Photography pricing

kiyamurph · November 2016

For those that are comfortable with sharing, if you did or plan to do maternity, newborn, or family pictures, can you share how much you paid/will pay and what was/is included in that cost? My husband has been doing photography on the side for the last few years and considering he has a full time regular job, he doesn't charge friends for photos or if he did, it was super cheap since he wasn't trying to make a living. It was just an enjoyment thing. Now he's really wanting to turn it into a legitimate business (but still working full time) and we're trying to figure out the best pricing structure. He'll be doing maternity, family, and seniors. Eventually he'll do newborn since he has limited experience with that as of now. We live in eastern WA where the cost of living is much cheaper than Seattle and Portland, so we don't want to charge big city prices, but we also want to correctly price for the quality of his photos, which is excellent. He plans to do both location shoots and studio, which will be located in our house. I know everyone has a different idea of what's reasonable, so I'm curious to find out what others have paid for pics. Many thanks in advance!

jmacd22 · November 2016

I did a maternity session where they had a whole wardrobe there to choose from and different room set ups as backgrounds. It was around 800. Included the editing and digital copies of photos. I live in LA. I've gotten pricing for cheaper but not with the wardrobe options included.

Spartanrd4 · November 2016

My husband does wedding photography so not exactly the same but he charges for example $400 for a 1 hour engagement session. The baby photographer we found charges newborn $750 for a 2-3 hour session....15-20 images. Baby or Maternity $350 for 60 minutes in studio, $495 for family/maternity outdoors (15-20 images) and $599 for senior 2 locations/2 hours (25 images). This is in metro Detroit area. DH and I will take our own maternity photos but I convinced him to let someone else do at least the newborn ones.

kiyamurph · November 2016

Spartanrd4 said:

My husband does wedding photography so not exactly the same but he charges for example $400 for a 1 hour engagement session. The baby photographer we found charges newborn $750 for a 2-3 hour session....15-20 images. Baby or Maternity $350 for 60 minutes in studio, $495 for family/maternity outdoors (15-20 images) and $599 for senior 2 locations/2 hours (25 images). This is in metro Detroit area. DH and I will take our own maternity photos but I convinced him to let someone else do at least the newborn ones.

This is über helpful. I think we've settled on the family pricing but go back and forth on maternity and seniors. There's a big range with other photographers where we live so we're trying to find a middle ground.
@mcdonald-bailey I didn't think about providing wardrobe for maternity. Great idea. Thanks for sharing!

datalover13 · November 2016

I do just part-time too, mostly weddings. Things are mostly cheaper out here in KS, but I'm also way on the lower end. Weddings I do $150-200/hr. It's been awhile since I've done newborns but I'd probably do $200 for as long as I needed up to 3 hours and at least 20 pictures. Engagement/seniors usually $125 for a couple outfits, family sessions $150 same deal. I'm all natural light when not doing weddings so those are outside. Newborns I travel to the family's house. All these would include all digital rights to the pictures with suggestions on where to print.

dizzymom-2 · November 2016

We're doing two separate sessions and one is $400 for an hour session at our choice of location. There is some traveling involved so that includes a travel fee and digital images with printing rights. The second one is $500 and includes an on location mini session, the newborn session (in studio), digital images, and printing rights.

LittleChick2 · November 2016

Lurking from April

I live in Western WA and newborn photography is typically $350-450 for a 3-4 hour session. You might find it helpful to Google newborn photography etc and then check out the investment section of several photographers in your area.

KellyT22 · November 2016

I think you can find packages all over the place in terms of price. I've seen it at $75 per session up to $450 per session (obviously more with packages, but that's just a baseline). My opinion on it find some photographers you love and decide if you're comfortable with their rate. I personally went the cheap route for my wedding and really regretted it. You can't capture these moments twice.

kiyamurph · November 2016

KellyT22 said:

I think you can find packages all over the place in terms of price. I've seen it at $75 per session up to $450 per session (obviously more with packages, but that's just a baseline). My opinion on it find some photographers you love and decide if you're comfortable with their rate. I personally went the cheap route for my wedding and really regretted it. You can't capture these moments twice.

I think you may not have read my post correctly? We're not in the hunt for photographers, just gathering info on what others have paid as my husband and I are starting up a business. We're both still going to work full time but will have this as a side business and want to competitively price our services. The pricing of other photogs in our area are all over the map.

kjd291 · November 2016

Photography is a hard thing for pricing! A lot of it is supply and demand. If you're really talented, have a great portfolio and become well-known in an area people will pay big bucks for you. Soooo---IMO I think starting near the inexpensive end is what I'd reccomend till you built up a reputation, name, kick a$$ portfolio/website.

Spartanrd4 · November 2016

I agree with @kjd291- when DH first started doing weddings he was way cheaper than he is now. He kind of just took whatever he could get until he got a good portfolio going with plenty of positive reviews from clients- worked as a second photographer as well to get some experience also. Now that he has been doing it a couple years he has no problem finding clients of a more higher end who are willing to pay higher prices because his work shows he is worth it. He has his own website, facebook page as well as some other wedding sites for marketing...The number one way people find him is through google and word of mouth so marketing yourself is really important.

kiyamurph · November 2016

kjd291 said:

Photography is a hard thing for pricing! A lot of it is supply and demand. If you're really talented, have a great portfolio and become well-known in an area people will pay big bucks for you. Soooo---IMO I think starting near the inexpensive end is what I'd reccomend till you built up a reputation, name, kick a$$ portfolio/website.

It's sooo difficult! Even harder than coming up with the right name! My husband has actually built a nice portfolio from doing free/ish work, so we'll have lots of photos on the website, but the reputation is definitely the issue since he's not well known in the community. It's hard because we don't want to be cheap to the point where people think the product sucks due to the low price, but obviously we can't price out the wazoo without being well known. It's very difficult to find middle ground. Once we settle on the name and set the prices we're good to go. He already has 4 clients lined up for family photos from word of mouth.

mrsyimster · November 2016

i think it depends on where you are at..
where are you at?! if u are near me i could totally have my Hubby do it
we own a side photography business. So he take say pictures. But i would say it ranges from 200-600
www.livebrightphotography.com
he also took my pictures in the maternity pix AW section.

kiyamurph · November 2016

mrsyimster said:

i think it depends on where you are at..
where are you at?! if u are near me i could totally have my Hubby do it
we own a side photography business. So he take say pictures. But i would say it ranges from 200-600
www.livebrightphotography.com
he also took my pictures in the maternity pix AW section.

Sorry, I'm confused. Are you saying your husband could do our pictures? This isn't what I was asking about. I was interested in what others have paid as we're starting a side business.

catem07 · November 2016

Slightly not the info you're looking for, but to build up his newborn portfolio he could offer to do free photos for a handful of people in your area--maybe find them on a neighborhood FB page or Nextdoor. This is what a photographer friend of mine recommends people do when they are trying to break in.

Now onto the info you're looking for: here's the website for the first google result in my area (Boston). Looks like you're looking at a minimum of $750 for family portraits. I'd never pay that.

Another one says minimum of $850. I'd also never pay that. Note to self--get newborn photos taken somewhere not in the city...

kiyamurph · November 2016

@catem07 Lol! This is one of those times where I'm glad to not live in an uber expensive city like Boston. Sheesh! I was trying to think of people that I knew besides myself that's having a baby soon so my husband can get some practice, but I'll look into my local mom's groups on Facebook. Thanks for the info!

mrsyimster · November 2016

kiyamurph said:

mrsyimster said:

i think it depends on where you are at..
where are you at?! if u are near me i could totally have my Hubby do it
we own a side photography business. So he take say pictures. But i would say it ranges from 200-600
www.livebrightphotography.com
he also took my pictures in the maternity pix AW section.

Sorry, I'm confused. Are you saying your husband could do our pictures? This isn't what I was asking about. I was interested in what others have paid as we're starting a side business.

I totally misunderstood!

I would say between $200-$600 is a good range depending on how popular u are!

Ivorytower2 · November 2016

We paid $300 for newborn shots. Our photographer had a ton of props and it was at her home studio.

Our wedding photos on the other hand... I'm embarrassed to even repeat how much we spent.

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