Photography & events
Family Photography Pricing Calculator
Prices family sessions, where seasonality concentrates the whole year.
Result
Overhead and margin are taken as shares of the selling price, which is why the cost is divided rather than multiplied. Adding 15% to cost does not produce a 15% margin. Gross profit is what is left after the cost of doing the job. Overhead comes out of that: the building, the office wages, the vans, insurance, software and advertising. A healthy gross margin still loses money if overhead is larger.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
The session fee against the cost of delivering it, with products considered separately. Family work clusters heavily into a short autumn season, which means the deliverable capacity in those weeks rather than the annual capacity is what limits the business and what the pricing has to reflect.
What moves the number
- Sessions deliverable within the peak season.
- Editing hours per session.
- Whether products are included or sold separately.
- Rescheduling for weather and children.
Where this one goes wrong
The peak season is short and the editing backlog from it runs into the holiday period when clients want their images, which means capacity in those weeks has to be managed rather than maximised, and a photographer who overbooks delivers late at exactly the worst moment. Rescheduling is the other reality: weather and small children both cause it, and a policy stated in advance is better than a decision made under pressure.
Before you quote
- Set a booking limit for the peak weeks based on editing capacity.
- State a rescheduling policy for weather and illness.
- Make the session fee cover its own cost.
Questions
About this calculator
Why does family photography capacity matter so much?
Because the season is short and clients want their images for the holidays. A photographer who overbooks the peak weeks delivers late at exactly the worst moment, which damages the referrals the business depends on.
What rescheduling policy makes sense?
One stated in advance, since weather and small children both cause it. Having the policy written means the decision on the day is simply whether the condition is met rather than a negotiation under pressure.
Should products be included?
Either model works, and the session fee should cover its own cost regardless. A session priced below cost in the expectation of a product sale is performed at a loss whenever the sale does not happen.
The formula
price = direct cost / (1 - overhead% - margin%)
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How to use this calculator
- Labour cost ($). Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $60.
- Other direct costs ($). Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%). Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 15%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to price to quote, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Labour cost | $300 |
| Materials cost | $60 |
| Other direct costs | $0 |
| Overhead rate | 22% |
| Target net margin | 15% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price to quote main result | $571.43 |
| Direct cost | $360 |
| Overhead recovered | $125.71 |
| Net profit | $85.71 |
| Gross margin | 37.0% |
| Markup on direct cost | 58.7% |
Quote $571.43 to cover $360 of direct cost, recover $125.71 of overhead and leave $85.71 of net profit. That is a 58.7% markup on cost.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only labour cost, this is what happens to price to quote. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Labour cost ($) | Price to quote |
|---|---|
| $150 | $333.33 |
| $225 | $452.38 |
| $300 example above | $571.43 |
| $450 | $809.52 |
| $600 | $1,048 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Labour cost ($)
- Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $60.
- Other direct costs ($)
- Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%)
- Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 80, starting at 15%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Price to quote | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Direct cost | A money figure. |
| Overhead recovered | A money figure. |
| Net profit | A money figure. |
| Gross margin | A percentage. |
| Markup on direct cost | A percentage. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.