How to Become a Professional Photographer Without School

Back when I was a model, I was dating a guy who had become a professional photographer without school certification. He never attended art school. In fact, he was fresh out of high school! I'm not going to lie; his career impressed me.

He had a massive portfolio, had gained contracts with modeling agencies, and would regularly rake in thousands of dollars' worth of contracts for weddings. One thing he didn't have, though, was a college degree in photography.

There's this constant belief that you need college to succeed, and that not having a degree will make you unhirable. This is not true, especially not in creative fields like photography—and though I now no longer speak to him, he did teach me a lot.

Ever wanted to go pro, but didn't want to take classes? Here's how you can become a professional photographer while raising your middle finger to the overpriced school system.

It's important to understand that a lot of people take the idea of becoming a professional photographer to mean that someone, anyone paid you any sum of money to get a photo of them. That being said, there are a lot of minimum-wage "professional" photographers out there who can't make a living on their art.

If you're looking for a shortcut to being a photographer without school involved, you could easily just submit a résumé to a company that pays people $8 an hour to take pictures of babies. You don't want that, though.

Anyone can get paid to take a shot of a family, but the truth is that it takes a lot more to become a full-time professional photographer who can survive on their income comfortably.

You cannot become a pro without a camera that's actually decked out for your career. Point and shoot cameras are just not really good enough for pros.

A good place to start, if you're low on funds, is a Canon Rebel DSLR. It's one of the best DSLR for beginners and remains versatile enough to be a professional-grade camera.

Though you don't absolutely have to have a studio to start out, it definitely does help. You will, however, need to get some lighting equipment, even if you work in natural light.

Getting reflectors will help you soften light and erase flaws from your models, even in outdoors settings. If you turn your garage into a studio, getting one or two studio lights is a good idea. A flash kit is also very welcome.

Your best bet to learn good photography techniques is to take online classes. Now, you might balk at this idea. After all, this article is about learning to become a professional photographer without school being involved, right?

Well, YouTube isn't a school. Online courses like the ones at MasterClass aren't really school either, technically. You won't get a certificate from either option, but you will get the knowledge you need.

What you need to do, one way or another, is learn about your camera and how to use it to its maximum potential. Online tutorials allow you to do that pretty quickly, all things considered.

Photos are going to look amateur without the use of Photoshop and other photo retouching software kits. If you can't afford Photoshop, using some of the best free photo editing software kits will suffice until you get things rolling.

Much like with photography, you will need to learn how to retouch your shots on your own—at least to begin with. Once you get enough clients, you can just pay for others to do the retouching for you.

One of the good things about learning to become a professional photographer without school being involved is that you can actually learn better skills by just going onto online forums to find out what other retouchers are doing.

You cannot become a professional photographer without school or experience. Those who do become pros, at the very least, have a lot of experience to show for it.

To get people interested in paying you for shots, you need to show that you know what you're doing. This would be a time to offer free photography to people who are willing to model for you.

Whenever you have a shoot, make a point of keeping your best work of that day. This will become your photography portfolio, and will be the thing that makes or breaks your ability to close major deals.

Though many people might want to believe otherwise, the truth is that the difference between getting paid and never actually seeing success tends to be in networking.

Who you know will end up being the most important part of being able to become a professional photographer. If you manage to connect with an agency manager, you will be able to get a job pretty easily.

Every person who you meet in the industry should be someone you learn from. Ask who's who among photographers. Find out how to meet the right models. No matter what you're doing, do something!

Never knock where you start, either. Even networking by becoming a paid photography assistant is a smart way to get the skills and connections you need to open up your own firm.

A lot of photographers tend to get their clients through social media, and if you're looking to become a professional photographer without school credentials, this is a good way to find your first clients.

Instagram is the most popular way for photographers to advertise, and it's easy to see why. If you become one of the best portrait photographers on Instagram, it's quite likely that you will be able to make a living from the magazines that reach out to you.

Clients tend to value a photographer based on three things: their price, their reputation, and their portfolio. If you have a good portfolio and are generally known for giving good work, then you should start raising your price.

Oddly enough, a lot of people will start wanting to work with you more, the moment you raise your price. This is called the Pricing Paradox, and it's a good thing to keep in mind if you want to make a living as a photographer.

Lower prices won't mean more sales. You might as well charge more.

The hardest part of being a photographer is coming up with a way to support yourself that doesn't involve constantly doing photo shoot sessions. After all, client numbers will rise and fall depending on the season, the economy, and a bunch of other things.

If you want to get a little more stability, you should look into selling stock photography online, giving online classes on photography, or putting together photography courses.

The good thing about photography is that there are tons of different ways to become profitable using it. That leaves you many ways to become a professional photographer without school involved, as long as you are imaginative about creating revenue.