How to Start a Photography Business Without Any Money

If you want to start off quickly and build a stable company that will keep money coming in year after year, I can highly recommend family portrait photography. Once you get established you will always have a constant stream of babies, children, anniversaries, engagements coming to you. If you are fresh out of Photography College and think that's selling out, don't forget that you can still stamp your own unique style over your images. Just because everyone is shooting on white backgrounds does not mean that's the best thing to do. My advice is to do be creative and do the opposite, that will make you shine out amongst the competition. Product photography is another great way to use a home studio. More and more people are opening their own online shops, or businesses and all of them will need photographs. These can be great customers as they will always be updating stock and will need new images. Wedding photography is maybe not the first thing you should tackle, in fact maybe it's not your second or third. You will be asked all the time if you do by the other customers that come to you. The money is great but you will have to get a lot of photography under your belt before you attempt this. If you do however, start doing it alongside your other work and make sure people know your style before hiring you. You could do some portfolio shoots first as a second shooter to get into the rhythm. Are you going to be a pet specialist? Maybe you already love Cats and have a social circle who would love the most amazing cat portraits. I once heard of a photographer who travelled the world after she specialised in photographing prize winning cattle. At the time there were only two people who did such a thing. The only important rule is that you must be passionate about your subject matter! Finding a style niche If you know what type of photography you are going to do, you need to find your style niche You are going to have to stand out from the crowd and also make people remember you. It could be the image effect that you use in post-production, such as everything is chocolate brown, or you put new born babies into piles of brightly coloured scarves. Whatever you do make it visually memorable and worth talking about. I once knew a guy who worked from home photographing children in boxes; he did it for years and was known as "the guy who does the boxes thing". It stuck in people's minds and that helps if they are thinking about finding a photographer. As long as you have your camera and at the very least a laptop, your world is your studio. It's worth going out and about beforehand and finding stunning and interesting scenery, colours and textures that can be utilised for whatever subject you pick. Your sales office could be a trendy coffee bar or you could even strike an arrangement with a shop that would complement your type of client. You might think that having a portable studio will most likely require you to have at least a car, but not always. For many years I carried a cheep Chroma key backdrop, made from synthetic crease free fabric, which I took into woodland at a local family attraction to shoot fairy portraits. I had no lights, no card machine, no bookings and just the popup flash. I didn't even have a laptop and could only show people the images on a tiny screen on the back of the camera. I would arrive with my costumes and props, set up a display of images around an oak tree an sell my services as a fairy photographer. On a good day, I would make around $600 or £400. What I was selling was the experience of a fantasy session and though my examples they could workout that it was something unique. I also made sure that the shoot was fun for the children, as well as being energetic and loud. It became something that attracted a crowd and interest. You could also carry some funky rolls of wall paper, which is great for home or street portraits. Lighting can also be small. A couple of flash heads or even, video lights can be used to amazing effect. I bought a couple of very cheap lights from eBay and used them to great effect. Also useful if your camera can shoot movies in High Definition. No printing, no problem! Take the shots and email them to the client. Don't forget to keep the emails for contacting them for all your other great offers.