3 Reasons Why Choosing a Specialty In Photography Is Key To Business

Being an artist means keeping an open mind to all possibilities. But sometimes, limiting your scope can lead to a world of opportunities.

I’ve been a professional artist now for more decades than I care to admit publicly. I’ve gone through pretty much every phase of growth, business-wise and artistically speaking. Some of those phases I’ve gone through more than once. I’ve had a varied career, which I am proud of, but I have found some of my most bountiful periods have come when I have kept my urge for variety fully in check.

Now, to be clear upfront, this is in no way an article suggesting that you limit your artistic ambitions or censor your natural-born wanderlust as an artist. Rather, this piece is meant as a bare-knuckle explanation for why, when it comes to making one’s living with their art, it can often pay to stick to the script.

First, a little background. I am a commercial photographer and director and serve a B2B marketplace of clients, agencies, and production companies who create advertising for brands. The work I create is the type of stuff you see on billboards, in-store displays, broadcasts, and ad campaigns of all shapes and sizes. I mention that only to point out that different types of photography markets have different requirements. So, some of the things I will say today apply quite certainly to my client base but might not apply if you were to be working in a different area.

Yet, a few things apply to my market that generally will apply to almost every market of photography (or any artistic endeavor). One, the market is oversaturated. A client can blindly throw a hook into the sea and reel in hundreds (if not thousands) of qualified photographers for any one job. I know that’s not fun to hear, but it is the math of it all. What separates you is your specific artistic voice and your ability to market your services effectively. Two, because the market is oversaturated, it is a buyer’s market. This gives clients the power to be hyper-specific about the product they are looking for (as well as negotiate for lower prices). And three, in my market at least, it’s not enough to simply be a “good photographer.” Being technically flawless is simply the minimal expectation. You have to bring something more to get yourself noticed among all the other options.

Fourth, both saddest and most important, is that most clients have absolutely zero imagination when it comes to searching for photographers. If you have a portfolio full of models in green dresses and their product just so happens to be a blue dress, there is a high likelihood that at some point during their internal discussions someone will ask, “but can he shoot blue dresses?” Is this absurd? Yes, yes it is. Is that example hyperbole? Only barely. Clients are unnecessarily hesitant to hire you unless they see the exact thing they want for their campaign already in your book. This makes no sense given that they are hiring you to presumably create something brand new on their behalf. But fear of making a mistake on the client’s end plus the endless number of options mentioned earlier, can make it hard for them to take a chance and say, “sure he likes to shoot green dresses, but, if given a chance, he could shoot the heck out of our blue ones.” As you can imagine, this analogy only becomes all the more poignant when you have a portfolio full of fashion photography and you are going after a car ad, or shoot mostly sports and your dream gig is in lifestyle.

To that end, it is more important than ever to identify exactly what you shoot, how you shoot it, and why your artistic vision adds up to a more valuable product than is available anywhere else in the market. One of the most effective ways to do this I’ve found in my career is to specialize.

Now I should say that, of all the lessons I’ve learned, this one didn’t exactly come easy to me. In fact, as I’m writing this now, I’m refighting the same battle in my head that many an artist will face. I got into art because of my imagination and desire to constantly explore new things. The very idea that I would artificially limit myself in any manner simply makes no sense. But numbers don’t lie. And mine have proven to me that a bit of self-censorship can go a long way. Here’s how.

Save Money

One of the cold hard facts of my line of work is that I must constantly be producing new personal work to get new commissioned work. It sucks. Sure, I can just show my latest campaign in my latest promo email. But what if I haven’t shot a campaign for a couple of months? What if I have shot one but hate it and don’t want to send it out? What if the campaign was for a competitor to the brand I’m selling to? Even if I have shot something for a client recently, the cruel irony is that, without fail, it is my personal work that I have produced independently just for the love of the game that will inevitably get me the most paid work.

Now, of course, you can shoot personal projects for free. So they don’t always cost an arm and a leg. But, if you are trying to create personal projects of the same production value/ambition as clients would be expecting from their $250,000 campaign, you are likely going to have to spend a bit of money once in a while. And this is where specialization can really save you cold hard cash.

Let’s take a simple example. Let’s say that you are a photographer and you shoot lifestyle, cars, fashion, and beauty. I’m just making those up. But, let’s say that those are all areas you are interested in and you want to produce some personal work/spec shoots to capture a brand's attention. Well, that means that you are going to need to invest in multiple shoots in those multiple areas since those genres don’t always overlap and each has its own unique standards which potential clients are going to be looking for. Doing all four can get really expensive. Especially since you have to keep in mind that you are going to have to continue to produce personal work in all four areas for the foreseeable future.

Now, let’s say that instead of taking that wide of an approach, you instead decide to put all your eggs in the automotive basket. Now, instead of spreading your resources across four different shoots, you can put all of it into one and produce a really top-level automotive shoot that you never would have been able to accomplish had you been splitting your investment four ways. Or, you can take that same money and invest in four automotive shoots and start building a name for yourself in that market.

Increased Brand Identity

This approach may seem limiting as you’d be leaving the other three behind. But it would put you way ahead of the competition in automotive. And standing out in a crowded marketplace isn’t so much about being a jack of all trades, but rather being the master of one. Just being a generalist photographer, no matter how good you are, isn’t likely to help you stand out among a sea of amazing generalist photographers. But, borrowing from our earlier example, being the absolute best photographer of green dresses in the world means that any time there is a job that calls for a green dress, your name will be one of the first ones to surface.

Think of your photography business like Coca-Cola. I know, I know, you’re an artist, not a can of soda. But marketing is marketing. And, like it or not, your work is a product that the market is deciding whether or not to buy. Now, if I say Coca-Cola, you will likely already know how it will taste in your mouth. You know what it is. You might know how much it’s going to cost at the local grocery store. You could probably even draw a Coke can from memory without needing to look it up. The brand and the product are clear as day. You know exactly what you’re going to get in each can.

Now, let’s say that Coca-Cola came out with yellow cans that contained lemonade, brown cans that contained sweet tea, and clear cans that contained water all alongside their traditional red ones. Suddenly, the market would be incredibly confused as to what Coca-Cola actually is. Yes, smarty pants, Coca-Cola is a massive corporation and they do have a number of brands under their umbrella that sell tea, water, and lemonade. But the Coca-Cola brand itself is one very specific thing. And it has been for as long as most can remember (aside from a brief detour to New Coke). So if what you are looking for is a brown cola to satisfy your thirst, look no further.

The same can be said for establishing your photography brand. You want to get to the point where you are so established in one particular area that shoppers don’t feel the need to peruse the aisles. They know you do this one thing. They know you specialize in it and do it better than almost anyone else. So, when that type of job comes up, they can make their own life easier by going directly to you without needing to shop around.

Maximize Your Skills

The reason the phrase “jack of all trades, master of none” took hold was because it is very difficult to be amazing at everything. Not impossible. Darn you, Jake from junior high. But unlikely. There’s a reason doctors pick specialties. To fully know the intricacies of treating cancer, for example, can take a lifetime of learning and experimentation. So an oncologist already has their work cut out for them without also needing to know how to be the best dentist in America. It’s not that you can’t be a master generalist. It’s just that, similar to the example of how investing your whole budget into one area will allow you to produce an even better product in that area, investing all of your time and energy into one genre of photography allows you more mental resources to put into being the absolute best at your craft. If you spent your entire life making one specific type of shoe, you might not know diddly squat about how to make anything else, but you would be capable of producing that one specific shoe at a level higher than anyone else in the world.

The same goes for specializing in photography. If you put all your time, attention, and investment into being an amazing wedding photographer, you might not be such a great landscape photographer, but when it comes time for the bride to strap on her veil, your skillset will be incomparable.

This may seem limiting, but it also means that your product in your chosen area will likely be better than the product of another photographer whose investments are spread more thinly. That, in turn, gives you an objective advantage and will help you stand out in an overcrowded field.

Like I said at the top of this article, this is by no means meant as a declaration that you shouldn’t continue to explore and grow as an artist. Truth be told, if you’re lucky enough to be around long enough, you may find that you will have multiple specialties over the course of a career. Rather, the point that I hope you take away from this essay is to think more about your career as building a product. Hopefully with far more soul than a can of Coca-Cola. But still with the same emphasis on brand clarity, increasing value to your clients, and running your business in the most cost-effective manner possible.