How much to charge for freelance photography

Knowing what and how to charge is one of the toughest hurdles for any freelance photographer. Charge too little, and you risk devaluing your craft, but charge too much, and you might struggle to land clients.

This guide is written to help you find the sweet spot, so your passion for capturing moments through your lens remains profitable. We’ve also outlined how a Wise Business account can help you with everything from invoicing your clients to getting paid in over currencies.

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Hourly, Daily, and Per-Album Pricing

The first important thing to decide is your pricing model. Will you charge by the hour or day for your services, or per album or project?

Every photographer should have a minimum hourly rate. Even if you don’t use this when quoting or billing clients, you can use it to estimate the cost of a particular project based on how many hours of work it will involve.

Just starting out? New freelance photographers often use an hourly rate for day-to-day work. It’s also handy for editing and other post-processing work. Another thing to consider is that if you’re working mainly with individuals or smaller businesses, an hourly rate can also make your services more affordable for them.

For most kinds of work though, freelance photographers use a daily rate - or a flat per-project rate.

For example, you’ll have a set base price for weddings, and the couple can discuss with you any extras they’d like - these will then be billed for at additional cost.

With your day rate or per-project rate as a starting point, you can potentially create tailored packages for your clients.

What's the Average Going Rate for Photographers in the UK?

The average freelance photographer hourly rate is £150.¹ This is according to services marketplace Bark, and is likely for experienced professionals working in all parts of the country (including expensive areas such as London) on high-value work such as weddings and commercial projects.

With that said, the going rate for a photographer in the UK can vary considerably based on experience, niche, project and location. For instance, a new photographer working on portraits and other consumer work could earn a lower rate of around £56 an hour - or an average day rate of around £445 per day.²

Calculating your photography rate

When setting your pricing model, it’s also important to factor in:

Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of the process to calculate your photography rate:

1. Set your target salary. How much do you need to earn per year to live comfortably? Let's say your goal is £35,000 per year.

1. Tally up your freelancing costs. This includes freelancer platform costs, software subscriptions like Adobe Creative Cloud, marketing costs, and anything else you'll need to offer your services. Let's estimate this at £2,300.

1. Tally up your non-billable time. Every photographer has down time and you won't be shooting every day. Factor in weekends, bank holidays, some time off to take a break from work, and sick days. Do the math and you'll find that might be as many as 140 days - and that doesn't include the days you might need for admin, marketing, client meetings and so forth.

1. Calculate Your Minimum Day Rate = Your target salary + freelancing costs, divided by the total number of billable days. As an example, this might be (£35,000 + £2,300) / 170 days = around £219 per day.

To make things a little easier to calculate, you can use an online freelance photography rate calculator like the one made by Visual Education⁵.

Factors that can affect your rate

The type of client you're providing your services to largely dictates how much you can charge.

If you're working with commercial clients:

You aren't just selling a JPG, you're licensing the value that image creates. That means being able to charge more, because your photos are likely being used to promote a product or service to the tune of quite a bit of money.

Usage rights dictate the price. The cost should scale based on duration, territory and media type. Once you know how long they'll use your images for, where they'll use them and what formats it'll appear in, you can dictate your rate accordingly.

If you're working with personal clients (such as for events):

Pricing is normally done using packages rather than complex licensing.

Packages are often based on the duration of the shoot, the number of edited images delivered, and any physical products like prints or albums.

Examples include weddings, family portraits, headshots, and pet photography.

Finalising your rate card

If you’re working on a per-project pricing model, you’ll need to know what the going rates are for each.

We’ll take a look at some of these below, including the average day rates for weddings, events, portraits and more. This should help you to put together your rate card.

Commercial/corporate

If you’re working with a large company, brand or marketing agency, you can usually charge around £500 to £1,000 for a full day shoot³. As we discussed earlier, you may also want to use usage rights pricing, if the photos will be used for adverts or the company website.

Events

You may want to bill events on a half-day rate, as so many of them tend to be evening affairs. A typical rate is between £250 to £500 per half day³. There’s also the option to charge a slightly higher fee for events held at anti-social hours, and don’t forget about travel expenses if relevant.

Weddings

Photography rates for weddings vary considerably, as most professionals put together a custom package for the happy couple. This is why the typical rate ranges widely between £500 and £3,000 per day³, as it may include extra prints, image delivery, both day and night coverage and lots of other additional services.

If you want to keep it simple though, you may want to stick to a set freelance photography album price for weddings.

Portraits

For portraits and headshots, you may price these as a per-album package. But if you’re charging per day, a typical rate is between £400 and £800³.

Food and lifestyle

If you’re photographing food and restaurants for lifestyle magazines, websites and social media, you can usually charge around £400 to £600 per day³. This increases significantly though if you’re a specialist high-end food photographer, as this is seriously niche work.

Pets

Lastly, we have pet photography. For this surprisingly popular niche, typical rates are between £50 and £250 per session⁴ It can increase for pricier locations such as London, and of course for the number of pets you’re tackling in one session. The number of prints, frames and props can also affect the cost.

Invoice clients and manage your earnings with Wise Business

When it comes to having a cost-effective way to get paid by clients for your photography services, Wise Business sets the bar high.

Not only can you create and send custom invoices directly from the platform, but you can also get clients to pay you in whichever of the 40+ currencies that are covered by Wise Business.

What’s more, you can convert your earnings between these currencies whenever you need to at the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Quick, easy, and secure payments with an array of features to helo freelance photographers manage their money. That's Wise Business.

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FAQs

Are graphic design hourly rates negotiable? 

Yes, in most cases it’s absolutely fine to negotiate with your client on the price. 

It’s important to set yourself a minimum rate, which is what you need in order to cover your expenses and earn a living. But above this, you can discuss rates with the client and find an acceptable compromise. 

Should I charge more as a graphic designer in London? 

Location will play a part in how much to charge for freelance graphic design, simply because prices and the general cost of living are higher in some parts of the UK - London being a prime example. 

Just bear in mind that clients may not necessarily want to pay London prices if they themselves are based in a cheaper part of the country. 

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