One of the toughest things to grasp for most photographers is pricing.  Some photographers just copy someone else’s pricing, some photographers just guess, and some photographers actually do the work needed to come up with legitimate pricing.  The latter is what will set you apart and what will allow you to build a solid, financially stable business that will withstand the test of time.  If you want to own a business and work for yourself, you HAVE to learn how to run a business for profit.  And pricing is a huge part of that.

If photography is “just a hobby” for you, then please don’t go into business and actually charge money for your services.  Shoot for free.  Shoot for fun.  Just because you have a fancy camera doesn’t mean you need to start a business or charge money to take pictures for people.  If you aren’t willing to price yourself competitively and you don’t see the issue with undercutting everyone else in the industry just to make a little side cash, you are actually doing more harm than good.  There are people who rely on photography to pay their bills and the industry needs to sustain a certain level of professionalism.  If you are not willing to pay taxes, pay for your business + retail licenses, pay for insurance, or price yourself as a professional, then you are devaluing the wedding photography industry in your community.  If the photographers in the wedding photography community and/or wedding industry don’t value themselves, how can they ever expect clients and other vendors to do so?

Pricing is hard.  There are SO many variables that go into it.  One of the first things you should do is take a look at what other full-time professionals are charging in your particular area.  Most wedding photographers will list a starting price on their website, so this is a good measure of what the industry is currently sustaining.  Here in Charleston, experienced wedding photographers are charging anywhere between $6000-10,000+ for wedding photography.  When I first started my business in 2012, I was told that in order to be taken seriously in the wedding industry here, my pricing needed to be at least $3000… in 2012.  That number is probably closer to $5000 now in 2023.  So that’s where I started… but only after also doing some more pricing work in order to make sure I was pricing myself correctly.  And not just pricing myself where someone else told me I “should” be.

Another thing to look at, in the case of wedding photography, is what the average wedding costs in your area.  Photography is supposed to take up 12% of the total wedding budget.  The average wedding in South Carolina is $33,937 according to The Knot – although I’d venture to say that weddings in Charleston are exponentially higher than that.  Some venues in town are $12k alone – without rentals, food, drinks, tents, florals, decor, planner, hair and makeup, etc!!  I’ve heard many planners in town say that they really can’t execute a wedding for less than $50,000.  So, if we’re using that *modest* pricing figure from The Knot, 12% of the average photography budget in SC would be $4072 at a bare minimum.  And remember – that average wedding cost figure is almost undoubtedly higher for Charleston weddings, in particular, so $4072 is actually on the low side.

Another pricing exercise that is very important to do is to list out all of your business related expenses.  These would include:

• Equipment + Liability Insurance
• Bookkeeping + CPA Services
• Health Insurance
• Car Payments
• Business Licenses
• Permits for Shooting
• Organizational Memberships like PPA
• Website Template/Design
• Website Domain Hosting
• URL Registration
• Second Shooter + Assistant Payment* (will vary based on how many weddings you shoot + how much you pay your second shooters + assistants)
• Private Editor Payments* (will vary based on how many weddings you shoot)
• Cloud Storage + Backup
• Studio Management Subscription
• Album Design Software or Album Outsourcing
• External Storage
• Client Gallery Subscription
• Adobe Creative Cloud Subscription
• Business Internet
• Social Media Software + Subscriptions
• Allowance for New Gear + Equipment
• Allowance for Gear Repairs + Cleaning
• Professional Membership to Canon CPS
• Marketing Materials
• Client Gifts
• Vendor Gifts
• Advertising

Be generous with your expense numbers.  It’s better to over-estimate your business expenses than to under-estimate them!!  Once you have listed out all of your yearly expenses, you should sit down and think about what you’d like your goal take-home salary to be – meaning, the amount you want to make AFTER taxes.  You should always give yourself a goal take home salary that is realistic and well above minimum wage.  You should be invested in strengthening the wedding industry that you are a part of – not undercutting everyone else in the industry “because you can”.  Even if your spouse makes enough money to support you at the moment, you never know what can happen.  I found myself in the middle of a messy divorce last year, but thankfully I have always given myself a goal salary that could maintain my lifestyle… independent of my ex-husband’s salary.  Remember, the goal of having a business should always be to support yourself and remain financially independent, even if you’ve got a strong partnership with someone else.  Divorces happen.  Spouses lose their jobs.  Spouses get sick.  Life can throw you a curve ball, so run your business like your livelihood depends on it… because it should!  Otherwise, this is just a hobby and, in that case, you shouldn’t be charging money period.

You’ll also want to think about how many weddings you’d like to shoot each year.  When it comes to how many weddings you’d like to shoot each year, be realistic.  It’s better to under-estimate this number than to over-estimate this number.  Once you have those numbers figured out, use this equation to figure out your minimum pricing:

[Goal Take Home Salary] + [Goal Take Home Salary * .153] + [Goal Take Home Salary * .3] = Total $ Amount Needed To Achieve Goal Take Home Salary

The above formula will take into account your self-employment taxes (15.3%) and your estimated income taxes (30%) to give you a total cash number.

Now, take that figure and ADD it to the sum of all of your business expenses:

Total Yearly Expenses + Total $ Amount Needed to Achieve Goal Take Home Salary = TOTAL REVENUE NEEDED

Now, divide that TOTAL REVENUE NEEDED number by the number of weddings you’d like to shoot each year and this will give you the minimum price per wedding you need to charge.

Example:

Total Expenses = $75,000/year

Goal Take Home Salary = $50,000/year

Self Employment Taxes = $50,000 * .153 = $7650.31

Income Taxes = $50,000 * .3 = $15,000

Total $ Amount Needed To Achieve Goal Take Home Salary = $50,000 + $7650.31 + $15,000 = $72,650.31

TOTAL REVENUE NEEDED (total expenses + total cash for goal) = $75,000 + $72,650.31 = $147,650.31

Number of Weddings You Want To Shoot Each Year = 35

Total Revenue Needed / Number of Weddings = $4218.58

Minimum Price Per Wedding = $4218.58

So in this example, the photographer needs to charge AT LEAST $4218.58 to pay all of their expenses and meet their goal take home salary.  If they shoot less than 35 weddings, they will not make as much money as they wanted.  If they shoot more than 35 weddings, it’s basically a bonus!

Now that you are armed with all of this practical business knowledge, you can accurately price yourself within your market.  Pricing yourself based on actual information versus trial and error or – even worse – just guessing will ensure that you are building a solid, profitable business while also valuing yourself – and the industry – as a whole.  Especially when you live in a destination wedding hot spot, like Charleston, pricing yourself in a way that strengthens the industry versus undercutting everyone else is so important.  We should all be working together and valuing ourselves as a whole so that our clients + other industry vendors value us as well.

That being said – when you’re just starting out as a wedding photographer and are still in the portfolio building stage, I highly recommend offering “portfolio building discounts” versus listing lower pricing.  For one, it signifies to potential clients that you are serious and sets an expectation that you aren’t just a “cheap” photographer.  List your full pricing (as determined above) on your website and pricing guide, but offer discounts to the first few couples who inquire and book with you.  This strategy rewards those couples who are “taking a chance” on you by giving them a lower rate – but they know what your full pricing is, so they feel like they are getting a great deal.  This method also ensures that you aren’t stuck in the “cheap photographer” category because your prices were never actually low!

If you have any questions or want more business information, leave a comment below or feel free to reach out to me for one-on-one business coaching sessions!