You can make good money with any profession.
The same goes for photography.
It’s important to diversify your income from multiple streams. And as a photographer, we have many options to make money from!
We’ll be covering the following topics:
Let’s dive into the ways you can make money with photography. It’s important to know that in order to make money, you need to offer either a product or service.
If you can break it down into that simple mental picture, then it will be easy, I know it helped me!
This list is in no particular order.
1. Photograph People
The first way you can make money with photography is to offer a photography service that photographs people!
If you’re like me, you love photographing people and capturing those special moments of human emotion.
Headshot Photography
One niche of photography that involves people is headshot photography.
People often need updated headshots for their profession so this is a hot field.
Headshot photography often involves an in-depth knowledge of lighting, communication skills, and retouching skills.
Portrait Photography
Portrait photography is another great way to make money while also photographing people.
Portraits can be similar to headshots, however, portraits can encompass taking pictures of someone’s full body as opposed to a headshot when it’s usually above the shoulders.
Similar to headshot photography, portrait photography requires an in-depth knowledge of lighting, communication skills, and retouching skills.
Lifestyle Photography
Lifestyle photography is the art of capturing images of people in real-life events and telling a story through that images.
Lifestyle photography is similar to a portrait photograph in the sense that they are planned images, however, lifestyle photographs are a bit more candid and should aim to capture and document a real-life event.
Newborn Photography
Newborn photography is the art of capturing (you guessed it!) newborns.
This is a great niche of people photography to get into because your clients are very cute and you’re capturing a special moment that that newborn will look back on in future years!
2. Sell Prints to Clients
The second way you can make money as a photographer is to sell your prints to clients.
Selling prints is a great upsell opportunity and add-on to your existing photography services.
An upsell is a sales technique that involves you inviting the client to purchase an upgrade or add-on so you can make more money.
For example, if you decide to dive into the newborn photography niche and you photograph a couple’s newborn, you can upsell them on your prints — letting them know you offer prints so they can preserve this memory forever.
The great thing with prints is that they work with any photography niche and you can turn any photograph into a print.
3. Sell Branded Products
Selling branded products is another great way to make money as a photographer.
The product you decide to offer will have to align with your brand strategy.
For example, using the same example of a newborn photographer, you can sell branded newborn onesies with your company logo on them.
This is an example of offering a product that matches your brand and product positioning strategy. This is why it was mentioned in the beginning that having a grasp on the Marketing Framework is important.
Other branded products you could offer as a photographer include picture frames, photo albums, mugs, t-shirts, etc!
4. Photograph Events
The fourth way you could make money as a photographer is to photograph events.
Photographing events is always fun because you are also a part of the event while also being able to capture all the special, candid moments of the event.
Event Photography
Event photography is the name of the niche that is involved with photography events.
Such events could be conferences, company parties, birthday parties, etc.
Wedding Photography
Wedding photography is also a style of event photography that focuses primarily on weddings.
Wedding photography is very popular with photographers because it often makes the most money from a base price standpoint.
The only caveat with wedding photography is that wedding photographers often feel the most pressure because a wedding is such a big moment and the wedding couple could be nervous on their big day.
Luckily though, wedding photographers are often accompanied by assistants so you will not be a lone ranger!
Club/Concert Photography
Club/Concert photography is another niche of event photography that centers around photographing music events such as clubs or music concerts.
This niche is popular with music enthusiasts.
You get to listen to great music while making money!
5. Sell Stock Images
Selling stock images is another great way to make some passive income and monetize your photos.
Some of the most popular stock photography websites that I use include Pixabay, Pexels, Shutterstock, and Unsplash.
If selling stock images piques your interest, then check out this guide or this stock photos guide that goes more in-depth on selling stock images.
6. Create a Blog
The 6th way you can make money from photography is to create a blog!
You might be thinking, how do you make money from the blog?
The two biggest ways to make money from a blog include monetizing your blog with ads and affiliate links.
Every time someone clicks on an ad, you will make a bit of money and if someone clicks on an affiliate link and purchases a product, you get a small commission.
But first, before you start a blog, you need to create a website and then you need to sharpen up your SEO skills.
The website will house your blog and learning SEO will allow you to drive traffic to your site.
Learning SEO in itself will take some time so I recommend checking out the SEO Guide we put together and then signing up for our newsletter where we will be sharing SEO tips and videos.
7. Teach (Workshops)
The 7th way you can make money as a photographer is to teach.
The most popular way these days is to teach online.
The channels you can teach through include Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Udemy, LinkedIn, Workshops, etc.
The beautiful thing about the digital age is that if you have valuable information to share, it has never been easier to share it with others and grow a following.
But just like anything else, people need to be able to find what you are offering so it is important to know how to drive traffic to your offering, whether it’s through a Workshop you have on your website, or an Instagram Live teaching on your Instagram page.
The more well-known you become, and the more value you provide to people, you will eventually get opportunities to teach at events such as photography conferences.
If you set up a website, you can even sell courses later down the road (which we’ll discuss later).
This leads us to our next tip/way, of becoming a social media guru.
8. Become a Social Media Guru
Becoming a social media guru is another way to make money as a photographer.
The way I like to think about it is that in this new digital age, as creators and artists, we have multiple online real estates.
We have our website and various social media profiles such as our Facebook page, Instagram page, Pinterest account, Twitter page, etc.
If you brush up on some SEO knowledge, then you can drive traffic to your website that way.
But how do you drive traffic and more followers to your social media profiles? Well, you become a social media guru.
Granted, it’s a lot easier than it sounds but if you take a focused approach testing out all of the different channels and finding which is best for your brand, then you will continue to see growth.
Here is what I mean, let’s say with photography, you decide to create an Instagram account, a Facebook page, and a Pinterest account and you post a photo you took on all three platforms.
If you look at the intent behind each platform, it’s easy to see that Instagram is for visual content, Facebook can be for both visual and written content, and Pinterest is purely visual content.
Because of this, your photo might perform better on Instagram and Pinterest but not so great on Facebook.
You take note of these results and think to yourself, “Okay, well posting photos on Instagram and Pinterest is working, but not so much on Facebook.”
With these results, double down on your efforts on Instagram and Pinterest, and then keep testing different formats on Facebook until you find one that works well.
Maybe on Facebook, you can post informative, behind-the-scenes information or more educational content.
It’s all about creating these feedback loops and testing different things until you find something that works. That’s how all the social media gurus do it.
Constantly testing + Consistency = Success.
9. Photograph Inanimate Objects
The 9th way you can make money with photography is to photograph inanimate objects.
Still Life Photography
Still-life photography is a niche of photography that involves capturing an inanimate subject in a created setting.
Toy Photography
Toy photography is a niche of still life photography that involves taking pictures of toys as the subject.
The toys are often rearranged to tell a particular story or to highlight the toy features.
Food Photography
Food photography is similar to still life photography except in food photography, the subject is food.
The goal of food photography is to make the meal look as appetizing and aesthetic as possible. (check out the best cameras for food photography)
10. Sell Photos to Magazines
The 10th way to make money as a photographer is to sell your photos to magazines.
Having your photo published in a magazine will not only provide some extra income, but it can continue to give you a reason to go to new places and hone your photography skills.
I recommend checking out this guide on selling photos to magazines if this way of making money piques your interest!
11. Enter Photography Contests
Similar to selling photos to magazines, you can make money as a photographer by entering photography contests and winning money prizes.
The benefit of photography contests is that you will get to go up against the competition and see if you have the current skills to win a competition.
Competing in these contests will provide the quickest way for you to consistently improve upon your photos to continue to “step your game up.” This competition will make you a better photographer overall.
The other benefit is that if you win, your photographs will be recognized by your peers and you can grow a little name for yourself as a photographer.
This growth in popularity will assist with your brand awareness and can help your other monetization methods that we have discussed such as teaching workshops or creating a blog.
12. Provide Editing Services
The 12th way you can make money as a photographer is to provide editing/retouching services.
You can make money editing photos.
Similar to offering prints to clients as an add-on service, you can offer a retouching/editing upsell where you will offer high-quality retouching to remove blemishes, acne marks, spots, etc.
Or you can sell the editing/retouching as a whole separate service in itself and retouch/edit existing photos that clients give you.
The choice is yours, but either way, if you offer these services on your website, knowing SEO will help drive traffic and get more people to purchase these services.
13. Sell Photos in Galleries
The 13th way you can make money with your photography is to sell your photos in galleries.
This way is similar to selling your photos to magazines except you will be able to visit your photo in person in a gallery if accepted.
Google “photography gallery submissions” and look through all of the results taking note of which one’s interests you:
After that, Google “photography galleries near me” and do the same thing:
You should have a pretty good list now.
If you want to find more, then Google “photography gallery in [insert location you live].” For example, “photography gallery in Los Angeles.”
After you’ve compiled your list, and found each website of the gallery and contact info, just reach out to them to see how to get submitted.
They should also have a page dedicated to their website with instructions on how to get submitted.
14. Photograph Nature
Photographing nature is another great way to make money as a photographer.
Landscape Photography
Landscape photography is a niche that involves photographing the outdoors with the goal of bringing the viewer into the scene.
Night Photography
Night photography is the art of capturing images outdoors at night.
Underwater Photography
Underwater photography is the art of capturing images while underwater.
All three of these niches involve nature so if you love the outdoors and you love photography, then getting into one of these niches is a great way to make money.
Once you take the photos, you can sell them as stock photos, sell them to magazines, or sell to a gallery!
15. Sell Lightroom Presets
The 15th way to make money as a photographer is to sell Lightroom Presets.
If you have spent any time on Instagram or YouTube watching another photographer, you may have seen that they are offering Lightroom Presets.
If you grow a little following either by driving traffic to your blog through SEO, through social media, or from word of mouth by getting submitted in magazines, galleries, contests, etc., then you most likely take good photographs.
If this is the case, you may have a particular style that other photographers resonate with and want to capture.
If this is so, then you could create Lightroom Presets that match your particular style of color grading and editing and sell them via a mini shop!
If you want to set up a shop to sell these presets, then you will need to know how to create a website.
Luckily, platforms such as WordPress make it very easy to do with store add-ons such as Shopify or Woocommerce which will allow you to create store pages on your website.
16. Sell Gated Assets
The 16th way to make money as a photographer is to sell gated assets.
Gated assets include e-books, workbooks, guides, infosheets, etc.
For example, if you have a photography blog and you are known for wedding photography. If most of the people who read your blog are also wedding photographers, you could sell an in-depth ebook covering secret wedding photography tips.
They are called gated assets because they are “gated” behind something which means you can download it after either paying for it or by entering an email.
It’s important to note that if you do want to offer gated assets and sell them on your site/blog, then you will need to ensure that the gated asset is a lot more in-depth and provides more value than your regular blogs.
This means the e-book should be around longer in length and more in-depth.
If a user downloads an e-book expecting it to be more in-depth because they are paying for it and they find that it is the same surface-level quality as a blog, they could lose trust in your brand.
17. Assist Other Photographers
The 17th way to make money as a photographer is to assist other photographers with their shoots.
This is a great way to make money while also practicing your own photography skills!
If you do want to be the assistant to another photographer, it’s always best if you find a photographer who has more experience than you this way you can learn from them.
18. Sell a Course
The 18th way to make money with photography which is very popular right now is to sell a course.
Now, you only should be thinking about selling a course if you already have a large following.
Creating a course is very resource-intensive and will take a lot of time to create.
Plus, your brand image should already be very well defined so your course can be aligned with it.
If you take the time to create a course and then want to realign your brand, then you will have wasted a lot of resources.
For example, if you specialize in marketing tips for photographers, then create a photography marketing course that will take the user from the beginning of marketing to the steps they need to take to market their business.
Courses should be very in-depth, covering everything from A-Z.
19. Create a Website
The 19th way you can make money with photography is by creating a website.
We’ve already mentioned this before.
Creating the website itself won’t make money, but what you can add to the website will.
For example, you can add a blog to your website and monetize it through ads and affiliate links.
You can add a store to your website and sell Lightroom Presets, gated assets, and courses.
Once you have the website, that will serve as your foundation and main platform with which all other channels can interact.
20. Start a YouTube Channel
The 20th way to make money with photography is to start a YouTube channel.
On YouTube, you could create a channel educating others about photography tips, photography business, photography marketing, post-production tips, etc.
There are endless possibilities and angles to take with photography on YouTube channels.
I’m sure you can think of a couple of go-to photography YouTubers that you love to watch.
If you have value to provide and want to provide that value to others, then YouTube is a great channel to dive into to connect with others.
Pro Tip: If you have a blog on your website, you can also cross-promote each other.
For example, let’s say you have a blog on wedding photography tips on your blog. You could create a video talking about wedding photography tips as well.
Then, you could add the video to your blog which will gain more views to your blog and you can link your blog in the description box of your YouTube video.
This is the digital age — an age of cross-promotion and leveraging all the channels available to you.
Can You Make Good Money as a Photographer?
Marketing
If you market yourself and hone your craft, you can make good money.
In our Marketing Framework Guide, we lay out everything you need to know about marketing.
The components of marketing include:
- Branding
- Consists of corporate image
- Also consists of product/service positioning
- Product
- Price
- Placement
- Promotion
All of these components work together in unison like cogs in a wheel.
It’s important to understand these concepts before setting a price for your own photography service/product as well as determining how to define your brand.
For example, if you want to brand yourself as a high-end portrait photographer but your price is below the market, your target audience may perceive your service/product as inferior because the price is often an indicator of quality.
We often say it’s not the best photographer in the world who is known as the “best photographer in the world,” it’s the photographer who markets themselves successfully as the “best photographer in the world” who is the “best photographer in the world.”
Honing Your Craft
While it’s true marketing can get you a very long way as a photographer, eventually, you will need those raw skills to reach that 1%.
With that being, continue to hone your skills in your specific niche.
Combine a strong marketing strategy and brand alignment with your skills and you will be making good money as a photographer in no time.
Is it Hard to Make Money as a Photographer?
Is it hard to make money as a photographer?
Well, was it hard when you were first learning how to photograph?
Was it hard when you were first learning how to speak English?
Was it hard when you were first learning Algebra?
Everything is “hard” when you are first learning it. But after a while, what seemed hard actually isn’t.
The things we don’t know are “hard,” and the things that we do are “easy.”
The same can be applied to making money as a photographer.
It may seem hard to make money as a beginning photographer because (1.) you lack the skills and experience, and (2.) you don’t know the different ways you can make money.
How to Make Money as a Photographer
building a successful photography career takes time, dedication, and continuous improvement. Strive for excellence in both your craft and business skills. Adapt to market trends, invest in professional development, and consistently deliver exceptional client experiences. By following these steps and consistently honing your craft, you can increase your chances of making a sustainable income as a photographer.
Tools
- Camera
- Lenses
- Tripod
- Lighting Equipment
- Editing Software
- Computer and Storage
- Business Tools
Instructions
- Define Your Photography Niche: Identify and specialize in a specific photography niche that aligns with your skills, interests, and market demand. Whether it's wedding photography, portraiture, commercial work, nature photography, or any other genre, focusing on a niche allows you to develop expertise, build a strong portfolio, and target your marketing efforts effectively.
- Build a Stellar Portfolio: Create a compelling portfolio that showcases your best work within your chosen niche. Invest time in capturing high-quality images that demonstrate your unique style, technical proficiency, and artistic vision. A strong portfolio is essential for attracting clients and establishing credibility in the photography industry.
- Market Your Services: Develop a strategic marketing plan to promote your photography services. Utilize various channels such as a professional website, social media platforms, online directories, and networking events to reach your target audience. Engage in online and offline marketing efforts, including search engine optimization (SEO), social media campaigns, collaborations, and word-of-mouth referrals to increase your visibility and attract potential clients.
- Establish Pricing and Contracts: Determine your pricing structure and create clear contracts or service agreements for your clients. Research industry standards, and consider factors such as your experience level, overhead costs, and the value you provide. Ensure your pricing is competitive yet sustainable, and outline all terms and conditions in your contracts to protect both parties rights and expectations.
- Diversify Your Revenue Streams: Explore multiple avenues to generate income from your photography. In addition to client assignments, consider selling prints, licensing your images for commercial use, offering photography workshops or courses, collaborating with brands, or contributing to stock photography agencies. Diversifying your revenue streams can provide stability and opportunities for growth in your photography business.
How Much Money do you Make If You’re a Photographer?
The amount of money you make as a photographer depends on a lot of factors such as where you live, your experience, and the photography niche that you are in.
For an in-depth breakdown of all of these, we recommend you check out our Photography Pricing Guide where we dive into average photographer cost per hour, per city, as well as by style.
Final Remarks
Hope you enjoyed this guide on tips/ways to make money with photography.
It’s important to take action after reading this guide.
Write down some of the ways that interested you and start trying them out.
Even if it doesn’t work out, just remember, failing is only failing if you don’t try again.
The important thing to remember is that action is always better than inaction.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money can you make as a photographer?
The income potential of a photographer can vary greatly depending on factors such as their specialization, level of expertise, geographic location, market demand, and business skills. Some photographers may earn a modest income, while others, particularly those who establish successful businesses or work in high-demand niches, can earn a substantial income.
Can you make a living off photography?
Yes, it is possible to make a living off photography. Many professional photographers are able to sustain themselves financially by leveraging their skills, creativity, and business acumen to secure clients, sell prints, license their work, offer workshops, or work in various photography-related fields such as commercial, wedding, fashion, or documentary photography.
Nate Torres is an entrepreneur, growth marketer, and photographer and writes mostly on those topics. Nate runs his own professional photography business and photography blog called Nate Torres Photography. Nate enjoys learning about new digital marketing strategy and new ways to think creatively. He is also a photography speaker and author on Photofocus.