing a Mask, Take Two Photos
If any of your kids are wearing a mask, take one picture with the mask on and one with it off. That way you’ll be able to identify the kid behind the mask years from now.
