Looking for inspiration for photographers during Covid-19? We’re here to help with ideas that allow you to social distance and improve your craft.
If the current events of COVID-19 have impacted you or your family and friends, I send my sincerest sympathy. The good news is that through social distancing, we are working together to take the necessary precautions to help prevent the spread of the virus, and it’s working!
Finding Inspiration for Photographers During Covid-19
To many, staying home for this long can be stressful. However, this also provides some of us with one resource that photographers usually don’t have: time.
This unexpected extra time gives us a chance to learn and grow. It gives us the ability to come out of this with new knowledge and a way to move forward. Now is the time to try new editing techniques, make sales in unexpected ways, and even update our brands.
Here are some productive ideas of what to focus on for growth and abundance in the age of social distancing!
Take Advantage of Free and Discounted Learning Online
We are truly living in an age of information. Thankfully, there are many free and discounted resources we can take advantage of while stuck at home. There are hundreds of thousands of amazing courses available to take from the comfort of your home via LinkedIn Learning (formerly known as Lynda.com), Skillshare, and even YouTube.
The fact that you’re reading blog posts about photography inspiration is a good sign! Now is the time to seek out photographers who inspire you and see if they have a blog, YouTube channel, or another learning service where you can watch and learn.
You can get a free month of LinkedIn Learning now and start watching videos or check out Top Photo Classes on Skillshare to get started!
Test Out New Methods of Photo Processing
Many photographers end up stuck in their ways when it comes to editing. We may find ourselves overusing our favorite Lightroom presets, or simply sticking to one specific style because it’s always been a safe bet.
Now is the time to experiment. Go back to old photos you’ve taken and try to re-edit them in ways you normally wouldn’t. Maybe you love adding warmth to your photos, or you’ve always wanted to play with overexposing shots for a brighter feel but never found the time. This is the perfect opportunity to test out something you recently discovered from a course or video tutorial!
During this process, you might just find a new style you prefer through your experimentation that you’ll want to use when editing your next shoot.
Consider Opening Up a Passive Income Stream (Or Two!)
When it comes to building your business, today’s photographers have more resources to work with than ever before. That’s why inspiration for photographers can be found anywhere! Monetizing your existing photography can come in a variety of ways: through making connections on social media, selling photos to stock photography sites, or even providing online photography courses and workshops from home.
For many of us, this is the best time to start a new passive income stream! You may be waiting to book new shoots, but you can still make money through other means while you wait.
How to Make Money with Stock Photography
While surviving on stock photography alone is tough to do, there are still some perks to using this as a passive income stream! Selling old photos to stock photography websites offers value as a bit of extra income or another way for freelance photographers to avoid placing all their eggs in one basket.
Many stock photography websites allow anyone to join. Others are a bit more choosy but offer higher royalty rates. Many companies pay photographers a percentage of the profit from their images, although each option varies a bit. If you’re interested in making your images available for purchase, here are seven sites to get you started!
- Getty Images
- Alamy
- Adobe Stock + Fotolia
- iStock Photo
- Shutterstock
- Dreamstime
- Can Stock Photo.
How to Sell Lightroom Presets Online
Most photographers use Lightroom when they’re looking to streamline or shorten their editing process. Pre-made Lightroom presets are a quick, reliable way to improve the look and feel of your photos.
Applying the same set of edits, or presets, to a number of photos from a single shoot can make a shoot look more cohesive and personal. Lightroom presets are especially invaluable for wedding and event photographers, who frequently find themselves needing to make branded edits to hundreds of photos at once.
Have you ever suspected that editing takes even more time than shooting the photo itself? It can be easy to forget if you’ve been doing it for years. However, the digital skills you’ve developed are a craft in a class of their own. Just as writers need editors, photography needs post-production.
While any photographer can create their own presets in Lightroom, many also source their presets online to save on precious editing time! You can start selling your own Lightroom presets to both hobbyists and professionals on Etsy or even your own website!
Here’s Adobe’s detailed tutorial on creating your own unique presets in Lightroom.
Many photographers choose to package their presets to include variations of similar edits in one easy round-up for customers. Offering minor adjustments to your presets that give them variations presents your audience with a more robust and applicable package of presets, instead of a single preset that they may need to adjust themselves. This range helps make your edits more accessible while helping you gain a little extra income during quarantine!
Inspiration for Photographers by SHE Photography in Bend, Oregon
These are just a few pieces of inspiration you can look to while we wait for normalcy. In the meantime, free to reach out if you’d like to schedule a new brand shoot or network and talk shop!
While you may not be able to go out and stage a full photoshoot right now, you might be surprised to find what you can work with at home. It’s important to remember that there is opportunity in each day, quarantined or not. Now is an amazing time to learn and grow – as both a photographer and a person!