We often hear about mistakes in photography. Usually, they’re lists telling us to stop using selective colour or to stop shooting everything at f/1.4. But if photography is your business, there are potentially far greater mistakes that you might be making that while not necessarily detrimental to your photography can be very harmful to your business and your bottom line. In this video, commercial photography Scott Choucino talks about the six biggest mistakes that he sees professional photographers making, why they’re such a big deal and how they can harm your business.
As Scott says in the video, that last one is pretty contentious, but it’s a biggie and extremely common. I don’t follow the commercial world much, but I see and know a lot of photographers on social media who regularly photograph models, and pretty much only models, but then wonder why they’re not making any money.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with shooting this kind of thing, but how can you apply that gear, experience and portfolio to an actual paying market? Because most models these days, especially ones you find online, are charging photographers, not paying them. If you want your photography to be a successful business, there’s so much more to it than just being a gun for hire. It takes a lot of thought and hard work to succeed and become a viable business – not to mention to be able to adapt and survive through the ever-changing world around us. What’s the biggest mistake you see photographers making in business?
