💲 Photography Pricing Calculator
Quote with confidence. Add your shoot and editing hours at your rate, fold in expenses, add a markup on costs, and see the labor cost, subtotal, and the total price to put in front of your client.
💲 Price Your Shoot
What is a Photography Pricing Calculator?
It builds a defensible quote from the ground up. Enter the hours you'll spend shooting and editing at your hourly rate, add the expenses the job carries, and set a markup on costs — it returns your labor cost, the subtotal, and the final price to charge.
Use it to stop undercharging, to compare a session-fee model against an hourly one, or to check that a quote actually pays you for editing and leaves the business a margin — not just your time behind the lens.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How should I price a photography shoot?
Start from the total time the job actually takes — shooting plus editing — and multiply by an hourly rate that reflects your skill and market. Add every expense you incur (travel, props, prints, a second shooter), then add a markup on top so the business, not just your time, gets paid. This calculator walks through each of those steps.
Do I really need to charge for editing time?
Absolutely. Culling, retouching, and delivering images often takes as long as the shoot itself, and it's real work your client is paying for. Photographers who price only for time behind the camera routinely underearn. Enter your editing hours here so they're built into the quote from the start.
Is the percentage a markup or a margin?
A markup: it is added on top of your covered costs. That is not the same as a profit margin, which is profit as a share of the price. A 20% markup on a 500 subtotal quotes 600, and the 100 profit is 16.67% of the price, so the tool shows that figure too. The markup covers business overheads and growth: gear replacement, insurance, software, marketing, and the risk you carry. Set it from your own overheads, not break-even.
What counts as an expense versus labor?
Labor is your time — the shoot and the edit — billed at your hourly rate. Expenses are pass-through costs specific to the job: mileage, parking, prop rental, printing, album production, or paying an assistant. Keep them separate so you can see your true profit and adjust your rate or markup with clear eyes.