How to Price Your Photography as a Beginner Photographer

One aspect that is hard to understand when you are wanting to charge for your photography, is how much you should charge for your photography services. You don’t want to charge too much and not get any business. But you also don’t want to charge too little and undervalue what you and your time are worth.

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We all start somewhere. In anything. I'm sure there are 5 star chefs out there that burnt rolls and had bricks for cakes when they first started. 

You don't get anywhere if you don't start. You just have to jump in. Photography is a touchy subject for some. A lot of professionals argue that you aren't a professional unless you have a degree. Here is my opinion on that: You are a professional photographer when you are the go to person in your niche’. When your word of mouth advertising is keeping you fully booked. People are looking to you to provide this service because you have mastered what it means to be a photographer. Not just your photo work, but your customer service skills as well. 

If you want to get a degree in anything, make it a business degree. 90% of photographers are self taught. And because I have spent the last 10 years doing everything I could to get myself out of the 9-5 daily grind, take my advice, go learn about business. Go learn about money. Go learn about HOW to run a business. 

Just like you, I had to set aside time between being a mom with 2 kids in school and sports, a full time job, and a photography side hustle, to learn. I’m not trying to sound cliché, but yes, if you are motivated, put your mind to it, are consistent AND persistent, you will be successful. 

In the meantime, I know you can’t just fork money over to enroll in night classes, so let’s talk about how to charge for your photography so you can start making some money to invest back into yourself. 

Things to Think About to Calculate Pricing

I want you to sit down and list out everything you use for photography. 

• Camera

• Lightroom/Photoshop

• Internet

• Computer

• Digital photo storage

• How you deliver the final product

• Misc equipment like of camera flash

• Car

• Gas

Those are all just the VERY basics that you need to go out and take photos of people right? How much does each one of those things cost? 

Now, how long does it take to shoot a typical session? Do you spend an hour? Hour and a half? And then what about the time it takes you to cull and edit a session? 6 Hours? 8 Hours? 

If you really want to know how much time you spend, use Clockify. It’s a free, user friendly tool that helps you track your time. 

What kind of experience do you have with your camera? A month? One year? 5 Years? 

What does your work look like? Be honest with yourself. If you aren’t sure, you need to ask family and friends. You have to be able to take constructive criticism. If you can’t take it, then you need to stop now. If you aren’t willing to hear about what needs to be improved, then you will never make it because you aren’t willing to grow. 

If you want to take this a step further and really dive into what you should be charging, check out this resource from the National Press photographers Association, the cost of doing business calculator.

The Hard Part

If you can’t take criticism about your own work, you definitely won’t be able to do this. But it is an important part of deciding what to charge for your services. What does your competition look like? I don’t mean researching photographers that have been in the business for years. I am talking about researching photographers in your area that are approximately at the same level as you. 

What does their work look like? What are they charging? What are they doing to book clients? 

I called this section the hard part because if you aren’t ready for it, you can get sucked into the comparison rabbit hole. You start clicking around and looking at their work or checking out their social media and it looks like on the outside they are very successful and popular. If you start to feel this sad comparison feeling, you must take these feelings and turn them into motivation. Use them to motivate yourself to do better, and be better. You are a beginner. Like I said, there are 5 star chefs that burnt bread when they first started. 

You can not expect to be a sensation overnight. You have to go through the hard to get to the easy. You have to make mistakes and learn from them.

 I made plenty of mistakes before I got to the point where I could quit my full time job and make photography, my full time job. That is why I am able to sit here at my desk, at home with my dog snoring behind me, writing this to you. I have been through it, so now I can educate you. 

What Services Do you Offer

Something else to keep in mind is what type of services do you offer? Do you offer what everyone else offers? A basic one hour family or children session that is typical for your area? Or, do you offer something that is extremely unique that photography clients can’t find anywhere else? 

When you have a service that no one else can provide but you, you are adding value to your business. Maybe you have land or property that is extremely sought after. Or a very unique type of prop that no one else can get. 

When you have something that sets you apart from everyone else, you can charge just a bit more. 

When to Increase Prices

As you grow as a photographer and business, you will be able to start increasing your pricing. Say you start off at $75 per session your first year. Within your first year you book and shoot 50 sessions. There is no doubt that after those 50 sessions, you are going to gain a lot more experience as well as grow as a person and business. 

The next year you can increase your pricing to $100 per session. Book and shoot 50 more sessions and then increase again the next year. 

Running a photography business is a slow process. It is not something that happens over night. I can’t tell you an exact price you should be charging because there are so many factors that go into figuring out how much to charge. Every one and every process is different. 

Take what I have written and apply it to your experience as a photographer. Write down what your goal income is. Go grab my Crush it Goal Planner in the freebie section so you can print it out, write it down and physically see it. 

Then get to work!!!

If you ever have any questions, you are always welcome to comment below or send me an email (info@photos2profits.com).

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