How to Become a Freelance Photographer?

It’s the age of rebellion and the age of freedom. From movies such as 3 idiots to tamasha, even the mainstream has started to popularize the concept of following your heart and excelling in what you love.

This urge to abandon your 9 to 5 job and jump straight into your passion has resulted in a new form of the worker, the Freelancer.

Well the concept in itself is not entirely novel with people offering their services as an individual for a one-time fee but the sector has found takers in the niche, one of which includes photography.

How to become a freelance photographer

To be a professional photographer or videographer it’s no longer necessary to build your own fancy studio and spend loads as an initial investment.

If you think you have what it takes to click the right moments at the right time and deserve to make money out of it.

Here’s a detailed guide to help you start it as a freelance photographer or videographer.

Even if you have what it takes you to need to set up a few basic things before you go out there offering your services as a freelance photographer.

1. First a good camera setup

It may look like you are doing just fine with your existing camera, but to do it for others who are paying, you would need to up your game a bit.

If they are paying, they would expect the highest quality and for that buy a decent camera that you can take crisp high-resolution photos and video strip.

Once you have a camera buy two three lenses wide-angle, one prime, and an AK telephoto lens.
All of them should cover all technical bases and you can use them depending on the nature of the shoot.

2. Portfolio

You may land up a few first projects thanks to friends and family, but you need to build a good-looking portfolio of work if you are doing this for full time.

For videos use Vimeo as it doesn’t have ads and considering the smaller community and competition has better chances of getting noticed.

For photos you can build your own website but don’t forget to build a social presence alongside.

3. Next is marketing

Well, how important is it well the most with so many out there how do you really sell your craft without paying a hefty sum.

Use social media to maximum its effects, Instagram has been a boon for several artists and photographers and it’s time you did it too.

how to become a freelance photographer

4. Investment

A camera setup will cost you anything upwards of rupees one lakh for a beginner.

Website will cost you anything between rupees 5,000 to 10,000 depending upon your requirement.

For marketing using ads on any social platform will cost you money but it is a good way to get initial traction. They should ideally cost you to please 4,000 or 5,000 a month if you are just started.

Once you have a good presence, you may also expand your offering to include editing. For that, you would need a good computer which can cost upwards of maybe 70,000, and thereafter license some good editing software such as Adobe Photoshop which costs you about 10,000 a year.

5. Charging your work

As a freelancer, you can charge hourly daily or even just on a per project basis.

Here it is important that you both value your work as well as know how much you could afford to charge.
You can charge less initially but as you have more work to show the fee should go up accordingly.

For a beginner rupees, 2,000 per day of work is recommended.
For video editing and additional rupees 2,000 to 3,000.

Drawbacks

One of the many challenges as a freelance photographer is constantly finding work.
On some days you will have more work than you can take and then there will be periods of extreme lows when there is nothing.
This is why it is important to network and build relationships with people you work with.

I hope this guide to ‘How to Become a Freelance Photographer’ will help you get started. If you have any additional suggestions, feel free to mention them in the comments section below. If you like this article, kindly share it with your friends.

Also Read:
How to start a stationery Shop in India ?

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