According to findings from the 2024 Photography Industry Trends Report, the majority of working wedding, portrait and event photographers started as hobbyists in their teenage or childhood years, managing to evolve their passion into their profession.
What's more, most were self-taught, learning their craft through YouTube videos and the like, rather than attending college or other forms of higher education to study the discipline.
The report was generated from a survey carried out by Aftershoot, the company behind the AI-powered image-culling software of the same name. Aftershoot approached more than 500 professional photographers, working all across the globe, in an attempt to understand the trends shaping the photography industry as it stands today.
The company sums up the results of its research in the below infographic:
The findings also show that while almost half of photographers shoot between 1,000 and 3,000 images per session, not even 15% manage to deliver final images to their clients within the week.
No doubt they could significantly speed up their turnaround using Afterhoot to automatically sort the wheat from the chaff by sifting through all the images from a shoot, automatically deleting the duds while keeping only the, er, keepers.
Other interesting tidbits show that most photographers are keen to keep costs low, with 54.5% spending less than $1,000 annually on gear and the tools of their trade, while only 6.3% shell out in excess of $5,000.
And the vast majority rely on social media to promote their services, with 86.6% posting on various social channels. This is closely followed by good old-fashioned word of mouth, at 85.9%. Conversely, only 5.2% use print advertising as a means to find new business.
Aftershoot delves deeper into the results in an interesting blog post.
As well as the best photo-culling software, you might also be interested in the best photo-editing software and best photo-organizing software.
