Find Your Photography Niche 'Before' You Start A Photography Business

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A niche is a market within a market. For example, in the photography world, portrait photography is a niche. So is event photography and landscape photography. Still, there are niches within niches. Within the niche of portrait photography there is the executive portrait, the high-school senior portrait, the pet portrait, the wedding portrait, etc.

My example is in the commercial photography niche - more specifically, small retail businesses. This is how I found and began to profit from a niche within a niche. These are steps I now use to find, define, develop and profit from a niche:

• What specialty area to target? - I chose shooting interior and exterior shots of small retail businesses. Almost all businesses have a need for photos of their business for different reasons. As a rule, small business owners have not thought about this need in advance.


• What specific skills do you have in the chosen specialty area? - I know the challenges of small businesses when it comes to having quality photography for their advertising and promotional needs. Also, I know how to articulate to the small business owner the benefits of having quality photos of their business - before they need them. (Often, small business owners are asked to submit photos of their businesses for advertising, marketing, community involvement activities, newspaper articles, websites, etc. at the last minute and they end up with 'rushed snap shots' not photos reflecting the quality that they want associated with their business) Reminding them of this irritation and how to professionally prepare for it, is what I do well. Finally, I'm very good (these days) at digital photo editing. (For years, I had Photoshop, but it was too complex for me and hard to learn. I bought and used Photoshop books and read them, which were helpful, to a point. Then - I found great tutorials for Photoshop!! My digital photo editing skills are the envy of my fellow photographers! My Photoshop frustration days are far, far behind me.) There are many good photo editing programs available that will adequately do the job. Don't get stuck on any one. Having said that, however, my income has tripled since I learned how to confidently use Photoshop. What I've learned has returned ten times what I paid for the tutorials and the Photoshop software in the last 8 months. Great investment. Opens up entire untapped niches!


• What additional equipment will you need? - I had most of the necessary equipment. I'm an advocate of starting your photography business where you are and with the equipment that you already have. In my example, I felt I needed a uni-pod (a uni-pod is a one-legged tripod) to take shots and make sure that the camera is steady.


• Who are your target clients? - Local small business owners. Generally, I approach  established small businesses - chances are they've had a lot of 'need-photos-in-a-hurry' experiences that they wished would have turned out better. I approach them offering a solution to future problems like this. When I approach them I ask them if they could use some quality, professional-looking photos of their business.


• What services do they need? - My experience continues to be that they need a selection of well done photos of their business. They also, sometimes, need an executive portrait of themselves - as the owner of the business. I suggest to them that it is always better and more profitable to prepare in advance. Established business owners agree.


• Who is the photography competition? - I live in Southern California, where, it seems that everybody and their brother is a photographer. However, since using this set of questions to define, promote and profit from my photography niche, other photographers, who haven't taken the time to 'find their niche,' can't compete with the thoroughness of my services to the small business owner. In this particular niche other photographers have a tendency to use their flash which often produces harsh shadows and 'hot' photos. By either using no flash or bouncing and diffusing the light, my photos never have the harsh shadows or are hot. This is the main reason that I purchased the uni-pod mentioned earlier - shooting from a 'steady' camera can produce startling results without using flash.


• How are your services different? - As mentioned earlier, I'm now a Photoshop wizard because of what I learned with Photoshop tutorials. Rarely, can other photographers compete with the quality of my photos - I can even make 'snap-shots' look very good! Also, I ask the small business owner what image they want to project about their business.


• Is your geographical location favorable to your niche? - As I mentioned earlier, living in Southern California places me right in the middle of masses of other photographers. However, there are too many niches for me to fear competition. Also, I know that other photographers don't benefit from using these questions to assist them focus on and profit from their photography niche.

The process of using these questions will assist you to better pinpoint your photography niche before you 'spin your wheels' when starting a photography business. It can be successfully used for any photography niche. I know photographers that are using it to profit from niches in the following areas:

• A pet photographer that photographs athletic dogs in action.


• Pet photography by dressing up the pets in 'human-looking' clothes.


• A food photographer that specializes in photographing wedding cakes for bakeries.


• A sports photographer that hires herself out to attend athletic games and photograph a single athlete. She has expanded to another niche - she is a very popular photographer among bowlers because she is so proficient at capturing them in their 'best' bowler action.


• A photographer that focuses on a digital photo editing niche that specializes in removing people (and adding them) to 'existing' photos - he copied me and confidently learned Photoshop by using the helpful tutorials.


• Nature photography


• Public relations photography


• Sports photography


• Underwater photography


• Food photography


• Travel photography


• Catalog photography

And the list goes on and on.

Try it yourself. Start with the areas that you like and that fit your style. Proceed from there. Don't limit yourself and don't fear the competition. Use these tips and they will fear you!