How to start with minimal outlay?

12/14/2006 11:29:59 AM · #1

I was just wondering if anyone out there had started a photography business from scratch and how they went about it? I have very little money to put towards starting up so any kind of money saving ideas would be helpful.
I thin that i'l have to start by doing some photography jobs around my regular job, or are photo stock librarys worth putting my shots into to make some starting cash?

Any books, web-sites or anything else that you could point me in the direction of would be much appreciated. Cheers

12/14/2006 11:32:29 AM · #2

Well, you could start doing outdoor portraits, but I'd suggest a bit better lens for such.

The Canon 50mm f/1.8 mkII is a great portrait lens.

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

12/14/2006 11:36:12 AM · #3

I'm not sure how to go about marketing outdoor portraits? Good idea though, nice and low cost. Only problem i can see is that it rains 90% of the year in this damn country!

idnic

Canon EOS-60D

12/14/2006 11:38:33 AM · #4

Originally posted by mase:

I'm not sure how to go about marketing outdoor portraits? Good idea though, nice and low cost. Only problem i can see is that it rains 90% of the year in this damn country!

If you want indoor portraits, you will need more than minimal outlay. Lights, backdrops, space, lenses, stands, tripod, remote release, meter -- all are pretty basic studio needs.

What type of photography - specifically - do you want to do?

12/14/2006 11:39:36 AM · #5

Originally posted by mase:

Only problem i can see is that it rains 90% of the year in this damn country!

That is a potential logistics problem. :-)

As far as marketing goes, start with a few friends and try to get some word of mouth advertising working for you.

12/14/2006 11:49:34 AM · #6

Originally posted by idnic:

What type of photography - specifically - do you want to do?

I'm not really sure, i have done a couple of weddings but i didn't like that to much lot of stress and obviously you only get one chance. This was back when i was using film instead of digital though so i couldn't see the picture there and then.

Also i have no idea what to charge for diffrent types of photographs, the only photographers really near me are portrait(in studio) and wedding photographers, so i would have no idea what to charge for an outdoor portrait or how much to sell a print for if i got a market stall?

mpeters

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

12/14/2006 12:03:17 PM · #7

I'll second what Leroy says about the 50/1.8. ~$80.00 and my experience with it has been great.

This is not original with me(read it somewhere) but i think it is worth repeating.

Be excited about your pictures and photography in general. Many moms/families hate getting all the kids together for their annual trip to the picture place at the mall, Dads hate leaving the house, and if they want pics with fido or fluffy then the Mall is even less attractive. These are the people who will pay you to come their house or meet them in a nearby park. A modest sitting fee, some business cards, and an offering of standard print sizes will lead to some decent income and the potential for future business. Host your portfolio pics online at DPC or pbase.com and off you go.

This may not be the quickest way to grow your business, but if you already have a full time job, you might find that you will quickly have all of the jobs you want/need in a year or two. Christmas time is a hot time for family stuff, then look for children other times. Dont oversell yourself but be confident and as you become more comfortable with the technical aspects, continue to work on things like posing, lighting, etc.

There are many people with good knowledge on this site, this is just my little spiel. I like to browse all things photography on the web and your local library has good resources as well. Good luck with your venture.

mark

EDIT: didn't see the part about the rain :(. Maybe a great big umbrella?

Message edited by author 2006-12-14 12:07:27.

xantangummi

Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L USM

12/14/2006 12:03:36 PM · #8

prices vary from country to country. For example: the minimum recommended price one hour of photography over here is at 900sek (about $1000) but thats because you have to pay 65% tax ;)

wavelength

Nikon D300

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

12/14/2006 12:30:39 PM · #9

1. Don't quit your day Job (assuming you have one, which I do)
2. Use what you have until you have a portfolio (do you?
Family/Friends/Pretty freind of friend and other people to practice on.
3. Use window light indoors on cloudy days, possibly put a sheet outside the window. Get really fancy and put a white piece of posterboard up for some fill light. Do it until you've exhasted the possibilities.
4. Go outside, find a shady spot with a shaded background (think thick forest or in between two buildings) play until your happy with what you're getting.
5. Go back and do those two some more, learn to work with your models. Mimic facial expressions that you want them to have, show them where you want their arms, be firm and decisive and don't tell them when a position didn't work, just move on. Learn how to encourage your models and to keep them going, don't tell them that your placing their arm just so to cover up some imperfection, just tell them what to do.
6. Get a large black sheet or a large piece of cloth from a fabric store, preferrably NOT shiny and the less wrinkly the better. Get a lamp and a daylight/full spectrum bulb. Take some headshots. Learn to minimize light spill with gobo's and snoots. Add in a reflector, or a sheet of cardboard with some tin-foil on it. Keep playing/learning with your light. Keep getting familiar with modeling poses, rapport find people with kids to see if you like that, get some variety.
7. Get another lamp, or a set of florescent bulbs, do some full-body shots. Add more lights, make some home-made ringlights out of some plywood and worklamps, work up to it.
8. For all this time, learn tricks in photoshop (or whatever you use) while you're at it.

Once you've gotten a good portfolio, and you want to LOOK like a pro, get some strobes of whatever type/price you like and can afford.

Study others work, people here, people on flickr, people in fine art magazines(rangefinder, american photo), post your results back here, get tips on editing and setup. Shoot some more, post back here and get tips. Enter a challenge with a portrait. Add props, themes, whatever.

Still, do NOT quit your day-job until you have a steady income.

In all of this, you will have to find YOUR style to. Only use others styles as a stepping stone until you can find the innovations and imagination that you want to add to your images. I'm still looking for mine.

12/14/2006 12:35:04 PM · #10

Originally posted by wavelength:

Still, do NOT quit your day-job until you have a steady income.

Aha! That's where I went wrong :-) Oh, but I sooo love spending my days chatting on DPC ... hehe.

xantangummi

Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L USM

12/14/2006 12:39:33 PM · #11

Originally posted by wavelength:

1. Don't quit your day Job (assuming you have one, which I do)

Yes, just wait until you get fired, like I did. Now if I just could find some customers ;)

Prof_Fate

12/14/2006 12:59:14 PM · #12

I'd like to say you can start on 10c, but it all depends...

How serious do want to be taken? How far do you want to go? How good a fast talker are you? (BS goes a long way in making sales) What are you shooting or wanting to shoot?

Remember, your starting a photography BUSINESS - and any business needs to have certain things and what these cost, etc will vary.

business license - none to $250 or more
a name (can be free or cost $1000 - depends on your name and state laws)
office of some kind to file things, a phone, envelopes and a wide assortmnet of office materials (you probably have most of this)
talk with a CPA about the tax ramifications - business expenses are deductible but you need to understand the system and how to work it. Your home office can be worth $5000 off your tax bill IF you do it right. If not, it can mean a visit from the IRS...

advertising - you have to tell the customers you're there - so biz cards, website, letterhead, etc. bags or something to deliver the prints in (using a walmart bag will give the wrong impression IMO)

samples - show me what you can do, what i'm buying - so you need some prints, perhaps framed (but then you should sell frames...). If you're doing weddings you need at least 1 album, preferrably 2 or 3 (at $100-300 each) and some prints.

Where are you meeting clients? I've found meeting wedding clients at starbucks works, but only 50% book. At my home studio 100% book with me. So what is that worth in extra sales and convenience? Are you allowed to have clients come to your home (check your township zoning)

cameras and such - to a pro and time is money. a 5D and L glass will get more keepers and require less PP work, meaning a savings in time. It will also allow you get get pics you can't get with lesser tools when the conditions are tough - you're a pro, you're expected to ALWAYS get the image. No retakes/re-shoots. Also, better equipment means better images, better attitude on your part and generally lasts longer and works better. You can make do with less stuff for a while and for some things (studio work is very controlled so it's less critical what you shoot with). Shooting sports? a 1Dn with 8.5 FPS and the super focus it has will make your life a lot easier than trying to use a 350D.

You can shoot outdoor portraits, sure. But I guarantee you'll want or need to shoot indoors and will want strobes, or need them - same for formal wedding pics in a church. I've shot with and without strobes for the church formals - the strobes are better and make life easier, the pics better, the PP work less, etc. I can shoot year round in my studio (aka basement). I can create looks and lighting and unique backgrounds that you can't do outside.

$8000 should be enough to get started, assuming you don't need to pay yourself. It can take 2 or 3 years to make enough in sales to draw a paycheck, espec1ally working part time. and that's assuming your charge normal going rates.

this can change of course if you get a little league T&I (team and individual) job or a school or something. I prefer to be more creative than shooting 500 little heads, but that's where the money is...

Backgroun
I started in Nov 05 with an idea, 2 lenses and a 300D and a single flash. My fist sale was $45.
SO far this month (13 months later) my sales are close to $4500 for December alone, and yesterday I booked a wedding and sold 3 framed items to pet folks ($450 right there). I have been selected to provide the cover photo for the county newspaper's bridal issue next month - a full color 16x20 of mine will go to 150,000 people - this was more than justluck, and should make my wedding season in 07 outstanding(as it is I have more booked weddings than I shot in '06, and my average package price is up 50%).

I invested in schooling (seminars from working pros -$900), spent $5800 on more equipment (bodies, back up bodies, lenses, flash, CF cards and them spent $7000 more remodeling part of my home, backdrops, ads in the paper, etc) and then last month spent (invested) $1700 on computer and DLP projection equipment - that enabled me to sell pics to 2 HS seniors like I was taught in the seminars- my average was $250/senior. Those 2 spent $1500 combined, so now my average is $750/senior - you gotta be able to spend money to make money! It sucks to turn down a job cause you don't have the right tools.

In summary
Some folks are lucky, some work hard and make their own luck. You want to start a business that happens to do photography and you need to look at it that way.

Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G

12/20/2006 12:55:13 PM · #13

Thanks for some good advice and ideas, i realize there is always going to be some form of outlay but i like the idea of outdoor/home portraits to keep my costs down. Only trouble is the u.k is somewhat wet to try and make appointments with people outside but in the summer that is definatley something to be tried.

vikas

Apple iPhone 13

12/20/2006 01:50:44 PM · #14

I am still far from being called a professional photographer, but have few things in mind and am working towards it to get myself started!

A good portfolio is must to get you started at anything.

How do you build a good portfolio?
Friends, candid, self-portraits
Get some landscapes
Take some still life, very simple day-to-day things around the house, when pictured creatively can make people go wow, this person knows what he is doing! Also for smaller still life you don't need an expensive setup.

Once you have a decent portfolio, you need to build on it further by getting some assignments.

Use your first portfolio to market yourself, advertise (craigslist (something like this - //ithaca.craigslist.org/crs/242610977.html ) or other list serves), and take some free portraits in return of a signed release. If the shots turn out decent you can also start selling them at stock websites. Also with the release you can start putting those pictures on your website without having to worry about someone threatening you.
I do my shots outside on an overcast day, go to places with murals and graffiti on walls for creative backgrounds. A reflector and fill lights would have helped but it wasn't bad to get me started. (Some shots from the first photo-shoot : //flickr.com/photos/vikas-garg/tags/aurora/ )

Also this helps you further market yourself, if you do a decent job you get recommended by the model. I got an offer for wedding after the first free portrait session (didn't accept it since I am not confident enough).

I am still to make any money out of this, but right now I am in the process of building my portfolio (online/stock sites).

Through craigslist I have done 3 photo-shoots, been offered to do 9 and have 2 in pipeline.

Prof_Fate

12/24/2006 06:16:32 PM · #15

You need a portfolio of what you want to shoot. there are two basic types of photography - photographing people (models, weddings, portraits, HS seniors, T&I, schools, pets, etc) where the photographer has to have people skills, and the sit back and watch type (landscapes, sports, stock, still life, weddings to a point, journalism, wildlife, etc).

You can be the best landscape or wildlife photographer in the world, but to work with people requires another skill set. You must be able to photograph while talking, while keeping the mood right, with a time limit in mind, etc. I'm not saying it's easier or harder, just different.

Sports and wildlife are about predicting the moment and being in the right place, with a long lens. Landscape is a lot about the lighting and weather. I don't have the patience for this type of photography. And I've to have a tree or bird pay me a dime to take their picture. ;P

It's a lot easier to book a wedding if you show a bride-to-be wedding pictures rather than landscapes or still life or baseball pics.

gfun123

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

01/04/2007 04:53:20 PM · #16

Does anybody know how I should register my Photography studio as a LLC or S-CORP?

01/04/2007 05:00:43 PM · #17

Originally posted by gfun123:

Does anybody know how I should register my Photography studio as a LLC or S-CORP?

Responses are probably going to be limited being buried in this thread... you might want to start a new thread. Perhaps, with a little more detail.

FWIW, no right answer for such a blanket question.