HOW TO GET STARTED IN AUTOMOTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

Very cool, you have decided that you want to get started in automotive photography. But you don’t really know where to begin. I want to lay out a few things that I believe you should do in order to get started in automotive photography. You want to be successful, meaning that you’re not only making money for yourself, but you are also successfully creating value for your clients.

First, lets cover some basics. You obviously need a camera, but before you can begin thinking about getting clients and doing paid work, you need to know how to use the camera, as well as edit the photos properly. This is experience you can gain by taking pictures of your own car, or taking pictures at car shows. You will need to develop your skills for a little while before you get a little too confident trying to charge money for underwhelming work.

Another base level thing to do is to know some things about cars. You don’t need to know everything about every car, but at least pick some of your favorite cars and read or watch videos about their specifications and performance. This gives you topics to fall back onto if your conversations start to fall flat with other car enthusiasts. I somewhat assume that most people looking to get started in automotive photography know quite a bit about cars, but I also know some people that are wildly talented at photography that can shoot cars, but know very little about them. So, research a little bit, that way you don’t look like a fool when you ask someone if their S2000 is an automatic or a manual. Once you do this, we can move on to the next steps.

Starting off, you will want to make connections and form a network. The best way to do this is by attending your local cars and coffee type events. Here is where you want to approach cars that you are interested in and talk to the owners. In my experience, pitching automotive photography right away rarely works. Rather, I get to know the individual a little bit and I ask questions about their car, as well as maybe what they do for work. In my opinion, you don’t want the conversation to feel like you’re just trying to make a sales pitch. However, asking to shoot their car for free at a location you pick is an option. You just want to be careful how much you do this.

What you ideally want to do here is take some pictures of their car at the event, get their contact information, and send them the photos for free. It helps to have a website or social media portfolio put together with some other examples of your work, but if you are just starting off, then just take your time with the editing and provide them with your best effort work. As you do this with more and more people, eventually one might ask if you want to do a photoshoot with their car. If you are just starting off and are not totally confident in your work as to charge for it, there is no shame in doing free photoshoots.

This is especially the case if you need to build a portfolio of impressive images. It also takes time to really settle into an editing style and refine the way your photos look. You can gradually work your way into charging for photoshoots, and over time you will learn a good price range that you and your clients are happy with.

Starting off, you will want to make connections and form a network. The best way to do this is by attending your local cars and coffee type events. Here is where you want to approach cars that you are interested in and talk to the owners. In my experience, pitching automotive photography right away rarely works. Rather, I get to know the individual a little bit and I ask questions about their car, as well as maybe what they do for work. In my opinion, you don’t want the conversation to feel like you’re just trying to make a sales pitch. However, asking to shoot their car for free at a location you pick is an option. You just want to be careful how much you do this.

What you ideally want to do here is take some pictures of their car at the event, get their contact information, and send them the photos for free. It helps to have a website or social media portfolio put together with some other examples of your work, but if you are just starting off, then just take your time with the editing and provide them with your best effort work. As you do this with more and more people, eventually one might ask if you want to do a photoshoot with their car. If you are just starting off and are not totally confident in your work as to charge for it, there is no shame in doing free photoshoots.

This is especially the case if you need to build a portfolio of impressive images. It also takes time to really settle into an editing style and refine the way your photos look. You can gradually work your way into charging for photoshoots, and over time you will learn a good price range that you and your clients are happy with.

Starting out, you can also join Facebook groups dedicated to automotive photography. In these groups, you can ask for constructive criticism on your photos, advice about shooting, etc. You must understand that a lot of the members may also be in the same boat as you are, so don’t take every single answer you get to heart. Some of the members in there may not have a single clue what they’re doing, but want to act like they do on the internet.

Another thing to do is to meet other local car photographers in your area, whether at cars and coffee, car shows, or car meets. Knowing the other car photographers around you is beneficial. You can possibly go on shoots with them, ask for advice, or just hang out with them. You can also see what your “competition” looks like as far as their in-person mannerisms, their photography skills, and their network. Always aim to provide value, be fair, and do your best work.

Hopefully this helps give you some ideas of what to do when you are deciding to start doing automotive photography. There are plenty of other things you can do that I have not written about here that can move you forward in the industry. I have laid out just a few here. Everyone has their own sequence of events that lead them to getting clients, so there is no single clear path to take. But if you stick to it and put the work in, you can certainly get started and be successful in automotive photography.