7 Common Photography Mistakes To Avoid
Updated on November 30, 2022 in Photography by Nishant Shrimali
If you are looking to turn your passion for photography into an income source, go no further than this article. With the trends turning every now and then, it is important for you to make sure that you skip these 7 common photography mistakes.
Not only these will fast track your success but also will help you understand what are your strengths and how you can create a route of success for your own successful photography career.
Without wasting any more of your precious time, here are the 7 Common Photography mistakes that you should avoid.
7 Common Photography Mistakes That You Must Avoid
Not Having your own Portfolio
The very first photography mistake that you can make in today’s world would be not having a portfolio of your own. Every client that might wish to hire would require a convincing of some kind.
In order to ease this convincing process, your portfolio would be a great help. Moreover, you should prepare both a physical portfolio as well as the digital portfolio.
Maintaining a good digital portfolio helps you build credibility within your niche and attract the clients that you are looking for a photographer. Whereas the physical portfolio would help you in hands-on meetings.
Not Having a Social Presence
Another great way to attract more customers through digital mediums is Social media. Unfortunately, many photographers make this common photography mistake of not seeing social media as a business opportunity.
On average, your customer would be spending 3 hours of his day on the social media platform itself. This is a great way to attract them and build a connection with them.
How can you do that? Here’s an Ultimate Social Media Guide for Photographers that you can use to learn more.
Saying yes to Everything
This has been among the most common photography mistakes for beginners. In order to keep the ball rolling, they often say yes to every kind and niche of project they come across.
It might be exciting at the start when you are exploring, but once you are stepping out to turn this into income, you need to make sure that you have expertise in one of the niches. What options do you have? Well, the list is bigger than you can expect but still –
- Product photography
- Fashion Photography
- Street Photography
- Wildlife Photography
- Festive photography
- Portrait photography
These all are broad categories but you can even make it a more saturated niche. For example, in product photography, you can expertise your skills in shoe photography or jewelry photography, etc.
Having a niche won’t restrict you, as you can always switch your work type but having a niche would allow you to create a brand value of your own, hence creating your identity which is very important in the photography business.
Poor Planning
How bad can go? Well in photography the answer is Everything. Many learn after falling for these photography mistakes but you shouldn’t. It is very important that you have a plan set for your project.
A well-planned project would have
- Time and date decided
- Pre-decided location
- List of all equipment that would be needed
- Any props ready (if needed)
- Sample shoots
- Team on-board (if needed)
With time this may grow and or reduce but having said that you should always know what all would be required. In order to make the shoot successful, you would need to make sure that all the requirements are pre-shoot practices like cleaning and checking of equipment is done.
Not Keeping up with Trend
What could be worse than not understanding what your customer wishes from you? Mostly it will happen if you are not active with the trend, which is among the most common photography mistakes within the community.
There are very few photographers, who stay relevant over the years by keeping up with the trends and knowing what would best for the customer as well as the viewers.
Experience still plays a very important role but you need to make sure that you are aware of new trends, news, and updates in your niche of photography.
Neglecting Editing
Photography and photo editing go together. But this doesn’t mean that you need to master both of these complex and time-consuming skills. As a photographer, you need to make sure you know the basics, for small projects.
But if you have a bulk order, you can even outsource them to photo editing services like PixelPhant.
Having no Set of Goals
Lastly, among all these photography mistakes, this one could cause serious damage to your photography career. As a photographer, your career is a roller coaster ride where unexpected would be more than common for you.
But in saying so, you must always work towards the goal of your photography business. This goal could vary as per your wish like, having a goal to earn $20,000 or it can be capturing 50+ events.
Whatever it may be, it will allow you to know what are the steps that you need to take. Do we highly recommend reading What Do You Need To Know To Make A Career In Photography?
Bonus Read
Now that you are aware of the most common photography mistakes, you should ensure that you are not falling for this as others did. The aim of this article is to make you aware and to allow you to learn the common photography mistakes so that you can skip them beforehand and fast-track your career.
If you want to use an online photo retouching service, contact us and get it done within 24 hours.
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