Why Are Professional Photographers SO Expensive: Let's Talk About It

Lets talk about it..



Something I always want to get into is the concern revolving around the price tag you see when you book a photographer. Whether it's a wedding, a portrait session, or branding, why are these people charging you so much?

As a disclaimer, I (and any reasonable photographer) hold no fault towards potential clients who just aren't aware of what exactly goes into the process of these numbers. Heck, as a photographer, I've found it hard to understand why I would charge people some of the numbers I had seen professional photographers quoting people for. But then I got into it.

Like.. deep into it.

And now it makes a little more sense. I kindly request you come along, bare with my rambling, and soak in a little bit of why these photogs aren't trying to rob you blind, they are trying to make a living.

For the sake of understanding, I will be using "you" as a general term! ❤︎

*click here if you don't like fun and would rather just see the numbers*

In the year 2026, I fully understand everyone is struggling. It's hard out there financially, and I would never blame anyone for not wanting to partake in a luxury service in order to protect their financial security.  I mean, I'm a photographer and I'm not sure how much I would even invest in a photoshoot. But that just isn't a desire for me. For some people, it is. I'm on the side of the camera that I'm on for a reason!

Some people are ready and willing to pay whatever they have to for the right photographer. And of course, that is easy to book.

Others have a hard time understanding what exactly goes into that high pricing, and why it is so. Trust and believe, I don't blame you for not getting it either. It is hard to conceptualize what goes on behind the scenes in an industry you aren't necessarily a part of if no one explains it to you. So I wanted to do that for anyone who may be interested!

Firstly, you see us work for the hour or two you book your session for (or 6-12 hours for a wedding), what you don't see is the timesheet once your photographer leaves the location.

You don't see the hour or two it takes to go through hundreds of pictures, vetting the right ones. Catching any half closed eye, phone in front pocket, blurry moving body part, and so on.

You don't see the upload time into the editing software (don't even get me started on how long it takes to fully upload hundreds and even thousands of RAW photos from a wedding into Lightroom ha ha ha)

There's the editing time per photo. For a regular session, this may take 2-5 minutes per photo. Unless your photog has to bring that bad boy into photoshop, then you're definitely looking a little longer. Especially if photoshopping isn't exactly a specialty of your photographers.

If your photographer is like me, they've probably condensed 500 images (if they're an over shooter) to 40-60 from their SD card to their editing software. Normally, clients don't get all of those photos (unless they're working with an IPS model which is a whole different monster), so say you end up with 25 images. We'll go middle ground here, best case scenario, 25x3, and your photographer is spending roughly an hour and 15 minutes on editing your session. This is very, very generous.

Now we're at about 3 hours and 45 minutes of work (roughly) for a one hour photoshoot. (imagine a wedding)

Say your typical photographer charges $300 for a one hour session, with client receiving 25 photos in a gallery. Thats about $80 an hour you're paying your photographer, and thats crazy!

But no.

That's $80 an hour you're paying your photographer if you don't include drive time to and from the location, or the time photographers can spend scouting the perfect location for their client, and if you don't include the gas used, and if you don't include job costing for the softwares used to upload and edit your pictures, or the softwares used to run the website that your receive your gallery on.

There's the fee to pay with a card online to streamline the process for clients. We pay monthly/annually to own our website. Some photographers pay designers for logos, website, and advertising. Unfortunately, we aren't all a jack of all trades. I went to school for graphic design, but it's been a long time, so I'm out here doing. what. I. can. with these graphics, advertisements, and website!

Oh, how could I forget? Taxes.. taxes... TAXES! A photographer that you should be booking has insurance. Multiple kinds. Liability and equipment are the most important, and these occur monthly or annually, but I'm sure you're familiar with how insurance works.

And speaking of equipment, if you don't know the pain of staring down the barrel of a receipt for a new camera body or a professional lens, I envy you. (You'd think the bodies consistently cost more than the lenses, but the price tag of a couple of my lenses have given me chest pains in the past.) And the equipment doesn't stop at bodies and lenses for a professional photographer. Flashes, lens covers, SD cards (they're like... $100 now :') ), batteries, things to hold those SD cards and batteries, lights, backdrops, reflect0rs, camera bags, laptops/desktops... I'm out of breath.  

Some more costs I guess I could throw into the list. Internet (very much required), a place to do your work (an office, a studio, or your own home it doesn't really matter. None of those things are free), the cost of the phone/plan you use to do business, training, business cards, advertising, camera and lens cleaning (yes, this is a thing. It prolongs the life of your $4,000 camera and $1,000 lens).