Guandu wetlands, Danshui River, Taiwan

The other day a good friend who works as a travel writer was asking me a couple of questions about pricing photography work. Pricing can often seem like a tricky, mysterious subject but it doesn’t have to be. For today’s tip, I’ll take a look at one aspect of pricing, namely CODB or Cost Of Doing Business.

Before we go any further, let me remind you that my eBook Tips, Tricks and Pics is available to purchase for $5.

Photography can often seem like an expensive hobby, so it’s no surprise that many amateurs have dreams of being able to make money from photography. What is also no surprise is that in many instances, they have no idea how to go about setting fees. As artists and creative people, just thinking of business practices, pricing negotiations and the like is often akin to selling our souls to the devil, but if you wish to pursue a professional life in photography, you need to understand and deal with this reality.

The first thing you need to consider is your cost of doing business. CODB is simply how much money it costs you to stay in business. Included in this calculation is everything that you need to spend, including your salary, wages/salary for assistants and studio managers etc, taxes, insurance, office/studio rent, photo equipment, computer equipment, Internet, phone, office supplies, advertising/marketing, postage, retirement funds, repairs, vehicle expenses, travel costs, subscriptions, education/development and more. You can calculate this yourself online at the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). Your cost will differ according to a whole range of different circumstances, so what works for one person may be too high or too low for another.

One key thing to remember is that this cost applies equally to days that you are shooting and days that you aren’t. If you in the office all day attending to necessary administration work for example, it costs you just as much as if you are out shooting. Once you have worked out your annual CODB, then figure out how many jobs and assignments you can realistically take in a year and divide the CODB by the jobs. You’ll then have a starting point for what you should be charging. It’s important to note that this is just for your basic photographers fee – it doesn’t include the licensing and usage fees for the actual images, post-processing fees and so forth. I’ll look at them in a future post.

Talk to other photographers in your area and marketplace, particularly ones that have been in business awhile (and are successful) and see what their CODB is. There’s a good chance that the first time you calculate yours, there’ll be something that you overlook.

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