How Do I Price My Photography? | Tips & Tricks
If you’ve ever spent any time on the Internet searching for a photographer in your area, or if you are a photographer yourself, then you’ve probably wondered why different photographers charge the amount they do for their services.
Every professional photographer asks a different price, so it can be confusing (and a little frustrating) trying to figure out how much you should invest in your photos as a consumer, or if you’re also a photographer, how much to charge.
In this blog post, I’m going to clearly explain why I charge the amount that I do for my photo packages. In doing so, my hope is that…
a) If you’re currently shopping for a photographer, this will give you a better understanding of the math and reasoning behind the pricing. And,
b) If you’re a beginner photographer trying to figure out your own pricing structure, this will give you some insight.
Let’s dive in!
I figured out my CODB
CODB stands for Cost of Doing Business.
To give you the short version, what I’ve basically done is figured out how much money I need to run my business every month, and then divided that by the number of photo sessions I expect to have each month.
CODB per month / # of photo sessions per month = CODB for each photo session
For example, let’s say that I need $150 every month to run my business. This includes things like insurance, a web hosting subscription, editing software subscriptions, a new equipment fund, gas for my car, etc. And since this is just my side hustle, let’s say that I expect to have just 3 photo sessions every month.
$150 / 3 sessions = $50
That $50 would get added onto my package prices to ensure that my business stays up and running.
I treat myself like an employee
If the CODB is going into my business to keep it going, then how do I get paid?
I pay myself like I’m my own employee. This means I decided how much I wanted to get paid per hour for my labor, figured out how many hours go into a standard photo session, and factored that into my package pricing.
However, it can be challenging to know how much time a photo session is going to take! I needed a lot of experience before I could get an average number.
This aspect of photography pricing is, I think, where a lot of consumers can get confused. Because on paper, it looks like a photo package includes 1 hour of coverage, so we would assume, “The photographer is working for 1 hour.” BUT we’re forgetting about driving time, time spent emailing/messaging/calling/coordinating, time spent editing, uploading, downloading, location scouting, etc. It all adds up!
On average, I’ve found that a 1-hour photo session actually takes 10 hours of work.
i discovered my “why”
Photography is not my day job. It’s my side hustle.
So, why do I do it?
It helps me earn a little extra money from time to time, sure. But more than that, for me, it’s my creative outlet. I do it because it’s something I take pride in—something that allows me to express myself. Because I’m the type of person who’s fueled by making things and getting my hands dirty.
Because I think I’d go insane if I wasn’t doing this.
And, perhaps most importantly, making my clients happy is my addiction. When I see my photos in picture frames in their houses or smattered all over social media, in collages and videos, in profile pictures and heirloom photo albums, it honestly makes me want to cry.
I did that! Me! 🥹✨
Anyway, it’s for these reasons that I’m able to price my packages competitively low—because I’m not necessarily doing this for the paycheck. I price my photography lower, not because I don’t think it’s worth more, but because I want to work with lots of different people on interesting, explorative projects, and I don’t want my pricing to be prohibitive for people with lower incomes who might want to work with me someday.
(Absolutely no shade to the photographers out there who do it full time or charge higher prices. I admire the living heck out of you!!)
I considered the value of my skill level
Your skill level and experience are important factors to consider when deciding on a pricing structure.
How much would you charge for a single photo?
How much do you think someone else would pay?
What gives you the right to charge that amount?
These are all questions that can keep a photographer awake at night! And all of the answers may be deeply personal to each individual. After all, photography is an artistic medium just like painting or music.
How much would you pay to have your portrait painted by an art student vs. a world-famous painter?
How much do tickets cost to see a play at your local community theater vs. a front seat at a broadway musical?
As a photographer, it’s important to decide how much your work is actually worth to other people, to yourself, and then adjust your prices accordingly.
In conclusion. . .
. . .there’s no right or wrong way to price your photography.
Yes, there are things you should definitely consider for your own benefit (like CODB and your hourly wage), but a lot of it also comes down to more existential reasoning.
There is no black and white answer with a “one size fits all” tag sewn onto it. This is because photography is an art form, and where there’s art involved, there’s an artist behind it with the unique and difficult burden of needing to put a price on their own creative expression.
Anyway, this got much deeper than I thought it would. 😂
If you’re a fellow photographer or creative, then I hope you found this blog post useful! If you aren’t, then I hope it helped demystify the complicated world of photography pricing.
Until next time,
—KW