Photography Pricing Calculator
Enter the income you want, what the business costs to run and how long a session really takes, editing included. The calculator returns a price per session, the hourly rate behind it and a mini session price to match.
Your numbers
What you want left for yourself after tax and business costs.
Cameras and lenses spread over their life, insurance, editing software, gallery hosting, travel, studio hire, marketing.
Your overall rate, including any social security or national insurance. Ask your accountant if unsure.
Your work
Culling, editing, exporting and uploading the gallery.
Shooting, editing and admin for one mini session slot.
Optional. Shows what your current price really pays you.
Result
Charge per session
$680
$670.45 covers it exactly. Rounded up to a figure you can quote.
- Turnover you need in a year
- $59,000
- Sessions sold in a year
- 88
- Your time is billed at
- $89.39 an hour
- Mini session at the same hourly rate
- $90
The hourly figure counts all the time a session takes, including the work nobody sees. It is an estimate to plan with, not tax advice.
Put your session prices on a booking page
BookingMachine shows your packages with prices, lets clients pick a date and takes the deposit, so an enquiry becomes a paid booking without the back and forth.
How the session price is worked out
The calculator starts from what you need to earn, not from what other photographers charge. It takes the take-home pay you want, adds the tax you will owe on it and the yearly cost of running the business, and divides the total by the number of sessions you can shoot in a year.
The result is the lowest price at which the business pays you that income. It is rounded up to a figure you can put on a price list. Charge less and something has to give: more sessions, lower costs or less pay.
Count the hours nobody sees
A two-hour shoot is rarely two hours of work. Culling, editing, exporting, uploading the gallery, travel and messages often take longer than the shoot itself. The hourly figure in the result divides your session price by all of those hours, which is why it can look low next to the headline price.
That hourly rate is the fair way to price a mini session. Work out how long one mini slot takes from first message to delivered gallery, and charge that many hours at the same rate. A mini session priced as a fraction of the shooting time alone will pay you less per hour than a full one.
Questions
How much should a beginner photographer charge?
Enough to cover your costs and pay you for every hour the session takes. Run the calculator with a lower income target and the number of sessions you can realistically book now, then raise the price as your diary fills.
How do I price a mini session?
Add up the time one mini slot takes, including editing and admin, and multiply by your hourly rate. The calculator does this for you. Minis are worth running when you can book several slots back to back, which cuts the travel and setup time per client.
Should I charge by the hour or by the session?
Clients find a session price easier to say yes to, and it stops them watching the clock. Use the hourly rate behind it to check that longer or more involved sessions are priced in proportion.
What business costs should I include?
Camera bodies and lenses spread over the years you will use them, insurance, editing software, gallery hosting, travel, studio hire, props, marketing and accountancy. Leave out prints and albums if you charge for them separately.
Should I take a deposit or a retainer?
Yes. A date held for one client cannot be sold to another, so most photographers take a deposit at booking and the balance before the session. The deposit calculator works out an amount.
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Put your session prices on a booking page
BookingMachine shows your packages with prices, lets clients pick a date and takes the deposit, so an enquiry becomes a paid booking without the back and forth.