Calculators
Photography Session Pricing Calculator
Price a photography session from shooting time, editing time, travel, cost of doing business and your target hourly income.
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing uploaded
The tool
Enter your numbers below. Results update as you type, and nothing leaves your browser.
Everything you enter stays on your own machine. Nothing is sent to us or to anyone else, which you can confirm in your browser network tab.
What people use it for
- Setting portrait, family or headshot prices
- Checking whether current prices are sustainable
- Pricing mini-sessions
- Comparing with competitors
About this tool
What the Photography Session Pricing Calculator does
A one-hour shoot is rarely one hour of work. Preparation, travel, culling, editing and delivery often take three or four times as long. Pricing from the total hours, plus your share of business costs per session, gives a fee that actually pays you.
Formula
- Total hours = shooting × (1 + editing ratio) + admin + travel
- Fee = hours × target hourly ÷ (1 − tax) + cost of doing business + products
Worked example
Using the starting values in the calculator above:
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Shooting hours | 1.5 |
| Editing hours per hour shot | 2.5 |
| Admin, prep and delivery hours | 1.5 |
| Travel hours | 1 |
| Target hourly income | $50.00 |
| Cost of doing business per session | $120 |
| Prints or products included | $0.00 |
| Tax allowance | 25% |
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Session fee | $637 |
| Total hours per session | 7.8 |
| Effective hourly before tax | $66.67 |
How to read the result
Work out your cost of doing business once a year: equipment replacement, insurance, software, marketing, studio and accounting, divided by sessions.
Batch editing and culling presets reduce the editing ratio, which raises your real hourly income.
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Questions
Questions about this tool
The things clients actually want to know — costs, timelines, ownership and what happens after launch.
Enough to cover all your hours, business costs and taxes; calculate it rather than copying market prices.
Often two to four hours for every hour of shooting, depending on style.
Your annual business expenses divided by the number of sessions you shoot.
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- 2023