The Cost of Custom Photography

I hear a lot about how expensive photography is, and you know what??  People are right!  Photography is expensive, both for the business owner and for the client.

This past year, I had to take a look at what I was charging and figure out how to become profitable, because let’s face it, I wasn’t!  I may be a stay-at-home-mom first and foremost, but if I wanted to continue running my business and justifying sending my kids to daycare one day a week during the fall months (a photographer’s “busy” season) so I could get work done, I knew I had to start charging more.

So, I spoke to a couple successful photographer friends, researched CODB (cost of doing business), and really crunched the numbers good.  I analyzed the time I spent on each of my sessions, almost down to the minute, to give myself a better idea as to where in the world my time was going, and this is what I came up with….

Time spent working on a session from start to finish:

(**hours vary based on the type of session and how many images are included in each gallery**)

• 1-2 hours communicating with the client, before and after the session
• 1 hour preparing for the actual session (researching locations, styling a session beforehand, etc.)
• 30-45 minutes travel time to and from session, depending on the location
• 1-4 hours spent photographing the actual session (newborn sessions typically take anywhere from 2-4 hours)
• 1-2 hours at the ordering session
• 18-22 hours culling, editing, uploading, and backing up images
• 1 hour posting to social media and blog post
• 1 hour spent on ordering products
• 1 hour packaging products, getting them ready to deliver to client

Total time spent on 1 session:   25-36 hours

After taxes and insurance for my business, at my current prices, I make between $8 – $12 an hour.  Can you imagine what I was making before I changed my prices?!  Yikes! :/

This amount doesn’t even factor in the thousands of dollars that I have invested into professional gear, props, and workshops to better my craft.  This is also the amount that comes without any benefits, such as health insurance.  I’m really raking in the dough, ehh?  😉

Anyway, after that was all said and done, I realized that I was really giving a lot of myself to my clients, and by charging what I was charging at the time, I wasn’t making any bit of profit in the end.  I knew right then and there that things needed to change if I wanted to continue giving my clients a good experience, as well as continue to learn and grow in this business.  So, in January I decided to raise my prices, as well as start offering products.

Here’s the thing about products….

I am a digital junkie just like anyone else out there, and I probably own more Shutterfly books than most people, but I do know the value of quality images, and having quality art hanging on your walls.

Recently, my oldest boy had a friend over at our house, and his friend made a remark about how many pictures we had up on our walls, and how his house didn’t have anything like that.  My husband, who HATES having his picture taken, and will bring along a 6 pack of beer with him when it’s time for our yearly family photos, just to deal with the madness that comes with corralling 4 crazy children, lovingly said, “Well Heidi is a photographer, so she likes having pictures up.”

That right there says it all.

Why do you have to be a photographer to have your most prized possessions hanging up on your walls?

So, I got to thinking….I never had prints made before, either, unless it was for my kids’ scrapbooks.  I just never had the time, or didn’t know how to design a wall collage correctly…whatever the excuse, I just didn’t do it.  It wasn’t until I had my youngest child that I started getting things printed….REALLY BIG….and hanging more stuff up, which is why I decided to start offering products in my packages.

So there you have it…prints, canvases, albums, birth announcements, Christmas cards, and yes, even digital files…I do it all now, because it’s all important to me.  I want to give my clients something tangible that they will LOVE to display in their homes.

As for the money aspect of photography…a lot of people really don’t understand what all goes into custom photography.  Heck, I know I didn’t when I first started in this business!  So much more goes into it that is all behind the scenes, which is why I decided to write this post.  When my clients are paying close to $500 for my services, it isn’t for the 1-2 hours that I saw them and took their pictures…it is SO much more than that.  I put my all into every single one of my sessions, and I believe that my clients are definitely getting their money’s worth when they hire me.  🙂