9 Steps to Building a Career in Commercial Photography, According to the Pros
A few years ago, a website called Who Pays Photographers? made the rounds online. The concept was simple: photographers could, anonymously, share the jobs they’d taken and the fee they’d received. Sadly, it looks like people aren’t posting anymore, but the site still exists. And one thing you might notice from browsing is the difference in rates for editorial versus advertising jobs.
Here are some examples: one photographer received $450 per day to shoot for a major newspaper, and two others were paid $500 and $850 per day for magazine jobs. An ad job for a tourism bureau, on the other ad, fetched $1,800 per day; another, also for a tourism board, was $2,000 per day.
These days, in advertising, it’s not unusual for an established photographer to command a day rate of $5,000 and up (one rep once told us that the best in the business can charge $10,000 and higher). So why isn’t everyone shooting commercial work? Well, it’s hugely competitive. It takes talent to succeed, but it also takes persistence, know-how, and, in many cases, a network of people. We asked three artist reps and one advertising/commercial photographer to take us through the process of getting your foot in the door.