What Determines Your Pricing? | Nashville TN Family Fine Art Photographer
Scrolling through my website you may fall in love as you're scrolling. Then you click on "Pricing" and your jaw drops a little bit.
"Why does she charge so much for just taking pictures?" Trust me, I asked the same thing before I ran my own business.
Well, here is the full explanation for everything that goes into my pricing, explaining why my prices are listed as such.
Firstly, let's start with equipment. The camera I use is the Canon 5D ii. A quick Google will show that this camera is $1600-2300. My backup is a Canon 6D, which is about $1200.
Next, the lenses. Each lens has a different purpose. Some are for closer shots, some for farther shots, and some for wider shots. I have a few different lenses. My 24-70 mm lens retails at about $1200. My 70-200 retails at $1300. My 50 mm is my first lens I ever bought and was $80. My other lens is an 85 mm lens, which is $350. I also have a flash, which is $75.
Altogether, my equipment costed me over $5000. This isn't really bad for a business startup, but this isn't where it ends.
Every year, business licenses and insurance is also needed. Of course, car, phone, and house bills are necessary as well.
When this is all said and done, my bills come to about $20,000/year. Taxes for small business owners take about 30%.
So in order to make about $30,000 profit per year, I would have to make double that.
At that rate, I would need to make about $1250 per week. If I have 3 sessions a week, that would average out at about $416 per session.
It's also important to include that editing is a huge portion of my pricing! Editing one single picture can take up to 1.5 hours depending on what is involved!
Please note, that photography is more than just business and profit, however. There is also a lot of training and talent that goes into creating your art masterpieces. When I was a customer, I asked the same question you did! Why does it cost so much?
I hope this answers your questions!
Much Love,
Nicole :)