Breaking Into the Business of Photography

Class Preview

Discover business best practices to turn your love of photography into a profitable career.

Getting Started

Meet your instructor, style photographer Catherine Asanov, and discover the types of professional photography careers that are available. Catherine will help you determine whether you’re a good fit for this line of work and preview how this class will help you unlock the business side of your brain.

Finding & Branding Your Style

Catherine explains how she found her style and brand and offers tips to help you stand out in a crowd. Next, learn how to create a logo and put together a strong print portfolio. Catherine also gives you advice on building your digital portfolio and making it stand out across all platforms: laptop, tablet and mobile phone.

Portfolio Review

Garner tips for putting together your own portfolio as Catherine sits down with an aspiring professional photographer to critique his work. They discuss logos and their placement, shot selection, lighting and wardrobe choices. Catherine also shows him how to curate his strongest photos to tell the story of his style and brand.

Marketing Your Work

Discover the many effective ways you can market yourself: online, with printed materials, and by networking. Catherine shares several creative print options and offers layout guidance as well as tips for building a contact list and ideas for email marketing. Find out the best time to target your marketing efforts and how much of your budget should go to marketing.

Search Engine Optimization

Understand the world of search engine optimization, or SEO, to drive more potential clients to your website. With the help of an SEO specialist, you’ll learn how to organize your website to maximize search results and also find out what you should avoid.

Social Media

Gain confidence and clients as you embrace social media. Learn how to leverage different platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more — and discover tools you can use to harness all of them at once. Fine-tune your message based on social media feedback and create a two-way conversation with potential clients.

Client Relations

Once you’ve found your clients, you need to build a strong working relationship with them. Catherine offers guidance on effective communication and how to set up and manage expectations, both on your side and the client’s. She details the importance of staying on budget and offers tips for getting an agent. Finally, she’ll get you through the process of working with a difficult client.

Legal, Sales & Pricing

Now that you have the skills and vision to become a professional photographer, it’s time to focus on the business of creating a business. With Catherine’s help, you’ll navigate through the process of determining what type of business you want to build, getting insurance, and how to deal with model releases and copyright. Finally, Catherine leads a candid discussion about how to calculate what you should charge for your services and how to make sure clients follow through with payment.