How do you take the next step?What is your Best Advice on how to become a Professional Photographer?
Don't quit your day job.
Seriously, do *not* quit your job until you can replace your income with photo work. It is ok to work two jobs and if you are as good as you think — and with a bit of luck — you'll be able to quit your day job soon enough. In the meantime, you can pay rent, eat, date, and buy all the gear you don't have, but will discover soon enough is very important. Things like lenses, camera bodies, lights, and an accountant.
Cut your portfolio down to 20 images or so. Limit it to 20 images to eliminate duplication and the shots that were never really all that good to begin with. If your work is really as good as you imagine, 20 shots will get you in the door for an interview. Even if you are a really good photographer, a huge portfolio will be glanced at and discarded. Editors and interviewers do not have time to waste.
Carefully select your portfolio to reach a specific viewer. You are wasting your time to show flower or travel pictures to a newspaper editor, nor is it wise to show photojournalism to a nature editor. Fine tune your portfolio to reach the target audience.
To cut the number of photos, discard pics that duplicates other shots. It is ok to have a couple of theme shots as long as they don't look like each other. Make sure every image is as perfect and unique as you can make it, as interesting as it can be, and as visually grabbing as possible. An open photography job can solicit hundreds of applications, so your book has to grab the eye and hold the interest. If you cannot create such a portfolio, I suggest you double your efforts at mastering your craft.
If your goal is to work for yourself, your book is just as important. If you cannot create a portfolio that grabs and keeps the eye of an editor and lands you a job, then perhaps your foray into professional work is premature. If you are not good enough to work for others, a business would most likely fail.
If you get an interview, stuff any ';I'm an artist'; pretentiousness in your camera bag and suck up the attitude. Look professional. Leave your prejudices and camera biases at home. I've hired a lot of people over the years and the moment I get a whiff of ';this camera system is better than that'; or ';I'm really an artist but will do this for the time being,'; I scratch their name off the list. I don't care how good the photographer is — I want someone who will work, who will do the assignment, and who will not offend a client. In the business, those aspects are far more important than being able to create a pretty-pretty picture with artistic fussiness and super-saturation and whatever. As for camera systems, do you honestly think that a sophomoric argument will convince me to dump tens of thousands of dollars of Canon gear simply because you think Nikons are better?
The trick to running your own shop is to realize that as boss, you have to be the best worker, which means the above paragraph is all the more important. There will be people that will tell you that talent will make you successful, but it is only a part of a profile consisting of ugly ambition, raw talent, business savvy, unabashed self-promotion, and superb people skills. If you really check out the successful photographers in the world, they all share these characteristics. If you don't have them, your chances are limited. You might not fail, but it is unlikely you will ever shoot the SI swimsuit edition either.
Are you really a good photographer? The world is full of thousands of good photographers; what makes you better? Professional photography is a saturated business, with competition not just extended to other professionals, but also to every chimp with a top-end Nikon bought by a rich chimp-parent. Sadly, the digital age seems to have dropped the requirements for the title of ';good photographer.'; Ansel Adams was right when he said, ';The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.”
When I interview a prospective photographer, I always ask what their weaknesses are; I need to know if they are honest. The other thing I do is send out the finalists for a one hour shoot of a random subject. If I said to you, ';It is 2pm. Go shoot signs. I'll see you at 3pm,'; could you impress me? I don't expect an Ansel Adams landscape in an hour, but I will be able to judge composition, framing, exposure, creativity, and more. To me, that is more important than any portfolio.
Shoot all you can. Take photos every day, experiment, try to emulate other photographer's work, and practice, practice, practice. Ignore those who love or hate your work; only listen to those who give balanced and fair critiques. Join the internet photo sites and carefully inspect the photos on display.
Don't give up. Keep working at the craft. You can make it if you work at it; I did. Take internships, work for minimum wage carrying lights, do whatever it takes to reach your goal. I am confident you can make it if you work hard.What is your Best Advice on how to become a Professional Photographer?
thats a lot of interests , try to excel in one area .. goodluck
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