Skill Sets for Professional Photographers

Skill Sets for Professional Photographers

By William Lulow

What “skill set” do you need to be a professional photographer? You might think that it would entail knowing how to use a camera to take pictures, right?

Well, you would only be partially right. Here is a “small” list of skills you need to set yourself up in business as a photographer today:

1. Accountant: you will need to be able to keep track of income, assets and expenses, as well as taxes, sales taxes and other costs of doing business such as invoicing and estimating jobs as well as on time billing.
2. Salesman: you will need to know how to set up an advertising campaign that includes SEO info for your website. You will also need to know a bit about “networking” to attract new business.
3. Entrepreuneur: you will need to know how to develop new ideas in order to come up with new images, lightings, poses, etc. as well as be able to invent new content for your website.
4. Mechanic: you will need to know how to keep your studio equipment in top shape and repair items that require it.
5. Set Builder: you will need to know how to design sets for the clients you have who need them. You may, of course hire people to do this, but it might eat into your profit unless you can bill for it.
6. Banker: studio owners often have to wait to get paid, especially if you work for ad agencies, who are often notoriously slow payers. You might have to have a method in place for sending out regular bills and keeping track of late payments.
   
7. Artist: you will often have to come up with new and different ways of shooting products and/or people with different lightings, sets, or locations to keep the images fresh.
8. Employer: you will often have to hire assistants, stylists, agents as well as models and other studio personnel  instruct them as to what you want to see in any given image. You may also have to keep track of their employment records, issue W-9 reports and pay into their Social Security accounts if they are hired permanently.
   

This is just a smattering of the various hats studio owners need to wear. This is all in addition to knowing how to get the most from your equipment. So, being a photographer is more of a complicated business than it often appears. It entails various skills that have to be employed all at the same time. This, of course, may presuppose that you have an actual “studio”, a brick-and-mortar establishment from which you work regularly. But even if you work out of your house or apartment, you would still need knowledge of how to combine all these skills even if you rent a studio space when you need it.

So, if you are ready and able to fill all these “positions” or handle them yourself, then you might just be ready to own and operate your own photographic studio. Having a camera and knowing how to use it is only the beginning.