Here is the answery bit
To be the best at one photography thing, you must decide what that one photography thing is. This is how you can find your perfect photography niche.
- Decide what you want photography to be to you.
- Consider anything you might ever possibly want to take photos of.
- Choose a few things you enjoy and are interested in.
- Can these things give you what you want out of your photography?
- Practise all those things until one thing pops up as the favourite
- Phone vs Camera – decision time – yes, it’s time
- Now do that one thing to the very best of your ability
- Refine your image capture technique
- Refine your camera gear and settings
- Refine your processing.
Those are the ten things. I will talk through them one by one.
But I need to get one thing out of the way: how we say niche or niche. Now, I might go either way during this episode, but it depends on where you are in the world and who you listen to. Is that OK?
How to Find Your Photography Niche—10 Top Tips From Me. Hi, and a very warm welcome to Episode 187 of the Photography Explained podcast. I hope you are well. I’m your host, Rick. In each episode, I explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 27 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. I’m a professionally qualified photographer based in England with a lifetime of photographic experience, which I share with you in my podcast.
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading – entirely up to you
1 Decide what you want photography to be to you.
Just for fun with my phone, full-time income or something in between. Or fun now, but maybe something else later?
Start at the beginning. What do you want out of your photography? It is important to start with this question – if you don’t know where you are going, how are you supposed to get there?
My photography is for me – it is just for fun.
If you enjoy photography and have no intention or desire to make money from it, then great. You know where you are, and you can develop your photography skills at whatever pace you like. This is a nice position to be in.
And there is no pressure other than whatever pressure you want to put on yourself.
I am all in – I want to be a full-time photographer
This is the other end of the scale. You want to earn a full-time living from photography. Great. Again, you know where you want to get to. The first thing you need to do is decide when you need to get there. That will define everything. You will have to adopt a professional approach to everything from day 1.
I am somewhere in the middle.
A lot of you will be dear listeners. But if you are, all of the things that I will tell you still apply. This is the point. Everything I say from here on applies regardless of your intentions. The main difference will be the time, effort, money, and intensity you put into these things, which I will tell you. If you are doing this for fun, continue at your leisure. If you want to quit your day job in 12 months and become a commercial photographer, you must attack this hard from now until it happens.
Either way, the outcomes are the same: find a photography niche and develop within that photography niche to be the best photographer you can be, getting the most you can out of photography for you.
OK – that is the scene set; let’s move on.
Sorry—one last thing—if you already know what you want to do, you can skip 2-5. OK, listen to them anyway. It is all good stuff and only a few minutes of your day!
2 Consider anything you might ever possibly want to take photos of.
To know what you do not want to take photos of, you must consider everything and rule things out. It is that simple. I am not saying that you have to try them all – that, in some cases, will be impossible. No, you need to think about any possible kinds of photography – what might you like to do that you had not thought of before?
You need an open mind and a good old list of things to think about – check out episode 32, What Are The 20 Most Popular Types of Photography? for 20 types of photography you might consider. And the many following episodes, each one about one type of photography.
3 Choose a few things you enjoy and are interested in.
Don’t go down a rabbit hole photographing something you do not like or are not interested in. You need to enjoy what you are doing; it is much easier to take photos of something if you like it and are interested in it. I love taking photos of buildings. I love buildings, architecture, and construction. I have worked with, in, and on the construction of new buildings all my life, so this is my thing for sure.
But different people like taking photos of different things – your job is to find your thing.
4 Can these things give you what you want out of your photography?
If you want to make a living from photography, you need to find something that will sustain you and provide you with a regular source of work. You need a target audience, be that paying customers, friends, family members or fans on social media.
Do you want to be a wedding photographer? I did that once, and that was an experience. I much prefer photographing buildings; they don’t answer back, and they don’t move. But weddings will always be a thing. Wedding photography is not for me—at least, I know that!
How about newborn photography? People will continue to be born, so there is, in theory, a never-ending supply of new customers.
I take photographs of buildings, either newly constructed or converted buildings or buildings being sold or leased. Again, there is an ongoing demand for this work.
At the other end of the scale, if you specialise in photographing solar eclipses, your opportunities will be somewhat limited!! You get the point.
5 Practise all those things until one thing pops up as the favourite
This is important. Practise. There are two completely separate reasons why this is important.
Firstly, you have to practise to get better. That is a fact. The more you practice, the better you will become.
The other side of this is that the more you practice and do something, the more you will know if it is for you or not. And the more you practice, the more efficient you become at something.
Either way, practice, practice, practice. Sorry, but you have to put the work in.
In doing this, your preferred type of photography should pop up and say “Hi. It’s me” to you, whatever that might be.
6 Phone vs Camera – decision time – yes, it’s time
Your chosen path will influence this. If you are happy just using your phone then fine, but you are limiting yourself. I have spoken about this many times, check out episode 182
Phone Camera vs DSLR – What Are You Missing With A Phone?
But if you want to go all in and make money, you need a camera. Well, you will need two cameras, and you will need a backup of everything if you are charging people money for your services.
7 Now do that one thing to the very best of your ability
You have your thing. Go all in on it. Well, as all in as you need to. But if it is just for fun, you can still take it as seriously as you want. Just because you do this for fun does not mean you cannot take great photos. Far from it. Choosing one thing to concentrate on gives you a much higher chance of getting better photos.
So, wherever this is going, work hard to be the best that you can at that one thing. The beauty of digital photography is that you can keep taking photos, and it doesn’t directly cost you anything. You need to practise your thing until you get to the wonderful point where what you are doing is instinctive; you can do it almost without thinking.
8 Refine your image capture technique
As you practice, your photo-taking style will change. Be aware of this and work out how to approach every photo. I do this consistently, meaning that my photos look like they were taken by me. And I am talking from one shoot to the next. I always take my photos in the same way. This is important to me.
I even do the same when taking photos on holiday, which I also love to do.
Think about how you take photos and study the results.
9 Refine your camera gear and settings
Different types of photography require different types of gear. If you only do one type of photography, you can have less gear, which, in my opinion, is always a good thing, and have gear that helps you.
I photograph buildings. I don’t need lenses with large maximum apertures – or fast lenses, as some like to call them. I hate the term fast lens; it is a stupid photography term. Check out episodes 168-170, where I talk about stupid photography terms. No, the gear I have is specific to what I do. Very specific.
10 Refine your processing.
Image processing is about making photos look the best that they can. That is all I do. And I do it in the most efficient way to get technically correct photos that look the best that they can. And that is it! If you are processing one type of photo, you can work in a specific way that helps you with this.
I edit my photos of buildings in a particular way, driven by the outcomes I need for every photo and every set of photos.
If I were editing many different types of photos, I would have to work in different ways, as this is what I used to do.
The talky bit
Whatever your aspirations, finding your photography niche, your one thing, will help you become the best photographer you can. And don’t worry—it does not mean you can take other types of photos. I have refined everything I do within an inch of its life for my photos of buildings, but all that good stuff applies equally to the fun stuff that I do, which is landscape and travel photography.
If you take photos of anything and everything, you are not going to become great at all of them—unless you are a photographic genius, that is. No, the really good stuff only happens when you focus on one thing and one thing only—one type of photography, that is.
I have been there. When I started taking my photography seriously, here is the range of things that I was photographing.
- Car damage for insurance companies.
- Houses for sale, with floorplans being created to.
- Corporate events.
- Celebrity chefs.
- Weddings (OK, wedding – one was enough!)
- Headshots.
- Shop openings.
- Show jumping.
- Personal injuries.
- Newly constructed buildings.
- Buildings being leased,
- Buildings being sold.
- Petrol stations.
- Paint.
- Tables.
Some work together and make sense, but others do not. Once you have become the best you can be at one type of photography and have sorted out the image capture, gear, and processing, you can branch out into other logical things.
In my list above, there are things that are logical sideways moves from photographing buildings, but there are many that are not.
If you are a wedding photographer, portrait photography is a related genre, as is newborn photography. If you are photographing people and you need some additional lighting. Start as a portrait photographer, and you can go the other way.
I take photos of buildings, but the same skills and techniques can be used for landscape photography.
So, whilst you need to be good at one thing, it is not a lifetime exclusivity thing, so don’t worry!
My point is this – become the best you can at your photography niche. I did this and became a professional photographer, a professionally qualified photographer—an Associate of the British Institute of Professional Photography.
This is what the BIPP say being an Associate demonstrates.
“A client can rest assured that your work is above the standard level required for professional practice, and you have a solid handle on your photographic craft.”
Show a high standard of craftsmanship across the use of light, composition, print framing and cropping. The assessors are looking for skills, abilities, and a panel reflecting a signature style, look or brand the photographer has started developing. You should also demonstrate a consistent post-production style and the ability to prepare files for print, including output knowledge and the correct choice of printing media.
The panel should hang together as a cohesive piece of work. The qualification panel can only be submitted in print. Supporting evidence submitted digitally.”
I would never have achieved this qualification if I had not found my photography niche and worked hard to be the best I could be. I would never have created a cohesive body of work if I had not niched down.
That is why you need to find your photography niche to be the best photographer you can be.
There are a lot of photographers out there doing what I did, being a jack of all trades but a master of none. Or should it be one? Oh, I don’t know, but the best way to forge a successful career in photography, if that is what you want to do, of course, is to find your specific niche and become the best you can be. And a niche photography business is easier to market, of course!
What if I use my phone to take photos and not a camera?
This week, I have just one thing to say, which I touched on earlier and have covered in previous episodes: You can take better photos with a camera than with a phone.
What do I do?
I have told you that I found my photography niche, worked hard for years, and became a professionally qualified photographer. My potential clients are architects, agents and building owners. That is how specific I can be in what I do in such a specific area. That is my client base. I look no further. My photography world is photographing buildings. Well, that is the serious part. The fun part is travel photography and landscape photography. That is for me and no one else.
I am telling you to do exactly what I have done in this episode. I photograph things that do not move. So, I have no plans to become a sports photographer—I would need different gear and a different way of working for that. I also have no plans to become a wedding photographer, portrait photographer, newborn photographer, or senior photographer, as it is called in the US.
No people. Just buildings.
When I started to focus on buildings only, my photography style started to appear. To develop a particular style, you need to concentrate on one genre of photography. It is virtually impossible to find your own style if you photograph everything.
This is what I do. Or did.
I would love to be a landscape photographer, but how do you make a living out of that? How can I make a full-time living from creating landscape photos? I have looked into this and don’t fancy my chances. So, I do landscape photography for fun and love it.
My Survey on phones and cameras
I have set up a survey on this subject. I would appreciate it if you completed the survey, which will take 2 minutes. Just head over to Photography Explained Podcast.com/survey2024.
I will pick up the survey results in a future episode, so thanks in anticipation for your assistance with this.
Some thoughts from the last episode
That was “Get out and practise more – but take fewer photos”. The only thing I want to pick up on again is the point about thinking about what we are taking photos of. Are we taking photos that other people will find interesting? And if we are not, what is the point?
What is the next episode of the Photography Explained Podcast?
I am getting to the end of my series on taking better photos, which I started, would you believe, in episode 172 back in January of this year! Blimey, how did that happen? And there were more than 11 episodes. So, in the last part of the series, I will do a wrap-up episode and summarise everything I have said.
Well that was the plan. But I changed my mind. I started writing this episode and found that all I was doing was repeating myself. So the next episode is this – Now It’s Time For You To Start Taking Better Photos – much better.
Ask me a question for the Photography Explained Podcast
If you have a question you would like me to answer, email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk or head over to the podcast website photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.
Also, check out the questions page, where there is a big old list of things you can choose from.
And if you want to say hi, please do – it would be great to hear from you.
Get a weekly email from me.
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Right, I’m done.
This episode was brought to you by cheese on toast washed down with coffee—I just fancied that as a mid-morning snack before I settled down in my homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium. I’ve been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here) and for giving me 27 minutes of your valuable time. This episode will be about 28 minutes long after I have edited out the mistakes and other bad stuff.
See you in the next episode.
Take care and stay safe
Cheers from me, Rick
That was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.
Let me send you stuff
I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.
And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
