Providing (or hiring) Photography as a service requires a minimum fee which is calculated the same way as any other business.
Divide that by 230 and you have your average daily minimum requirement.
Why 230? … 5 days x 52 weeks, minus 20 days vacation and 10 bank holidays = 230 🙂
This is also assuming you have daily paid work, print sales or licensed image income 😉
Social photographers often work for 2 days in order to generate 1 complete day’s portrait work and Wedding photographers will work for 1-2 weeks on each wedding, but spread over a 6 month period.
We also have to take into account that photography is often seasonal. Busy summers and quiet winter months. Plus there are many days when business owners have to work on accounts, marketing, meetings, networking, testing, blogging 😉 and so on …
None of which is time generating a direct income.
So….. below you’ll see I made a simple table showing estimated costs from a hobby photographer up to a studio +1 assistant where the photographer wants to earn the UK National Average salary of £24,000.
The numbers look a bit whacky, but thanks to the lovely tax man they do add up.
I even kept it conservative by choosing the lowest marketing budget where it should really be the biggest spend (existing business owners will know of the many tax benefits, but I’ve kept it simple)
So there you have it.
Try it with your own expenses and numbers and you’ll find your own minimum day rate 🙂
I should point out that I’m not taking anything away from highly skilled hobby photographers, but if someone is hiring you for work then you should at least get insurance to protect yourself, your equipment and also your client … and also put a proper value on your skill.
… and pay tax 😉
Thanks Donald.
Thanks for the comment – I did wonder if someone would mention that 😉
Yes I agree and that’s where licensing comes into play.
The license will determined the value of the image to the client, but because it’s such a broad variable I opted to leave that out the calculation.
Social photographers that sell digital copies or a DVD with images should include a “right to reproduce” license (i.e. make prints) with the files, but I don’t know many new photographers that protect themselves or protect their clients with the proper paperwork.
CW
Good points.
Just remember, a photograph has a value that is above and really disconnected from any of the realities of the photographers business.
An advertising shot is worth what it is worth regardless of the day to day financials of the photographer. It should be valued for what it is used for, and how it is used and what the use will bring to the client.
If we are to go strictly by how much we have invested, then a photographer who can live within limited scope can charge a lot less for the same photograph than someone in a larger studio.
No.
The photograph has the same value to the client no matter WHO shot it or what their financial status is. It is that value that must be considered after this well done chart above is done.
Good post.