Being a photographer is hard, especially if this is not just your hobby, but something you do for a living. Things getting even more interesting when you are a freelance photographer. In this case, you should be not only an Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom power user, but a little bit of a sales manager and a bookkeeper at the same time.

No wonder that this side of freelancing drives many of those calling themselves photographers crazy. But these are not all downsides or the freelance photography business. You should also invest a lot in gear and software solutions to be at the top of your industry. Yes, unfortunately, your skills and talent can’t be a killer feature in all the cases.

But let’s stay away from discussing the gear and not turn  this article into one of the thousands of articles answering the “which camera is better” question. Today, let’s talk about how a newbie or an experienced professional could make his work fast and hassle-free, what challenges there are and how to beat them.

Avoid Procrastination

Not many of us are born with perfect skills in time management. And when it comes to creative people, things get even worse because only a few of them can manage their time effectively. This is why having a simple yet effective task tracking app like Asana or Trello will make you more productive and efficient. It will also help you stay on top of all your projects, tasks and deadlines.

Keep Your Mac Clean and Organized

Cleaning up your Mac from unnecessary files, software and other data is essential for keeping its performance on the highest level. Free disc space is also a problem for many because being a photographer means having tons of heavy RAW and PSD files. You may have several different versions of the same photos, which also take lots of space on your HDD. In such cases try deleting duplicated photos from Mac. Here is a guide on how to do this in the easiest manner: https://macpaw.com/how-to/duplicate-photo-finder-for-mac.

Make Backups, We Mean It…

Backups are essential for your data integrity and safety. We can bet a dollar that you’ve read tens of different warnings and guides on this topic. But one will never start backing up his data before it’s accidentally deleted or corrupted. The more data you have, the more dangerous it becomes to store everything only on your Mac. Imagine a situation when all your work data is lost and you don’t know how to get it back and send to your clients. Nothing can be more devastating for your career and income than such situations.

To ensure that every file and photo is secure from physical damage or loss, we highly recommend you to use iCloud for backups of everything you deem important for your work. You can set up a custom backup schedule to make sure you have the latest version of the most important data.

Always Meet Deadlines

If photography is your profession, you should always meet deadlines when working with clients no matter how big or small they are. It’s all about your reputation.

The ability to get work done when promised is priceless. Try to measure your productivity and set up a maximum level of projects you can work on simultaneously. Do not take more projects than you can handle and successfully finish in the agreed time frame. Do not work for more than 40 hours a week because, without proper rest, you will start being less productive and more stressed out.

Invest in Your Skills, Not Only in Gear

Hardware is important, but without proper skills, it’s nothing but a piece of metal and plastic. Investing in your skills means that you will increase your professional level and can work with bigger clients in terms of both money and project scope. Working on your skills means investing lots of efforts and money in it. Attending photography courses in your city is one of the best options for your professional growth. If there are no proper courses in your city, enrolling in an online photography course from Coursera or Udemy is a great alternative.

Lots of practice is another part of pushing yourself to another level of professional growth. There is a 10 000 hours rule that says that you can only become a professional when you spend ten thousand hours on practicing in a field you want to master. The same thing applies to photography. If you want to be one of the best photographers in your area, try to specialize on something and increase your skills in working with this specific niche.

Hope those tips will help you become a better photographer and increase your productivity.