What to Charge for Photography Work
How to price your own photography — day rates versus project fees versus licensing, what different sectors pay, and how to quote with confidence.
The hardest question in the business
Pricing your own work is the thing most photographers get wrong, and it does more than anything else to decide whether the business lasts. Charge too little and you signal inexperience, undercut the market and fail to cover your costs. Charge without being clear in your own mind about what you're charging for and you either leave real money behind or lose the job to someone who quoted more clearly.
Pricing is learnable, though. It's a handful of principles applied honestly.
Three ways photography is priced
Different work is priced in different ways, and knowing which one you're in is half the battle.
A day or half-day rate is common for corporate, event and editorial work. You're selling your time and delivering images for the client's ordinary use. It's straightforward, as long as you remember that a day rate is not an hourly rate: editing, admin, travel and kit all sit inside it.
A project or package fee is common direct-to-client and for weddings. You price the whole job — prep, shoot, edit, delivery — as a single number. It suits you better when there's a lot of work behind the shoot, and it suits clients who don't think in day rates.
Fee plus licensing is the advertising and commercial model. The creative fee covers the shoot and the licence covers how, where and for how long the images get used. A national campaign for two years is a completely different number from web-only for six months, and at the top end this is where most of the value sits. There's more in copyright and licensing.
What the sectors pay (roughly)
- Advertising and commercial: the highest, priced on usage and production.
- Corporate: steady mid-range day or project fees, reliable and often repeat.
- Product and e-commerce: per image or per day, mid-range, worthwhile on volume.
- Editorial: the lowest, and valued more for profile than for income.
- Weddings and events: package or day rate, with weekend and evening premiums.
Those are broad bands rather than quotes. Every job depends on the client, the budget, the usage and the production. Our day rate calculator is a starting point for assisting rates; for your own work you're pricing the whole job and the relationship around it.
Building a quote
Price from your costs upwards, rather than from a number you hope the client will accept.
Start with what the work really costs you: kit, insurance, software, travel, the days you don't work, tax, and a wage worth having. A £300 day is not £300 in your pocket. Work out what you need to earn per working day for the business to be viable, and don't quote below it without a strategic reason.
Cost the job rather than the day. A half-day shoot that needs a day of editing is a day and a half of work, so price all of it.
Keep your fee separate from expenses. Travel, kit hire, props, models and assistants are usually billed on top and itemised.
Charge for usage where usage applies. If a business is going to use your images widely, or for a long time, that has value, and giving it away by default is giving away money.
Quoting with confidence
Put the quote in writing and make it specific. "My fee for this is £X, covering the shoot and edited delivery of Y images for your website and social use, plus travel" leaves nothing to argue about later. Ambiguity costs money and causes disputes.
Don't apologise for your rate. Businesses respect someone who knows what they charge, and hesitation invites haggling.
Know your floor and hold it. Negotiating is fine; working below cost is not, unless there's a genuine reason such as a relationship, a portfolio piece or a foot in the door. "No" is a complete answer.
Review your pricing once a year, and raise it when you're busy. Being fully booked at your current rate is the market telling you to charge more.
The honest picture
Underpricing is the most common mistake photographers make and the most damaging. It's tempting when you're starting out and want the work badly, but a rate set too low is hard to climb out of and it teaches clients to undervalue you. Price fairly, quote clearly and deliver well, and you end up with a business. Price out of fear and you end up with a trap.
Related: copyright and licensing, contracts and usage rights, and invoicing and getting paid.
📖 This is part of the PhotoAssist Career Guide — the honest path from your first assisting job to going pro and running your own photography business.