Photography is difficult to price because there are so many aspects involved in delivering your final product. We are selling both goods and services! I see many photographers make the mistake of pricing an 8×10 at $20. It stands to reason that since it costs $3 and then it is marked it up almost 7x then it should certainly be making money! However, I have yet to see a business model that can be profitable selling $20 8×10’s, other than the very high volume chain studios. Now there is nothing wrong with being a high volume studio if that is what you are developing your business model to be, however being an on-location studio you cannot charge high volume studio prices and expect to remain in business for long.
The X factor when calculating your pricing is failing to account for your TIME. An 8×10 is much more than the paper it is printed on, it is all of your time that went into making that final print. We make money in our business model on the products that we sell to clients. Those products need to not only pay for our hard costs in creating the product but also your time preparing that item. This is especially important in calculating your prices for albums and prints, as those items tend to have the most time associated in producing them. In addition, you must remember that you should be making enough during each session to pay yourself for all of your time spent working on your business, such as marketing and website development. Remember, the only time you are bringing money into your business is through your sessions. They must be priced appropriately to allow you to stay in business. Now, how on earth do you determine what profitable pricing is? Enter the COGS, or Costs of Goods Sold.
To develop your COGS you MUST factor in your time in creating that product:
| 8×10 Print + mounting | $9 |
| Process Time 15 min | $15 |
| Packaging | $3 |
| Total Cost | $27 |
| 4 x COGS | $108 |
| Retail price: | $110 |
While you need to do your own calculations in order to come up with your pricing, generally 8×10’s should be priced at LEAST $50, often much more, in order to have a chance of being profitable. Many people aren't sure what to price their time at either. If I were to outsource my editing I would pay $60/hour so that is what I used in this calculation. Your business costs may be more, as if you have a retail space then you will need to have a higher per hour rate of pay for those extra costs.
Looking for more support in your photography journey? Hair of the Dog Academy helps you master the art of pet photography, while Freedom Focus Formula helps you earn consistent $2,000+ sales averages without pushy sales tactics. You can explore all the free and paid resources at Nicole Begley Education.
Nicole has authored a book “Pet and Equine Photography for Everyone”, available on Amazon. She established Nicole Begley Photography in Pittsburgh, PA in 2010 but now serves the market of Charlotte, NC.
Nicole shares her home with her husband, two small humans, and her Puerto Rican rescue dog Zoey. Oh yes, she is also Chief of Staff to Emma the cat. She is the creator of the #selfiedog series, a travel addict, and a chocolate martini connoisseur.
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This is a great post. For the young/new photographer who is serious about making a go at it they need to truly believe that their time and talent is absolutely valuable and not apologize for it! Even if you are still just getting established don’t sell yourself short.
There are plenty of faux-tographers who are amateurs just looking to make a couple extra bucks, don’t take the time to learn the craft and aren’t even looking to make it a full-time business. They give everything away on a disc for next to nothing and don’t really care. These people hurt the industry.
But for the sincere and serious this is good stuff. Great blog! 🙂
Thanks Doug! I appreciate your comment. I can totally appreciate how people think “I’m selling a CD for $250 so it’s all profit.” However, it’s absolutely not possible to make a living when you factor in the time spent creating that CD, unless you have only 1 or 2 hours of TOTAL time from contact to thank you note in that client. We are self-employed. In addition to the lovely self-employment taxes, we are the only ones responsible for our health insurance, our retirement savings, etc. We need to make sure we are profitable so we can continue to work in this wonderful profession. (And it is a profession…..we are professionals….and we should price ourselves as such.) Thanks for supporting the blog!
Hi. A really helpful post. I was wondering how you take account of your session fee and other shoot related time e.g. enquiry calls, ordering and delivering prints etc? Do you balance the two off against each other by making sure that the session fee is high enough to pay you a decent hourly rate for those activities? Thanks
<3 Nicole is a genius! <3
I love that you have this info available online for tog's to share and learn from. So useful!
Hi Nicole, I am just starting out as a pet photographer and I find your information extremely helpful.
I have a question about pricing. If I understand correctly, you are suggesting we charge 4x our cost for an item. There is a very excellent photo lab I hope to us. They charge $90 for a 16×20 canvas wrap. Are you recommending that I should charge the client $360?
Thank you.
Yep. 😉 I know the numbers seem scary at first, but it’s honestly the only way to be profitable unless you are going to do a high volume model.