It seems like everything is expensive these days and we’re always strapped for cash. Being a grad student with loans, I get it! It can be hard to understand why certain things can’t be cheaper or why certain places hiked up their prices. While I may not completely understand all the economics behind a product or service’s price, I can empathize. I look at the numbers it cost to do business, the price of gear I need to replace five years later, the programs I need for management and editing, and it certainly adds up! Instead of boring you with the details of all that goes into a photographer’s pricing, mainly because it varies with each photographer (and numbers are involved ;)), I give you three overall categories that go into pricing!

The most valuable resource in this world

If there’s one thing I learned in my elementary school days, it’s that time is worth more than gold. Time is something we as people can’t get more of. It is a finite number for each person, and this is why it’s so hard to put a price on time; you can always earn more money, but you can’t get back time. So when it comes to the cost of photography, we are spending our time to do our work. Time spent on a session doesn’t just begin and end with your session; there is a lot of behind-the-scenes business tasks going on! It takes time to respond to initial inquiries, email back and forth with clients after booking, and to bookkeep. It takes a lot of time to edit, sometimes more than eight hours depending on the photographer’s editing system. It takes time to update our website, social media, and write blog posts to create content for our audience to enjoy and to market ourselves. Oftentimes, we are a one- or two-person show wearing all the hats of a business, and it is extremely time-consuming. We spend a lot of time outside of shooting to better serve our clients, and that time is factored into our price!

Materials—more than just gear

As my uncle, who is also a photographer, once told me, photography is an expensive hobby. No kidding! The camera body alone can range between $500 to $5,000+. Not to mention lenses themselves can range between $250 to $3,000+ a piece. The more expensive ones are the newer models and perform better than those in the lower end of the range. No matter how much the camera body and lenses cost, we have to maintain them; that means sending them in to get cleaned, calibrated, and general maintenance to keep them in excellent working shape. Sometimes life happens and we need to get them repaired. Like any electronic device, camera bodies and lenses wear with time and eventually need to be replaced. Cost of gear factor into our price, from how much it costs to do general maintenance on them and preparing for possible repairs to replacing them down the road!

Additionally, we have laptops or desktops where we do our editing and that requires some dough. There are also software programs we use for client management systems and editing. It’s actually more cost-effective to have client management systems instead of looking for free ways to do it because often the free ways require more time, and paying for our time to use them ends up costing more than the yearly price of a program that automates and streamlines these processes. Also, these systems free us the time that is better spent focusing on our clients, building those relationships, and finding ways to better serve them! I won’t list out all the programs we have to pay for to do photography work, but remember that there is so much more than just an editing program!

The nature of business

Lastly, we are a business and businesses need to make a profit! For some, photography is their sole source of income. For others, it may be a supplement to a full-time job they have or to their spouse’s income. Whatever the case, we see photography as a creative outlet to serve others and to help pay bills, put a roof over our heads, and feed our loved ones☺

These are the three general areas that go into a photographer’s pricing! Like I mentioned earlier, it varies with each photographer because they have their own systems and client experiences, but these three categories are universal to photography and pretty much any business☺ I hope this was helpful in understanding what goes into the final cost of photography services and why it may seem “expensive.”