Customer Reviews

Photographer's Market Guide to Building Your Photography Business

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I gave this book two stars because some reader might want to open a studio for children's photography. Anyone else looking to get into the photography business or improve photography business skills should probably look elsewhere.

The author's approach is to offer a topic related to the business of photography and to raise issues, but she seldom provides answers, and when she does, they are seldom of use to most photographers. For example, the author has a chapter on lawyers. In it she indicates the legal problems that a photographer might face, from copyright to leases. Instead of telling the reader anything about these subjects, she says to hire a good lawyer. As my kids say, duhh...! Similarly she says there are several different forms of ownership that a photographer can use. Therefore... consult a lawyer.

And when she does give advice, it is often wrong and dangerous. For example, she says that in determining whether a person is a contractor or an employee, one should look at whether a person does the same job for several different people. Actually, the government regulations provide 14 separate points that have to be considered with no one-point controlling. Several judicial nominees have learned how important this issue can be.

But where the author really misses the boat is on the issue of marketing. For any businessperson, including a photographer, marketing is perhaps the most important function. If you don't have income, you don't stay in business. But the tips the author gives only apply to studio photographers. Marketing is different for a stock photographer and an editorial photographer, and for all the specialties in between, but Orenstein seems to ignore this.

I don't understand why this book needed photographs, unless it was to meet the requirement for 320 pages. But if one is going to include pictures in a book aimed at photographers, they'd better be good. The pictures in this book are muddy black and white pictures on paper with a low reproduction quality.

Perhaps it's impossible to write a book about the photography business that applies to all the specialties in the game. I know that it is possible to write a useful book aimed at a specialist, because I have the example of John Shaw's "Business of Nature Photography". Even though a little dated, it is probably more helpful generally to someone getting into the photography business than Orenstein's book is.

I'm going to have to concur with the comments of Conrad. I think the author did a great disservice to her audience by giving such a marginal advice as to how to start and run a photo business. Further, time and again she is simply stating the obvious (i.e. if you don't know how to file your taxes, hire an accountant).
What really threw me off, though, is that she seems to be giving advice as to how to start a business under the assumption that the person has unlimited resources at his or her disposal. This is her approach (hyper-abridged): Buy all the equipment/rent studio space, hire a CPA, hire a lawyer, promote yourself, mass advertising, get line of credit, expand.
The author's overly simplistic model seems to be out of touch with the realities facing most, if not all, start-up businesses which is funding, funding, funding, funding and more funding. No matter how good a plan or how good idea you might have without proper funding you won't make it--period! Furthermore, it's unbelievably hard to get decently-priced business loans for a start-up (assuming you can get one at all).
This book simply put is mediocre and needs work. I gave three stars because I thought some of the advice she gives is definitely good advice; that said, I don't think this primer in and of itself is very good for photo start-ups or people considering becoming one.

This is an excelent book if you are thinking about OPENING A PHOTO STUDIO. Person that wrote the review before mine obviously missed the point of this book and expected something more for less than $20.
So, this book gives a lot more than these kind of books usually do, particularly in the essence of the studio photography business. In addition, it is written very nicely with real life ups and downs of the business.
List of just a few out of many things I have found useful:
1. Interviews with other professional photographers in different fields and from different backgrounds. Many examples on how to get into the business.
2. A whole chapter on business plan - covers the core of figuring out what your business is going to be about (target, competition, pricing, cost, your name, etc.) It also includes copyright issues.
3. Venue ideas - home, studio, sharing space, partnering, franchise...
4. Startup marketing techniques and ideas through author's own experience: message, goals, target market, direct mail, websites,auctions, mall kiosks, client gifts, etc...
5. In terms of different business entites, she explained the basics on partnership and corporation. Since she is a photographer and not a business advisor, she suggested to consult a professional advisor/attorney/accountant.
There are many more things that I could write about this book. Since I don't have time, my suggestion: Buy the book. And don't expect miracules. The author obviously dedicated this book to studio photographers, so DON'T EXPECT to see marketing for stock or editorial photographers. Although, if you are smart enough you will be able to relate to the problems and ideas author is talking about. Cheers!

Apparently, and according to this author, the only business you should open as a photographer is a studio. Everything else is pointless.

That being the case, she should have made that clear in the title.

The money I spent on this book was absolutely wasted, and I won't buy anything else without reading the reviews first.

Totally useless.

While the subjects covered in this book aren't exhaustive by any means, I was more bothered by the lack of proper editing. Blatant misspellings ("fiftenn-plus years in the business"), missing quotation marks, incorrect punctuation, and bad grammar make this book difficult to take seriously.

Subject-wise, the author just doesn't go into enough detail to make this book worth reading. She brings up important subjects, but doesn't explain or define the terms. For example, in chapter nine, the author discusses protecting copyrights. She advises not to "give away the intellectual property farm," but doesn't explain how photographers are giving away their copyrights. Perhaps she assumed that a photographer would already know what he or she needed to know about copyrights before reading this book. She would be wrong. After reading a chapter, I have to resort to looking up information online to fill in the gaps.

I don't recommend this book. Please don't use it for a class. It was a waste of my money.

I admit my first impressions of this book were not all that great. However, the author has a great conversational tone that leads well into teaching and making the reader think and absorb the ideas.

This is probably one of the essential books for anyone getting into, or considering, photography as a business. The chapters cover almost all possible aspects of starting a business and cover them well, if not in deep detail. There are specialty books out there for marketing help, pricing, legal issues, etc.

Some of the key winning points on this book are that the author focuses in very well on what really IS important when starting up a new business. She lays out the important aspects that need to catch the mind of a new business person and make sure you focus in on these.

Excellent starting point for anyone considering going 'pro' or who has realized that their hobby is hitting official business levels.

As a professional photographer I found this book to be very useful in the early stages of starting my business. After spending much time doing all the things I thought I should be doing (and not getting very far!), I read this book and realized that being a professional photographer was going to mean much more than just being good at photography.

Like many businesses, professional photography requires skills in marketing, selling, advertising and dealing with people. This book introduces all these concepts and more, together with a lot of interesting case-studies of people who have switched to photography from other careers, and how they met the challenges of doing that.

Professional photography can be very rewarding and is an excellent business to be in - but make sure you get off on the right footing by realizing that 90% of it is knowing how to run a business. This book is an excellent way to start.

I have to agree, only partly, with some of the previous reviews that say the author is stating the obvious. It may be obvious to a seasoned, professional photographer who has been in business for years - but to someone just starting out, it's valuable information. She uses stories about mistakes she has made, learning the hard way, and gives advice on how to avoid making those same mistakes (e.g. the "use tax" flub and the tax penalties she paid for her ignorance). As she says, good photographers are not necessarily good business people. I think this book does a good job of giving prospective photography business owners a real, down-to-earth, inside look inside the life of a photographer who is in business for himself/herself. Her writing style is very enjoyable to read, too.

Not Everything you need to know to start a business but a LOT of what you need to know. No book has Everything you need to know. I recommend this book to those who have not been in business before and want to open a studio. Great advice on customer service and dealing with the public.

This book is an excellent read. I'm currently taking a professional photography class from a local technical college and the information in this book covers every topic covered in the class in even greater detail. I highly recommend this book and convinced several other students in my class to purchase the book. All of them were pleased.