People get into photography for a variety of reasons. A majority actually pick it up as a hobby at first, not having money in mind at all as they’re starting out. Photography is an art where the attraction lies in the person’s desire to do something fun, creative, and worthwhile. Some creatives don’t think about money in photography, but it’s worth a consideration when you’re in a pinch.
Tips for Making Money with Photography
In the next sections, we break down making money with photography on a part-time or full-time basis.
Part-time Ways of Making Money with Photography
There’s no one-size-fits-all template for success. The following recommendations make it so you can monetize off some photos while juggling multiple side hustles or potentially keeping your full-time job.
Sell or License Your Photos on Stock Photography Sites
Become a contributor to sites like iStock, BigStock, and Shutterstock, or upload your photos to your own personal Flickr account and license them through Getty Images. Here are a few steps on how to sell your stock photos:
- Sign up. Sign up as a contributor and provide any basic information that the sites will ask for. Prepare some identification documents which you will need to submit.
- Read and familiarize yourself with the submission guidelines.
- Upload your photos and add metadata, photo descriptions, and relevant keywords.
- Submit your stock photos for review.
Join Photo Contests
Don’t believe that your skills are good enough to win a photography contest? Think again!
It’s not just experts who join these contests after all. You will usually be against photographers with different levels of experience and expertise – even beginners! And even if you don’t win, there’s still a silver lining: photo contests boost your confidence and expose you to the community.
Excited to register for the next photo contest? You’re in luck! There are plenty of photo contests that are held yearly, both virtually and in person. To help excite you and push you to join: the grand prizes can go as high as a few thousand dollars! Not bad, right? Here are some to check out:
- National Geographic Your Shot
- International Photography Awards
- Nikon Small World
- Sony World Photography Awards
Start a Photography Blog or YouTube Channel
If you love to write, a potential way for you to make money is to start your own blog about photography. You can make tutorials, share tips and tricks with a special audience, or write reviews on all kinds of photography gear and software.
Do your research and write on topics people are most interested in. Once you’ve done your research, get into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which includes learning the hot and trending keywords that your target audience is typing into search engines. Target those keywords and place them smartly throughout your content so that people will gravitate towards you.
Similarly, you can also make money by starting a YouTube channel about photography. It’s essentially the same content (tutorials, reviews, etc.) but in video form. However, your blog or YouTube channel needs to gain a good following before you can actually start making money from it.
Sell Your Prints
Another way to get some cash on the side is by selling physical copies of your best shots. Follow the steps below to start selling your prints!
- Upload your photos to Etsy, eBay, or Fine Art America to try and reach customers outside of your area.
- Bring framed prints of your photos to sell at arts and craft fairs or get them displayed at coffee shops, restaurants, and other outlets.
- Offer printed copies to your clients.
Before you start selling prints, find a good printing service first (check out Printique) to ensure the quality of the end product. Also, as a general rule, people don’t normally buy photos with people in them, so try to avoid selling these kinds of photos. After all, the prints they buy will likely be displayed in their homes or offices.
Flexi-time Ways to Earn Income with Photography
If you’re ready to dedicate more time than 20 hours per week to your professional photography career but not ready to commit full-time, don’t worry! There are still a lot of earning opportunities that will open up for you.
Do Freelance Work for Magazines or Newspapers
Search for the contact numbers or personally visit local magazine and newspaper production companies. Once you do, ask if they have any freelance roles that you could get in an application for.
Eventually, you’ll establish a relationship with the publication. That is when you can expect a steadier stream of work where they will ask you to cover local events and snap photos for features and news stories.
Become a Paparazzo
If you live in Los Angeles and New York (known celebrity hotspots), paparazzi photography may be for you. Paparazzi photographers are well-paid, but their jobs can also be highly demanding and competitive. Here’s how to get in the world of paparazzi:
- Familiarize yourself with celebrities from all fields.
- Invest in a high-quality camera with (ideally) a telephoto lens. Aside from that, you’ll also need a compact camera to take with you during unexpected celebrity sightings.
- Familiarize yourself with prime locations for celebrity activity.
- Develop communication skills for when you need to interact with celebrities and other paparazzi.
Some paparazzi-approved cameras are the Canon EOS R5, Sony Alpha a7S III, or Nikon D500. They also love to get themselves some powerful DSLR and mirrorless cameras.
Important note: If you decide to be a freelance paparazzo, make sure to find out which outlets you want to sell your photos to – and be smart about it!
Start Doing Photo Shoots
This hustle would require you to have your own studio or have the budget to rent a professional studio. However, you can rest easy knowing that more and more clients are starting to prefer outdoor or location shoots. So, if you can’t afford a studio yet, no need to worry – there are still lots of photo shoot opportunities out there for you.
To get started, gather your best work into a portfolio and upload it onto your own website. Additionally, share your work on social media and do whatever you can to get the word out about your services. Here are the best types of photo shoots you can do:
- Maternity photo shoots
- Newborn photo shoots
- Pet photo shoots
- Family portraits
- Headshots
- Real estate photos for ads
- Boudoir photo shoots
Wondering what price to ask for? Well, the price for a single shooting session may vary from $100 to $150 depending on how long the shoot goes on for, what type of shoot it is, and how much editing the pictures need in post.
Another great way to decide on prices is to make sure to do research and find out how much other local photographers are charging so you can have a good idea of how your own prices should look.
At the end of the day, rooting yourself as a good photographer within your area is a good way to introduce yourself to the local community, hence starting the process of self-promotion. Customers often seek photos that can be hung as decorations, so try your best to go for niches that people would want displayed in their houses.
Offer a Service to Edit and Retouch Photos
Editing images goes hand in hand with capturing images. It has often been said that taking the picture is just half the battle. You must then edit it to create a certain mood or feeling. If you know your way around popular editing software such as Lightroom or Photoshop, you are highly capable of offering services to edit and retouch other photographers’ images.
You can charge by the hour, the number of images, and the amount/type of retouching you want to do. For example, you could charge more when people request to completely remove the background vs. light airbrushing to smooth out skin tones.
Some have found fame and fortune in teaching editing techniques or selling imaging presets to create a certain look of an image. Presets are particularly popular in wedding photography because a consistent look can be applied to a set of images or a photo shoot with simply a few clicks of the mouse button.
Work with local small businesses, such as coffee shops or bookshops, who may be looking to utilize your photography expertise. You can offer to photograph their space or products that could be featured on their marketing and promotional materials. Product photography and real estate photography are useful niches to learn for this reason.
Full-time Ways to Earn Money with Photography
Not all photography gigs are easy to do on the side. In fact, many require 30+ hours a week of work, both behind the camera and spent organizing and finding new clients.
It’s important to remember that most professional photographers spend lots of time at the computer doing upwork like photo editing and working with complex programs like Photoshop. Lots of your time will be spent developing photography skills that are important to know how to perform.
Get Gigs as An Assistant Photographer
Most photographers often need a second shooter at weddings and events, like an assistant during photo shoots. If you aren’t too confident about going out there on your own and taking on clients by yourself, working as an assistant or a second shooter is a great way to get your foot in, gain more experience, and earn some extra cash because you’ll be compensated for your time!
Just contact any local photographers near you and ask if they need an assistant or a second shooter. Alternatively, if you don’t feel like calling up a photographer you’ve never met and just straight up asking for a job, you can try meeting people in the local photography community by joining some online groups or clubs. Networking is an important part of any photographer’s career, so start building your network now.
Offer Wedding Photography Services
Spoiler alert: You don’t need to have a registered wedding photography business in order to earn money while photographing weddings, at least at first. In truth, you can begin with just you and your camera, and then go ahead and market your services to your friends and relatives.
Wedding photography is a very profitable niche thanks to people getting married almost every day. This immediately makes wedding photography services one of the safer options for people who are looking to see which niche will give a more stable client base. Despite its abundant client base, don’t let any external pressure get to you, and pursue wedding photography at your own pace.
Finally, keep your clients happy and keep the referrals coming by making sure that your wedding photography services are done with top-of-the-line equipment.
Start Your Own Niche Photography Business
For this money-making method, you will specialize in your desired type of photography. If you want to earn money consistently, you need to find your niche, find opportunities to upskill, invest in self-promotion, and continue to improve.
If you enjoy photographing animals, open a pet photography studio. Love traveling? Then get into travel photography. Just make sure to keep it focused on one or several related niches, as doing so helps you increase your credibility and build your reputation for being an expert in that particular niche.
Why? Think of it this way: if a client wants to hire a photographer for his wedding, will he hire the photographer who does real estate photography, headshots, and the occasional weddings here and there? Or will he hire a photographer who exclusively specializes in weddings? Probably the latter, right?
Bottom line: People want a photographer who knows what they are doing and has formed the special skills and gathered the experience needed to be the best person for the job.
Teach Photography Workshops
Once you establish yourself as a photographer, either through reputation or via social media channels, you could try your hand at teaching. Photography classes can serve as a steady stream of income. There are many novices who want to learn both basic and advanced photography from a good instructor.
Our advice is to first attend a workshop yourself and see what you liked and more importantly, what could be improved. You can then incorporate these into your own workshop. For example, if you are a landscape photographer, hold workshops at picturesque locations.
Be advised that workshops do take a lot of preparation and planning. You’ll need to scout out places beforehand. Workshops need to be arranged well in advance, sometimes needing to be planned for more than a year before. Additionally, you will need to obtain permits at certain locations, and you might have to plan transport and lodging.
Good Luck!
No matter which money-making method you choose from the list we’ve prepared, we are rooting for you. Earning money from photography is a tricky feat within itself, so don’t beat yourself up when things get difficult.
The world of photography may get competitive, but when it does, just remember why you started. Keep yourself surrounded by your loved ones and keep your mind open to accepting bigger and better opportunities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Full-time photographers can earn anywhere between $30,000 and $75,000 per year, averaging $42,494 in 2023. However, some do earn much more.
There’s no absolute way to judge, but it definitely offers the smoothest transition. When you start with a part-time schedule, you can have an idea of your photography career’s financial stability.
Commercial photography: Top commercial photographers can earn over $100,000 per year.
Fashion photography: Working with major brands or publications can give you $100,000 to $150,000 per year.
Wedding photography: High-end wedding photographers can charge $3,000 to $10,000 per wedding, leading to annual incomes of more than $100,000.
Sports photography: Major league sports photographers can earn $50,000 to $100,000 or more.
Yes, but it’s highly dependent on your personal interests, skills, goals, and how much time and effort you’re willing to invest. You must have a passion for it.
Initially, it can be difficult to make money as a photographer but it’s doable with the right approach, skills, and persistence.
