A commercial photographer successfully takes photographs of products, services, or other elements of a brand to capture their essence and basic features. This can also include weddings, wildlife, editorial, fashion, and portrait photography. In many cases, a commercial photographer will focus on one of these categories.
By taking up commercial photography as a career, there are certain elements to consider if you would want to be employed.
An associate’s or bachelor’s degree in photography can be highly beneficial to get employment through an agency. An apprenticeship can also be highly beneficial in learning more about the career before taking it on as a full-time job.
Degrees in photography can guide an aspiring photographer with the necessary technical knowledge on photography and the equipment. Learning how to use lighting, sharpness, and composition of photos are all included in the degrees providing you with great knowledge and physical training abilities.
Skills needed with commercial photography include being highly creative, being business-minded, and being able to know photography equipment and editing software.
Although having a degree can greatly help any photographer to go further with a career and be easily employed, it is not completely necessary when wanting to provide these services outside of employment. The biggest reason why some prefer to get a degree is for the knowledge and practical capabilities learned through the degree.
Especially with weddings and large events, there are many opportunities for commercial photographers to make a living without employment and only market themselves as commercial photographers for a specific field.
With employment, there will be more options for work as you can take photos for magazines, industrial equipment, products, construction companies, and much more. Product photography is one of the most productive means of commercial photography and requires the photographer to capture the full aesthetics of the product being advertised.
Commercial photography can be studied at university by going for a bachelor’s degree or attending programmes that can help to build a solid foundation of knowledge about photography. By taking up a degree, there will be practical training providing the best knowledge and capabilities for a career in commercial photography.
