How to Become an Editorial Photographer
Editorial photographers use an image to tell a story, delivering a message within the short space of their work. The term "editorial photographer" covers a broad spectrum of categories. Photography jobs, including fashion photographers, photojournalists and reporting photographers, all belong under the rubric of editorial photographers. Since editorial photography covers a variety of fields, you can try multiple approaches to land work as an editorial photographer.
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Instructions
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Polish your photography technique. Although a fine arts degree helps, it isn't a necessity for an editorial photographer: The real secret is understanding the camera as a storytelling tool. Become familiar with your camera by learning where the ISO or film speed settings, aperture settings and shutter speed settings are located and how these options affect each other. These settings allow an editorial photographer to manipulate the way a subject is portrayed, helping the image to fit into the editor's overall vision.
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Build a portfolio of editorial images. An editorial image illustrates and supports a story; each image in your portfolio showcases your storytelling ability. A hard copy, printed portfolio and a web-based version of your portfolio should contain no more than 10 to 15 pieces of your best work. Class assignments and self-designed assignments can be used to fill out a portfolio when starting out; replace these images with client-based work as soon as possible.
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Assist a professional photographer. Assistant jobs can be found in advertising papers, career websites, professional associations such as the Professional Photographers of America and by simply cold-calling photographers. Assisting a professional gives you insight into working in the field as an editorial photographer; since the title of editorial photographer covers such a broad number of categories, an assistant's job helps you learn about the nuances of your chosen area.
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Build your reputation. Subscribe to journals, publications and online communities, join professional associations, frequent camera stores and camera clubs, enter photography contests and above all continue photographing stories. These actions build up your contacts and lead to paying positions; they also put forth your brand and help you to refine your work through critiques.
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