How much should I charge for a photo session?

I have a small photography business but would like to branch out. I've done mostly friends and friends of friends ect. I have been highly successful and would like to branch out. What is a fair price for an hour or two photo session?|||When you are running a business, you have to cover your costs and pay yourself.





Here are, generally, the things to consider when calculating package values.





1- Sales Tax


Depending on your area you might have to pay sales / service tax. I don't know where you are but in Canada, Ontario ... I have to collect 13% harmonized sales tax (HST) and remit it to the feds.





2- Direct shooting costs.


Travel, admission on site (if applicable), equipment rental, cost of the materials the clients get at the end (prints, albums, dvd's ...).





3- Income tax.


40% - 50% of your income (after sales taxes) should be put aside to pay income tax ... or there's about ... should go back to the feds. This amount will vary depending on where you are. I actually put 50% aside to be safe.





4- Business operating costs


You need money to replace gear (memory cards, batteries, cameras ...), to buy more gear (better lenses, lenses more appropriate to sports, portraits .... flashes ...) pay for telephone, internet, web hosting, domain name registration, advertising, contract printing, printing of portfolios, for a booth at wedding fairs, baby shows, rent/mortgage on your studio, equipment insurance, liability insurance, paying an accountant, legal fees, office supplies, business cards ...





I put half of my PROFIT (left over after you take out sales tax, income tax and direct costs from the shoot) back into the company.





5- Pay yourself


You then take what you have left over and pay yourself.





I'll use a wedding as an example. The amounts here don't reflect what I charge and are used just as an example.





So let's say I have a 10 hour wedding.


That's


1 hour meeting the client the first time.


1 hour meeting the client to sign the contract


10 hours shooting


5 hours post processing, culling and converting the images


1 hour meeting the client to hand over the final product.


Total hours: 18 hours





I want to pay myself about 18$ an hour minimum.


So the portion of the basic package described above that would go to pay me would be 324$





Then I would add another 324$ to go back into my business





Then I would tack on another 628$ for income tax (I do 50%)





Now add on the direct costs for the shoot. Let's say you rented some lenses and a flash (120$Can) and are calculating about 33$ in travel (just do 0.55$ / km of travel for gas and wear and tear) so that's 153$





Total cost: 1409$ + sales tax.





Now you also need to add on things like prints, DVD's, albums ... and so on so forth. Use the same logic for those. Cover you costs + what you want in pocket for it then half that into income taxes, a quarter into your pocket, a quarter into the business and finally, tack on sales tax.





18$ before tax might sound like a lot but you have to consider that this is intermittent work. Unless you are literally SHOOTING 37.5 hours a week, you will have a lot of time where you are NOT generating income ... time you will be spending at trying to drum up business (wedding shows, baby shows ...) and so you need a padding to help you survive those dry spells.





My suggestion is go see someone who can help you create a solid business plan. You need to also know what your governments requirements are in terms of licences, tax reporting, insurance requirements. You will also need to know bout legal issues and will need solid contracts to protect yourself from litigation and to protect your copyright.