How to Set the Right Price for Your Photography Services

What’s the right price point for your photography services?

It’s one of the most common questions photographers ask—whether they’re just starting out or have been in the industry for years but still lack confidence in their pricing.

Let’s face it…pricing can be tricky. It’s not just about picking a number and hoping for the best. It’s about understanding the value you provide, what you need to make to sustain your business, and how to balance those factors with your market and goals.

In this post, we’ll break down how you can approach pricing in a way that builds your confidence and ensures you’re meeting your financial needs. We’ll also direct you to tools to help get better pricing in place for your business.

The Importance of Pricing with Confidence

Before we can really talk heavily about pricing itself, we need to step back and think about what happens when we have good pricing in place. In simple terms: we get more confidence, which enables us to perform better in everything we’re doing for our business – we often will attract more leads, book more clients, you name it as a result.

As a business owner, you have the right to set your prices based on demand and your financial needs. If you’re getting a lot of inquiries, that’s a good sign that your services are in demand, and it may justify increasing your prices.

But pricing isn’t just about demand. It’s also about making sure you’re bringing home enough to not just survive, but thrive. Ideally, your prices should allow you to meet your basic financial needs, save for the future, and enjoy your life outside of work. After all, the goal is to run a business that supports your life—not one that drains you.

So…how do we get more confident in our prices?

We need to be able to set prices that simply make sense, and fortunately we can look at some objective measures to help us.

Understanding the Pricing Spectrum in the Photography Industry

Photographers across the world charge vastly different amounts for their services.

I think we all know this (but sometimes don’t want to actually admit it)

You’ll find everything from beginners offering free shoots or $100 sessions, to established pros charging $3,000-$5,000 for weddings, all the way up to luxury photographers who charge tens of thousands of dollars for high-end events.

Last I heard, high end celebrity photographer Jose Villa starts around $50,000 for weddings. Crazy, huh?!

The question is: what’s the right price for you?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer.

Your pricing should be influenced by several key factors, including the value of your services, your cost of doing business, your business goals, and your competition. Let’s talk about those things now!

5 Key Factors That Influence Your Price Point

1. Perceived Value: The value of your photography is not just about the final product—it’s about how you’re presenting your brand, your client experience, and how you’re showcasing your work. Ask yourself: would you hire you? The more value your services appear to have in the eyes of your clients, the more you can charge.
2. Cost of Doing Business (CODB): At a minimum, your pricing needs to cover your cost of doing business. This includes your personal salary, business overhead, and taxes. If you’re charging less than what you need to operate, you’re putting your business at risk.
3. Business Goals: Some photographers want to charge higher rates and take on fewer, higher-quality clients. Others prefer to keep prices more accessible to attract a higher volume of clients. Both approaches are valid, but knowing which one fits your goals is crucial for setting prices that work for you.
4. Brand and Experience: Clients aren’t just paying for photos—they’re paying for the experience of working with you. If your branding, client experience, and social proof are strong, clients will be more willing to pay higher prices.
5. Competition: While you shouldn’t base your prices solely on what others are charging, it’s important to know where you stand relative to your competitors. If you’re priced higher, make sure you’re offering something unique that justifies that difference. If you’re priced lower, it could be a sign that it’s time to raise your rates.

Finding Your Pricing Sweet Spot

Your ideal price point is a balance between what people are willing to pay and what you need to charge to meet your financial goals. To do this, you’ll want to consider:

• The value you offer to clients
• The cost of doing business
• Your short-term and long-term goals for your business

Ultimately, your pricing is part of your overall business strategy. It signals your value and sets expectations for the type of experience clients can expect when they work with you.

Keep in mind, price is not the only thing your clients are considering when they are deciding whether to work with you or not. It’s a factor, not the factor – and by offering enough value (and putting it on display) – people will pay just about anything to work with you.

If that feels too good to be true, we highly suggest checking out the Shoot and Thrive Business Course suite since we cover a ton of ways you can make your value more frontfacing in your business from improved branding, improved client experiences, better sales and marketing, and so much more.

Pricing and Client Demand

Your pricing should reflect the demand for your services.

Clients generally fall into three categories when deciding whether to book you:

1. Take it or leave it: They’re not committed and feel like they have plenty of other options.
2. Interested but with options: They want to book you, but they’re still shopping around.
3. Only want you: They’re completely sold on your work and are willing to pay your price.

Most photographers fall into the first two categories.

The goal is to move toward the third—where clients feel like they have to work with you, and price becomes less of a deciding factor.

Strengthening Your Pricing Strategy

The strongest pricing strategies are backed by a solid understanding of your business finances and a clear brand message. By focusing on what makes your business unique and building a strong client experience, you can charge prices that reflect the value you bring to your clients.

If you want more help refining your pricing strategy, our Shoot and Thrive Financial Management Course walks you through the process of setting prices, understanding your CODB, and giving you the tools to build a sustainable, profitable business including custom built pricing calculators and an exclusive online community so you can get more support from our team. We’ll see you there!