In this video, I’m going to dispel the myth that everyone believes about how to price your photography work.
Price your photography work the way that works best for you and your photography business. There is no one correct way to price your photography work, and what works for one photographer may not work for another. So don’t let this common myth get in the way of your photography business!
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35 responses to “Debunking the Photography Myth Everyone Has Believed”
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This is why I'm so fed up with clients asking about my rates when I reach out to them. If I knew their budget I'd cater my time and effort accordingly.
Completely agree. If a prospected client doesn’t want to pay your fee, it doesn’t mean they undervalue your work, they might just not need your quality of work or they might not need your kind of work at all. Nothing to be bothered about. Moving on. 😀
This is correct, but I do feel that our time also matters in the equation. When I am very busy I charge more because my time is a limited resource and the laws of supply and demand apply. Basically, as my schedule fills up my rates go up. If my rates exceed the value ascribed to the job/photos by the client then we simply don't work together. Conversely, if I have little work I might do a job under what I feel is fair value for a client that has a low budget simply because I have all the time in the world, so I might as well.
Fair point about 90%. Doesn’t equipment use also come into play. Studio rental camera rental. Amount of assistance duration of shoot… just curious. If this is standardised for you per shoot in your price
Preach, Brother Scott!!
Thats hitting the nail on the head!
Yes, agreed, but your fee does factor into their perceived value of your service, I think. Let’s say, as an extreme example, if they could get $5M in sales off your photos but your fee is $4M, they’d still go for the the guy whose photos they project would get them $4M but cost them $50k. Obviously the numbers are dumb, but it shows that their perceived value is not independent of what you charge, right? Or am I missing something?
This is why in business and marketing classes, the selling point of a service is always how much value it'll bring to a company.
If the client says they're estimating £1M growth but they're only willing to pay £48 — if I can stake 48 and make a million, I'm in the wrong business. They're going to be charged 10% of their estimated growth.
so true.
Great video! I sent you an important email. It would be greatly appreciated if you could give it a look and respond as soon as possible. Thank you!
Most spot on video in ages
This resonates with what I hear so many professional magicians say, that they charge for the time it took them "to get there", that famous "Picasso quote". Thank you, you set it straight in a clear way with very good examples, it's enlightening!
There is an apocryphal story from the chemical industry about a process operator who ran a critical piece of equipment for many years. Some weeks after his retirement this unit stopped working and was costing the plant 100s of thousands of pounds per day in lost output. In desperation the plant manager called the retired operator to come in a try to fix it as a contractor. The operator came in picked up a sledge hammer and hit the casing of the unit where upon it started working again. The contractor submitted an invoice for £25005 for this service. He was asked for a more detailed breakdown of his costs, his answer: £5 for hitting unit with hammer, £25000 for knowing where to hit it.
Kind of disagree, I think.
I would hire you for your expertise or the value you bring as you stated.
Where does your value come from? It comes from all the learning you have done over the years, so in this sense I am paying you for the time you spent in learning, not in dollars per hour you were at photography school/apprenticeship/self teaching, but for the value you gained from that time spent learning your craft.
Otherwise why wouldn’t I hire my 12 year old son (who can take photos) to do the job instead of you? Because my son has spent no time at all learning the craft. You have. Therefore I hire you.
We might just be saying the same thing here so if we are, apologies.
It's the Paula Scher quote from her designing the Citibank logo in a minute and charging hundreds of thousands. It's what she said to the Bank when they queried the price. Aparently.
nice jacket
Well said. Dead on. You're paid what the market thinks your worth. Love your channel.
Thank you
I'm not a professional photographer, and you have absolutely nailed it. I could not agree more.
To elaborate on what you rightly said. One way to think of it is that clients fall into two categories:
a) The asked for photo is the end, something to be enjoyed.
b) The asked for photo is the means to an end, a tool to bring in income e.g. selling burgers.
Pretty sure I know the IG account you spotted this on.
Agreed. I did a comparison of others in my photographic space. Based on some known pricing I have a reasonable guess as to where I can set my pricing. This is, for me at least, step one is starting my own business. Took 6 years since I first picked up a camera and 1.5 years since I started working as a commercial photographer for a company.
I loved the slight zoom-in, "I'm a slow learner!"…me too, Scott!
Well said and spot on.
Charging per hour is wrong, it is better to charge a creative fee per day even if the job took 7 hours instead of 10. This says that the entire day is booked for the specific client and no others. No matters how long the job take if the results is here at the end.
Usage. What is it being used for? Advertising, editorial, corporate are all different. National ad campaign is much different than wedding. Most people shooting big budget ad campaigns have reps that negotiate this for you.
I'm payed for what I know, not for what I do 😉
It all comes from the story that Picasso drew a picture on a napkin for the waitress who asked him to, and when she wanted to take it he said it would be many thousands of Francs. She protested that it only took him a couple of seconds to do, to which he replied it took him his whole life (or something pithy like that). As a pro working for 23 years, I can agree. You sell at the price the client values the product/service at. Always.
Old guys will remember Kodak's Vericolor 2, and why it was the weapon of choice for wedding photographers. Well… 39 years ago last week I had a wedding shoot disaster.
It was our own wedding. We'd booked a local press photographer, because of his reputation and I knew his work, too. I was happy to pay a premium for him.
The silly chump double-booked himself, and sent a dep, who arrived with Fujicolour, "because I like the colours".
'High June' in 1984 was very hot and sunny with clear skies, and sharp shadows. My mother-in-law wore a broad-brimmed hat, and consequently was invisible in most of the formal photos.
I'd even brought up the subject of film stock when we met the photographer originally, who assured me that Vericolor was what he always used.
So yes, we clients are prepared to pay for what we deem important, and we have expectations, which better professionals meet.
By the way, Fujicolor at the time was new-ish to the UK market, and had, to my eye, a horrid green cast (possibly because the local pro lab was set up for Kodak stock, but I think it was just because Fuji at that time was poor quality). It took at least ten years for that to improve!
In my professional life (not photography) we speak of output (what we create) and outcome (the value our output has for the customer). And the outcome, what you name the perceived value, defines the price. And I would say that this is true for photography as well.
I was just thinking about this with a possible paid gig for a new club. Thank you for the insight.
I don't really fancy a photographer being there at the birth of my child.
I went to art school for 4 years. They always insisted that being a professional artist is 50% studio and 50% business.
Yet graduating required 32 studio courses and only 1 business-focused class.
Thanks for taking the time to talk about an important subject that gets far too little attention.
On. The. Money.