3 Tips to Become a Highly Successful Freelance Photographer

How do you become a successful freelance photographer?

Although this question may appear daunting, the following three tips will help you get started quickly and easily.

Tip #1: Go back to school

The only way to get good at anything is through education. As an aspiring photographer, you can create your own curriculum of books to read to learn the best ways to take excellent photographs.

However, you can’t always learn what you need from books. Sometimes taking online courses can help more, because you can then send in your assignments to the instructor for feedback.

Still, at a later point, even this may not be enough—so consider the idea of enrolling in a class offered by a local photography studio or a community college. The advantage of this approach is that you can get mentored in person by the instructor and also make friends with other people who share your interests.

Tip #2: Be different and unique

Let’s suppose, you’ve studied photography and you’re now a highly skilled photographer. The next thing to do is to learn to stand out from the crowd. Why should a potential client hire you rather than someone who has been taking photographs for many years?

Here’s the thing: the more you can differentiate your work from that of other photographers, the easier it will be for you to build a large clientele. What’s more, you can do it quickly by not offering your clients the same services as other photographers. Read reviews for paintyourlife.com to get a good idea of how you can be different by making your photographs into paintings.

At first blush, this idea of developing a unique niche may seem to be a tall order. After you take pictures for your clients, then send them to an online service where an artist can transform photo to painting.

Tip #3: Buy the best equipment

Although you now have acquired a considerable amount of knowledge and skills as a photographer and have found a canny way of bypassing the competition by offering a unique service, you need to take one final step. It’s now time to choose the best equipment. Avoid trying to save money by buying second-hand equipment. If you must save money, then spend less in other parts of your life, but make it a point to buy the best and the latest cameras, lenses, flash diffusers, and light reflectors.

Here’s an analogy to make the necessity of this point clear:

Imagine that you’re an accomplished pianist and need to play in front of a large audience at a musical event. You will be alarmed and distressed if you discover after playing a few notes that the piano is out of tune. Why does this matter? After all, you’re a virtuoso with many years of experience playing all over the world. It’s because an out of tune piano will make you sound like a rank amateur. The piano’s reduced string tension means that the piano has settled to a much lower tension. In order to delight the audience, the strings would have to be pulled up again to their proper pitch. Skill alone, no matter how rarefied, is not enough to have an effective performance. You also need to play a well-tuned musical instrument.

Similarly, even if you are an excellent photographer, but use low-quality equipment, your images will not be sharp, vivid, and exciting, even if you try to use photoshop to rescue them.

When you follow these three tips, you will be able to start a lucrative photography business from home that will allow you to do what you love and get paid for it.