Photography & events
Product Photography Pricing Calculator
Prices product photography, where styling and setup take longer than shooting.
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
Per-image or per-day pricing built from setup, styling, shooting, retouching and any compositing, plus props and equipment. The setup for a product shot frequently takes longer than the capture, which means the first image of a setup costs far more than the tenth.
What moves the number
- Setup and styling time per product or setup.
- Number of angles or variants per product.
- Retouching and compositing requirements.
- Props, backgrounds and equipment.
Where this one goes wrong
Pricing per image at a flat rate misprices this work badly, because images sharing a setup are far cheaper to produce than the first one, and a client ordering many angles of one product is asking for something very different from one angle of many products. Price by setup and by image within it. Retouching requirements also vary enormously, with clean catalogue work and composited lifestyle imagery being different jobs entirely.
Before you quote
- Price by setup as well as by image.
- Establish the retouching standard required.
- Confirm the number of angles or variants per product.
Questions
About this calculator
Why is flat per-image pricing wrong for product work?
Because images sharing a setup are far cheaper to produce than the first one. Many angles of one product and one angle of many products are very different jobs, and a flat per-image rate misprices both.
What takes the time in product photography?
Setup and styling, frequently more than the capture. Getting a product lit, positioned and presented correctly is the work, and once a setup is right additional frames within it are quick.
How much does retouching vary?
Enormously. Clean catalogue work with background removal and colour accuracy is a different job from composited lifestyle imagery, and the standard required has to be established before quoting rather than discovered during delivery.
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.