5 Essential Ways That Photographers Can Develop Their Skillsets — with Mr. Ashwini Joshi from Fujifilm India
By: Tejees Studio
Tags: Lessons, Improvement, Learning, Photography, Skills Development

5 Essential Ways That Photographers Can Develop Their Skillsets — with Mr. Ashwini Joshi from Fujifilm India Tejees Studio Jul 1, 2020·4 min read

As India begins to slowly open up after the lockdown, this window of opportunity will be critical for photographers to have their skillsets improved and readied for the season ahead. We talked to Mr. Ashwini Joshi from Fujifilm India about his opinion on the 5 ways that such professionals can improve themselves.

Mr. Ashwini’s advice focuses mainly on the fact that in this day and age, having the ability to click good photos is just simply not enough to make your mark anymore. He says that to run a successful photography business today you need to learn about a wide range of interconnected fields that all add up to give you a unique identity among your competitors.

Improve your Portfolio and Social Media

“This is a great time for every photographer to start improving their portfolios. A portfolio today means not just a selection of your best images but also your website and your social media. Everything is interconnected, and if you find yourself lacking knowledge in any specific platform, there are plenty of free online courses available to learn them. Learn how to improve your Instagram game and learn how to engage with followers on Facebook. For non-wedding photographers, go back through the collection of photos you’ve shot for your clients and identify the great pictures that you might have not been the ones the client liked. Use them for your portfolio.”

Learn Marketing

“For established studios, a majority of marketing gets done through recommendations by people who have relied on their services for years or decades, but even they need to understand SEO and digital marketing strategies to improve their reach. This is even more critical for newcomers and semi-professional. Thankfully, SEO and digital marketing are also things that anyone with an internet connection can learn online for free. This is the right time to learn and improve marketing, and brush up those skills.”

Learn Business / Entrepreneurship

“This is an uncertain crossroads in our lives where the wedding and photography industry will see a revamp. Even the most popular photographers are currently struggling for work, and people don’t want to spend too much money in general. This is going to lead to a lot of competition but is also going to create great opportunities for those who work on their business skills and combine it with their skill behind the camera. Take business lessons, and understand entrepreneurship. A quick google search will lead you to plenty of free courses on these.”

Stop Studying Photography Books

Once you know the basics of a camera, lighting is the only real thing you need to learn. Instead of reading books on it, learn through practice. Even if you are at home, work with different lighting conditions and try to create a better image just with what you have. The time for studying photography is over. Now is the time to practice it.

Find Your Voice

“With busy lives doing projects for clients and rushing through to deliver them, we ignore any and all personal projects. What personal projects allow you to do is to find your own voice that’s often forgotten. Let this voice influence you and your professional work, and it will help you be unique.”

“The day is gone that just being good at photography was enough to make you a successful photographer. I myself handle things like PR, Marketing, Youtube. Many photographers become mentors, teaching photography in between practicing it professionally. This leads to you becoming part of something bigger, a community.

Update yourself. You should know how to do the basics of everything that’s involved in the business. From video editing to photoshop to lightroom to different kinds of cameras and lights. You are not lucky enough to live in a time that doing one thing was enough. Find your own voice, deliver a feeling in your images, and videos that set you apart, and you will make a mark. The challenge is big, but if your heart and mind are in the right place, it’s worth doing.”

We thank Mr. Ashwini for his great advice and insight into the current challenges that most professional photographers are facing. Among all his key points, we would especially like to support the idea of finding your own voice and letting it make you unique. This will be a key influence on you, your work, your business practices, and strategies.

You can check out his LinkedIn profile as well as that of Fujifilm India Pvt. Ltd.