When To Call Yourself A Pro Photographer?

Nowadays it seems that people who purchase a $500.00 camera learn to shoot a few hundred images and then start charging for their service. I say “Good” for them, they are trying to move forward. I also see so many photographers get upset when they run across one of these people and in some way feel angry and even threatened.

The reality is there are no shortcuts to becoming a good photographer; and even less in becoming a great photographer, everyone finds this out eventually despite the corners they try to cut out of the process. Today someone with a camera can take a less than mediocre photograph throw it into Photoshop and polish that turd till it shines. Then post it to Instagram and get thousands of likes and feel like they have made it. Most clients of the new photographer don’t know the difference between one of those photographs and a truly great photograph unless they see them side-by-side.

So when should you call yourself a professional photographer? It seems like people are in a huge rush to move from the purchase of their crop sensor camera and a nifty fifty to being called a “Professional Photographer”. I think it is very straight forward, when the BIR looks at your tax return and it is very clear that the majority of your income comes from taking and making photographs you should be able to reference yourself as a Professional and not before.

So if you just purchased your DSLR and are itching to be the next ProTog there are a few things you should really consider.
• How well do you understand the relationship between shadow, light and specular highlights.
• How well do you know your camera, do you shoot in Manual mode?
• Do you understand how to fill the frame and what that means?
• Do you know and understand why, when and how to compress the background?

These are but a few of the very basic elements of photography you will need to understand before you can move into more advanced areas of photography. There is so much that can and should be covered but that is all outside the focus of this post.

The best advice I can give is to slow down and don’t rush trying to make money off your photography just yet. Learn the craft and maybe even get yourself an older film camera to learn how to pay more attention to each photo you take. Experiment with shadow, light and learn how to transition from one to the other in a graduated fashion. If you are including people in your photos learn how to capture a mood or feeling and not just record how they look. Most importantly don’t listen to the everyday person's comments. This includes those that feed your ego by telling you how great your photos are, as well as those that tell you how you are doing everything wrong. Believe me when I tell you if they were worth listening to it would have cost you something.

If you think you’re ready to become a pro then invest in hiring a photo editor to sit with you and go over your portfolio. You will learn more in one session with a good photo editor than you ever will from someone that wants to tell you how you missed the shot or didn’t have your camera settings right in the first place, or how your model looks too posed. In most cities you can hire a good photo editor for an hour or so for less than $100 and if you are serious about becoming a professional photographer that is money worth spending. Best of luck, and keep taking & making photographs.