Honing in on one or two specific niches can be beneficial for a photographer. From a business standpoint, selecting a specific niche allows you to stand out from the pack and perfect your skills in one area. Choosing a niche can often be difficult though; to take time to explore a variety of niches in order to find where your personal interest and skills will shine brightest.
Photographing weddings as a part time job can’t be beat. You keep your day job and work on weekends. You receive money for making pictures, you get to go to a party, and you get fed and for the most part, people are on their best behavior. It’s a challenging workday to be sure, but armed with great preparation and the right equipment you can’t help but be a winner at it!
Shooting fashion can be one of the most fun and creatively satisfying types of photography you can pursue. With a little know how and prep-time on the front-end, you can produce a high-end fashion shoot worthy of any glossy fashion magazine.
In the worlds of editorial and advertising, images are needed on a daily basis to visually support an ad or an article. The images you see in magazines such as Vogue or Cosmo that aren’t an actual spread, but a simple somewhat generic looking image to sit along side an article with a titled like, “Ten Things That Will Drive Him Crazy” are oftentimes stock photos.
Are you the friend that is constantly lamenting the misrepresentation of the transgender community in the media? Or maybe you are a news junkie, who can name all the political leaders of the Middle East? If this sounds like you, photojournalism may be something you are interested in pursuing.
Fashion photography is unarguably the most glamorous of the photography niches, which makes it also one of the most sought after career paths. Working with fashion models, travelling the world, and collaborating with some of the world’s most famous designers sounds like a pretty glitzy job, but fashion photography comes with its own set of hardships as well.
Formal portraiture is arguably the most common form of photography, with people paying to have their photos taken professionally once a year during their school years and families gathering annually for family portraits. Oftentimes formal portrait studios take a variety of clients, from school children to weddings to engagements to boudoir.
Although many photographers find different niches appealing, honing in on specific ones can be beneficial for a photographer’s business.
A green screen or a blue screen is used as a backdrop in chroma key photography, which is a process that replaces a solid-colored background from behind the subject of a photo (or video) with a new background. When you watch the weather forecaster on TV standing in front of a map, or Spiderman climbing down a building, you, my friend, are seeing chroma key photography at work!
