When potential customers are looking to book photography services many factors contribute to their decision making. Price is a major player when it comes to weighing in on what photographer and what services customers choose. At the same time, pricing can also be one of the biggest challenges for photographers to set. Let’s look at some pricing tips for professional photographers.
Pricing your photography services and products requires more than matching competitors. Striking the right balance requires careful consideration of your costs, value, and specialty. Market awareness, understanding of all your expenses, and confidence in your craft are all integral parts of the pricing puzzle. It takes continuous monitoring of all of these aspects along with gauging customers’ interest in the perceived value of what you are offering to get all the pieces to fit together.
What Does It Cost to Be In Business?
Our pricing tips for professional photographers begins with understanding what it costs to be a photographer.
Getting into photography may seem like a low barrier for entry career choice. You can buy a great camera, get a couple of lenses, throw together a website, and maybe get a few business cards and – ta da – you are a professional photographer! But wait, there is more.
Aside from being technically masterful in image capture and editing, having creative prowess, superb people skills, a flair for marketing, and a non-stop drive, being a professional photographer requires financial responsibility. Running a successful photography business no matter how big or small requires some serious math-ing.
Covering YOUR Costs
Covering your basic business costs is the first of our pricing tips for professional photographers. The funds coming in have to at the very least cover the funds going out. Below are some, but NOT all, of the most common expenses for a professional photographer. The dollar amounts listed are annual averages that offer a wide range of variables which is why it’s important to look closely at each unique set of circumstances.
Equipment Maintenance and Upgrades: $5,000–$15,000
Software, Subscriptions, Memberships: $500–$1,500 (Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, Website, CRMs)
Insurance, Business Licensing, Banking Fees: $500–$1,200
Marketing, Advertising, Networking: $1,000–$5,000
Studio Space (if applicable): $8,000–$20,000
Labor: Paying yourself or others for time spent consulting, shooting, editing, and delivering products.
These expenses will have to be paid out of each photo session or event. Dividing the total of these expenses over twelve months or per job can help set goals for sales averages – and help establish pricing.
In addition to business costs, salary, and buying products, taxes need to be paid. It’s recommended that 25-30% of your income is reserved for self-employment taxes. (For all information related to your tax liability speak to a professional accountant.)
Cost of Goods
Whether you are delivering digital files, framed canvases, metal prints or professional wedding albums you need to account for the cost of the deliverables in order to set the sale price. Figuring out your cost of goods sold, COGS, is one of the most important pricing tips for professional photographers that can really make a difference in profitability. Here are some examples of products and their price range when purchased by the photographer.
- Basic portrait albums with soft cover and thin pages: $100–$300
- Premium professional wedding albums with leather covers and custom details: $400–$700.
- Personalized USB Drive: $12 – $30
- Medium Sized Canvases or Metal Wall Portraits: $150 – $200
- Gift Prints, 8x10s, 5x7s: $1-$7 depending on paper and finishes.
- Packaging and Shipping: $20–$50 for custom boxes, thank-you cards, and shipping fees.
Anything that gets handed to a client has a cost and knowing the price you pay is part of what determines the price that the client pays. This includes the value and cost of digital images, but that’s for another blog.
Pricing Tips for Professional Photographers Include Great Profit Margins
Marking up the price on products that are sold to customers is the most essential pricing tip for professional photographers. It is also a place where some folks get weird about creating that extra space for income that is well deserved. Don’t let it get weird. Making art and being compensated for it is not out of line. You are not being unfair for being paid for your time and talent. It completely appropriate to add profit margins to products purchased to resell.
This wholesale to retail markup includes the photographer’s services. These services include editing of images to suit the professional products they are printed in addition to sourcing, ordering and delivering these items to customers. These products all have the unique images created by the photographer/artist/maker printed in, or on them. A professional photo album full of images, or a framed canvas of a family portrait has value. An album with blank pages or a piece of canvas and a wooden frame, sitting in a production facility are worth only the cost of commodities that they are.
Here are some examples of how to markup photography products. It’s important to look at your unique business model to determine what is best for your business before implementing a new pricing strategy.
EXAMPLE:
Basic Portrait Albums : $100–$300
200% Markup = $200 -$600 Price Tag
Premium Albums: $400–$700
200% – 300% Markup: $800 -$2100 Price Tag
Personalized USB Drive: $12- $30
200% – 300% Markup: $24 – $90 Price Tag
Wall Portraits: $150 – $200
300% Markup = $450 – $600 Price Tag
Gift Prints: $1-$7
800% Markup = $8- $56 Price Tag
Is the Money Where Your Mouth is?
Aside from being asked about availability, questions about cost are some of the first words out of a potential client’s month. Being able to share about services, products, and pricing confidently allows people to see the value in what you do in order to make the decision to hire you. One of the most essential pricing tips for professional photographers is communicating to the client what they are getting for their money. Great marketing pieces and product samples are the perfect way to literally show client the value you bring.
Please take into consideration that the monetary examples here have been simplified, but it’s a start. For a deeper dive into how to calculate costs and profits, check out Zookbinders Magical Pricing Calculator located in your Zookie-Pro dashboard. If you don’t have a professional account yet, you can REGISTER HERE to get started. Professional Photographers of America also has some helpful tools like their Financial Benchmark Report.
Disclaimer: This blog is intended for educational purposes only. You acknowledge that any knowledge gained and applied from this blog is your personal responsibility. You agree to use your own judgment and conduct due diligence before implementing any suggestions that you learned in this blog. Any third-party links or suggestions are provided for your convenience only. If you have legal and/or financial questions, you should consult a lawyer or CPA and/or CFP respectively.
