How to price your photography services

Pricing is the part most photographers dread. Charge too little and you burn out. Charge too much without explaining the value and clients walk away. This guide covers how to set prices that pay you fairly, then how to present them in CoreHue so clients choose with confidence instead of haggling.

Start with what a shoot actually costs you

Before you pick a number, add up what each booking really takes. A price that only covers your shooting time quietly loses money on everything around it.

Account for:

• Your time. Not just the hours on location, but consultations, editing, culling, emails and delivery. Editing alone can take two or three times the shoot length.
• Hard costs. Gear and its replacement, software, insurance, travel, second shooters, props, prints.
• Business overhead. Your website, this software, accounting, taxes, marketing.
• A real wage. What you need to earn per booking to make this a living, not a hobby that drains you.

Add those up and you have a floor. Your prices should sit comfortably above it, not at it.

Factor in your market and your value

Your costs set the minimum. Your market and your experience set the ceiling.

• Look at your local market. A wedding photographer in a major city and one in a small town serve different budgets. Research what photographers at your level charge nearby.
• Price for your experience. A photographer with ten years and a strong portfolio can charge more than someone shooting their first paid season, and should.
• Sell the outcome, not the hours. Clients are not paying for time. They are paying for photos they will keep for decades.

Offer two or three levels, not one number

A single price gives a client one decision: yes or no. Two or three clear levels change the question to which one. That is a much easier yes to reach.

A structure that works for most photographers:

• An entry level that covers the essentials at your lowest price.
• A middle level with more coverage or deliverables. Make this the obvious best value. Most people pick the middle option.
• A top level with the works. Even clients who do not buy it make the middle one feel reasonable by comparison.

Keep the differences easy to scan: more hours, more edited images, an album, a second shooter. Three is plenty. More than that and people freeze.

Use extras to grow the booking

Extras let a client start at a level that fits their budget and build it up themselves. They also lift your average booking without raising your base prices.

Common photography extras:

• Extra coverage hours
• A second shooter
• Prints, albums or wall art
• An engagement or pre-event session
• Rush delivery
• Extra edited images

When the client chooses their own extras, the upsell feels like service rather than a sales pitch.

How this works in CoreHue

There are three places a price lives, and they do different jobs.

1. Items: the things you charge for

Payments → Items is your catalogue. Each item is a Name, an optional Description and an optional Price: Wedding coverage, 8 hours, Second shooter, Commercial licence, 12 months.

Build this first. An invoice line takes its name from this list, so the names your clients read stay the same and you never retype a line again. Proposals and bookings can also take a typed one-off name. Leave the price blank on anything you quote case by case, and the list shows a dash.

See Items.

2. On the service: one price, plus add-ons

A direct booking or mini session service has one price, because the client is buying a specific slot. You set Price per slot on its pricing tab, along with the duration and the tax.

Add-ons are the extras a client can take while booking. Each add-on has a name, a price and an optional description. Switch on Let clients choose quantity and the client gets a stepper. An optional Maximum per booking stops anyone adding fifteen of something. A service can carry up to 30 add-ons.

See Add-ons.

An inquiry service works differently, because nobody is buying anything yet. Instead of a price to pay, you choose how the price is shown on your public page:

Setting	What the visitor sees
Fixed price	The amount, plainly
Starting at	The amount as a minimum
Per hour	The amount with an hourly qualifier
Don't show a price	No figure at all

"Starting at" is the usual choice for weddings and commercial work, where the real number depends on the job. "Don't show a price" filters nobody out and invites more inquiries. That may or may not be what you want.

3. On a proposal: where levels and choices live

A proposal is where a real quote happens. Its Items section takes three kinds of row, and this is how tiered pricing gets built:

• Included item. Part of the price, not optional. The base coverage.
• Add-on. An extra the client can take or leave. Allow a quantity where it makes sense.
• Client choices. A named group where the client picks exactly one option. This is your two or three levels: name the group "Coverage", give it three options, and the client chooses.

The client sees the choice group under "Pick one of these options" and the add-ons under "Pick any of these options". The Subtotal and Total update as they choose.

The proposal also carries the payment, in its Payment section behind a switch. Payment type is either Full payment or a Payment schedule. A schedule gives each instalment its own labelled row, with its percentage of the total and a due date. Proposal payments are set as percentages, because the total isn't settled until the client has chosen.

See Creating proposals.

Present prices so clients say yes

• Lead with what they get, then the price.
• Show the levels side by side, which a proposal does for you.
• Let them choose their own level and extras rather than reading numbers off a flat PDF.
• Answer the price question in your first reply. Inquiries that get "let's set up a call to discuss pricing" go cold. Attach your rate card, or send the figure.
• Make accepting the next step. A proposal carries the agreement and the payment, so there is no gap between yes and booked.

Next step

Set up your items first. Then build one proposal with a choice group in it. That single proposal becomes the pattern for every quote you send afterwards.

Questions about pricing your work in CoreHue? Email us at [email protected] and we will help.