Career in Photography

Are you creative and imaginative? Do you have an eye for aesthetic detail and composition? Do you enjoy presenting things visually and communicating ideas to others through photographs? If your answer is yes, then this passion can offer you a lot as a profession. It's a matter of training, determination and talent.

Photography, like many other professions allied to the communications industries, is going through a revolution. I t has now become a profession with great commercial value. It offers great scope for those who have an interest and attributes needed to be a professional.

Photographers have opportunities in several different areas of industry, including newspapers and magazines, illustrations of books and television. There are portrait photographers and fine art photographers who need artistic talent and creativity, commercial and industrial photographers whose photographs are used as illustrations or archival material, and scientific photographers.

Qualifications

Being a creative medium, photography requires more of inherent talent for success than formal training. However training hones the inherent skills and helps one to shine in this competitive field.

Most people enter professional photography after obtaining a college degree in photography – often photojournalism. A degree course will give a well-rounded background of photography, the technologies and materials used, computerization, and some of the creativity necessary to compose good photographs.

There are many students who learn photography along with their college degree, by doing a part-time course. Besides the Certificate and Diploma courses in the field, Photography is also offered as an optional subject for a bachelor's degree in Fine arts.

Skills

If you want to be a part of this extremely creative profession, you need a keen and observant eye for aesthetic detail; intelligent and perceptive mind; a thorough knowledge of variety of cameras and the technicalities involved in taking pictures; of light, distance and perspective; and most importantly, the guts to take it up as a profession, what most people do it as hobby.

Establishing oneself as a professional photographer is no cakewalk, which is why many talented photographers remain amateurs. The climb is hard and long, and the financial returns are not very satisfactory in the beginning. Only those with tenacity and a never-say-die attitude, coupled with a real love of the medium hold on.

Career Options

Photographers have the option to either take up jobs with newspapers, magazines, advertising agencies, government agencies, industrial houses, fashion houses or work as freelancers.

They have a wide variety of choices as far as subjects are concerned. From photojournalism to wild life photography, fashion photography, photo portraits, still-life photography and mood photography, there's a comprehensive list of options to choose from. With the advent of computers, software and digital devices, many new types of photography careers have emerged along with the need for innovative and creative pictures. As you acquire digital skills in photography workshops, you may find yourself working in the areas of digital imaging, web page design, multimedia and digital post-production for video and motion picture production.

Remuneration

Photography as a field has no particular or fixed career and salary structure. One can start as an assistant to senior photographers in which salary is between Rs 3500 to Rs 6000. Once you are established, you would be paid as per the assignment. The range can be from Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,000. Fields like commercial photography pay higher as compared to the other fields.

So, if you can communicate in visual terms and can use your skills and talent to satisfy your clients on the basis of their individual needs, photography can be an exciting and rewarding career for you.