Why Do Photographers Charge So Much?

If you’re looking around online for a photographer and you wonder why some simple pictures cost so much?? Well, with everything nowadays costing an arm and a leg, your local photographers need to eat too. They charge the amount they do because of many factors that are going to be covered in this blog. This isn’t an article justifying insane prices for photography, some people are overpriced, it is to break down the many reasons why a photographer comes to the final price that they do. Before we talk money, let’s jump into a bit of the man-hours behind the photographs. 

Time spent preparing for a shoot is essential for every project

Whenever you book a photographer for a project, one of the biggest considerations for your photographer when sending out a quote for the work is “How long is this project going to take me?” even that question is broken down into 3 categories. You have Pre-Production, Shoot, and Post-Processing. Pre-production involves all of the work that needs to be done before the shoot. This would include brainstorming ideas for the shoot, finding a suitable location, booking models if necessary, preparing gear, and more. Before your photographer shows up, likely, they've already done hours of work for this shoot. What you end up seeing is the work they do on-site, showing up and chatting with you, taking your photos, packing up, and leaving. A lot of the time that only takes about an hour of your day and then you wait for the photos to be sent. But same as pre-production, once the shoot is over there is plenty more work to be done. The photographer then has to look through every single photo from that shoot, narrow it down to the best ones, and then send them off for proof selection. Once the client picks their favourites, only then can the editing magic start, where your photographer sits for hours making all the photos look their best. Just thinking about all the hours involved in one shoot starts to make your head spin, and hopefully, this gives you some insight into what goes on behind the scenes for your shoot.

There are plenty of photographers who simply calculate all the hours mentioned above, multiply them by their hourly rate, and send an invoice based on the hours they worked and that’s all. Other photographers will include the hourly rate, plus an equipment rental rate and photo usage rights, and maybe even some other fees. However, the first photographer likely already considered the same things and simply has that built into their hourly rate, whereas others have a smaller hourly rate and add the additional charges on top. The way the rate gets calculated will largely be the same across all photographers, it just depends person to person on how they break that down for you and the transparency of their invoice. Regardless of how they charge, all photographers have expensive equipment that requires a big initial investment, upkeep, and insurance. They should charge a small rental fee to every client so that gear can be fixed or replaced should something bad happen. 

An example of a promotional usage of assets

Another thing to consider is the photo usage rights if the shoot involves photos that will be used by the client in order to make money. For example, if you charge a client $200 for 5 hours of work, and then they turn around and pour $ 1 million into advertising that photo, they expect to make a ton of money on an asset that costs almost nothing. When dealing with content that is being used directly to make money, it is common practice that the photographer will charge somewhere in the range of 3-5% of the total marketing budget for their work rather than an hourly rate, because their work is being directly used to bring in income, none of which the photographer will see. Typically, this kind of transaction is on a much smaller scale, but for clients wishing to print, repurpose, or advertise using your assets, photographers will want to negotiate the usage of their image to ensure they are fairly compensated.

We can endlessly dive deeper into other additional factors that raise prices, like prop budgets, hair and makeup, location costs, and more, but those are things that vary on every project and can be accomplished with minimal or massive budgets. What was covered in this article is the bulk of how photographers determine their pricing for projects which is common practice across the board. Each photographer and project will be unique, and bring its own value to you or your business. So the next time you’re looking for a photographer, remember the time and equipment involved in their craft and make an investment that will boost your business as well as keep another small business afloat.