A photographer's career is the most exciting career as he captures the time by his lense. In recent years Photography is becoming popular in India. A lot of youth wish to come to this career. These people who want to pursue photography as a career always search for How to Become a Photographer over the internet.
Before you decide to go for Photography be sure to gain some knowledge about the career path of it. I will discuss all the steps from beginner to advance to become a professional photographer which will help a lot to decide whether it is okay for you to choose this as your career.
Why You Choose to be a Photographer?
Why Photography? This is the question you must ask yourself before starting your career in it. If you choose photography to earn a huge amount of money,
then Dear it is not for you. If you have passion and zeal to become a
photographer then go for it. It takes so much time and effort to be established in this market. You can learn only the basics of photography but the main idea to click a photo comes in your mind when you have a strong interest in it.
How can I be a photographer in India?
To answer this question I have divided this into 4 stages for your better understanding. You can follow these steps to become a professional photographer.
So let's discuss all these stages in detail.
Stage-1(Know the basics of Photography)
This is the first stage of the beginning of your desired career. This is also helpful for those who want to start photography on mobile. You must know all these basics of Photography to capture some amazing photos for social media use.
You must have the knowledge of megapixels, basic features of the camera,
how to operate a camera, lenses type, and a lot more things which I list
down below.
- Exposer
- Shutter speed
- ISO
- Aperature
- OIS
What is Exposer?
The amount of light that goes through the lenses and hits the sensor is called exposer. How much light is exposed to the sensor is exposed.
Exposer is decided by three things that are Shutter Speed, ISO, and
Aperture.
What is Shutter Speed?
Shutter Speed is the amount of time the sensor exposed to the light. You
can adjust the Shutter Speed to enhance the brightness of the
picture.
What is Aperture?
Aperture decides the amount of light enter into the sensor in a given amount of time. You can change the aperture in the DSLR and mirrorless cameras but in a smartphone, it is fixed.
What is ISO?
ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor. Increasing the ISO allows the
sensor to capture more amount of light and introduces a visible noise in
the image.
Stage-2 (Choose a Catagory)
There is a vast range of photography categories. You must target one of them and master it. You have to choose the category according to your interest so that you can do better in that field. Don't get influenced by the earning of some category of photography and choose that for more earning.
There are many types of photography that you can choose for yourself.
Some of them are given below.
- Product Photography
- Wildlife Photography
- Fashion Photography
- Event Photography
- Wedding Photography
- Architectural Photography
- Travel Photography
- Advertising Photography
- Lifestyle Photography
- Journalism Photography
- Sports Photography
- Scientific Photography
- Stock Photography
- Aerial Photography
- Automobile Photography
These are some of the categories that you can focus on or if you have an interest in some others than these given categories then no doubt you can go for that. All you need to continuously work on that field that you choose.
Stage-3(Learn Photography)
Learning is the key thing to learn anything in life. The same goes for
Photography. You have to learn this with full of your dedication as your regular educational courses. There is two way you can learn photography.
The first way is to learn photography from a reputed photographer that you can contact and learn from them. The other way is to take a course offered by some institute.
Now there are many academy or institute offered some photography courses to students. Who wants to join their courses can directly contact the institute.
Different Photography Courses
There are many courses that you can choose to go further in your photography career. There are mainly three types of courses that you can choose. These three types of courses are given below.
- Certificate Courses
- Diploma Courses
- Degree Courses
Photography Courses List
| Course Name | Type of Course | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| B.A in Photography | Under Graduate Degree | 3 Year |
| B.A in Visual Arts & Photography | Under Graduate Degree | 3 Year |
| BFA Photography | Under Graduate Degree | 3 Year |
| B.A(hons) in Communication Design-Photography | Under Graduate Degree | 3 Year |
| B.Sc in Photography and Cinematography | Under Graduate Degree | 3 Year |
| PG Diploma in Photography | Diploma | 1 year |
| Diploma in Fashion Photography | Diploma | 1 Year |
| Diploma in Professional Photojournalism | Diploma | 1 Year |
| Diploma in Photography and Cinematography | Diploma | 1 Year |
| Diploma in Advertising and Commercial Photography | Diploma | 1 Year |
| Diploma in Photography and Digital Imaging | Diploma | 1 Year |
| Certificate in Camera and Photography | Certificate | 6 Months |
| Certificate in Professional Photography | Certificate | 11 Months |
| Certificate in Photography | Certificate | 1 Year |
| Certificate in Digital Photography | Certificate | 11 Months |
Eligibility Criteria for Photography Courses
The eligibility criteria mainly focus on educational qualifications
here.
For Certificate Course
- You can directly join the institute after the completion of your 10th standard.
- Educational qualification may differ from institute to institute
- Few institutes required 10+2 to apply for these courses
- No entrance system
For Diploma Courses
- The minimum educational qualification required is 10+2
- No entrance exam system
- Contact the institute for direct admission
For Degree Courses
- The minimum educational qualification required is 10+2
- No entrance exam system
- Contact the institute for direct admission as it is first come first serve basis admission
Photography Course Course Fee
The course fee of Photography courses differs from institute to institute as it is operated by private organizations. But it is estimated that you have to pay 1 lac to 3 lakhs course fee for it. The certification photography courses have less amount of course fees than the diploma and undergraduate degree courses.
Stage-4(Promote Your Skills)
This is probably the most important stage for you if you want to get work for you as a photographer. These days promotion for every product is becoming easy due to the mass traffic on social media platforms. You can easily target your specific audience on social media.
You also have to use social media for your photography promotion. You can use different social media like Facebook, Instagram, Linked-in, etc.
Here you can share your photograph according to your category you choose.
You can create a specific account on social media for the promotion of your photo. If your audience likes your photo then they also share your photo in their social media handles and in this way you get more reach and more audience. You also can create a website to show off your photograph.
Social media promotion also helps to get your job. You must be thinking it is helpful. For your better understand let me discuss a scenario for you.
Suppose you are a wedding photographer and always share wedding photographs in your social media. If your audience finds your photo interesting then they can contact you for their marriage party. This way you can get your job.
Stage-5(Find Jobs)
This is the ultimate goal that everyone has to find a job after their course over. Everyone searching for a suitable job for their career growth. As Photography is booming in India nowadays, it is quite easy to find a job for you in this.
There are three options you have if you want jobs in this field. The options are:-
- Work as an Individual
- Work for an organization
- Freelancing
You can work as an individual and be your own bose. How can you get work as an individual, I already told before in this article. By sharing your photograph on social media you can get work. Your audience directly contacts you and offers work for you. You can charge a good amount of money for your work.
You also can work for an organization. Here you can apply for the jobs directly or the organization may contact you by seeing your skills in social media. You can work for a different organization like fashion related organization, Journalism organization, Product related organization, etc.
Here you can expect a high amount of salary.
Freelancing is the platform where you can work for your customer online.
You can choose it for part-time as well as a full-time option. There are many customers who search in the freelancing market to do their jobs and ready to pay a decent amount of money for it. You can take orders from them and deliver them their desired product and earn money.
Photographer Salary in India
Photography is the trending job now in India. Many organizations ready to pay a huge amount of salary to the skillful and creative photographer. If you choose not to work under an organization and choose to work as an individual still you can get six-figure earning.
Earning in the photography industry is directly depends on your skillset
and creativity.
| Experience | Salary |
|---|---|
| Fresher | 25-60k per month |
| Intermediate | 50-1 lakh per month |
| Experienced Professional | 1-1.5 lakhs per month |
Conclusion
This is quite a new and booming career option in India. You have to be creative in nature and need to always enhance your knowledge by learning new things. This field a huge investment as cameras and its lenses are very expensive. But in the beginning period, you can go for a simple camera and some good lenses. These are the 5 stages that you can follow to become a
professional photographer in India.