How to make money as a photographer - Part 3a - Tuitions

How to make money as a photographer - Part 3a - Tuitions

By a long long way running tuition days is the most money I’ve made as a photographer, Events not so much, they usually just about break even but I’ll cover that in part b!

  Of course that’s with the work I do. Not saying there aren’t more lucrative areas like weddings etc but if that’s not for you, and you have a decent skillset then there is a never ending supply of people who would be willing to pay for your expertise.

Tuitions

I don’t really remember how I got started with tuitions.  If my memory serves me correctly I just decided one day to put myself out there!  I was getting nice comments on my work and had an ok following online so thought what’s the harm!  I booked a location, arranged a model and just advertised it! I mean worse case I would have just shot with the model but as luck would have it it sold out and the rest is history.

These are the things you need to consider.

Do you have the social skills to carry it off?

Tutoring people is NOT for everyone by any stretch.  It helps to be (a) personable (b) confident and (c) to love the sound of your own voice!

I get a huge kick out of teaching, I love seeing people create things they didn’t think they were able to, it’s awesome.  I’m not all guarded about what I know, ask me something and you’ll always get an honest answer.  If you are not an open personality type then you might struggle here, teaching does not suit wallflowers and the non confident.

More than half the job is sounding like you know what you’re talking about! People are parting with money to listen to you, the last thing they want is some stuttering tit with zero confidence, you really need to be larger than life with this! I always try to make sure my sessions are fun.  I definitely suffer from centre of attention syndrome which helps enormously. So if you’re gonna do this strap on your big boy pants and don’t be shy!

What are you selling and will people buy it?

I’ve tutored everyone from absolute novices who’ve barely picked up a camera through to (more surprisingly to me) fairly seasoned photographers who believe I have something they want.  So step one for this is what do you have that people may want?  I’ve really settled now into three areas and can talk for hours or tutor anyone on any of them.

• Beginners natural light

• Transitioning studio photographers to natural light

• Video

There aren’t a huge amount of people doing these, which for me is a good thing, in fact I only know one other photographer who does video tutorials for the type of work I do (Chewymedia, please go check him out!)

I am confident that I can take anyone on any of those topics and have them on the route to my standard by the end of a session.  My approach is show and tell.  I show my process, the pupil repeats it with me over their shoulder offering help, rinse and repeat until they’ve got it.  Like everything some pick it up easily and some need more help.  I try and balance my sessions to make sure I have similar skills levels or at least not massively far apart, as I like to ensure everyone gets the same amount of me across the day.  Similarly some people attending can have dominant personalities so you need to also be able to deal with that and keep people in check and motivated.  For example if someone (as I’ve had many times) was in a group session and not really participating ask yourself how you would draw them in and make sure they were getting their moneys worth?

So have a think about what you’re good at.  Let’s assume you have the personality and commitment to make this work you need your list as I have.   You don’t need to have been doing this for years, you just need something other people want.  There’s a never ending stream of beginners trying to get into this line of photography so my beginner days are as much about getting into this as the actual photography. I’ll talk about booking models, equipment, model safety and how to conduct yourself, social media, anything that I think may help.  I am aware that some just want to get into this to see naked women.  I am actually pretty choosy about who comes to my workshops, if someone doesn’t seem genuine then I don’t get them along, I’d urge you (if teaching beginners) to exercise a similar process.

So choose what you’re good at, what you’re confident you can teach to someone else and what you think other people will want.

Structuring your offer

Now you’ve got your “thing”, what are you going to do next? There’s a few things you now need to think about.

• Length of session

I usually go for 4 hours, this seems a pretty sweet spot for most things.  I’ve done whole days for people but that tends to be photography in the morning and video in the afternoon. A single topic can get boring I find. But that’s down to you!

2. Pricing / Structure

This is a bit tricky and ultimately comes down to how much you value your time and how much you want to make as profit.

You have 2 fixed costs - Model + Location

You have your time / profit you want to make

You have the number of people attending / paying

So X x payments - model - location = profit

I know the profit I want to make, so really don’t do 1:1 sessions as I’d need to charge a lot to make the profit I want which really makes it unworkable for most people.

Let’s say I want to make £250 profit, my location is £200, my model is £160 then..

Model cost + location cost + profit \ number of people attending = how much I need to charge.

£160 + £200 + £250 = £610\1

There aren’t many people willing to pay £600+ for half a day tuition with me!

So to make it affordable and to make the profit I want I just add more people

£160 + £200 + £250 = £610\3 = £203 or rounded up to £205 - suddenly much more reasonable.

That kind of profit above is obtainable once you’re good enough at what you do but please don’t think those are day 1 numbers.   You’ll need to mess around with the equation when you’re starting.  Charge less, maybe pay more for a really great model and you can still turn a few hundred £ profit from the day.  Of course I’m basing this on my UK knowledge.  The basic premise is the same anywhere in any currency but the numbers will differ.  Only YOU can decide what your time is worth no one else. If you value your time at £1k for a day then set your prices accordingly, that is entirely your business.

I generally charge between £250 and £350 now per session, if my model and location is cheaper I’ll always pass that on and try to charge less.  One other thing I’ve started doing now is offering payment options. I take PayPal pay in 3 now for example to help people split the costs over a few months.  I’m very aware that photography training is a luxury and when people are struggling financially I really don’t want people giving me their wages rather than feed their families!  Note that pay in 3 on PayPal isn’t available to just anyone, you’ll need something like Squarespace with an e-commerce integration for PayPal.

Marketing your sessions

I just post them on instagram! I do have a separate Events page which helps to make things look more legit I find but honestly just do the legwork. Approach people, contact local studios to see if they’ll advertise you, get the model to advertise and put out castings.  It’s like anything, don’t expect people to come flooding to you with no effort!

Structuring the day itself

I do a LOT of planning for my sessions! Once people are signed up the very first thing I do is create a group chat on instagram, so much easier than having to message people individually.  I’ll include any pre work, things they need to bring, do. For example if we’re doing video I suggest some apps to download etc.  Any rules on the location. Timings, when to arrive and when we’ll pack up and the agenda for the session.

For a typical photography session over 4 hours it usually looks like this

8.50-9.00 Arrive

9.00-9.30 Intros, talk through objectives, rules (again) and initial tech stuff (lenses etc)

9.30-10.30 Shoot session 1

10.30-10.50 Break

10.50-11.30 Shoot session 2

11.30 - 12.30 Shoot session 3

12.30-13.00 Wrap up, questions, editing, whatever else is left

So everyone knows what they are getting, how much time actually shooting (which should always be the key focus here).

I typically give everyone around 10 minutes individually (I don’t allow Pap style shooting en masse) then just roll round everyone till the time is up.  So generally people should clock in around 2 hours+ actual shoot time.

It can be tempting to just show up and wing it but I’ve found all the above creates a much more professional atmosphere rather than it just feeling like something that’s been thrown together. Plus for those more nervous shooters or indeed neuro divergent I know it can help enormously to have a defined structure.

I’m clear on breaks, snacks, any specific milks or allergies needed too and if a whole day what the lunch plan is!

Value add and follow up

I always offer a lifetime of unconditional follow up and Q and A.  I don’t believe in trying to rinse people for every last penny so people can ask me anything about anything as long as we’re all alive! Plus I give out all my presets, actions etc and a month free on my Patreon.  None of that costs me anything to provide but it’s just a nice to do so why wouldn’t you!

A lot of the above is similar for events but I’m aware this is quite long so I’ll split the article into two!