With the rapid growth of mobile phones, everyone has a camera on them these days. If you love food, you may find yourself snapping meals when you eat out and sharing them with friends and followers online.
But what if you want to go further and turn your hobby into a job? Here are some tips to get you started.
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Use a Great Camera
The first thing you’ll need to do if you want to get serious about your food photos is to use a great camera.
These days, many of the best smartphones have excellent cameras. For example, you may find that a Sony Dual-SIM smartphone using the latest technology has the quality you need to take great photographs. It will also allow you to upload the photos online at the moment.
However, if you find that a phone is not enough, you may want to invest in a DSLR, which will allow you to take the best quality photographs.
Improve Your Photos with Editing
If you use a smartphone to take food photographs, you may want to edit them before uploading them online.
There are many great apps that allow you to edit your photos and make them look better, so you could make your food photos stand out from the crowd and look really tempting. Experiment with some apps until you find one that you like, then use it to bring your photos to life.
Set Up a Blog and Be Active on Social Media
You will need to increase your following if you want to convert your hobby into a career, or even just a side-income. As well as publishing your own blog, get active on social accounts, and especially the image-based platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.
If you are active, you post regular images, and you join in with the community, you can quickly build a following and spread your work far and wide.
Know What the Job Involves
Being a food photographer may sound glamorous, but you should research exactly what it involves, which will be more than snapping photos of delicious food.
You may have to work freelance, which involves marketing yourself and looking for work. Finding a full-time job may be difficult.
In the meantime, you could earn some side income uploading your photographs to stock agencies, and this way you can earn a small amount every time someone downloads one as well as finding out which types of photographs are the most popular.
Look for More Opportunities
You will probably have to seek out opportunities for work, so use your portfolio and get out there. You could approach restaurants, hotels, cooking events, or anywhere that food is involved, and they might want to produce marketing materials.
Get Some Professional Training
Being a food photographer is the dream job for many people, so as you can imagine it is very competitive. So the final piece of advice if you want to turn your passion into a career is to get some professional photography training so you can learn how to make better food photos.
Not only will professional training help you to develop your technique, but it will also help you to stand out from the other food photographers, improving your chances of making an income from your photography.
Edward Bradley is a product photographer who enjoys inspiring other budding photographers to take the leap and create their own business doing what they love behind the camera.
Image source: pixabay.com
