Photography pricing calculator

Start from what your business costs to run for a year and what you want to pay yourself. The calculator spreads that over the sessions you can actually shoot, adds what one session costs you directly, and finds the price that keeps your target margin after payment processing fees. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

Your year

Yearly business costs ($) Salary you want ($ a year) Working weeks a year Sessions a week

One session

Shoot hours Editing hours Travel + admin hours Travel + deliverables cost ($) Target margin % Processing %Fixed fee per payment ($)Payments per client

Yearly business costs means gear depreciation (what you paid ÷ years you will use it), software, insurance, website and galleries, marketing, phone and accounting. Use the cost of doing business calculator to add them up. Enter your own payment processor's rates; the 3% + $0.30 shown is an example input. Taxes are not included. The price is rounded to the cent before fees and profit are worked out.

How it works

Sessions per year = weeks × sessions a week. CODB per hour = (costs + salary) ÷ (sessions per year × hours per session). Total cost = CODB per hour × hours + travel and deliverables. Price = (total cost + fixed fee × payments) ÷ (1 − margin − processing %). Your salary is already inside the cost, so the profit is extra money for the business.

Worked example (the values above): $6,020 of yearly costs plus a $45,000 salary is $51,020 to cover. 46 weeks × 3 sessions is 138 sessions, so each session has to carry $51,020 ÷ 138 = $369.71. A 5.5-hour session (1.5 shooting + 3 editing + 1 travel and admin) means 759 working hours a year, so your cost of doing business is $51,020 ÷ 759 = $67.22 an hour. Add $65 of travel and deliverables and one session costs $434.71. With 3% + $0.30 on each of 2 payments and a 20% margin, the price is ($434.71 + $0.60) ÷ (1 − 0.20 − 0.03) = $435.31 ÷ 0.77 = $565.34. Processing takes $565.34 × 3% + $0.60 = $17.56 and $113.07 is left as profit, 20.0% of the price. Charging $448.77 would only just cover costs and salary.

Booking fewer sessions raises the cost of every session, because the same year of costs is shared by fewer clients. Try the wedding package calculator for longer jobs, or see all calculators.