Pricing And Confidence

When I first started charging for my photography, a lot of it came down to research. Looking at what other photographers were charging, weighing that up against the quality of my own work, and being honest with myself about where I sat. That's obviously subjective, one person's idea of good work is different to the next, but based on what I believed at the time, that's how I judged it. I always had a rough hourly rate in my head, but that was really just a guide. It came down more to what a project actually involved, what the deliverables were, and what I genuinely thought it was worth.

It wasn't only about the shoot itself either. I was factoring in the years spent learning how to take a good photo, knowing my gear inside out, being able to troubleshoot when something went wrong on the day. Things clients take for granted, or just never think about when they're booking a photographer or videographer in the first place.

My pricing hasn't actually changed all that much since then, which might surprise people. I took a break from photography for a few years to build National Sound, the music studio, so in a sense I'm picking back up close to where I left off, a couple of years back into it properly now. As my portfolio grows and I take on bigger clients, I'm sure it'll shift again, and it's always a bit client by client, project by project. You want to be able to accommodate people where you can. But there's always a baseline, an amount I know my work is worth, and that hasn't moved much lately. The real growth happened in the first four or five years of doing this as a paid photographer, that's when it climbed the most.

Early on, when I was working at Jessops and Canon, I did a handful of shoots for free just to build a portfolio, you kind of have to at the start. Then I started second shooting for other photographers, and that's where you really start picking up an idea of what people actually charge. After that, I think you just have to set a price and stick with it. You don't need to keep building up slowly forever, just don't start too low. It's a fun job, but it's rarely an easy one, and there's always more to it than the hours on site. There's prep beforehand, sometimes an hour or two, conversations about the brief, and then editing and post production after. A two hour shoot is never really two hours. You have to quote for the whole job, not just the bit the client sees you doing.

You also have to account for the years spent learning the craft, even if that's only two or three years. Anyone can buy a camera and press a button, it's the knowledge behind it that's actually being paid for. That's quotable. That has a price attached to it, because not everyone can do it.

I've lost jobs over price before, plenty of times, and you've got to be able to live with that. Doing the work cheaper isn't always the right call. Sometimes it makes sense, maybe there's more work down the line from it, or it's something you're genuinely excited to shoot and you're happy to take a bit of a hit for that. But generally, I think you should stick to your pricing. If you lose the job, you lose it, more will come. What people don't always realise is that lower prices tend to attract a certain type of work. If you want to be shooting big corporate jobs, editorial work, travelling to London or abroad, that work comes with a price tag attached, and if you're undercharging, you're simply not going to land it. You'll keep landing the lower end instead. There's nothing wrong with that if it works for you and it's enough to get by on, that's a perfectly valid place to sit. But if you want the bigger clients, the price has to reflect that, and charging properly is often more respected, not less, as long as the quality backs it up. You'll never really know a client's budget, it's usually kept close to the chest, so it comes down to research, understanding the client or company you're about to work with, and quoting accordingly.

As for the confidence to actually say the number out loud, that builds with time. You might have it from day one, but for most people it comes gradually, tied to knowing your own worth and refusing to undersell yourself. There's a premium on doing something professionally, and you have to go in believing that. I still get a bit nervous occasionally, though nervous might be the wrong word, it's more that you don't want to lose the client, you don't want to scare them off. But if someone declines your quote, that probably just means they weren't the right client for you. If it happens consistently, that's a different conversation. Ultimately you have to know your worth, and the confidence to back that up comes with time.