• By LensCross Reads
• August 19, 2021September 4, 2021
• Institute lens Photography Travel
• With 0 comments

A career in photography is the most creative and artistic field in today’s world. It has attracted the eyes of many people around the globe due to its vastness and flexibility. It has seen drastic growth in recent times turning it into a stable career choice. In India, the boom in advertising, e-commerce, the fashion industry, and related fields has opened a world of opportunities for aspiring photographers. Some fields have sky rocketed in the past few years like Sports Photography, Food Photography, Fashion Photography, and Advertising Photography. There are other fields too, like, Wedding Photography, Event Photography, Wildlife Photography.

How To Become A photographer

Now, that we have the basic knowledge about the opportunities in this field, let’s talk about the next most important thing-

1. Understanding the basics:
   
   

Before taking out all your expensive gear and get right into photography, one needs to understand the basics of photography like:

• Aperture: A wide opening part of a lens that helps to control the amount of light that should hit on the imaging sensor. It is always in ‘f’ numbers like f/1.4, f/1.2, f/2.8, f/4, and so on.We can adjust the lighting on the camera by adjusting the aperture which will, in turn, affect the brightness of a picture.
  
  The most important point we should know is larger the ‘f’ number, the smaller the aperture hole, and the smaller the ‘f’ number, the larger is the aperture hole.
  
  
• Shutter Speed:  It is the most important part of the setting in photography. While Aperture and ISO is the second most important part. It helps to adjust the brightness of an image and helps to freeze or blur motion.
  Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second. For example, 1/4th means a quarter of a second.
  
  
• And ISO:  An ISO is a number that is directly proportional to image brightness. The higher an ISO number, the higher is the brightness. Similarly, the lower an ISO number, the lower is the brightness.The most important key point to note here is, that sometimes using a high ISO number can lead to more noise or not usable. As one may zoom a picture, the picture clarity can be missing.

2. Take an online course:

To kick start your career in photography while pursuing something else, one can go for online courses that are available on platforms like, Coursera and Udemy. They provide you with certification courses that would act as a basis to take a step towards your goals.

3. Go for an Undergraduate/ Postgraduate Degree:

If you have decided beforehand and are clear about your choice, then you can get a degree in photography (Bachelor’s or Master’s), or pursue diploma courses. These courses can last for 3 months to 1 year.

Some institutes that provide Bachelor’s/ UG Diploma in Photography:

• National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad
• National Institute of Photography
• The Indian Institute of Digital Art and Animation
• Asian Academy of Film and Television
• Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University, Hyderabad
• Osmania University
• Sir JJ Institute of Applied Arts

Some institutes that provide Master’s/ PG Diploma in Photography:

• Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University, Hyderabad
• Sir JJ Institute of Applied Arts
• Asian Academy of Film and Television
• Sri Aurobindo Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi

4. Apply for Internships and Competitions

• After getting the required knowledge, the next step is to practice and make your skills adept. Getting yourself enrolled in events and competition helps you understand your strengths and weakness, makes you more confident, and gives your career a boost to reach new levels. Getting your work scrutinized by a panel of proficient judges makes you more aware of your work and motivates you outdo yourself. You engage yourself with other potential people that inspire you to expand your creativity and imagination.
• Apart from this, you can also do internships and freelance work to keep yourself updated with the newest trends and to get a better understanding of what is needed to be ahead in your field. It also enables you to meet and expand your network with similar-minded people.

5. Select a Niche

• After you’ve gained enough experience and are ready to enter the professional side of the world, you have to choose a niche as per your preference. Participating in different competitions and working as an intern or freelancer helps you understand what fascinates you more. Try searching for areas that resonate with you and your creativity. Then, look for its scope and if it is what you want.
• Selecting a niche is not an overnight process. You need to work and venture into different fields to get a better understanding of all areas. Once you feel that you’ve finally found your passion, then go for it!

6. Create blogs and masterclass

• Once you’ve finally found your passion and are a few years into your field, create your blogs. If you’re a travel photographer then create a blog describing your travel diaries and how every trip inspired you as a photographer and as a human. If you are a food photographer, then share your experience of all the foods you’ve tried and come across. Blogs will help you build your portfolio and will put your work forward in front of millions of people. It also increases your chances of getting noticed.
• A good and detailed masterclass will not only help other aspiring photographers to avail themselves of a chance to learn more about this field but also find you an alternate way of earning. You can either put a single series of courses or several courses that focus on one topic at a time. This course will help impact people positively if they consider hiring you in the future. There are several platforms where you can add your masterclass like Udemy and LinkedIn Learning. You can also endorse this class using social media to attract more people.

   Should One Choose A Career In Photography?

Like everything else in this world, there are several advantages and disadvantages of making a career in the photography field too. It requires the person to have a lot of creativity and patience to make something out of this field for himself.

   Advantages Of Career In Photography

• You get to do what you love. You are free to choose your line of work and get to do what you have always desired.
• It unlocks your creativity to the next level and allows you to find beauty in every little thing. It makes you understand things more artistically and opens you to the world of endless possibilities.
• You get paid for doing something you love rather than sitting on a chair with uncertainty looming over your head about your job.
• It provides you with the freedom of deciding on how and what course of action to take. It also provides you with the flexibility to choose how you want to take forth your task.
• Frankly speaking, there is no end in this field. You can find work even in little things! All you have to do is take your camera and shoot your perfect shot.

Disadvantages Of Career In Photography

• You can start doing photography with very little pieces of equipment. However, when you try to become more professional about your skill, you need to invest in more equipment. Photographic equipment tends to be pricey and one needs to have more than one set of equipment based on the requirement of the shot.
• There are long hours of work period. It can take hours, days, and sometimes even years to get that perfect shot. Fields like wildlife photography require you to be attentive 24*7 because you never know when might be your once-in-a-lifetime chance to shoot something marvellous.
• In a life of a photographer, there are times when he has to survive without any income due to a lack of relevant projects. Sometimes, the pay isn’t even very promising and might be very low.
• You will also have to self-promote because finding clients might not be an easy task. People who have recently started their journey in this field find it rather hard to earn clients as they prefer experience over talent.

However, even after all the hardships, photography is a very promising career and allows you to fulfil your dreams. It helps you evolve as a person and sometimes might even teach you something in return. Once you have a vision, there is nothing to stop you from achieving your goals. Because in the end, photography is nothing but a vision. A vision that you try to portray to the world through the lens.