Every trade has its own set of secrets. And those who are actually able to crack those secrets are the ones who become successful. Believe it or not, the field of professional photography also has its own secrets that photographers use to beat the competition and leap forward. Photographer Miguel Quiles shares 5 of such secrets that professional photographers don’t want you to know:
1. Image Quality Doesn’t Matter
You must’ve come across photographers around you who produce amazing quality images but aren’t much successful with their business. On the other hand, there are photographers whose work may not the so great, but their businesses sustain for quite a bit. Why does this happen?
“The secret is that they’re producing consistency in whatever level of images that they’re producing.”
Always aim to produce consistent results. When you are consistent with your work, your potential clients already know what can be expected from you. And this is what is essential to drive business. If your portfolio has images with varying degree of quality, it can confuse potential costumers which becomes a hindrance to your business.
2. Importance of Post-Production
There are photographers out there who feel that post-production is cheating. They totally downplay the role of post-production in photography. But, if you want to be successful as a photographer, make sure that you embrace post-production as a tool to catapult your business to success.
A good start is to start shooting in raw format. Raw format allows you to capture the image with the greatest dynamic range, and provides you with great flexibility for post-processing. And be sure to spend some good amount of time learning post-production software like Lightroom, Photoshop, or others.
3. The Role of Lighting
“You need great lighting if you’re going to capture truly great images.”
Lighting is undeniably the most important factor that determines the quality of the image. The key is thus to look for, and shoot during favorable lighting conditions. This is why many photographers prefer to shoot during golden hour. If you want to take things into your own hands, you can create light as required using flash, and light modifiers.
4. The Truth About Pricing
The question of how much to charge for photography is quite a common one. However, there is no concrete answer to this.
“Standard pricing in the art of photography doesn’t really exist.”
It thus boils down to how good you are in your field, and how much the market is willing to pay. Professional photographers do not believe in having a standard price list. They simply create images and sell them for as much as they think the image is worth, regardless of what others are charging.
5. The Importance of Social Media
Everyone is making good use of social media these days. You can see photographers posting images regularly in Facebook and Instagram. But, the secret lies in having a strategy while posting in social media as well. Collecting likes will not matter if you are not able to land some business.
Most photographers photograph to their own taste, post the images in social media, and hope that their work gets noticed by their potential customers. But, the secret to success is totally different. Many professional photographers invest their money to shoot campaign quality images to gain the attention of brands and clients they would like to work with.
“I’ve known many pros who have paid tens of thousands of dollars to book models, wardrobe, hairstylist, and a location to add images to their portfolio so they can use those images to approach companies to get hired.”
Posting the images in social media is not alone sufficient. Sending those images to the brands via direct messaging, or even tagging them is another way of gaining their attention.
These are some really awesome tips from Quiles to help you grow your photography business. Give them a shot and see if they’ll help you give a boost to your photography business.
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Very short list but very good points.
Consistency over image quality. This is a piece of advice that is not often heard but is of great importance. Your customers need to know what they can expect from you. Remember: don’t try new techniques or equipment for the first time in paid assignments, just in case.