How is Photography Profitable? Good Question

lets address this

Everyone is interested in money talk

In a perfect world, a world that is perfect, you’d be able to charge whatever you wanted for your services, people would also be willing to pay it, and you’d have all the clients you could ever want - only if we lived in a perfect world. 

Well, guess what, the world is not perfect, yeah, the world is very not perfect, and running a photography business can be very expensive and time consuming. But you can make it happen, you have to approach photography as a business, a time consuming, Self-Employed business that you own... yes, you're a business owner now.

Sublime beauty

Creativity and passion will spur you in this line of work, and are very essential to succeed but don't be distracted, creativity won't make you successful, for that you'll need a business mind. You set your own hours and your income is not guaranteed, your location, your clientele, your charisma and marketing skills, are all suddenly important, but if you want this "paper" bad enough, the rewards can be huge if you can put in the work.

However, the biggest mistake you can make following this path, is to go into photography with the intention to cash out, you will not last in the market, it simply won't work. What keeps most photographers going, early on is passion.

Exotic Stuff

If you don't have passion for your art, you will just spend a lot of money on education and equipment. If you ask any photographer, they’ll tell you, equipment is really expensive... second hand car expensive - a fairly used Nikon Nikkor 17 - 55mm f/2.8 DX Lens can go as high as ₦400,000, or ₦1.4 Million ($1500 on Amazon), think about that for a minute... that's a 2003 lens, if you had ₦400,000 right now, you can buy a used 1999 model year Toyota Camry, and it'll probably take you on a road trip around the country… how about ₦1.4 Mil? (anyone with a Nikon Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 lens that they're not using and would like to donate to a good cause, please send me a mail).

Why not just get into painting then? Paint is cheaper than a camera, and some artist even sell their work for Bugatti money. Yep, spend a few thousands on paint and before you know it you’re buying a house on an island.

Cost of doing business

Some people have the impression that you just buy a camera and be a photographer, that's why when the uninitiated hear beauty or wedding photography rates, they always probably think you're on a variety of drugs, and are trying to rip them off for just a few pictures.

Thing is, you have to really love something to pour so much money and attention into it, and even then, simply loving it and natural talent is not enough, you still have to get some education and few years of practice and like any business it will be unprofitable for the first year or so while you build up a base of clients.

at the centre of discussion is money

For portraits this is the absolute minimum equipment you will need to be in business:

• A DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) or MILC (Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera) camera.

You can get a Nikon D3400 with a kit lens, for ₦255,000 ($700 on amazon) right now, there are more expensive stores, and that is just entry level Kit.

• A Reflector or Speedlight if you'll be shooting indoors.

A 5 in 1 Reflector can go as high as ₦15,000 or $15 on amazon, pick your poison.

• A PC or Mac with some kind of image processing software, GIMP is free, but not nearly as powerful as Photoshop, Lightroom or CaptureOne.

A HPPavilion 15 or any Core i3 Laptop and above costs more than ₦200k or upwards of $400 on amazon today, you can’t do serious work on low-end PCs, you can manage though.

So with just a start-up basic kit, you’re already out roughly ₦475k or $1115 assuming you resign your fate to GIMP for post processing, barring the fact that you don’t even have any form of education to handle all the equipment you just blew nearly half a million naira on, and you haven’t even made any money yet, God help aspiring sport photographers.

Granted, you can buy most or all of the equipment fairly used and save a boat load of cash, but most people don’t like the hassle of the second hand market.

Two ways to make money off these investments are to either, sell your services to the general public or sell to companies or agencies. The trouble with #1 is that you will mostly sell your services for peanuts to cheap clients and you do your business no good by developing a reputation of just being cheap.

With #2 you have to be very good at what you do and as with every field these days know the right people. It's very helpful if you're a people person, because you live off networks. The “I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who could do that job” is your life source.

Conclusion

If you’ve read this far, and gone through all the negatives of Photography as a career (that’s not me trying to eliminate the competition, I promise), you’re probably wondering “what’s the point then?” Well, you can’t go into photography as a short term thing and expect to make serious money, but profitability depends on your business model.

You can charge less, which is more attractive to most clients, and shoot more sessions. The downside to this is that you’ll have to do more work and make less per job because you can’t magically add extra hours to the day to fit in more work.

You can take up other jobs on the side, (within or outside the industry is up to you) to help pay the bills, or you can integrate video into your workflow like most photographers these days, however, that is another money pit that requires more investment on equipment and knowledge, but you won’t have as much hurdles going into video as a photographer, because you’ll already have some of the equipment to start out.

If you do in fact decide to take this path seriously, “minding your business” and staying dedicated to your art, you could seriously cash in on all your investments someday. Top photographers in Lagos, who will remain nameless, are bringing in around ₦200k to ₦600k for a gig. Since we’re in the digital age now, we don’t have to spend much on consumables like film, anymore.

It’s a great time to be a photographer, it’s also a bad time to be a photographer, with smartphones in every pocket, it’s up to you to “mind your business”.

maybe one day, your life will change like this young man

 

Do you have any other useful tips that you'll like to share? please drop a line below. Also, follow my Instagram to check out my work @lightsfoundry

Photo Credit: Ken Rockwell