What Should You Charge?

Ok so this has been covered a million times all over the internet but it still gets asked all the time. Basically you need to start with your cost of doing business; you can get help figuring this out with NPPA’s online calculator here. You also must understand how photography is priced.

Charging for actually taking the image (creative/photographers fee) plus expenses is most the time only half of the cost of an image. The other half is the licensing fees. Licensing is basically renting the image to a user based on how and where they want to reproduce the image. If a client wants to use the image in a billboard in time square I would charge far more than for a local business who wants a billboard down the street in their small town. Think viewer ship here (Who and how many people will see the image). I also charge a different rate for a small local publication than I would for a major national magazine. You get the picture?

You can get lots of help with developing your price from sources such as stock sites (Getty & Corbis) and there are a few different software programs available that can help such as FotoQuote, Hindsight’s Photo Pricing Guide and Blinkbid. There are also some photographers like John Harrington that allow you to get price estimates for usage directly off their website.

There is also a more personal aspect of what to charge that only you can develop. This should be based on your quality and skill the area in which you live and your target markets. If you live in a small town you probably are not going to be able to ask for the same day rate (photographer fee) as if you lived in LA, people just can’t pay it.

I also don't believe it is a great idea to post your prices up on the internet or give them out to whoever asks. What you are going to charge is between you and each individual client.



Alleh Lindquist | Portland Fashion & Advertising Photographer