Photographer Job Outlook
- Competition for photography jobs is cutthroating because many amateur photographers enter the profession.
- Technical expertise with Photoshop and other image editing tools is a must.
- Freelancer photographers represent more than fifty percent of all photographers.
- Many amateur photographers start their career by producing microstock photos and selling them through popular microstock photo sites like Shutterstock, Istockphoto and others.
Today most photographers create and process digital pictures that we see later on in newspaper editrials, magazine covers or websites. To produce marketable images, photographers need good eye, technical proficiency, understanding laws of perspective, good sense of space and color, and finally the right professional equipment to meet task requirements. Taking a successful shot requires planning location, angles of view, lighting conditions and object properties - numbe of variables to account for could be mind-boggling. Photographers have to adapt to the subject's appearance with natural or artificial light, shoot the subject from an unexpected angle, focus on a particular aspect of the subject by blurring the background, or use different lenses to get desired levels of detail at various distances from the subject.
Today, most photographers use either APS-C sensor DSLR or full frame DSLR digital cameras - both have their pros and cons. Depending on the assignment photographers have to make decision on an array of other equipment - from lenses, filters, and tripods to flash attachments and specially designed lighting equipment.
Photographers usually specialize in such photography fields as commercial and industrial, portrait, scientific, news, sport, fine arts or fashion photography.
Editorial Photography
Photojournalists or news photographers provide images for newpaper editorials, magazine covers or television reports. The former passenger ship MV Mavi Marmara (photo below) hit the headlines on 31 May 2010.
Portrait Photography
Portrait photographers usually cover events, weddings, conventions. They may work at the customer's site or in photo studio. Portrait photography requires a specially equipped photo studio with custom light conditions.
Commercial Photography
Commercial photographers take pictures of real estate, fashion models, design objects and landscapes. These photographs are published in digital and printed media, adverting brochures and product catalogs. Commercial photographers are often invited to cover corporate events, take pictures of offices, gadgets, merchandise and company officials. The photos are used for press releases, annual company reports or webcasts.
Scientific & Technical Photography
Scientific photographers take pictures of technical or research objects for reports, presentations or company records.
Paparazzi Photography
Paparazzi photographers are chasing celebrities for tabloid newspapers and magazines.
Photo Gallery
