Photography as a Career Option

With the boom in advertising, media and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option to many of Indian youths. Until some years ago the masses regarded photography as a hobby profession only, but now it has now emerged in a big way.

These days, Photography is fast emerging as a popular career choice amongst all the age groups. Photography is both a science and an art. It is an artistic means of expression, the camera replacing the pen or the paintbrush.

A photographer must be able to create a good composition of any subject, a piece of machinery, the beauty of human body, scenery or a child's smile.

It is rightly said that a single picture can sometimes be much more eloquent than a thousand words. Few vocations offer a larger variety of prospects than does photography. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous job opportunities.
 

Photography Eligibility Criteria

These days, lots of schools offer photography at the 10+2 stage as a vocational subject. There are no specific academic requirements for the full time courses in photography; however, candidates who have cleared the 10+2 exam are eligible for the diploma/ certificate courses in photography. Photography is also offered as an optional subject for a bachelor's degree in fine arts.
 

Photography Job Prospects

A modern day photographer can work in many avatars, the notable among them include:

• Press Photographers/photojournalists: Photojournalists supply pictures to the national and global press. This career role demands an ability to photograph all kinds of newsworthy people, places, sports, political, and community events for newspapers, journals, magazines, or television. A photojournalist must possess a journalistic sense to shoot a good news picture.

• Feature Photographers: Feature photography essentially involves describing a story through pictures and hence requires a thorough knowledge of the subject. Many photographers specialize in the photography of wildlife, sports travel, environment etc.

• Commercial (industrial) Photographers: Such a photographer takes pictures of merchandise, exteriors and interiors of factories, and machinery both indoors and outdoors to be used for company brochures, annual reports, and in advertising and selling.

• Portrait and Wedding Photographers: They take pictures of individuals or small groups, handling subjects like pets, children, families, weddings, functions and activities of sports and social clubs.

• Advertising Photographers: They are connected with the photographic departments of advertising agencies, photographic studios. A sizeable section of them happen to be freelancers. Advertising photography is possibly the best-paid and most competitive branch of all; success in this sphere depends entirely on ability, efficiency and the right personality.

• Fashion Photographers: This arena has developed in India only recently The bulk of fashion photography is carried out in either Mumbai or Delhi and involves by highly sophisticated and well-equipped studios by freelancers who are commissioned by fashion houses of advertising agencies.

• Scientific Photographer: They typically possess additional knowledge in areas such as engineering, medicine, biology, or chemistry which assist them in photographing a range of subject-related objects or scientific phenomena. This career role offers a variety of work in terms of assignments. One can either work with news reporters or work as free-lancers on independent assignments on environment, wild life and other allied fields.

• Freelance Photographer: Freelancing has been the most popular career choice among photographers. Photographers who want to be self-employed need to have business management skills. They can do freelancing in any of the above fields.

Self-employed, or freelance, photographers may license the use of their photographs through stock photo agencies or contract with clients or agencies to provide photographs as necessary. They should also develop an individual style of photography in order to differentiate themselves from the competition.
 

Photography Personal Skills

The subject requires a natural instinct, observation power, training, a great degree of discipline, practice and an eye for detail apart from an intelligent, curious and perceptive mind. A photographer must have the ability to intermingle the details with his creative ability so as to catch a picture well in his camera.
 

Photography Institutes

• Film and Television Institute of India

• Mass Communication Research Centre (MCRC), JamiaUniversity

• University of Delhi

• YMCA Centre for Mass Media

• Academy for photographic excellence (Apex)

•  AsianAcademy of Film & Television

• Sir Aurobindo Institute Of Mass Communication

• International Institute of Mass Media

• Institute of Mass Communication, Manipal

Mass Communication institutes in major cities

• Ahmedabad

• Bangalore

• Chennai

• Delhi

• Hyderabad

• Kolkata

• Mumbai

• Pune

Mass Communication institutes in various states

• Andhra Pradesh
• Arunachal Pradesh
• Assam
• Bihar
• Chandigarh
• Chhattisgarh
• Gujarat
• Haryana
• Himachal Pradesh
• Jammu & Kashmir
• Jharkhand
• Karnataka
• Kerala
• Maharashtra
• Madhya Pradesh
• Meghalaya
• Orissa
• Pondicherry
• Punjab
• Rajasthan
• Tamil Nadu
• Tripura
• Uttar Pradesh