Patrons at the TG club pose for John Fuller's camera. contact@theglorybox.co.uk

Event photography boomed in the UK in the five years prior to the recession. If you have time on your hands and a little capital, it can still be a good way to earn a living from the camera. Simon Towler explains what you need to get started.

What is it?

Event photography was invented in 1897 by the Lafayette studio. They took portraits of celebrities at fancy dress balls. Today the activity has diversified, but the core work is still to take photos of people dressed up at social or sporting occasions. Wedding and portrait photographers do a lot of event work, but there are many specialists now who do nothing else. Making prints on site and selling them there and then is the commonest business model.

What type of people make good event photographers?

People who will stick at event photography and make a go of it tend to be self-motivated and slightly extrovert. They’re entrepreneurial, hard-working, and good with people. They’re practical, independent, and self-reliant. And they don’t have a strong need for security or routine.

What to expect

Earnings: Most event photographers are self-employed. Established and successful ones trading in their own right might earn around £40K – £60K typically. Six figure earnings are exceptional, but possible. (New entrants to event photography should be aware that success isn’t guaranteed, and you might net just a few thousand pounds profit from your first year’s work — a modest part-time income.)

Lifestyle: The lifestyle of event photographers revolves around getting and doing jobs. If they get good gigs, ones that pay off, they only need a handful of them a month to earn a good living. They’ll spend all their spare days canvassing and prospecting for jobs. They travel continually, visiting prospects and getting to gigs. They work all hours, in all kinds of places, with all kinds of people. They sometimes need to stay overnight away from home, and for events like tournaments might have to camp out for a week or more. The pace of the work is fast, and it’s stressful. It involves co-operating with a crew, and dealing with the public.

Prospects: Event photography is typically a second career, one people get into after the age of forty, and expect to stay in till retirement. Once you have the equipment, know the ropes, and know photographers or organisers who will book you, you’re flying. It’s possible to build a good and sustainable level of work in less than two years. Event photographers who prospect for their own jobs, and build up their own client base, do well. Those who market themselves best are able to get more work than one crew can do. Their businesses grow. The few who have an especial talent for building a more complex business or a franchise network, or who develop new markets, earn the most.

Learning the ropes

You shouldn’t make up your own way of doing event photography from scratch. You’ll become much more successful, much faster, if you learn from the leading people who do it. They have it down to a fine art. You can learn as an assistant, by doing a course with a franchise, or by attending workshops. It’s not just about how to operate, it’s about how to run a gig to make money, the most money possible.

Business models

Your business model is the way you make money out of your events. One business model is to make prints on site and sell them there and then. Another is to shoot on site, sell online. Or you can charge the organiser a fee to attend. Most event photographers combine these models in varying proportions. More sophisticated business models involve mounting promotional photographic events yourself, on behalf of corporate marketing agencies.

Essential kit

Cameras: You’ll need a main cam, a backup, and a handful of batteries. All event photography involves shooting as many subjects as you can in the time available. You usually have to send images to a printer or server as soon as they are taken. Most event photographers recommend professional DSLRs that can produce good looking low resolution JPEGs straight from the camera. This keeps your files small for rapid transmission, and avoids any need for post-production. The body should be rugged, able to take some knocks. Event photographers favour cameras that support tethered shooting, sending images down a cable straight away, and also wireless transmitters. And they like a full range of options for connecting on-camera and studio flash. You don’t need the latest mega resolutions, but for some types of work you may need good low-light performance and fast continuous shooting speeds, just like sports photographers. Don’t spend any more than you need to.

Computer and software: You need a computer to send your images to, for printing or uploading to the web. And you need software to support your workflow and display images to customers. Most event photographers use a laptop, and improvise a workflow using common affordable software.

Printer: You need a fast event printer, a heavy-duty dye sub photo printer that takes six inch roll media. If you’re going to get your jobs from another photographer, get the printer they recommend. Otherwise, get advice from an experienced event photographer. Don’t forget you’ll need some kind of portable tables or stands to put your printers and computers on.

Web site: You’ll lose out if you don’t have an e-commerce web site to sell prints. A proportion of your sales from most events will come through your web site. A number of providers on the web offer sites with e-commerce designed for photographers, or can add e-commerce photo sales to your existing site.

Mounts and business cards: You earn more money from prints sold in mounts. You need mounts with your contact details on, and business cards. Re-prints and web orders depend on it.

Power cables: No length of extension lead is too long, no number of cables enough. And you need plenty of gaffer tape too, to tape them all down and make them trip-safe.

A phone: Your phone is your office. Get a well connected business smart phone with email, web browser and a good organiser. Learn how to use it and sync your calendar and contacts with your partner and home computer.

Transport: You need any reliable car or van that your kit will fit into.

Non-essential kit

Many well known event photographers and franchises use specialist set ups that may include studio lights and backgrounds, generators, sets, costumed models, flight cases, photo kiosks, wireless transmitters, barcode readers, 8in portrait printers, wide format printers, step ladders, custom vans, green screens, masts, special workflow software, etc. You won’t need any of this to begin with. And you’ll never need premises.

Partners and crew

It is possible to do event photography as a one-man band, but for most people the optimum crew size is two. Husband and wife teams are common, and the division of labour is usually between shooting and selling. For most jobs, needing more than two people would eat into your profit or wipe it out completely.

How to break into the business

Once you’ve learned how to operate at an event, you need to get work. If you’ve bought into a franchise, that may come as part of the package. Otherwise, the people you’ve learned from (if you’ve impressed them) may hire you as a second shooter from time to time. If they think you’re good, they may sub-contract jobs to you. As you build your experience and reputation, you can find more photographers to give you work, through networking and by browsing event photography forums on the web. As soon as you feel ready, you also need to look for jobs in your own right, by contacting organisers. If you have no idea how to do this, attend a one-day course with an expert, it will be some of the best money you’ve ever spent.

Finding a niche or specialisation

Probably the most valuable single piece of advice you can get in event photography is to shoot what you know. There are rifle club members who photograph all their club socials, bikers who shoot rallies and motocross, evangelical Christian groups who take the pictures at church picnics, clubbers who shoot night spots, and leather men who photograph fetish nights. An event is anywhere that people or their animals are dressed up for an occasion, something you can capture for them in a unique professional photograph.