Rix Mascarenhas
The subject today is money and we are going to talk about the most profitable niches in photography. Photography is one of the most versatile professions on the planet, with some of the niches of photography being more profitable than others. One caveat is photography isn’t easy, and most of the markets are not easy to get in to. Anyway, if you love this art and want to make a living of it you will need to make money.
But what are the most profitable niches in photography?
Of course, it is difficult to define what profit is, because something profitable for one person may not be for another due to a series of points.
These points are subjective and very personal, so the relationship of “profit” is something difficult to determine.
So I’m just going to talk about money versus niches, so you can get a pretty good idea of what you want to do with life and what is going to pay your bills, maybe.
What are the most profitable niches in photography?
One of the the most profitable niches in photography is event photography, especially events that will happen only once in a lifetime.
Wedding ceremonies, christening ceremonies, and a range of other celebrations that take place only once in a lifetime are a great niche. This event will always need photographers and are often the most profitable niche market for a photographer. If you know how good you are you can build a career solely working this types of events, with great names of photography doing more than 6 figures a year. This type of photography is not easy and not for everyone, but for those who are willing to take this huge responsibility it is a valuable market.
Other types of events, the ones that happen more often, may not pay enough per presentation, but of course, they can compensate in the amount of gigs, music shows are a good example. If you have more than a paid gig for week, depending on the pay, you can make a living of this type of photography. If you are good with words you can also share your impression of the shows after in a magazine or a blog together with your photographic work, this option can be a great stream of revenue for those who like music and what a different option for their careers.
Weddings, music events, and important gathering in a big company all of this fit into the niche called event photography. And we will always have one or more photographers covering such events for a variety of reasons.
So if you want to join one of the most profitable niches in photography, you will choose event photography. In this niche, you do not have the option to make your schedule, nor the comfort of shooting what and when you want. But maybe that’s why he can be better paid than other niches, if you know how to price your services.
Of course, the client can choose not to call a photographer to cover their wedding and call that cousin to do the job,and this is a completely different problem, and the customer cannot complain about is the result afterward!!!
Photography is not just a hobby, as many clients think, for many people, photography is rather a way of life, a way to pay the bills, A PROFESSION.
So if you want to make a living taking photos, first you should treat yourself as professional in the area, respect yourself and respect your competition.
Why this niche of photography is the most profitable ?
There are a few reasons why some niches in photography are more profitable than others, and it doesn’t always have to do with niche popularity. Event photography has always been, and I think it always will be, a very popular niche where it will be difficult to you to go out work.
It seems silly but one of the reasons why a photographer is asked to cover an event is that people produce themselves especially for the photographs. Then having this registered professionally is a priority, after all, who does not want to look well in the picture.
The people who organizes the event is one of the responsible for providing this service to their guests after all the organizers also want to register a beautiful event. Another reason why we can consider the niche of event photography a lucrative option is the number of events we have every day. In a lot of places, you can see some kind of celebration, and probably these people who are celebrating need photos.
So you can cover two more events on the same day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon or night, and even if the cost of each event isn’t so high doing both will still be more lucrative than doing nothings.
There will always be some restaurant wanting coverage to document its opening, a music show, or the premiere of a play in need of photographic material.
So you just need to know where are these people to jump right away and get some work done.
How to start promoting yourself
This is undoubtedly the most complicated part of the puzzle because besides you there are a lot of people wanting to do the same thing. One of the things you can’t miss in your arsenal is being communicative. Talking about you and your service helps people see you better as a professional, and how your services can bring value to them.
Start by offering your friends, friends’ businesses, and small businesses in your region your services, maybe in the beginning you won’t get lots of work, but certainly your name will be out there. This helps a lot to get you started creating networking, and even if someone can’t hire you at that moment maybe this person knows who can.
You can create your profile on Instagram and post the photos you take and leave the contact number or email so you can always keep in touch. Using tools like niche-related hashtags, the city, maybe even the neighborhood you live in, are things that can help put your name on the street. This is a good tactic because Instagram serves as a direct contact platform, via messages, and portfolio for your work at the same time and no extra cost.
The are lots of social media strategies that you can implement in your business, don’t take the power of internete for granted.
How much should a photographer charge?
Another complicated part of the puzzle. Because everyone knows where to fasten their belt or their shoe, and this is usually a very controversial subject.
Depending where you live on the planet price your services can be very complicated, you have to take into consideration things like, market, competition, quality of your work, and what kind of customer you want to have. So always that your market, the place you want to work, as a reference to start do define your prices.
I am not fan of things like “packages”, which lots of photographer adopt as the way to price their services, I think that it is difficult way to get your bills paid and value you work at the same time. Sure, if we start to talk about headshot session for a company with 100 employees you will have to define something of package, but for a single session of family portraits I think that there is a better way.
According to the site Salary.com a photographer receive in average $69.000 a year which gives us a roughly $36,00 for hour of work for an 8 hours day journey, it doesn’t seem to be that much right. But it is a good number, no doubts about that and it can serve you as a point of reference. After we point out all the variables here you probably will end up with a number 2 or 3 bigger than 36 bucks per hour of work, and it’s a fair price.
However since most photographers are service providers themselves them create their wage floors according to the supply and demand of their services and their own monetary needs. And this process cannot be seen as something not important because the success of your business depends on it.
What do I have to take into account?
To get into a working hour value you have to take at least the following things into account.
- Cost of living (your cost of living in general)
- Cost of renting a commercial room (office or studio)
- Consumption costs (studio/ office such as electricity, water, telephone, etc.).
- Cost of depreciation of equipment (Cameras, lenses, computers, lighting, etc.)
- Marketing cost (website, advertisements, brochures, cards, etc.)
- Cost of staff (helpers, editors, secretary and the like)
- Cost of taxes (whichever one applicable in your country)
- Cost of savings (after all the future is right there)
- Travel cost
- Percentage of profit
All this has to be at the tip of the pencil for you to be able to set a fair price for your work.
Some costs are more difficult to obtain, such as the depreciation of things, which is nothing more than the value of the equipment divided for a certain period in which it works without needing to be replaced. If your camera is worth $5000.00 and you intend to replace it in about 2 years then we have a depreciation of $209.00, which is a monthly amount to be saved for the replacement of it in the future.
The same goes for computers, lenses, and accessories that do not last forever. You should charge enough to cover all your monthly costs and of course, still take a profit, the percentage of profit to be added varies from professional to professional and from market to market. Over the internet, there are a lot of good articles that can help you better in this merit, so it’s up to you to research and put the ball to roll.
What does the future hold?
Many niches of photography comes and go but event photography has always place and needed at least one photographer. So you will always have someone looking for your services if you decide to follow this niche. A good part of this value is social media, which solidified a floor for photography. As you know, people (including you, perhaps) like to post well-taken photos on social media accounts.Therefore events that will appear on social media will be a good school for you starting your career as event photographer.
Other niche photography
You don’t always feel comfortable in the middle of a lot of people at a party, or don’t want to deal with the responsibility of recording moments that will never happen again. So you need to look for other photographic niches where you can make some money.
Family portraits
Family portraits will always have place on the shelf and you as a photographer can specialize in producing this type of work. And even though there are millions of smartphones out there, there are still families who cherish a well-taken professional photographer.
Depending on the demand, we have this niche of photography as profitable as event photography
Landscape photography
Landscape photography is another niche of photography where you can earn some money, however, normally you will not be hired to do so. You will have to invest of your pocket before you have any return with this type of photography. Many people like and buy photos to put in their offices or rooms and the next maybe that landscape you photographed.
As for the profitability, this niche I will not depend only on it to pay my bills, as it may happen not to sell any photos or prints during a given month. But of course, selling your printed photos on panels is something that will bring you some return.
Photography of pets
Today more than ever pets are on the rise, and their owners spend tons of money on them.
The expenses range from bakeries specially design for dogs, believe me this exist, to a special photoshoot with your little dog or feline. Here we have the same scheme of family portraits, the difference is that this family one does not stop quiet. If you’re not afraid to run into a pit bull, rottweiler, or other animals maybe this is a niche for you.
Food Photography
A niche that can also be well explored is food photography, its customers can be among restaurants up to blogs that only writes about food, a culinary book and so on. However, this niche can be a bit tricky compared to other niches due to the care you have to take with the product. Care with the production of photos, preservation of the product and things like this are almost always in charge of the photographer. Some photographer are specialized in making good food photography and are able to make a living with it.
Underwater photography
This one is for the guy, or girl, who’s brave. Because explore the depths of the ocean is not a job for the faint of heart. But making good underwater photography or videos can pay the bills for sure. Most photographers can see a beautiful tree, a beautiful sky, and portray it. But only a small number of people can find and portray the beauty of the seabed.
This is exactly the most attractive part of this niche and you will be surprised to see how beautiful the photos are. Of course, these photos are not cheap, which makes this niche more than profitable.There is no daily need for this type of photography, so you will have to have some other niche up your sleeve.
Conclusion
Photography of events, due to great demand is one of the most profitable niches in photography, if you want to put the job and make lots of gigs. It is not very easy to start in this niche anymore, but after you start and create a reputation the rest will be a consequence. Shooting landscapes can starve you, so don’t depend solely on it.
Photographing families, including pets, is a good one. It pays well and everything can be better controlled compared to an event.
Other niches are very particular and will not always be for anyone, but everyone has their place and value in the market.
As I said already in another article you have to specialize in something, do no try everything else to see what sticks. Specialized in something is the only way to create a reputation that your future customer will understand and respect
And in your opinion What are the most profitable niches in photography? Leave in comment bellow.
