Demystifying Commercial Photography Costs: A Guide for Marketing Managers and Design Agencies.

When choosing a photographer for a commercial photographic shoot, there are many things which a marketing manager or design agency needs to take into account, including: reviewing the quality and style of the photographers’ portfolio; whether the photographer has previous experience working in their industry sector; and, perhaps, the personality of the photographer, can they work alongside their staff (who may be apprehensive about having their picture taken) to help them feel at ease. They may also want to consider how well recommended the photographer comes to know if they can trust them with their upcoming photo shoot.

Whilst photographers throughout the UK will want to be judged on the quality of their images showcased in their portfolio displayed on their website, as well as the values of their business and even the positive return on investment that their images can help deliver, one crucial element for anybody looking to hire a specialist commercial photographer is the price.

Being British, very few people like publicly discussing money and the cost of their services. This is not helpful for those looking at the cost of commercial photography before they hire our services, or those trying to plan budgets for a new financial year!

However, marketing managers or design agencies looking to hire a photographer need to have an idea of how much of their marketing budget they need to allocate to hire the services of the right photographer for the job.

It’s impossible to put an exact figure here for the cost of a photo shoot, but, hopefully, this post will offer some guidance towards a rough ballpark figure, which will be helpful when reviewing your budgets. If you want to arrange a photographic shoot and would like me to produce a photographic proposal, including the price, please arrange an initial online meeting here.

To simplify things, a number of years ago, I introduced photographic packages and have developed four main ones:

The Essentials PR and Marketing Photographic Package (this includes up to one hour of photography on site), starts at £175 + VAT.
The Extended PR and Marketing Photographic Package (this includes up to four hours of photography on site).
The Chris Vaughan Photography Drone Imaging Package (this is solely for a drone-only shoot, as the name suggests!)
And The Complete Photography Package (this includes up to eight hours of photography on site), starts at £575 + VAT.

These packages are built around my time spent at the location of the photographic shoot, but the details of each package may vary and can include: a pre-shoot meeting, processing and delivery of the images in addition to the photographic shoot.

A photograph of a Nikon D5 sat on a reflective surface.

It is only possible to reference a starting price (£175 + VAT for an essential package, and £575 + VAT for a complete package) as there are other considerations which may affect the price.

The most obvious one is travel! While I’m based in Lincoln, I regularly work with clients across Lincolnshire and the East Midlands (particularly Nottingham), the North West (I’ve got clients in Manchester and Liverpool), Leeds and London! But it’s not as simple as building a mileage calculator. Wherever possible, I’ll use public transport - both for the cost-saving advantage for my clients and the environmental benefit!

Does a shoot require me to be on-site especially early, or are multiple days together required? Perhaps this might necessitate me staying overnight, again, affecting the overall price of a shoot.

Would specialist equipment need to be bought or hired in for the shoot, for example, a specific colour of photographic background? I keep a small selection of coloured backgrounds in the office, but it would be impossible to stock every colour available.

A shoot may also require me to bring in additional team members to assist or hire professional models or actors - something that couldn’t be calculated in an online widget.

I firmly believe my pricing contributes to the excellent return on investment, and, to me, it wouldn’t be fair to increase my starting prices across the board for all clients to cover any additional expense just in case one of the variables mentioned above is required for a photographic shoot. Whilst this standardised price would allow me to promote prices on my website and other marketing material, it would penalise my clients who don’t require any addition to what is included in my packages as standard.

One thing I have never done, since launching my business, was charge extra for the standard processing of images. This is included in all of my package options!

A challenge photographers often face when giving a price for a commercial photographic shoot to a client is the cost. I believe my pricing delivers fantastic value, especially considering the return on investment.

One way I look at it is a football shirt for a top-flight English club can cost in the region of £110 - £125. Fans will buy this to wear when they go to watch their team play, then buy a new shirt the following season! If they only wear it for every single game (38 games a season), this works out at £2.89 - £3.29 per wear. I place no restrictions on the ways my clients can use their images, so, from a commercial photographic shoot, images can be used across all marketing material - including website and social media, and for as long as they wish to use them!

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