Business Trends

Portrait photography clients live in two distinct worlds: consumer clients and commercial clients. The time, energy, and attention required to market to each is so consuming that many photographers gravitate toward one or the other. Consumer portraits include family, children, and high school seniors. Commercial portraits range from editorial, celebrity, and advertising clients. Though they are...

Today’s new technology and social media are bringing a change to the business and marketing of photographic services. The question is—how can it work for you? It is a very different means—one that you join and participate in rather than direct and control, as you often can with your traditional marketing media. New technology and the changing and developing expectations of your...

Successful wedding photographers have been through a lot of changes in the past year. Couples who turn to a professional (instead of someone’s cousin with a camera) are looking for more than ordinary snapshots. Today, you need to offer more style and greater value to maintain a successful business. Current industry trends for wedding photography styles include fine art, photojournalism...

For every photographer success and self-fulfillment are common goals, but the desire to help others is something that many photographers bring to their work. You may feel that today’s economy makes helping others difficult, especially as you focus on the daily effort to grow your business. How can you use your talents to help others and pay the rent at the same time? How can you spread...

One of the growth markets for photographers these days is consumer event photography, including youth sports. This is a very specialized business; often, event photographers must be equipped to print and sell photos on-site, offer a variety of photo-package choices, and, in many cases, include green screen technology in their photo shoots. In preparation for this article I began by talking with...

At every workshop and class I teach the subject and question of copyright comes up. I deal with copyright as a photo rep on every photo shoot I negotiate. Some photo clients know what type of usage they need to purchase and some do not. Some photographers can negotiate copyright usage without hesitation, but many photographers still have questions about the basics of copyright law.

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One of my favorite workshop topics is "sales strategies" and that's probably because I have not met many people who got into photography to become salespeople. When I give this workshop at photographic conferences and association chapters I am always impressed by the number of questions and concerns photographers have about selling. Without a rep, selling...