Wondering how to become a photographer? With a balance of creativity and technical skill, photography can provide endless opportunities for both professional and personal fulfillment.
From freelance work to applying your expertise full-time, the journey to ‘professional photographer’ is winding but rewarding.
Getting Started
Before jumping in, it’s important to understand both the industry as a whole and potential paths you can take to reach your goals. With this guide, you can build a roadmap for your own career in photography, from mastering the basics to finding the perfect professional niche. Roll up your sleeves, no one said it would be easy.
Master the Basics
Putting in the work to master your craft is something that you’ll need to do from the beginning of your career until the end. However, without learning the basics early on, you will have no foundation to build upon, no rules to break, and no sense of what comes next. If you haven't already, consider working through a photography fundamentals course. This can be done through a personal mentor, university program, online course, or with a more flexible, self-guided approach. Tagging that you’re available for a mentorship on your VSCO profile is a great way to connect with potential mentors and learn from their expertise.
You want to not only understand, but also creatively apply technical basics, from shutter speed, to aperture, to ISO. Beyond technicalities, you will need to develop your vision through the use of composition, light, and a rigorous creative practice. Refining your editing workflow using tools included with a VSCO Membership will enable you to streamline your process, and help keep you organized as you move along your professional path.
Develop Your Passion
As your skills develop, so should your passion within the field. Use every press of the shutter to understand what motivates you and keeps you excited about photography. This could manifest through the exploration of specific genres, like portraiture or street photography, or through commercial and personal interests, like product photography and long-form documentary projects. Learn to recognize what drives your enthusiasm and channel that into your practice. Over time, this will help you carve out a niche that you can master.
Gearing Up
Gear is an investment that almost all photographers need to spend time considering as they pursue professional work. Expanding your toolkit, and knowledge of it, will allow you to achieve more professional results, explore more creative options, and allow you to work with maximum efficiency. With your niche more well-defined, it may be time to think about specific gear that could propel your professional progress – maybe you find yourself in the studio and in need of multiple flashes and stands, or maybe you’re traveling a lot and need a compact camera that packs a big professional punch.
Always remember that gear costs money – and that money comes at the expense of other things, like time, savings, or travel. Don’t fall for thinking that you can purchase your way into a professional photography career. Carefully weigh the costs and benefits of every purchase you make, ensuring that every piece of equipment has its place and purpose.
Learn with Experience
As you advance, you will want to create and continually update your photography portfolio – making each iteration slightly better than the last. In order to do this, you’ll need to do more than just take more pictures, you’ll need to continually build your skills, learn from your mistakes, and know when (and perhaps more importantly, who) to ask for help.
Having strong professional relationships can be invaluable not only for getting work, but also learning. A photography mentor is someone who you can rely on for answers, nuanced guidance, and creative development. This is a lot to ask, so this person should be someone who you know and trust, like a teacher, a more experienced photographer, or an industry professional. Your goal is to learn as much as possible from your mentor, so ask questions, share edits, plan shoots, or even offer to assist them in their own work. If you’re in search of a photography mentorship, try tagging that you’re available to be mentored on your VSCO profile.
There’s a lot to be learned from watching, working, and helping out with real photoshoots and production. This kind of experience can be initiated through formal internships or entry-level positions, and can advance all the way up to highly specialized full-time careers in and of themselves. You can “assist” and organize gear on location, manage post-processing workflows, file and track invoices, run prints, liaison with editors and curators, or even serve as a “second shooter” – the opportunities are as vast as the industry itself. Leverage your relationships (and your portfolio) to find opportunities that align with your professional photography goals.
In addition to working with others, you’ll need to learn how to push your personal and professional development independently. You can do this by carving out time for self-assigned or personal passion projects that push your creative and technical limits. Use these projects to explore new mediums, take risks, and to strategically fill any gaps in your portfolio. For example, if you want an internship at a commercial photo studio, consider building a project that showcases expertise in that area. You may also want to research classes, workshops, portfolio reviews, and conferences as supplemental venues for learning, getting feedback, and growing your professional network.
Build Your Network
Though not to be taken as a fundamental truth, there is meaning to be pulled from the phrase, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Your professional network can’t replace your skills and ambitions, but it can elevate them to new heights. Every interaction, from a cold email to a formal meeting, is an opportunity to grow your network and expand your professional reach. Networking can happen anytime, anywhere, but by placing yourself in and around the people, places, and events that align with your goals, you can increase your odds — think art book fairs, show openings, and professional meetups. When building your network, always use clear communication, follow up appropriately, and deliver on your words. Simple things like a complement on a recent project or a well-researched question can go a long way in fostering a relationship. Be human, be humble.
Find Your Path
Becoming a professional photographer can mean many different things and can segue into many other related careers or professions. Almost all paths to becoming a professional photographer will have twists and turns along the way, so be open to new experiences and always pay attention to both the good and bad of any job or project you take on.
Although clicking the shutter may be central to being a professional photographer, many end up spending more time doing other things, like marketing, editing, communications, sales or social media. Pursue professional experiences, gigs, and projects that will help you understand what you enjoy doing and what you can improve on, or even hire help for later on. You may even find you excel at a particular role that doesn’t include literally photographing.
If you have a strong network and love developing editorial projects, finding and hiring photographers, and selecting images, you may want to look at photo editor positions or a career as an agent representing photographers. If you love learning and teaching, you could become a photography educator at an established institution, or develop your own educational content to sell and share. You can use photography as a tool in your personal brand or as a content creator. All of this is in addition to the actual “photography” bit — and there are countless ways to combine and balance skills into a successful career.
Going all in on a single career path or skill can blind you from other opportunities and backfire if things don’t work out the way you planned. Think about ways you can develop multiple professional projects at once, either through side hustles, part-time jobs, new services, or collaborations. You may be a commercial photographer during the week, but you can also support your passion for landscape photography by building an online print store. You could partner with a graphic designer to offer clients a more complete suite of creative services. You may even choose a completely unrelated part-time gig to help support your newly started professional photography career as it gets off the ground. All paths are a little different, but almost all reward consistent work and passion.
Stick With It
Building a professional photography career takes time, and there is no secret shortcut. Your own consistency and dedication may be the most important part of ensuring your success. You may find yourself making breakthroughs early on, only to hit a creative roadblock later on. Careers almost inevitably cycle through highs and lows, and it's important to not lose focus or motivation during those periods.
Allow yourself to look at multiple time frames at once and learn how they support each other – in what ways does your daily to-do list ladder up to goals a year or more away? If you stick with it and leverage everything you learn along the way, opportunities often have a way of presenting themselves when you least expect it.
Professional Photographer Checklist
- Master the fundamentals
- Find your niche
- Get the right gear
- Never stop learning
- Build your network
- Explore multiple paths
- Keep at it
Go Pro with VSCO
Whether you’re just getting started or looking to expand on prior experience, VSCO Membership can help expand both your professional and creative practices. Build your network with our global community, edit and collaborate with pro tools, and get exposure on our ad-free platform.
Pro Members can also appear on VSCO Hub to land photography jobs with brands and businesses. Showcase your work, get real world experience, and grow your professional career with a VSCO Membership.
