The idea of pursuing freelance photography tends to intimidate many for various reasons. Good planning, discovering a niche, developing a workflow that works, finding clients, retaining clients, understanding the market, knowing how to market yourself, and several other aspects all play a role in a freelance photographer’s success, and understanding them is critical.
In this guide, you’ll learn all the basics and the initial steps on how to become a freelance photographer so you can get your photography career off to the best start possible!
What to Begin Preparing
Preparation is the most crucial element of any freelance photographer’s success. It allows for the best chance for a stress-free workflow and work environment and consistent creation of the highest quality work possible.
Stress is no good for any profession, but in freelance photography, where you are your own manager, you cannot expect to succeed long term if you’re continuously operating under large amounts of stress. Long-term success is only achievable through consistent quality work, and it’s challenging to maintain a high level of quality in your work when you’re working under stress.
Taking the time to prepare is the best way to alleviate any factors weighing your state of mind. Of course, this is not to say that you must plan out every step of your freelance photography career. Instead, developing a practical roadmap is what good preparation looks like, and we’ll cover the cornerstones of a solid roadmap below.
Find Your Niche
Finding a niche is a double-edged sword for every person looking to get into freelance photography.
Most people fall into one of two categories. Either they already know what niche they want to pursue or have little to no clue what particular content areas interest them. In the latter case, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying out a bunch of different niches to see if you find one that appeals to you, only to eventually give up.
Finding a niche can prove incredibly challenging depending on who you are, and many guides on how to become a freelance photographer fail to highlight this point.
If you’re taking on freelance photography for fun, it’s sometimes easier to find a niche because you only have to worry about going into a niche you genuinely enjoy. On the other hand, if you’re becoming a freelance photographer in part to have some form of stable income, then your enjoyment of a niche is still significant, but so is the income you can get from a niche.
For example, if a photography client is willing to pay you a lot of stock photography, you need to weigh whether the money is worth more than doing something you genuinely enjoy doing, like landscape photography.
It’s a tough predicament that many beginner freelance photographers encounter, and the only way to move past it is with patience and persistence. If you’re struggling to pick a niche, the last thing you want to do is rush the process by going into a niche that does not satisfy you or meet your work standards, leading to the next major point of your roadmap.
Develop a Workflow That Will Satisfy You
When it comes to professional photography work, there are always jobs available if you know where to look, but availability will do you no good if you don’t have a satisfying workflow.
Let’s say you initially plan to work five days a week and put in the typical eight hours on each day. That being the standard does not mean it will satisfy you, even if you found it satisfying with previous jobs.
Remember, you are your own manager. That is one of the most significant benefits of being a freelance photographer. You dictate the type of work you do, when you do it, and how much you do. And unlike a niche, a workflow is far easier to adjust whenever you feel like it, so don’t hesitate to experiment.
You may want to have Thursdays and Fridays off so that you get a longer weekend, in which case you can work a little more on the other weekdays to compensate. Or there may come a time when you have to adjust your schedule because you are unable to work on certain days of the week.
The flexibility is something you may not fully appreciate or utilize initially, but that will change once you start working many jobs and gain experience.
Do Your Homework on the Different Types of Photography Equipment
Once you have a reasonably good idea of what niche you want to commit to, it’s time to start looking into the equipment you’ll need for the job. You don’t want to do this step before deciding on your niche, as not all photography equipment is the same. For example, different cameras specialize in different areas of photography.
You would not want to take photos of landscapes with a camera that is primarily for taking portrait photography. To avoid that type of situation, you have to do your due diligence in researching the various types of cameras that exist.
There is no need to go overboard in the beginning. The best method is to opt for the most popular and widely recommended equipment in whatever niche you choose. Reading articles for cameras on specific niches is generally the easiest and most effective way to go about this part of the process, as you don’t want to spend an overabundance of time on it.
Your knowledge of cameras will gradually improve over time, so you will eventually develop an eye for what cameras best suit your needs without needing to consult outside sources.
Learn the Ins and Outs of How to Market Yourself and Your Work
Since starting a freelance photography business means you have all the control when it comes to getting clients, you’ll have to overcome the challenge of learning how to market yourself effectively.
Marketing yourself to a client is very similar to applying for a job at a company in that 90% of the time, you are not the only person looking to take on work from a client. This means that you have to find ways to set yourself apart from the competition enough to make yourself stand out.
This is where having an expertly crafted resume and portfolio comes into play, and we’ll talk more in-depth about how you should put your resume and freelance photography portfolio together in a bit. Just know that you won’t get far as a freelance photographer without understanding what strategies are best for attracting clients.
As a beginner, the best thing you can do when starting is looking at what other successful freelance photographers have done and emulate their work. Specifically, look at freelance photographers working in your niche. You shouldn’t copy their way of doing things, as you want to have your own identity that stands out, but take some general cues on their work.
Look at how they use social media to promote themselves and see what type of content they post on their accounts. Check to see if they have a website and make notes on its construction. To help with the previous point, try and find out what kind of equipment they use and what types of cameras they recommend for specific shoots.
If you want to learn as much as possible, you can even contact professional photographers and professional freelance photographers directly and ask questions. Because every photographer comes from a humble beginning, many are open to giving upstarting freelance photographers advice that will go a long way, so take advantage of this.
Build Your Brand, Resume, and Portfolio
A brand is something that every business needs, regardless of whether it’s a business owned and operated by one individual or many.
Building your brand will involve the development of both a resume and portfolio first, as they are the foundations on which your brand will sit initially. Think of your resume and portfolio as the qualities and skills you have to offer to potential clients. These include hard skills, soft skills, and work that exemplifies them well.
However, the average client will not take the time to look into the work that showcases your skills if you don’t package it into a digestible format. In this case, that digestible format is your brand.
This is another area where you can significantly benefit from taking inspiration from other freelance photographers in your niche. Look at other photographers’ brands and take notes on how they focus their personality, create a mission statement, and use specific color schemes to create a theme that appeals to their target audience.
A good brand will contain a mixture of all those elements. It will also include the highlights of what work and achievements you choose to have from your resume and portfolio. Those will act as the hook that brings a potential client in for a closer look to see if you offer all the things they are seeking.
Most importantly, you should update your resume and portfolio as often as possible because all clients prefer freelance photographers that are actively working. It won’t be impossible to find a job if you try to attract clients after not doing work for several months, but it will prove more challenging.
Naturally, the more you add to your resume and portfolio, the stronger your brand becomes and the easier it is to get more work. However, remember that the development of a brand never ends, since you can always build upon what you currently have and make it better.
Set a Goal
The final step of the preparation phase is to set a goal for yourself. Don’t start with something far out there, like becoming the world’s most successful freelance photographer. Instead, aim for something more feasible that you can achieve within a reasonable time frame, like working a specific number of jobs in a month.
Think of the goals as checkpoints that will keep you going along in your freelance photography journey. Not everyone needs them, but they are an excellent way of motivating you to keep working towards something.
