Career Choices Using Photography and the Skills Needed to Succeed

There are many different jobs that involve photography, including:

-Portrait/studio/wedding - With an emphasis on pictures of people and sell images to families and individuals
Sports-- Action photos from children to professional and Olympic championships
Photography -Commercial/product - each ad has photos taken by someone. Photography of jewelry, food, automotive and fashion are some examples.
-Artistic/landscape - Staged or artistically oriented images, which are often soldas a work of art, postcards or travel products
Architecture - Photos of buildings and other built
-Forensic - used in the police / detective work. Scene of the Crime and photography related.
Journalism - not-enactment of real life images of newspapers and magazines
-School/event - Pictures of schools, sports groups, churches and other groups, where the high volume is typical.
-Photo Archive - photos make sure that other people buy and use for advertising and other

Technical Photography

It 'anotherother specialties, such as astrophtography and photomicrography.

Career Choices Using Photography and the Skills Needed to Succeed

Frequently asked questions about careers in photography

Technical Photography

1) What skills do I need to succeed as a photographer?

Concept-the ability to understand the needs of your customers and communicate with them
To recognize the ability to configure and use the camera, lighting and props to take pictures - Technique
Editing - the ability to process images captured and edited to suit the needs of customers
Marketing- The ability to enter your name out there and you and your company, connect the potential customer base
Sale - the ability to earn money from your profession. Includes prices, negotiating, meeting with clients, the production of final products
Managing Director - Care of the day to day needs of a professional commercial or independent, including buying things, paying bills, insurance, taxes, permits, etc.
Leader - or construction work in an environment where it is necessarycreating visions, goals and define actions, and to grow the company
Serve - contacts and expand their customer base, customer satisfaction measurement, solving customer problems.

You can see that only covered the technical and editing skills in traditional photography / computer skills. But because photography with a high degree of interpersonal communication and perceived needs of the customer base, it is necessary to develop and have a good contact with people -listening, documenting, creativity, follow-through, etc.

2) What education do I need to be successful in photography?

You will need to learn or be taught the technical aspects of photography - lighting, composition, camera science, image editing and production. Some people can learn this as they go. Others pursue a special degree or certificate from certain schools, or you can get a 4-year degree in arts/photography from a university. To be very well prepared, you should consider a minor in business or marketing or a minor in your chosen specialty field such as criminal justice, sports or journalism. This will give you an edge over any candidates who do not have this education.

3) What type of experience is required?

To be employable, you need to demonstrate competence in not just the technical areas of photography, but also the soft skills. I recommend building and growing a portfolio of your own images to show your technical and artistic development and skills. A demonstrated track record in any service industry (food service, retail, etc.) will demonstrate that you can work with people and satisfy their needs. Using your photo skills in volunteer areas will also grow your skills and breadth of experience.

You can often get work as a "second shooter" or assistant to professionals in your town. Your ability to take on the dirty work and learn on the job will increase your odds of success in finding entry level work.

4) What are the job duties of a photographer?

They vary highly from the job areas and the size of the business, but these are the general duties:

- Prepare marketing plans to advertise and promote your products and services
- Interact with customers on proposals to secure the job
- Prepare for photo sessions - logistics/planning, coordinating equipment, props, models, permits, etc.
- Conduct the photo session
- Edit and backup the images
- Publish and/or make the images available for customer review
- Interact with customers to develop the images into their ideal products
- Transact the sale and collect the payment
- Manage the business accounts - keep the office running

5) What is the outlook for this type of career?

There are good jobs in all of these areas. The development of high quality digital cameras has given the average person the ability to create very good images at a reasonable cost, but the professional photographer will have the training, talent, tools and motivation to make better images. Price pressure will continue to force professionals to be more cost effective.

Career Choices Using Photography and the Skills Needed to Succeed