3 best alternative careers to commercial photography

It's 2021 and humanity has attained achievements that our parents might not have ever dreamed of. Said that we are living in an era that is a blessing and a disguise.

Myself being in the industry of traditional photography as an advertising professional and coming from an era of analogue photography which gradually shifted to digital and beyond in the past 15 years now (keeping in mind I started my journey in 2006), have gained the needed knowledge to share it with you all.

Every month, I do receive emails and DMs over my social accounts where people are looking for internships (5 major reasons why your emails are not effective). This reminds me how famous and lucrative traditional photography does still sounds to many. The truth is, traditional photography as a mode of earning a living is a dying business adding to it there are way too many people competing for the same thing. Commercials involved are being slashed and the bitter truth is that less and fewer authorities are concerned with quality, it is more about meeting the target to help raise their sales, welcome to The World of Imagery Business!

Now the question that arises is what are the best substitutes to Photography or how to add value to your present skill keeping the former as a base and how to make a living out of your Passion!

TO NOTE: These are mere alternatives, not shortcuts, they all involve years of dedication and similar efforts to reach out to the right people, market themself in the right manner and make a living out of it and the mentioned below do applies in small and big scale commercial movies but due to my personal lack of exposure in that industry the article is restricted to Print campaigns and Television Commercials.

1.

PRODUCTION

Executive | Assistant

(ONLY Still shoots and TVC)

Role: To organize and execute commercial assignments ranging from pre-production to post-production (stills and Television Commercials).

Expected Salary: Ranging from 5000.00 INR to 1,00,000.00 INR an assignment | Day | Month (It varies depending on the quality and quantity of assignments, whether you are a freelancer or In-house and the kind of experience you carry with yourself)

Mode of learning: Internship or apply as a fresher. There are no schools as such in India that helps you get acquainted with the basics though joining a production house and digital or mainline marketing agency is what I will suggest you get started.

Responsibility: An experienced producer can make and break a deal for any visual artist be it a photographer, director or the client itself. He/She is responsible to get the needed team under one roof (it involves Talents like a model, an actor, a makeup artist, a stylist, hospitality services, procurement of digital equipment and lights, studio or outdoor space availability, assistants or spot boys, sanitization services, travelling, lodging if needed, post-production artist and more depending on the need of the creative), at times a photographer, director, cinematographer and negotiate respective fees keeping the budget in mind.

Unlike film producers, you are not asked to invest in any and number of days to complete the project may range between a week to a month.

Additional Perk: You get to travel and meet a lot of people, Networking! haha...

2.

PRODUCT, FOOD STYLIST |

ART, prop DIRECTOR

(ONLY Still shoots and TVC)

If your parents think those extracurricular activities you did in your schools like drawing, painting, origami, planet making projects, science experiment, cooking and more was a waste, I guess one has to rethink. Every high budget and demanding project queries I have received and came across demands an art director.

Role: A person with experience in and around setting up a product or food in an aesthetic manner for the photographer and the director.

Expected Salary: It can range between 10,000 INR or a little less to 1,00,000 INR a day | assignment. The quality and quantity of assignment will determine the above and it also depends on how experienced you are.

Mode of Learning:

Food styling: If you are planning to get into food styling as a stylist or a technician, a course in and around hospitality, hotel management or home science will come in very useful.

Product styling: As of now there are no courses available in India which can help you with the same. I will suggest involving yourself in small workshops and courses available in your city by the very underrated aunties, didi, bhaiya or even a carpenter and more.

Attending workshops in and around various craft related skill helps you get your base strong. It can range from paper art, interior styling, water-colour painting, tabletop styling, wall painting and whatever which move in and around space.

Giving yourself a project to run, a blog | vlog over various platforms helps you to learn and reach out to people at the same time. SKILLSHARE and YOUTUBE comes incredibly useful.

It is always a good way to assist someone or a production house (not an agency in this case) to gain access to the must need knowledge of how to deal with people and other business-related aspects.

It is always a great idea to keep visiting store and places which showcases and sells | rent it out props and more.

INSPIRATION: PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM | DECOR MAGAZINE | AMUSEMENT PARKS AND EVENTS.

Responsibility:

As I mentioned above in general an ambitious project always demands an art guy who helps me to bring the concepts into reality.

If you have come across those mouth-watering food commercials and surreal spaces like Alice in wonderland, an art director or a stylist are the people involved in BTS

He/She will even be asked to set up composition as small as a plate on the table, to design a blank space into an ever-living guest bedroom. It can involve skills from procurement of props like cutlery, background, furniture, appliances and more.

You are also responsible to transport the needed and bring it back to the vendor.

3.

CREATIVE and DIGITAL MANIPULATION artist

(ONLY Still shoots and TVC)

There is a huge difference between photojournalism and commercial arts. They both fulfil the need to create an urge in the mind to do something both in the form of buying a service or product or influence one to make the world a better place to live.

Commercial business is the art of turning your dreams into reality, sadly the reality is far away from our imagination hence we all need to seek help from applications to stitch it all up for us. That is how and why professional retouchers and manipulation artist comes into the scene. If you have wondered about models flying in the air with many things around, fear not it is not any magic moment but a pure form of digital manipulation or if we come across a beauty campaign with skin so smooth and flawless that it is indeed not anywhere close to reality.

Role: He/She/It needs to be well versed with editing | manipulation applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, After effects, Final Cut Pro, Cinema 4D and many more photo, video editing software along with other CGI wonders. (3 best alternatives to your favourite and expensive graphic software)

Expected Salary: It is one of the most lucrative business to be in and the best way to enhance your photography skill. A person can expect to earn 1500 INR to 30,000 INR and more per image or concept.

On average, a person can deal with 10 images from a campaign to 100 images for a stock service.

Mode of Learning: To add there are no good institutes in India at present and the ones there are not valid from an educational point of view. Which will leave you to be a self-learner and in case your pocket permits you can opt for something abroad (a wise decision).

There are many quality online platforms available to gain access to the information needed at the comfort of your space. Please check the links below (they do provide both free and subscription-based membership)

PHLEARN, DOMESTIKA, LYNDA, BLENDER GURU and the best YOUTUBE (It is free and I personally feel there are so many talented people sharing the best of education)

It is better to invest in the best graphic system configuration like RAM, Graphic Card, SSD and a good graphic tablet if you can afford it (I personally own Wacom and iMac).

As like above, you are not needed to assist someone, though productive feedback is critical and takes you a long way. Social media platforms are the best place to share and promote your services.

To note: Always use images with complete rights to work with and sharing the before and after with your viewer helps you gain the much-needed brand trust.

Responsibility: It is one of the most stressful jobs to have besides it can be quite lucrative too. Timelines are very short and changes can be endless unless you don't charge for something more than agreed on. You can be involved in aspects as minor like correcting colour balance and removing minor details to beauty retouching, cleaning up and manipulation and creating a 3D environment to set the protagonist into it. The automobile is the most demanding sectors to be a part of.

Video editing is a vast industry that is just more than stitching the clips. It does range from sound editing, colour correction, rendering, graphic overlays and CGI | Greenscreens and more.

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As we come to the end of the article, a few heads up!

In all the above situations, there will always be a time constraint and having things confirmed in a pre-production meeting over a contract or mail leads to a minimum of confusion and changes if need on the day of the shoot. One is indeed responsible to be in touch with the head of the creative (agency, client, photographer, director) and the producer to be on the same page.

For all the Indian residents: Mumbai has been the epitome of the entertainment industry even before the independence and it is one of the best places to get your journey started, though never underestimate the other upcoming sectors like Tollywood, Trollywood and more. To add opportunities exist all over the world and if you have access to work overseas don't be scared to take a chance.

To sum up it all, they all require years of practice along with good presentation skills both online and offline, which will lead you to get connected to the right people. The above goes hand in hand if you are a photographer or planning to be one.

TO NOTE: If you are wondering in case I can share few details about production houses and agencies, sadly I cannot take any guarantee hence mentioning anything can be misleading. I will request you to kindly look over Google and connect them to know more about vacancies and opportunities. Good Luck!

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Hello,

I am Shovona Karmakar, an #advertising #commercial #photographer | #productstylist | #cinemagraph artist, presently based in #Mumbai, India. It has been a long long road to be where I am now and I sincerely feel it is very important to share whatever I have to offer. I have been fortunate to make a living out of my skill to be creative and have had worked with various national and international brands, corporates and agencies. Cadbury, TATA, Morningstar USA, Parachute, Future Generali to name a few.

Ping me for any work-related queries and will be happy to jump into the pool to make the much-needed party happen.

Thank you for reading!

When a client doesn't have a budget vs he doesn't want to spend.

As a freelancer, we often come across clients who either have genuine budget limitations or they literally don't want to spend. Such calls will not end up being your potential client but they are practically different, let me explain to you how.

Hi, I am Shovona Karmakar, a freelance commercial portrait, food and product photographer, and a product stylist based out of Mumbai India. This is my second series of Booty call 1, these are a part of the real-life conversation with altered names to keep the privacy intact. The agenda is to let you know the red flags for many not to do the mistakes I did. Well, still there is no guarantee people will not try to have a new way to fish you.

Have you ever got a call from a client who gives you a verbal temptation of giving you regular work in exchange for your service at half the price because all it is seeing is its own profit? This technique is pretty old and many who are just starting in their career are prone to fall in the net, it is indeed not their fault because all they are looking for is some kind of opportunity to prove themselves and even sustain themselves. The following is a lesson down the line as you grow in your career.

Sam: Hii, am I speaking to Shovona?

Myself: Hii, yes I am shovona, wondering whom I am talking to?

Sam: Hey Shovona! I am Sam, an owner of an upcoming e-commerce brand, we deal with baby and toddler garments age from a month till 8 years old. We are presently based out of Mumbai and we are looking for a photographer and a product stylist for our upcoming shoots.

Myself: Hey Sam! Thanks for calling, it sounds great, wondering if you can tell me more about what exactly you are looking for?

Sam: Shovona! We are an upcoming brand and we are planning to do shoots once every week as we have around 100 products and more coming every month and we wanted to shoot all of them for our social media precisely Instagram. As we are a startup we wanted to do it as pocket friendly as possible yet we are looking for quality output. We have been doing all the shoots to date by ourselves but presently we feel we need someone of your calibre to come onboard and help us along the way.

I came across your work online and do liked your sense of aesthetics and hence thought to approach you.

Myself: Thanks for the consideration. 100 garments sound a lot. I was wondering how many products do you want to cover precisely and what kind of budget do you have and what kind of styling do you have in mind.

Sam: I don't have any budget in mind but wondering if we cover 40 products a day to start with and what kind of fees do you charge, do you charge per product or per day basis?

(Conversation to date does talk a lot about client psychology, and you have to understand it is not wrong on its parts, they are simply trying to either understand the market or trying to find someone who fits their bills. They do have a basic budget in mind if you ask me how? It's India, we all have a budget in mind. Every small and big brand is there to make money and it is going to be very weird to understand that they don't have an upper limit to what they will like to spend on their marketing ventures. Even you have a budget in mind when you look for a house to rent it out keeping your priorities in mind or when you go to a mall looking for a nice music system.

There is always a budget limit, the space for exceptions is less but there is their existence.)

Let's move on...

Myself: Hey Sam! 40 products a day with styling is a little unpractical keeping in mind the amount of time it will require to light and do the other needed to set the composition ready. At an average, we limit ourselves to shoot not more than 6-8 images a day with styling as one still shoot shift consist of only 8 hours, we can extend the shift with an additional cost.

Sam: Shovona, wondering do you charge per day or per-product basis and what all your fees will include?

Myself: Sam, I am a freelance advertising photographer and few of my brands are Samsung, Morning Star, Cadbury and more, and we charge on per day basis, my fees don't include any of the needed equipment, everything we need for the shoot from the studio, lights, styling products/props, and more are charged individually and on per day basis. My fees just include my creative service needed for your imagery requirement.

(You will be wondering why the person is asking for "per product charges", it is because there are people in the industry who do full-time e-commerce shoot and they calculate their estimate based on the number of products as they don't provide anything additional quality service than just shooting them against a white background.)

Sam: Oh! I understand now, sadly I don't want to spend more than 40k INR for 40 products and I am open to buying the props and equipment down the line if needed.

(Voila! he just told you his budget, as I said everyone has a budget especially in India. He is looking to spend 1k INR per product which includes everything from props, equipment, studio space, digital correction. Honestly, It's a tough-luck if he gets someone.)

Myself: Hey Sam! I am glad you connected me and I am happy to be a part of your venture, sadly I can't help you much in the given budget, in-case you wish to rethink both in the aspect of the number of images and your budget we can connect further.

Sam: Oh! ok... as I am going to use the images only on Instagram and the shelf life is not much I don't find any sense in spending such a huge amount. We have been shooting all these while and I am pretty sure it is not going to be as exhaustive as you are saying. I cannot pay you what you charge but can you suggest someone who can give us the same output and not bill us the same amount.

Personally, these are not my target clients, and these are definitely not a client I wanna work on a regular basis, you see he is simply interested in his profit, he has money as he has expressed his interest in buying props and equipment down the line but he is not ready to pay you your fees. His other query of suggesting someone within his budget strongly states how precise he is about his expense.

Myself: Sam, I wish I can suggest someone but keeping your budget in mind I can't help you much.

Sam: What you think what should be a decent budget for such shoots?

Myself: (I was a little awestruck, this question does irritate me a bit keeping in mind he just expressed his desire not to spend much.) Sam, I don't know as I have no idea what kind of styling and visual expression you are looking for, things can go from lakhs to corers and there is no limit to creativity.

Sam: (he finally gave up) Hey, thanks for your time, have a good day.

Sam was either looking for someone who fits his bills or he was just trying to understand the market, people do give random calls to understand aspects like work style, fees and more for future consideration. It is going to be tricky to come to any conclusion of what exactly he is looking for but nevertheless he was not able to crack his deal with me, frankly, it was not a deal at all. He does challenge my working style which I have simply followed of what other professionals do at a standard was little itchy but you see that is how people tend to provoke you to see any possibility to bend you according to their ways.

The biggest challenge in freelancing is finding a midway to do the job and to do justice to it. It takes a lot of rejection and errors on ones part to understand what works for one and how to make it work for one.

There are different kinds of people, good people, kind people, clingy, generous, and smart. As a freelancer, your service is as good as your personal investment in terms of upgrading your skills and psychology about the subject you wish to master on. Alike any job we deserve a promotion and sadly as we are our own boss hence we need to leave things down the line to crave better opportunities and payscale. You cannot cling to the same client forever who doesn't respect your skills and style of working. As they proportionally use our service for their profit we need to do the same and it's entirely ethical. There was a time I have worked for a client as low as 2.5k INR a day all-inclusive against a work which helped me build my initial portfolio, down the line, they refused to pay me any more than that and I gradually shifted towards better opportunities. Well, that's is freelancing.

Clients who have genuine budget limitations do comes back to you if they really see value in your service and hence they are worth to chase for.

Clients who don't want to pay at all is not worth any run or bargain.

The business has various aspects and everyone is right in their space, we humans are selfish and this aspect helps us to keep us alive. Similarly, you are running a business and you too indeed have a right to say NO! if they don't fit your profit margin.

The only thing I learnt from this conversation is it is good at times to tell people where you stand and what you are worth of. It is not about blowing your own horn, it is more about letting people know how much your journey is worth it.

Stay tuned for a more real-life conversation to understand the red and green flags in freelance life.

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Feel free to connect me for any queries and questions you have and any portrait, food, and product-related photography and styling. I am presently based out of Mumbai, India and have a cross-functional company production still and video content for various marketing needs.

#foodphotographer #mumbaicommercialphotographer #femalephotograppher

Freelance

The word freelance according to google "A Basic Definition. Essentially, a freelance job is one where a person works for themselves, rather than for a company. While freelancers do take on contract work for companies and organizations, they are ultimately self-employed"

Freelancing is a lifestyle, is a life choice that you have as a side hustle or a full-time job. Everything you do is building up for yourself hence it is a selfish act yet it has many benefits.

I have mentioned various articles over my blog regarding freelancing, how to go about it, and what to expect. As a freelancer, I see the world, the people around me a little more critically than many seeking a job may think and see. My life is nothing to do with security and I have to have the social contentment in me every day with a mere line of

Things happens for good!

Everyone has its own journey to be one and it is worth reading and observe everyone possible and learn the things we can as down the line the situations are not newborn yet it recycles from one person to another.

Photography and product styling remain my primary source of income and rest is on the way to an exploration of finding the target audience who will like to hire me and help me pay my bills. Here I do not exactly wish to talk about freelancing and how to go about it rather there are many things I learned a little faster than else.

An adult and growing up to be an adult is a choice and I chose to be a child who is curious as long as possible. I have realized how being an adult is a trap and how being a child leads to a better world. A child, in general, doesn't look for perfection and adapts anyone unless it hurts. A child is more venerable and open to get molded and re-shaped. A child leads to discovery very new to itself.

Then why are we asked to grow up and how well it is important?

There is a difference between growing up and being a child and they are pretty broad lined.

As a grown-up, we are expected to understand things and be careful with our words. We are expected to earn and be compassionate and less venerable to being emotional and anxious. We are more aware of the rights and less aware of the very subconscious mind. Having the content attitude is a sign of being an adult for many and we choose to be choosy with the kind of people we should be with and shape our lives. We find being sad and low as a sign of being weak and less worthy to be with and successful people to be the ones you should look up to.

We complicate ourselves more than ever. We behave as a complicated being yet calling self the simplest and minimalistic of all just because we are not ambitious and we don't let our mind wander madly.

You have to understand if things are crazy in your head and you see it exist then it was always a part of being a human.

A child, on the contrary, is new to the world and everyday it tends to evolve, biologically it goes through a cycle of being a human, being a specie which is advanced and more mobile than anyone else. It discovers everything cause it is new to it, every word it says and everything it sees is new to it and the cycle will continue unless it is forced to be a grownup.

Very recently I have been rejected by someone I potentially saw as one worth to be a partner. I was exploring you see and my past has not been kind enough to me and it floats upon the surface the moment I find someone finally understanding me and giving me time to let them know the best part of me being me but it seems it was too late. The person was looking for a quick fix and he moved on and I eventually kept thinking that he will be back.

I let myself be venerable and I am thankful for it coz I wouldn't have been productive the way I am now just to overcome the feeling of being abandoned all over again. As a child, I rant, I take chances and I let people come into my life and I rest my trust in them easily. I let myself mold the way one wants me to and on the way, I discover the best of me.

Now with everything possible said what is the connection of everything above with being a freelancer, and the answer is simple it all depends on you and just you how you shape your freelancing career. There is the right way to be content and do things that work and keep life as safe as possible. There is another right way to let your child be alive to discover every possibility to raise your bar and aspect of your skill and talent. Be complicated, be difficult, be moody and keep ranting about things but at the end make sure you discover for better tomorrow.

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Hii, I am Shovona, a freelance commercial photographer who resides in the economic hub of India, Mumbai. As an artist, freelancer, and businesswoman, money, and creativity always intrigue me and I am passionate enough to share my knowledge with others too.

Feel free to contact me for any portrait, corporate, food, product photography related queries, or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#coronaindia #mumbaiphotographer #femalephotographer #portraitphotographer #commercialphotographer #freelancecommercialphotographer