Making a living as a portrait photographer

Over the last few months I've been making portraits of children of my friends and family. Some of them

had friends who saw and liked the photos, and I started to get requests for paid assignments. This was

never my intention, but now I'm beginning to consider doing this for a living. I'm in a career transition

and I really enjoy photography.

 

I bought a book called "The Business of Studio Photography" by Edward Lilley which kind of turned me off

to the whole thing. On the first page he says "very few studio photographers can net over $50k/year, and

those that do have had to work long and hard to establish a successful business." He talks about 100

hour weeks and long periods with no breaks at all.

 

I'm just wondering if this is consistent with the experience of professional portrait photographers on this

forum. I'd love to hear from those of you who are making a living shooting portraits... a bit about your

business, whether you're able to support yourself, how long it took to build your business, and any tips or

advice you have for someone starting out.

 

I'm also curious to know whether it's possible to make it without shooting weddings. Due to a physical

limitation I'm not able to be on my feet for 8-12 hours at a time, so I don't think I could handle wedding

assignments.

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

Chris

Chris: They were right about it except the 50K. Most guys work long hours for a lot less. Not a good career choice. And without weddings it is really hard because most people have cameras and think they are photographers.

I've known sucessful portrait photographers and happy portrait photographers, but they never seem to be the same people.

 

My wife and I are happy, which should tell you something. We left behind 16 years with a small volume portrait studio chain just because we weren't getting any real enjoyment out of life, and rented a grand old Federal Period house with fantastic trees and are having a ball turning it into a studio. I realized that I was never as alive as when I had a camera in my hands, facing a new and difficult problem. I was definitly overpaid as a photographer at around $60k+bennies, and my employer was only able to justify that because I also wrote software and tended the computer systems.

 

We intend to lose money the first year, and plan to start breaking even no sooner than October. In five years we may be back to the annual income we walked away from. So far we're right on track, except that we accidently sold some prints last month and are overbooked with paid sittings this month. Since we're not seeing much Father's Day business, that has me worried.

 

We often work 16 hour days, and take appointments 7 days a week. It's a blast.

 

I think it must be like farming: long hours, short pay, and, for a lucky few, fantastic satisfacrion.

You have to find a market for yourself in the walmart/sears $9.99 world. People that seek something better will hire you, providing you are something better?

Sounds familiar. I don't know how many of you are into competitive figure skating, but there is this young skater down in Houston, TX by the name of Katy Taylor. I read that she wanted to become a chef, but changed her mind when she saw an episode of "Hell's Kitchen".

 

Anyway, I've often thought about turning pro. But the cash I'm pulling in as a chemical engineer is hard to walk away from.

I am not a pro photographer and can't speak to it. I can tell you that in my professional experience (engineering) that any job that sounds fun and/or exciting doesn't pay. Looked at from the other side, any job that pays a LOT should send up red flags to make you wonder why. In my career there have been times where I made very good money but it required me to be away from home 300 days a year. Now I don't make anything close to those days but I'm sitting here at home watching my young children grow up. I'm happier this way.

 

I have a cousin who is a chef. He's the chef of a very high end restaurant and, in his world, he has arrived. He loves his career. I would love to be able to cook anything close to what he can do, however I wouldn't work for what he makes. Sorry.

You'll work your tail off to make 50K, and like the author said you'll certainly pay your dues and put in the hours. Figure out how many sessions you'll have to shoot a week, and how much you'll gross from each session. Then don't forget your expenses such as website design and hosting, business insurance, packaging, marketing and promotion, studio lease if applicable, gear depreciation (and upgrades)and all the gadgets, photo editing software, calibration software, etc. Not to mention the outlay required - good gear and lenses, speedlight, perhaps a few backdrops and props to get you started. And if you're self employed you'll need to buy health insurance, which is not cheap. There are no paid vacations or sick days - if you don't work, you don't get paid. I have a portrait business, and I can tell you it's 50% photography, 50% business skills. I don't support my family with it, but rather supplement the household income. If anything happened to my spouse's job, I'd go back to my dayjob rather than rely on my portrait business income.

 

Those are just a few things to think about.

forgot taxes

<i>You have to find a market for yourself in the walmart/sears $9.99 world.</i>... you'll never make a living competing with Walmart/Sears. Never. So don't try.<p>I make an adequate living as a mostly portrait photographer... but I can do a lot of other types of photography, too. Most of it is photographs of people. <p>Portraits are needed in many business arenas, and the general public is by far the least lucrative to pursue. Corporate people need headshots for websites, actors need portraits, magazines need portraits, non-profits need headshots, too. I just finished a $1000 job for a local church (9 portraits, color and B&W conversions), tomorrow it's a commercial real estate company (7 portraits), last week was the president of a new courier service, a lawyer who has started his own legal blog, the mayor and vice mayor of a small town nearby and a doctors office with an interactive website. <p>I do very little (read: "none") "Mom and the Kids" for print sales, because Walmart does that and I can't compete in that price point. In fact almost none of my clients want prints, and I am sooo glad about that. <p>I was talked into a wedding by a business associate and I will never do that again... I'd rather get $850 for 7 portraits than $1700 for 700 photos... any day. Weddings are too emotional and frantic, with a degree of expectation that is way beyond realistic ("This is going to be the best day of my life!" Really? How sad! It's all down hill from here, then?)...good for some, not for me. <p>Get good with a camera and flash (under any conditions) and approach PR firms. Get good (and fast) with one light on a stand anywhere, and you'll get work if you tell people about it. Targeted marketing is critical. Don't send out 1000 pieces, send 50 to exactly the people you want to work for. You'd also better be competent and fast with your work flow and post, or you'll wear your self out in a hurry... t<div></div>

Tom,

Thanks for your post - it was very informative!

It's funny that without wanting to or trying for it I've been asked by 8 mothers to take pictures of their children. What happened was I took some photos of my friend's one-year old, and she showed them to 18 moms from her "Mommy & Me" group. Several of them asked for my number, and were willing to pay a sitting fee and for prints as well.

Although I'm not affluent myself, I live in an area (Berkeley) with a lot of affluent people who can definitely tell the difference between a Wal-Mart portrait and a "professional" portrait. (As far as I know, there isn't even a Wal-Mart anywhere nearby). I wonder if the same things apply here? Anyhow, I did some math and quickly got the picture that the only way to make it worthwhile would be to do really high-end stuff... and of course I'd need to have the skills, style and reputation to pull that off (which I don't have as of yet!) I'm just going to do some informal stuff and see how it goes.

Family (by this I mean wall portraits), children, seniors--best money in that order.

 

By shooting higher end photographs, you are not competing with Walmart. You want to do large wall portraits, low volume, high price, and high customer service. High volume and low prices will only lead to major headaches. Good luck!!

 

By the way, Google Charles (Chuck) Lewis Photography in Grand Rapids, Michigan for marketing advice--he's a genius at photographic marketing. Ask him about his "Inner Circle".

Ditto the Charles J. Lewis thing. He knows exactly how those 100 hour weeks of getting nowhere can lead to misery in business and personal life. His style of teaching is fun, but serious at the same time. Great speaker! Lots can be learned from this great resource.

 

BTW the best angle of the face is the 2/3 view! (You'll get it when you start seeing Chuck's videos on lighting.)

The key to making a decent living as a photographer is specialization AND diversification - sounds like a contradiction, but it's not. You have to specialize in the photo products people are willing to pay for, and market them to the people who can afford to pay for them.

Sorry, but you can't compete with Walmart - they will beat you every time, because they lose money on every photo they take, just to get people in the store.

You have to be a little high-end boutique, selling to people with money to spend on top quality work. If you can't handle that, go to work for Walmart.

On the other point - Diversify! No one one thing will be steady enough to keep you making money every week. Weddings (marketed to people with money to spend) can be 1/3 of your business.

Senior high portraits - 1/3. Even the Walmart crowd will buy good unique portraits of their senior.

Last 1/3 - you pick-em. For me it's events like proms, class reunions, etc., and daycare center portraits. These shoots are seasonal, but every season has something.

If these don't sound like fun to you, then maybe professional photography is not for you. I am averaging 60,000, and working forty to fifty hour weeks, but I'm organized, and I've developed a referral base.

Lastly, money is not everything. Learn to enjoy your down time. In the end, time is really all we have.

<p>My question about portrait photography is where to take them when you're just starting out and aren't ready for your own studio? There's by-the-hour studios around here, they're $30/hour which is quite reasonable, but 4 hour minimims. If I have to pay $120 in studio fees for every portrait shoot, I'll lose money every time, and it will be a while before I get enough business to stack a few clients back-to-back. I could go the route of meeting the client in a park, but for a lot of potential clients, that has a shady 'electronics out of the trunk' feel. A lot of people want the real studio so they know it's a real photographer.</p>

<p>It is hard to make a decent living as a full time professional photographer and there are alot of people who go into it without any idea of the actual startup and ongoing costs involved.<br>

People often seem shocked that photographer's prices are so high but they rarely think of the cost of the equipment, cost of ongoing training and development, retouching costs, software, insurance, advertising, not to mention the other general costs of running a small business. If you take on all this and the admin yourself you quickly find yourself in a 70 plus hour week!<br>

There are some good guides out there on how to work out your minimum daily rate etc (just google photographer daily rates guide) which take account of all general costs and ensure you wont be getting into debt when you think you're making a killing.<br>

I would also highly recommend a part time job in a printing lab (there are hundreds) as a way to keep a steady income while you're starting up and keep printing costs down as you quite often get a staff discount.<br>

Claire Barnes Photography<br>

<b>Signature URL removed. Not permitted per photo.net Terms of Use.</b></p>

<p> </p>

<p>You can make a great living at portrait photography if you have a recognized brand, a distinctive style of work, and a great reputation.</p>