How much do freelance photographers make?

Question

Who, do freelance photographers sumbit there photo's too? This a subject that has been very difficult to research,haven't been able to find any websites with good information on freelance photographers So if their is anyone out there familliar with how this business works please spare no details. Thanks

Answer 1

It depends on the genre. There are freelance photographers that take jobs for corporations and businesses, there are freelance photographers that sell to magazines, or even take assignment from magazines, there are freelance photographers that do headshots for aspiring actors, even the paparazzi is considered "freelancing". There are so many ways to sell photos.
A freelancer that wants to work for a magazine can usually do it two ways. The first way is to shop your work around, or submit it to magazines and hope they buy it. There is a book, The Photographer's Market, published yearly, which lists magazines, the criteria they are looking for, how to submit it, and just how picky they are. The other way is to shop your portfolio around, and hope for a magazine to give you an assignment, where they have certain subject matter they will have you go out and shoot specifically for them. This is a really tough gig to land.
Other freelancers sell their work to stock photo agencies. They shoot pictures of whatever they want, and sell them to a company that will offer the images for publishing at a price, usually per use, or possibly all out rights to the photo. The photographer would submit the photos they would like to sell to a stock agency, hoping someone might buy, and then usually once a working relationship is established, the photographer can submit to the agency over and over.
Then their are freelancers out there biting at jobs in specific genres, architectual photography, fashion photography, food photography. These photographers establish themselves with the people in need of this particular type of work, and accept jobs for specific criteria to shoot.
Overall, there are a lot of niche markets for photographers, but it is very difficult to get your foot in the door. There are so, so many aspiring photographers, and the competition in fierce. And unfortunately, it usually is all about who you know, and not what you know.