Photography is an extensive niche. But if you’re passionate and know some simple tricks, you can easily make money as a photographer.
If you want to express yourself as a photographer, this is the best platform ( or career ) you can choose
This can help you pay your monthly bills, improve your photography and gain experience
It is the common opinion of photographers that, it’s hard to make money using photography and I agree with them
But if you master some basic ways which help your photography skills, you can make money as a photographer easily.
So here, I’m going to share some of my favourite ( proven by professionals ) ways to earn as a photographer.
But before that, let me clear some myths regarding earning money as a photographer.
On YouTube, some people say that if you like photography then you can earn a very good amount of money.
This is true, but it’ll not work without hard work, patience and practice to impress.
Some ways shared in the article are time-consuming, so you need to have enough patience to do that work consistently.
Now without talking more about it, let’s get started…
7 Proven & Unique Ways to Earn As Photographer In India
There are various ways to earn as a newbie photographer if you’re shooting with any expensive DSLR/Mirrorless camera or a smartphone.
But at some point, an intermediate ( or plus ) camera is very important if you’re working on any big project.
To put it in more simpler words you can say that gear matters.
A sophisticated camera can give you the quality and results better than your smartphone camera ( make sure it’s not that expensive 😀 ).
No reason to worry, if you own a smartphone and don’t have the budget for a DSLR camera then there is a solution for that too here.
You can find a variety of innovative and free ways to start making money as a photographer in this article.
Here is a very first and simple way, using which you can start to earn as a photographer…
1. Start a YouTube Channel
This is the most popular and free way that you can try out to start earning with your photography.
As I mentioned already, you need patience to earn as a photographer, and this way requires a lot of patience.
But instead of focusing on the payment or followers just try to focus on your videos.
Make sure you upload quality content on a daily or weekly basis.
Don’t think about what you’ll get back in return within the next 2-3 years ( at least ).
If you’re young and want to do something interesting and earn as well then this is the best option.
Once you start making videos on YouTube without compromising your video quality and consistently, then no one can stop you.
The main point is, that you don’t need to pay anything to YouTube to upload your videos or anything.
You can even use various social media platforms like Instagram, and Facebook to share your content and gain more reach.
To monetize your YouTube video you need at least 1000 subscribers and 4000+ hours of watch time. ( Quick Guide )
Monetising your YouTube video can prove to be a tough task.
But if you’re posting constantly then you can reach out to different companies and ask them to share their products for review ( may you get it for free sometimes 😀 ).
You can easily review the product.
if the product exists on Amazon or any other platform then you can use their affiliate program to gain some money apart from YouTube.
Aside from the review you can even record and post the BTS of your recent shoot to share it with your YouTube audience, this way you can make money from different resources.
You need to do all these tactics only if your YouTube audience is not much, once you have that audience then you’ll get offers to do paid reviews.
This is only the way to earn money through YouTube if you don’t have a large audience but once you gain the audience with time there are a lot of different ways to earn money.
But, to gain a large audience, you need to do enough hard work and hustle to reach that level.
You can simply buy a tripod from Amazon and use your smartphone to shoot videos in 720 or 1080p ( 4k is way better ) to get the best results.
So without investing a lot of money in new cameras and gear, you’re ready to start your YouTube journey as a photographer.
cheap DSLR cameras you can buy to start a YouTube channel.
tips to remember if you’re starting a vlogging channel on YouTube.
2. Start a Photography Blog
This is another free (almost) way which can help you to start earning as a photographer.
If you love to write or even if you want to learn photography, then this is the path best suited for you.
I started this photography blog around 2 years ago. At that time I didn’t have any proper reason to start a photography blog.
Like many other users, I just watched some YouTube videos on how to earn as a photographer and found blogging is a very cool way to earn as a photographer.
So after that, I just learned some basic rules and ways to improve SEO on YouTube and bought a server to host this site.
Then started writing articles related to photography, but at that time my main Aim was to earn money ASAP using photography.
Aside from that, I’m also a full-time developer, so I’m not that excited to earn money using my blogs.
Then I started learning some new photography tricks and bought a new DSLR camera and what I learn every week I just write a post about it and publish it.
Even after 2 years, I’m doing this ( part-time ), just because I love to do it.
Within the first year ( 2018-2019 ) of my blogging career, I reached 60K active users via social media platforms and the previous year, I just reached 150k active users ( almost 10k unique visitors per month ).
Now I’m earning enough using Google ads and affiliate programs.
It can be said that blogging takes time, but if your Aim is clear then you can even achieve more than me ( I wish ).
When I started my blogging career, I was not fluent in English ( I’m still learning ), but I’m improving it one blog at a time.
So you don’t have to wait until the perfect time, you just need to buy a domain and publish your very first blog today ( comment below if you’re already running a blog site 🙂 ).
Your writing need not be perfect, just informative enough to reach and relate with your audience.
3. Share your work for Free
Not every photographer is comfortable with sharing their work for free, I agree but sometimes it’s important to share your work for free with your client.
You can build your portfolio and share it with your client, and if he/she likes it then you’ll get the offer right.
If you’ve been doing photography for a long time, then I hope you know a website called Unsplash.
Unsplash is a well-known site, where you can submit your images ( for free ) and any end-user can use your photo without any copyright claim for free.
But the question that arises is, How am I going to make money as a photographer using Unsplash?
Now Unsplash offers a feature called Hire Us, which you can manage using your profile.
If any end-user likes your work and if he is looking for similar kinds of shots then he can simply contact you and hire you.
The only thing that is required is quality, you just need to publish quality work and you’ll get clients quite easily.
Unsplash also has a feature for sharing stats of every single image (like download and total views) which you upload.
This feature allows you to easily understand the worth of work and a single image individually.
This is my Unsplash profile, and I just created my account 3-4 months ago.
As you can see the reach I got ( after just uploading 52 images ), also you can see the option available for like Available for hire, which I was talking about earlier.
There are many websites like Unsplash in the market which can help you earn cash on the side.
checkout my Unsplash Profile 🙂
4. Sell your Photos
Another great option that takes time (sometimes) but gives you more money for a single image than you expect.
If you look online right now there are more than enough stock photography sites available where you can sell your images to the end-user.
These types of sites are the opposite of Unsplash, where you need to submit your work, and the end-user needs to pay you for the image if he wants to buy it or the images can be used for free as well.
Whereas using stock photography websites, photographers can upload, share and sell their images to a broad audience.
You can choose any stock photography site, but you need to take care of some important stuff like how much amount you’ll get for a single sale or the commission rate that a particular stock photography site takes for a single image sale.
So I’ve already written an in-depth article on some best stock photography sites to sell your images online which you can refer to earn money by selling your images.
5. Be a Freelance Photographer
Being a freelance photographer is the best way in which you can stay in touch with your art and earn a decent amount of money on the side as well.
There are so many different online platforms available where you can submit your work to get your clients as a freelance photographer.
You need to pay attention and give some time to create an impressive portfolio with the genre of images you want to freelance.
Before you submit your profile, you need to make sure you have enough images to impress any end client also, make sure your portfolio is up and running.
If you don’t want to invest much to build a portfolio then you can use WordPress ( it’s free ) just buy a domain like yourname.com or yournamePhotography.com, and host it.
Using WordPress, or other sites like it you’ll get more than enough templates to build your photography portfolio.
You can watch this video to get in-depth info on how to create a photography portfolio from scratch.
My favourite sites to use to submit your profile as a freelance photographer are mentioned below…
1. Upwork
2. Freelancer
3. Guru
4. PeoplePerHour
5. Hubstaff Talent
6. Fiverr
you can even use your portfolio site, to sell your images ( you can even sell the product which you’re using through affiliate links )
6. Do Some Product Photography (if you Like)
I’m not a huge fan of product photography, but due to this pandemic, it’s hard to go outside to shoot.
So to get quality content, I started learning product photography.
I started watching YouTube videos on product photography (my personal favourite photographer is YouTuber Peter McKinnon ).
After all this time now I just fell in love with this type of photography.
To capture better product photos all you need is a product, your camera, and your creativity to set up your product at the right location, setup and the right angle
You can use any product to get the shot.
As a product photographer, you can share your work with other production companies and ask them to share their product with you ( or you can buy them ) for the shoot.
Once the shoot is done, just retouch the images using the post-production software you are comfortable with share the photos with them, and post them on social media.
If your work is impressive then they may pay you to capture more images for that product or other products as well.
If you find any Amazon sellers near you then you can ask them to share the product so you can capture that to earn money.
You can purchase some extra stuff like strobe, and diffusion ( or even set up a small studio ) to get the job done.
After gaining contracts for various products and you get enough resources you can set up a permanent studio for yourself.
7. Go out and find more clients
Reaching out and finding clients yourself is the simplest and oldest way to earn money as a photographer.
This is the very unique and simple way which you can apply if you are ready to just go out to find your client ( make sure the pandemic is over ).
For example, you can reach any nearest shop or a hotel, small restaurant, salon shop, car showroom, etc and talk with the manager, tell him about your photography skills, and what you can offer them ( you can even show your work via your portfolio site or using your Instagram feed ).
If you are ready to spend some money then you can publish your office card and share it with each shop owner.
As of now, I’m assuming that you’ve already built a portfolio site, so if you reach out to 7-10 shop owners then you’ll get 2-3 contracts for sure.
Not everyone gets successful results on the very first day.
you need to go out to different places and constantly try to impress and get the clients.
After all, you need that gut feeling and positivity ( patience is a must ) to achieve the best outcome.
You also need to make sure you pick the genre in which you’re interested.
So you can improve your skills, practice and earn some good money on the side.
You can also learn to make B-rolls or Cinematic footage so you can offer that too( that’s a plus point )
Because nowadays everyone likes to make short ads for their businesses and their websites
If you know these two skills then you’re ready to rock.
Recently I watched a video regarding this, and I’m sharing this idea , here is the source (thank me later)…
Bonus Way to Make Money As A Photographer
This one is my personal favorite and hope you’ll like this too.
If you’re working alone and don’t like to go out big-time for a shoot.
Then you can do some pre-wedding, newborn, or maternity type of photography.
I love this type of photography because you need to work less
But you can earn more money as a photographer.
follow me On Instagram for more crazy stuff
But the only thing required here is some good gear and confidence to share poses with your clients.
There are social media sites or other applications such as Pinterest or Instagram that can help people find good poses.
You can start learning how to make videos and edit stuff.
Using some great tools like iMovie (Free), Filmora, Adobe Premiere, etc.
You can even learn and practice with Photoshop or any of the other softwares available.
By practising more you can improve your photo retouching skills ( Lightroom is a must ).
In the end, if you know all the skills and your photographs are good then you are good.
You can earn more than enough money with just one single project.
In these projects, you are responsible for the shoot, image edits, and also for videos.
that simply means you’re all in one package for a very low price.
Final Words
There are a lot of other ways you can earn while still learning photography.
But some of the simplest and most used ones are mentioned in the article above.
Now that you are familiar with some Ways to Earn, all you need is to gather your strength and start.
You also need to make sure that you’re ready to pick one way to start earning as a photographer.
From my perspective, practice is the key to achieving anything in your life.
If you’re just 20 ( or younger) then blogging or starting a YouTube channel is the best fit for you.
That way, you can learn photography plus you’re making your future better ( free of cost ).
You can start by making small goals and trying to achieve them, like publishing 1 video or writing one blog.
I hope my words help you to get started with your photography journey.
That’s all from my side.
Hope you guys like all these simple and easy ways to earn as a photographer.
These ways apply to every type of photographer no matter if you’re a beginner, intermediate or even a pro photographer.
Comment below your favourite way to start earning as a photographer.
If you like this article, then comment below, you can even share it on your social media platform.
Thank you, stay safe have a good day 🙂
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