Making money with photography is not black and white. In contrast to the free-flowing sensory and visual creativity of the medium, turning a profit in photography can require significant advanced planning, analytical thinking, and business acumen. In a world flooded with imagery, the demand is there if you can stand out from the crowd. Use this guide if you want to get started tracking dollars as well as f/stops.
Build your foundation
Before you start getting paid, you need to ensure that you’ve laid the proper groundwork. This means making sure your skills, both technical and creative, are adequate. Your portfolio should be well thought out, easy to navigate, and showcase your unique skills. Use your personal brand, which you will want to start treating like a business, to elevate and develop your specific interests, offerings, and areas of expertise.
Shoring up a strong professional network is another cornerstone that can help you build your financial success. From local business owners to publication editors, every connection you make is a potential opportunity. Try to leverage the knowledge and networks of any mentors you may have, and even consider building an organized spreadsheet to manage contacts – names, emails, position titles, locations, and social handles can all be useful to have on hand for networking and marketing.
Getting to know the basics of how to start a photography business, or any business for that matter, will be important in understanding your pathway to profitability. Consider taking an introductory business class, doing in-depth research online, or hiring a dedicated business or financial consultant. Start with simple business frameworks and calculations to run numbers and estimate where your photography business could take you.
Do the math
Money can be a numbers game and should be considered independently of your creative goals as a photographer, as you don’t need to find financial success to progress along your creative journey. However, once the money does come in, it’s important to understand where it came from and where it’s going.
Turning a profit in photography can be as much about controlling and tracking expenses as it is about generating income. With expensive gear, travel, insurance, taxes, and everything else that comes along the way, you’ll need to consider every penny of income against the money you spend to make it. This can be done with accounting software, business-specific financial accounts, and the help of people like tax professionals.
The money left over after covering your overhead expenses is what you can use to continue running your business and paying yourself. It’s important to find the right balance in investing in yourself (as an individual) and investing in your photography. As tempting as it is to take that full check from a recent gig to buy that lens you’ve been wanting, it’s perhaps even more important to build financial assets like personal savings and emergency funds. Always prioritize building financial safety nets alongside minimizing costs and maximizing savings.
Six photography business models
Business models can be useful as they can be applied to different types of photography businesses and across niches. By looking at the fundamental ways your photography can make you money, you can optimize and diversify your income.
Freelance
Projects, contracts, and clients are taken on a case by case basis. Rates may vary depending on the scope of each job. Freelance photographers usually try to develop a specific niche or expertise to better serve their clients, as well as increase the value of their services.
Subscriptions & Packages
Photographers (and related creative professionals) can offer services in recurring or one-time packages. A package bundles services into one price, and a subscription is an agreement to perform a service (or package of services) multiple times over a period of time. For example, a photo editor may offer editing services in set packages of 10 images, or as a recurring subscription of 50 images a week. Try to cater packages and subscriptions to match your clients’ needs – they can be a great way to add value and increase consistent revenue.
Product & Content Sales
Direct sales of things you make can generate real cash if you’re able to find and grow an audience. You can sell digital products, like online publications, NFTs, or educational guides, or physical ones, like editioned prints, books, zines, or postcards.
Licensing & Royalties
Popular within ‘stock photography’ circles, photographers can license their work for commercial use, a fee often separate from the cost of production. A license gives a party permission to use an image (often in a very specific way), while an additional royalty payment may also be agreed upon for each instance of use. Consider working with a lawyer to ensure you understand these contracts before you sign them, especially regarding licensing agreements and royalties.
Social Media & Brand Partnerships
Social media platforms now offer the potential to earn real money with the content you create. Through both passive advertising and active brand partnerships, you can monetize your social media and use it to drive sales in other parts of your business.
Part & Full time Positions
You don’t have to go at it alone. Consider locking in a part or full time job to make money in photography. Check with marketing agencies, commercial photo studios, publications and local businesses to see if you can get a steady paycheck that sharpens your skills and builds a career.
Combining hustles
One of the best ways a photographer can make money is by combining multiple streams of income and creating synergy between different products and services. By diversifying, your income becomes more resilient as you rely less on one particular source for money. Look at the business models above and think about ways you can combine one or more together. For example, you could partner with a camera store to produce educational content and gear reviews on social media, which you can then use to drive traffic to your own brand and sales of your own educational guides, prints, or services.
Optimize and scale your career
So much of finding financial success in any career is about consistency over time. Businesses take time to build, but once they’re off the ground you can also spot opportunities to finesse and increase the money coming in the door. Constantly measure what parts of your business generate the most cash with the least relative cost. Focus on scaling and growing these areas first if you’re looking to efficiently increase your financial standing.
Bringing on help when needed and workflow enhancements can grow your potential income when used appropriately. If paperwork and invoicing is taking away valuable time that would be better spent editing or taking on more jobs, then consider bringing on a part-time studio assistant or intern to help with the parts of the business that are slowing you down. If you’re using slow software that requires lots of time in post-production, balance the cost of upgrading by getting more done in less time.
Over time, you’ll also need to consider marketing your products and services to increase your audience and potential clients. This can be done at a relatively low cost with self-produced content distributed through well-designed websites, portfolio pages, social media channels, or a completed VSCO profile. Make sure you’re fine tuning your online presence if it’s your primary mode of contact and discovery. You can also promote yourself in more targeted ways with specific mailing lists, ad placements, and even events – physical and digital. Always measure your marketing costs relative to the money it helps you generate.
25 ideas for making money with photography
- Offer portrait packages for graduations, professional headshots, and families.
- Work with local restaurants to photograph their food for menus and marketing.
- Start a photo editing business that offers retouching and image enhancement packages.
- Offer consulting services to help other photographers develop their portfolios.
- Develop an online photography course or guide.
- Start a zine or publication with a subscription.
- Sell things like calendars, postcards, and framed prints with a ‘print on demand’ store.
- Offer specialty photo printing services.
- Cover local sports events for a publication or set up an online marketplace to sell your images to athletes, fans, and teams.
- Partner with local agents to photograph real estate listings.
- Sell editioned fine art prints to collectors or through a gallery.
- Produce still photography for video productions.
- Work with a local construction company or architectural firm to document their work.
- Drone photographers can offer aerial photography and land surveying services.
- Start a photo tourism business that offers guided photo walks in your area.
- Leverage connections with event organizers to photograph concerts, weddings, and conferences.
- Work with a marketing agency to photograph or assist on a commercial brand campaign.
- Offer social media photography packages to local businesses or professionals.
- Build out a photo studio or space that you can rent out to other photographers.
- Do animal photography for pet owners or veterinarian offices.
- Photograph products for a local or online retail store.
- Offer mobile phone photography workshops.
- Produce photographs for a company’s annual report.
- Partner with a vacation planning service to offer art and photography themed vacation packages or activities.
- Become a brand ambassador for a camera gear company.
Land a Job with VSCO Hub
Making money in photography is a process, not simply an end result. As you progress, you’ll learn about all aspects of the photography business — from finances to advanced photo editing. With a VSCO Pro Membership, you can get all the experience you need to get started or expand your existing client list with VSCO Hub. Showcase your work and gain exposure to businesses interested in hiring you for your unique vision. Stay inspired and build both your professional and creative network with community, tools, and exposure on VSCO.
—VSCO
