On 24 May 1860 she advertised in Malmö that she performed photography on glass, waxcanvas and paper, and by February 1861, she opened her own studio on Västergatan 64 (today number 8), in the house where she was raised.

Hilda Sjölin was soon the "competent rival" of the other photographer of the city, Carl Magnus Tullberg, and no longer had to advertise.

She was known for her card – and portrait photography, and was from 1864 also employed as a photographer of the city views.

Hilda Sjölin belonged to the pioneer generation of female professional photographers in Sweden after Brita Sofia Hesselius: the same time as she became active, Hedvig Söderström in Stockholm (1857), Emma Schenson in Uppsala and Wilhelmina Lagerholm in Örebro (1862), among others, became the first professional photographers of their respective cities: during the 1860s, they were at least 15 confirmed female photographers in Sweden, three of whom, Rosalie Sjöman, Caroline von Knorring and Bertha Valerius belonging to the elite of their profession.

In 1888, the first woman, Anna Hwass, became a member of the board of the Photographic Society.