I often see posts on social media asking for a photographer that “doesn’t charge an arm and a leg”. I am always tempted to reply with a cheeky comment but I never do, even though I seem to fall under the “arm and leg” category. I still feel like I under charge for the amount of work that goes into each and every shoot. It may not look like it from the other side of the lens so I thought I would just try break timings and costs down.
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An Example
I would say a cake smash session definitely takes up the most time in terms of prep, cleaning up and editing. So once a client contacts me we go back and forth with ideas to make their session unique to them and to their child. This can take quite a while if the parent isn’t sure what they would like to do. Once a theme is decided on I then search for props and pictures, either by going to the shops (the closest ones to me are 30 minutes away), often I need to go to 3 or 4 shops to find what I need. If they want something specific on the background I can use my Silhouette to cut it out which takes further time, otherwise I can buy clipart, get them printed and cutout and posted to me. All of this can take anywhere from 2 hours (if I’m lucky) to 8 hours if I can’t find what I am wanting then I often have to figure out how to make something myself (look out for my dinosaur egg video which probably took about 6 hours to make).
Once I have everything I want I then set-up for the shoot, this can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, depending on if I need to make a balloon garland or a complicated set up. I then need to fetch the cake, taking another 20 minutes. The shoot itself can last anywhere from 30 minutes with a happy child to 1 hour 30 mins with a child that needs more time to warm up. Then comes the cleaning up, this can take a good hour to scrub everything – cake can be very messy.
The editing of these shoots can take me about 4 hours – I am a perfectionist, I want each image shown to my clients to be the finished image. Once edited I upload them to an online gallery for them to view and choose the photos they want.
So we are looking at, on average, about 15 hours of work. This doesn’t even cover the material costs involved with the set-up.
Yes, a family lifestyle session can take a lot less time with the planning aspect, however there is skill involved in that too, trying to get the shy child to relax, the overexcited child to sit still for 2 seconds, the moody teenager to co-operate takes time. All of this has taken me many many years to figure out and master. Not to mention the edit skills which are often required to create a perfect finished image. If one child is looking at me and smiling and the other child is looking away I will photoshop 2 images together to create something I know the parents will love.
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Breaking it down
As for costs of running my actual business. I have been doing an online course recently about what we should be charging as photographers to make a profitable business and according to their online calculator I am charging less than a half of what I need to charge to be profitable. However living in South Africa, it is just something that is. Photography is a luxury.
Just to dive into the costs of a professional photographer a little….
Last year my computer which I loved, just couldn’t keep up with my editing anymore, it was only 5 years old. So I got a new laptop which cost me R45000. Thank goodness I have a laptop now so I can keep editing during our endless hours of load shedding.
I have 2 cameras which I use for each shoot. I have 4 different lenses (the value of which is about R140,000). These are serviced regularly (a service has cost me anywhere from R2000 to R10000). I try service them twice a year. I need to start upgrading all of these soon too.
External hard drives, I need 2 of these a year and keep all my shoots backed up on at least 2 externals. These cost about R2000 a drive.
Every Month I have bills coming off for:
– Photoshop – R200
– Client Galleries – R180
– Client Management Software – R300
– Website hosting – R150
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In Summary
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A bit about training
Obviously being a photographer you don’t need formal training. Anyone can get a camera (or even a phone these days) and call themselves a photographer. The real art of a photographer is much more than just a camera. Before I opened my business I did a year long course while I was still living in the UK. During the course I learnt all about the business of running a photography business. There was A LOT to learn. After that course I went on further courses to try and find my niche. I was naturally drawn towards maternity and newborn photography and studied those genres as much as I could. When handling a newborn baby there is so much that you need to look out for to make sure that the baby remains safe at all times. I have been in business for over 14 years now and I still feel there is so much for me to learn. I have just invested in another online course about Maternity and Newborn photography which I am loving. Every photographer is different which is amazing, there are so many people in this world and so many photographers these days so finding someone you connect with and where you love their style is bound to happen.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. I am simple trying to draw everyone’s attention to the fact that running a profitable and successful photography business is not cheap. Just because we own the equipment doesn’t mean that it’s free to run. Updating everything is definitely needed regularly.
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In Closing
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