The four types of photography
Photography can be divided into four major categories, by intended purpose of the photographs:
1. Wedding photography
2. Commercial photography
3. Snapshot photography
4. Art photography
Wedding photography is an interesting phenomenon because, for most people, it’s the only time in their lives when they spend a significant amount of money to have someone else take pictures of themselves. Portrait photography might be grouped in here as a less profitable type of direct-to-consumer photography.
Commercial photography includes all photography where the photographer is paid by a commercial enterprise and it includes photojournalism, fashion and product photography.
Snapshot photography is what most people do with their cameras or their smartphones.
Art photography is what I present on this blog. Now that may sound pretentious to some people, but only because the word “art” has been ridiculously oversold by a certain type of intellectual. Art just means anything that’s intended to be pretty or interesting to look at and has no other more practical purpose. Art doesn’t have to be good to be art, and in fact the vast majority of art is lousy art.
I’ve also arranged the categories above by the likelihood that you might make a decent middle class to upper middle class living from it, in descending order. That’s why wedding photography is at the top, because successful wedding photographers make more than $100,000/year, and even really bad ones can make more than minimum wage.
Art photography is at the bottom, because it’s far lot more likely to cost you money in expensive camera gear than you are to make any profit from it. Many of the best art photographers are wealthy from other sources.
I don’t really recommend any type of photography as a career. The reason for this is that there are such a large number of people doing photography for fun, the basic rules of supply and demand indicate that you won’t make much money and it will be hard to break into, because supply of photography exceeds the demand for it.
But wedding photography can be a good career for a certain type of person with the right personality. Especially for a young women, because wedding purchasing decisions are made by brides, who are young women, so a young female photographer can bond better with the bride and therefore be much more successful at selling her services. It’s also very good career for raising children, because the only time you have to be out of the house would be on Saturdays when one’s spouse with a normal business hours job would be free to watch the children. The pre-wedding and post-wedding work can be done from home or easily scheduled around children-rearing activities.
Some time ago a man who did various types of commercial photography told me that wedding work isn’t worth the trouble. It’s very time-consuming, highly competitive, and you have to deal with difficult, demanding customers.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
January 24, 2013 at 10:11 am
Lion does not have kids, or he would also know that there are a large number of photographers who specialize in kid pictures / portraits of the family together. This is also a good career for females, because they can also work on weekends, and they can generally get a good response from their subjects.
Tarl
January 24, 2013 at 11:08 am
I mentioned portrait photography as a sub-genere of wedding photography, but it doesn’t pay as well because it’s easier.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 24, 2013 at 11:26 am
Easier? Ha. You have never tried to get two toddlers to sit still AND smile nicely for a camera.
If anything wedding photography is a sub-genre of portrait photography.
Tarl
January 24, 2013 at 11:51 am
Patience with toddlers is something every mother has, so it’s a common skillset, even though it’s not something I personally would care to do or be good at.
In fact, it is pretty common that these child photography businesses are started by stay-at-home moms who bought a camera to photograph her own children and then branched out.
Wedding photography is harder because you only have one chance to get the shot; you can’t redo the wedding ceremony but you can come back the next day when the toddlers are in a better mood. And you have to deal with bridezillas.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 24, 2013 at 12:03 pm
Patience with toddlers is something every mother has, so it’s a common skillset, even though it’s not something I personally would care to do or be good at.
Patience is beside the point. You can be as patient as you want and it is STILL not easy to get the desired result (happy, motionless toddlers).
In fact, it is pretty common that these child photography businesses are started by stay-at-home moms who bought a camera to photograph her own children and then branched out.
All the ones I’ve used have an “academic background” in art and photography.
Wedding photography is harder because you only have one chance to get the shot; you can’t redo the wedding ceremony but you can come back the next day when the toddlers are in a better mood. And you have to deal with bridezillas.
At weddings, everyone is an adult, and can appreciate the need to get it right when everyone is there, and understands that it is all being paid for so let’s not fsck it up. That is not true for toddlers.
Also, it is obvious that you know nothing about children, because there is no guarantee at all they’ll be in a “better mood” some other time. Their moods can go from happy to meltdown in a matter of seconds. Furthermore, the aggravation of dressing them up and getting them to the place of the shoot is LARGE and if you don’t get it right the first time, it is not at all unlikely that the parents won’t be able to get them there another time.
Tarl
January 24, 2013 at 2:50 pm
There are loads of women who really LIKE doing stuff that involves young children, so there really isn’t any shortage of that. It’s not rocket science either.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 24, 2013 at 3:35 pm
As usual, the Lion has a retort for everything. As usual, it’s in regard to something he doesn’t know much about.
Stick to the stuff you actually understand. I like to read your blog but this photography stuff is so lame.
RBG
January 24, 2013 at 4:01 pm
Digital cameras and the internet make it much easier to take and share pictures, and I think a lot of people would like to become better at it just for their snapshot pictures.
thrasymachus33308
January 24, 2013 at 12:06 pm
There’s also “boudoir photography,” taking artsy but dirty pictures of women that the women give to their husbands as presents. It’s obviously a female-only field.
Pictures of this sort which fall into the wrong hands undoubtedly are the lifeblood of Voyeurweb and Guess Her Muff.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
January 24, 2013 at 12:08 pm
Another subgenre is death photography, still popular in some cultures. Even in mainstream america there are professional photographers who volunteer their time to photograph stillborn infants.
islandmommy
January 24, 2013 at 2:10 pm
There ought to be photographers who specialize in informal but flattering portraits of people who absolutely must have a photo for one thing or another but hate dreadfully how studio proofs come out. Obviously rock singers & movie stars have photographers who study their faces and put them in the best lighting conditions. Yeah, I need some of that.
caroljm36c
January 24, 2013 at 12:37 pm
There are. And there was the photographer that a major magazine once sent to photograph me, and it was not a studio portrait. Don’t know it was necessarily flattering though.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 24, 2013 at 12:55 pm
Well we need more of them here in flyover. Call them Vanity Photographers or something. Yeah bloggers really need photos, and it would be nice for social media too. Instead, you go to a local studio and get the Realtor treatment.
caroljm36c
January 24, 2013 at 1:20 pm
I went to high school with a fellow who makes a good living photographing consumer products. I asked him once why he wasn’t working with hot, young models. He informed me the inanimate objects he shoots are never late for work, never charge overtime if the shoot takes longer than expected, never get tired, never complain, etc. Thought that was amusing.
Mohammed Chang
January 24, 2013 at 1:37 pm
Art photography is a great way for someone with few real talents to cash in on their celebrity — it’s not uncommon for superannuated models to become photographers. DJing is another option, if you are relatively young. Chloe Sevigny’s brother is a DJ, IIRC.
DaveinHackensack
January 24, 2013 at 2:26 pm
[Call them Vanity Photographers or something.]
I thought that’s what Glamour Shots was for? They are a chain company with studios in many malls. I had a friend who had bikini glamour shots done for her online dating profile. Muy tacky.
islandmommy
January 24, 2013 at 4:40 pm
I had a friend who had bikini glamour shots done for her online dating profile. Muy tacky.
I can just imagine some of the responses she got.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
January 24, 2013 at 5:51 pm
Wedding Photography will survive because it will become a hassle that nobody wants to do – unless paid.
Increasingly, all other forms of “art” photography will go extinct, as common people accept the lowered standards from everybody having an Iphone.
When you have millions of images to choose daily, just pick out “the ones you like.”
Voila: Instant dumb down just like in theater, where it was all replaced by 30′s Hollywood musicals..just as live music was replaced by 78′s, 45′s…and so on down to today.
Want a job? Learn oil painting – I predict Elites will increasingly indulge in the grandiose, ostentatious flattering portraiture ala The Blue Boy.
Firepower
January 24, 2013 at 7:01 pm
More in the category “why you can’t have anything nice” in NYC http://therealdeal.com/blog/2013/01/24/former-editrix-grabs-9m-pad-at-extells-535-west-end/
Anonimnikoff
January 24, 2013 at 7:39 pm
Wedding photography is getting more and more completive and the market is shrinking. The successful wedding photographers today are almost always very good at the marketing end of the business. Many are just average photographers. They are getting competition from part time photographers that will shoot a wedding for $300-$600. A lot more couples opt for the very low cost photographers or even let some relatives shoot their wedding for free.
There still are high end wedding photographers that charge $10,000+. I’ve heard of some charging $25,000. That, however, is a small market that can only support a limited number of photographers. It is the low and middle end of the wedding photography market that is shrinking.
Many photographers do not want to do weddings, because it requires long hours. Starting from shooting the bridal makeup right through the end of the reception, often 10 or 12 hours. It is almost entirely a young persons business. Older photographers either get out of the wedding business or hire 3 or 4 assistants to do much of the work.
Wedding photographers also get sued by dis-satisfied customers far more often than photographers. This turns off lots of photographers.
If you want to get into wedding photography the best way is to start out as an assistant to an older, successful wedding photographer. Opportunities, however, are very limited. Lots of wedding photographers cut back on their assistants in 2008-2009, and there just are not that many opportunities any more.
High end portrait photographers and high commercial photographers also make a good livings without working as hard as wedding photographers, but those are also small markets and hard to break into.
mikeca
January 24, 2013 at 8:23 pm
Upper-middle class people getting married in Manhattan would never cheap out on a “$300-$600″ wedding photographer. That’s for the poors.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 24, 2013 at 9:43 pm
The most important photography of our time is a subset of snapshot photography that would be sneered at or ignored by most as “rom-com” photography, i.e. male takes pictures that serve as basis for subsequent comments to female being wooed for hopefully good purposes indicating (a) i love animals as much as you (b) isnt this a great world even in its nonhipsterish aspects (c) this is an awful world we need to cuddle together for protection from it (d) God loves us. These pictures will likely all be gone in a hundred years but any that survive, if sufficiently sincere (at Great Pumpkin or greater levels) will be among the most treasured artifacts of our benighted world.
stephen c
January 24, 2013 at 11:12 pm
Sometimes commercial photographers get artsy shots, like this one: http://www.sfgate.com/news/slideshow/Chicago-firefighters-fight-fire-freezing-55602.php (The second shot in the slideshow is a good portrait – if I were that guy, I’d use it on facebook or something.)
One way to get into the wedding photography business is to be associated with a church which does lots of weddings. For my first wedding, we ended up hiring a Mormon photographer who had a pretty large portfolio because they were connected to the local temple. Of course, that’s another form of marketing.
Anthony
January 25, 2013 at 12:44 pm