Edmond Rätzel: Tipps für angehende Foto- und Videografen zur Stärkenentdeckung

Edmond Rätzel: Find Your Strengths as a Videographer

Specialization is a crucial component of successful businesses – the same holds true for photographers and videographers. Drawing from personal experiences, Edmond Rätzel, a photographer and marketing expert, helps emerging photographers or filmmakers discover their strengths. In the following article, you will learn how photographers can avoid boredom despite specialization, how filmmakers can work across multiple genres, and why focusing on a specific area is essential.

For many photographers or filmmakers, the journey towards self-employment often begins as a hobby: friends, family members, and eventually a broader circle of acquaintances are consistently impressed by their work – until the idea of turning the hobby into a profession arises. However, to become successful as a self-employed photographer or videographer, specializing in a specific area is necessary. Just like any other business, offering a broad and unspecific range of services is often perceived as average quality, while narrowing down the scope of services quickly establishes an expert status. This poses a challenge for newcomers: how can they determine whether they are better suited for wedding photography or portrait photography, especially if they have only photographed for themselves and their acquaintances so far? „Many photographers or filmmakers are reluctant to limit themselves. They fear losing out on projects if they exclude certain areas. Especially in the beginning, they are grateful for any inquiries – whether it’s a maternity shoot or a promotional film,“ confirms Edmond Rätzel.

„Having an extensive portfolio is generally not a problem, but expertise should not suffer as a result. Average results across various areas are ultimately more damaging to a reputation than excellent results in a single area,“ further explains the expert. His own journey also began as a hobby filmmaker, capturing the steps of his choreography as a dance instructor and sharing them online. He ventured into photography by creating an online store, for which he took advantageous product photos. These photos received such a positive response that he specialized in product photography. Edmond Rätzel leverages his experiences to guide aspiring talents towards successful self-employment. He regularly works with his clients to identify their specific areas of expertise.

Discovering What Fits for Photographers and Videographers
During the initial stages, filmmakers and photographers are best served by exploring the array of requests coming from their circle of acquaintances. Attending a daughter’s christening, creating a promotional film for a friend’s startup, taking headshots for a relative – various opportunities naturally arise to experiment in different areas. Following an exploratory phase, a decision to specialize in one area should be made to establish an expert status.

Preventing Boredom Despite Specialization
Some photographers or filmmakers may find the idea of working on projects from the same category every day quite dull. To unleash their creativity, they desire a diverse range of tasks. While diversity is welcomed, initial specialization is still necessary.

One possible approach is to focus on one area to evolve into an expert videographer or photographer. Once proficiency in that area is established, branching out into another category for added variety is an option. In this scenario, it is crucial to create dedicated subpages for each area on the website.

If photography is your passion and you aspire to turn it into a profession, or if you have already ventured into self-employment as a filmmaker but are still waiting for a big break, reach out to the marketing expert, as initial consultations with Edmond Rätzel are free of charge!