The Cost of Photography

So one of my most frequently asked questions is ‘why does photography cost so much?’ so I thought I’d write a little post to try to explain where the costs come from.

As newborns are my most frequent type of shoot I thought I’d use that as an example.

So using average figures from 2014, the average spend is approx £400 with me on newborn photos:

This is my full time profession so instantly 20% of that goes to tax and 10% to NI

So that’s £280 left.

My camera equipment and props that I bring to your home cost around £4000, sadly they don’t last forever and need to be updated, serviced or replaced so the average cost per shoot to me for this is around £40 (I’ll spare you the maths that got me to that point)

Down to £240

There’s fuel and car expenses to get to and from your home £6

Down to £234

I’m full insured for your protection and mine and invest in training, both safety like first aid and photography every year. Average out at approx £5 per shoot

Down to £229

My website and promotion also costs money again averaging at £4 a shoot

Down to £225

There are other costs like phone, office hire, packaging, the list goes on – but per shoot £6

£219

Then there are the material costs of producing what you buy  averaging at £85

£134

and finally I need to get paid so per hour here’s how I spend my time on one newborn shoot

20 mins on calls, email etc to get everything arranged

1 hour the night before planning your shoot, sorting props and packing up the car

Time to travel to your home and back (average) 40 mins

Average shoot time 3.5 hours

Time to edit your gallery 4 hours

Business time e.g. admin, accounting, marketing etc which if we are breaking this down needs to be averaged out per shoot – 1 hour

time per shoot – 10.5 hours

Therefore I earn approx £12.75 per hour

I truly love photography, and, if I won the lottery I’d probably offer my services for free as a I do genuinely enjoy it that much, however I’m a single mum with bills to pay and a little person to feed so I don’t think £12.75 is too much to expect to be paid for my expertise and talent 🙂

And don’t forget, I don’t get any paid holiday, health or medical cover or even a pension taken into those costs.