Things to consider when creating your professional photography rates
When I talk to photographers, the biggest challenge they tend to have is figuring out what to charge.
It’s truly difficult, because pricing your art and creativity is subjective. There is no official rule to pricing your rates, which is why photography pricing is all over the map across different niches and across the world.
If you’re unsure how to determine your pricing, here are the main things to consider when creating your professional photography rates!
Know your cost of doing business
Your cost of doing business (aka CODB) is basically every single cost that is involved with operating your business and being a working professional photographer. You want to calculate it either per week, per month, or annually. There are plenty of CODB calculators online if you do a quick Google search, or you can find this number manually.
You can do it whichever way, you just need to know what it costs for you to be in business. The purpose is to make sure you make enough to cover your costs AND make a profit. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that!
So again, that’s your annual income or the money you need to make in your photography business is going to equal your expenses (aka your CODB) plus the money that you want to make (aka your desired salary.)
Do some market research on your competition
When you're doing market research, you basically need to understand the market and/or area you work in, and find out what others in your niche are charging. This mainly depends on your location (eg. town vs. big city) and your niche (eg. wedding vs. commercial.)
If you're thinking about being a family photographer, ask your family and friends about the photographers they hired in the past, how much they paid, and what they got in exchange. Try looking up other photographers' websites too, since some will have their pricing listed.
You can also ask your peers directly. Most photographers (but not all) are going to be open about sharing their pricing, because they don't want to be undercut by a newbie. If you’re upfront about wanting to price yourself fairly for the market, they'll be more inclined to share, knowing you're trying to do good for the industry.
Personally, I've always been supportive of this by sharing my rates with photographers that ask, because I don't want a photographer who's just starting out to charge half of what I do and give double what I give – that's damaging our industry!
Make sure you charge enough to cover your time
You also want to consider how many non-shooting hours you have for every shooting hour you have. This is going to include office hours, consultation, emailing, invoicing, editing, calling, delivering, uploading photos, and importing photos – all of these things take time too!
For example, if I do a two hour shoot, I need to come home and import the photos. Then there’s exporting, uploading to an online gallery, emailing clients back and forth on selects, editing, and delivering final images. That's roughly 4-6 hours to complete a 2 hour shoot! This is why you have to charge enough to cover your time!
Know that when you're charging per hour, you're including all of these non-shooting hours. If you're only charging $50 for a shoot because it's only one hour, you’re doing yourself a disservice and not charging enough for what you do!
Know your worth, then add tax
You always need to pay income tax, and the amount depends on where you live. In Canada, that’s roughly 20-35%!
Once you have your rates, figure out how much tax you’d have to pay based on your yearly income, then add that percent to all your rates. If you don’t you’ll be surprised at the end of the year when your take home pay after taxes is 20-35% less than you predicted!
Always include the cost of tax into your client’s rates, because anything that is an extra expense should be something you charge extra!
Pricing is always subjective
At the end of the day, how you price yourself is completely up to you.
However, if you actually want to have a successful business as a professional photographer, you need to consider all of these things so that you can make a profit!
For more tips on pricing, check out my other blog post on the psychology of buying!
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