What qualifications do you need to be classified as a professional photographer?

To be a professional anything, you must be paid for what you do. That's it. If you've sold one print, you're a professional. Of course being good at what you do will afford you a better living.

you don't have to have a certain degree or anything. just get a lot of field practice and make sure you know a lot of the technical stuff-lighting, equipment, etc. But you can always become certified by the ppa- http://www.ppa.com/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=14 -most people don't really know what it means unless they're in the field, but it's pretty much something you can just show off to them. Christen

If you are calling someone a professional that person is talented and getting paid for their work.

Technically, you're considered a professional if whatever you are doing brings in at least 20% of your overall income. I read that somewhere.

In photography you do not have to go to formal school and have a degree to be a photographer. But you have to be able to produce good images if being hired to do a wedding, portraits or something for an advertising agency. The tax guys (USA) if 50% of your income comes from something you do. A professional can reproduce an image again, most amatures can not since they mostly point and shoot and do not know how they got it. (Yes, this just made a few non professionals mad but it is the truth). 1. You should learn the technical aspects of photography and your camera (composition, shutter speed, depth of field etc), once you understand these you will be able to create better images. 2. Shoot in "M" (manual mode) because you will have more control over your camera and not the other way around. When you are in one of the "Auto" modes the camera will just read the highlights and shadow areas and try to get you a picture. The camera is not smart enough to know what you are shooting. 3. You can start reading all kinds of books on this subject and get information from the internet. This includes web based classes, manufactures web sites to personal blogs. 4. Buy the best DSLR camera that you can afford this also includes good lenses. Take out your camera and manual sit down and go over all the buttons and knobs etc.. this is the best way for you to learn what your camera can do. 5. Start shooting with your camera to get practice and from what you are learning from reading and doing you will get better. Practice does make perfect. Take notes while shooting and then look at your photos on the computer find the best one from that set and see what you did to get the shot. 6. You can get yourself a job as a photographers assistant (be it payed or free) and learn from that person. 7. My suggestion is to find a part of photography that you would have an interest in and point in that direction. Hope that helps, Kevin

Well getting paid is a large part of it, but mostly it is the ability to always expose, compose and deliver the images on time and at or under budget. Most professional photographers have specialties they prefer shooting and become known for their expertise in those areas. After completing a degree from one of the top photo schools in the US, there really isn't any image that cannot be captured by the graduate. Mr. Bogie used to say that when we graduated, we would be able to take a photo using someone else's camera with no light but what was available in the middle of Africa. Five years later that is exactly what I had to do ... and more