What are the ways you can make money as a photographer?

>>2762517
>get better at photographer
>actually shoot for a purpose
>stop taking snapshits like this

You might be able to con a few self-indulgent teenagers into throwing you $30 for some portraits but you have a long way to go before you can be charging real money man.

Weddings.

You're going to need to invest in some lenses first though.

>>2762517
>but never charged actual money for it.
Charge money, and you might make money. If you say "This is free" most people aren't going to DEMAND to pay you $1000.


Take photos that people want taken. Someone selling their house? you can take the listing photos! Graduation? Prom? Senior pics? Family portraits? Weddings? Take nicely exposed photos of waterfalls and flowers and go to a local art show with matted prints. Etc.

>>2762540
Thanks a lot.
>>2762534
What do you mean by shoot for a purpose?

>>2762557
It's what separates snapshits from meaningful photographs. Have a purpose is to have an idea you wish to execute. If you have good ideas and can execute them well then people will hire you. Being a professional photographer has always been more about being able to inject creative ideas and solutions into a clients pre-existing model - ie an ad agency will hire you because they know that you will bring something to the table more than being able to competently expose and compose an image. Any fuckwit can get competent or even quite good at exposure and composition with a year or two's practice - in an over-saturated market like photography you need to go a few steps further than that or be stuck doing school pictures the rest of your life.

If you build it (a portfolio) they will come

If you are getting into photography for the money you are going to fail

>>2762517

you could've opened up the aperture for this. where were you focusing?

I've read the most lucrative way to make money is to take candid photographs of powerful men cheating on their wives and then extort them. But asking them for money is a bit gauche, I've found they are more receptive to granting non-monetary favors and using their influence to help you.

It plays pretty well into their egos and also doubles as some pretty convenient networking.

>>2764079
The girl. My aperture was wide open. Mostly because iso 1600+ looks like shit on a t3i and I was taking these pictures on the go (1/200)

be an assistant
most of them dont come from a photography background (nor ever will) so your concentration places your paper above theirs

if in college do some linkedin profile pictures
this is just a recent thing for me but ive taken 7 headshots and got paid in dinners and at most $20. probably an idea you can stretch out

cons are hit or miss because 90% of the people youre going to take are ugly ass fuck. you can take a "great" picture but it wont get you far. you have be dedicated and in the scene to eventually fuck with the 10%

the most real world thing ive done is take pictures for car dealerships

at the end though, its about building your niche. be consistent and market yourself and eventually theyll come

>>2764027
this

you need to build a professional portfolio before anything. there's too many professional photographers out there for people to find and choose from easily, who will work for less money than you (or for free) and take better pictures.

you need to prioritize taking amazing pictures first and maybe five to ten years from now you'll have enough to show for it that you can start building your portfolio AND getting a decent chunk of spare change out of it at the same time

just don't ever expect to have photography as a serious source of income.

keep your t3i for the next five years. literally no worthwhile difference between the t3i and the 6D beyond full frame and for the purposes of building an online portfolio it makes no damn difference. don't buy a camera thinking it'll get you money, think the other way around. if you make enough money through your photography with the camera you have, then use it for a new toy, and even better you'll know what camera/lens/etc you need for what you've been getting paid for most.

The quickest way to make money with your camera is to sell it

what about paparazzo and nightcrawler stuff?

and what about animals? A friend of mine makes some little money photographing horses on tournaments.
She gives the owners her card to her domain and people pay per picture that they want.
Those horse people love their horses and buy the horse pictures for a few euro.