How much to charge for my first photographs?.

If you're a beginner photographer, you've probably asked yourself, "How do I set my rates? What should I charge so I don't overcharge or undercharge?" To calculate the price of your photographs, you need to consider several factors. Some are variable, and others are fixed. And above all, everyone will have a different set of factors. Forget the old adage, "Charge little to start with." We're going to give you some tips so you can adjust your prices accordingly.

1. It's your only source of income

If photography is your sole and primary source of income, you need to consider your basic expenses, including both business costs and your personal expenses. Above all, calculate the monthly costs of the business you've just started.

2. Calculate your monthly business expenses

In this case, it largely depends on your personal choices, but below is a list of possible expenses:

– Rental of premises.

– Social security.

- Light

– Internet and telephone.

– Insurance.

– Equipment amortization.

– Web, annual fees.

– Courses and workshops.

It's important to include all possible expenses, including materials and transportation for completing the work. This is crucial because your earnings must exceed your expenses.,

3. Calculate your hourly rate

Now we come to the most complex part: knowing the price of a productive hour.

Suppose you've set a work schedule that allows you to complete 40 hours per week, distributing those hours as you can. This means that if you work weekends, have days off during the week, etc.

You know perfectly well that of those 40 hours, not all of them are productive. You have to dedicate almost half the time to administrative tasks, attending to your clients, organizing your schedule...

In the course of your work, you produce different services such as wedding photography, photo retouching, product photography, videography, etc. Each service has a different price, because it takes more or less time.

And the key will be figuring out how much you should charge per hour of productive work to cover all expenses and earn a living wage.

4. Calculating the price of studio photos.

Let's perform the calculation with a practical example, in this case the production of studio photos.

We assume the sessions last one hour. You need about fifteen minutes to prepare the studio for the session and another fifteen minutes to talk to and support the client. In total, we've already worked for 1.5 hours.

We estimate that processing and editing the photos from the session, for about 10 photos, requires approximately 3.5 hours of work, averaging about 10 minutes per photo. In total, each complete session takes 5 hours.

If the 40 hours of work were productive, you could do about 8 sessions per week, but as we have already said before, you have roughly 60% of the time to produce.

In total, about 5 sessions per week, which would be 20 sessions per month.

Now let's say you need to earn around €3000 per month; across 20 sessions, you need to charge €150 per session to reach the income you need.

Another calculation option

Once you know all your expenses, the salary you need, the hours you are productive per week, and the hours you dedicate to each task, you can calculate it another way:

Divide the total number of hours you'll be productive per month by the amount of money you need to cover your monthly expenses. You would get the price per hour, Now, knowing how many hours each job takes, you can assign a price to it.

Remember

If you need to ask us a question or want to get in touch with us, you can do so by phone: 965 46 18 62; through our contact form or directly in our physical shop, we will be happy to help you.