How much does a photographer get paid?

I know that prices are a huge deal right now because the economy is hurting everyone. This is especially true for artists like photographers, musicians, designers, and many others. Our art is beautiful and has many purposes, but it ultimately not a necessity to every day living. With so many high quality digital cameras out there, more and more people are choosing to not visit a professional for their photographic needs. This is especially true for weddings.

So with a decline in the number of clients wanting professional portrait/photography services and a decline in both what clients are willing and able to pay for photography, photographers have had to raise prices over the years. But what does it really take to run a photography studio, and at an average of $2000 for a 5 hour wedding here in Salem, what does a photographer really make an hour?

For starters, it isn't $400 per hour! So lets start with overhead. For those who have no business background, overhead means all of the things like utilities, insurance, business licences and registration, studio rent, and anything else that must be done just to be in business before a sale is ever made. Photos By Orion is a bit unusual in that we have a few less overhead costs because we work from a home studio, but in general our costs are the same as any other studio who does portraits and/or wedding photography. I hope this look into a photography business will help not only our potential clients see the value in what they receive, but also those who wish to enter the photography industry to see it really isn't as simple or cheap as they think it is to make money as a photographer.

*WARNING: I am being completely honest and open with these numbers. These are not generalizations of a number of studios or estimations. These are my ACTUAL numbers from last year (2010).*

Overhead:
Business Registration and Licencing: $150 per year

Business Minimum taxes for the State: $150 per year
unlike federal, the state does not allow the same deductions and requires that all businesses pay this minimum tax no matter what revenue they made during the year, even if that revenue is $0.

Studio rental space: $0 per month
we have a studio building on our personal property. For most studios who rent space, the rental is anywhere from $1,100 to $5,000 PER MONTH for the space alone, not including the initial investment in equipment like backdrops and lighting to actually use the space as a studio.

Utilities: $200 per month
again, here we are less than normal because we have a home studio. Besides a phone, we are able to turn off all electricity, heat, cooling, etc. when the studio is not in use. This makes our utilities much less than the average studio which would be closer to $1,500 per month in utilities.

Insurance (both equipment and liability): $1000 per year
Insurance is a must have for anyone in photography. Not only are wedding photographers often required to have a $1,000,000 (yes million) policy to protect any venue we photograph at, but we also must cover our equipment which is very expensive (into the $10,000s) and cover liability in case someone hurts themselves on our equipment or decides to sue us, as has happens ever more frequently in the last 5 years. We do not have a huge policy as far as insurance goes, but we do not have the smallest policy either.

Computer and website expense: $150 per month
This covers the creation and maintainence of our website (which I do personally and do not take a salary for), hosting of our website, expansion every couple of months of storage space for photos taken. If I did not do so much myself this cost would skyrocket. A new web designer and developer would charge well over $500 per month for what I do and a seasoned developer/designer would charge over $1200 per month. Webhosting can be anywhere from the $150 per year we pay to well over $1000 per month depending on who you choose.

Employees: $0
I have only myself and the two other owners who work in our business. I easily have a need for 3 employees, but I can't afford to pay them. None of us take a salary for the 50+ hour weeks we put in.

Advertising: $6000-$?? for the year
Our advertising was over $6000 last year, second only to equipment purchases for us. This included one wedding show in January and one in October ($950 each for a 10x10 booth) with a few props to make the booth look more exciting ($500 per show just to try and attract you!), advertising on ONE wedding website Onewed.com at $200 for the year, and running 2 google ad campaigns for 3 weeks each which made up the rest of the $6000. For a photographer, especially a wedding photographer, these are very conservative numbers. Wedding website are rediculously expensive, especially when they charge you just to be ON the site like The Knot or Bravo.com. Just to give you an idea of how expensive some of these "free" wedding websites are for photographers, here are the numbers I was given when I inquired last year:
The Knot: $500 per month to be listed - no guarenteed placement
Bravo: $1500 for the year to be listed and included in their magazine (base option)
WeddingWire: $360 per month for 2nd page placement, $1300 PER MONTH for first page placement.
MyPortlandWedding.com: $900 for the year to be listed
Perfect Wedding Guide, Wedding Manor, Wedding Bee, wedding solutions, wedding service companies, and a a bunch of other little sites: anywhere from $10 - $300 per month to be listed

I could go on, but I think you get the picture of just how expensive advertising can be, and this was only Wedding websites. There are also a large assortment of portrait photographer websites I would add as well. We photographers feel like everyone is trying to take our money just like our clients do. I personally field several calls per week from companies trying to get me to advertise with them. If I wasn't saying no my prices could be well into the $10,000s per wedding and $3000 per portrait session just to break even!

Ok, so you get the picture of Overhead. I am sure I am forgetting some things like buying new equipment and the like, but I am currently waiting on all equipment purchases until next year at the earliest. So lets add these together and see what it costs to be in business before any money is made.
Total overhead cost for the year 2010: $11,500 (average studio $30,000)

Now we get into what it costs to do a photo session or wedding.
1 hour photo session (our price $150)
30 minute consult
30 minute prep for lighting, background changes, driving to site if on location
1 hour session
30 minute deprep to break down studio set-up or drive back to studio
20 minutes to load photos from camera to computer
2 hours to cull (take out the bad pictures) and adjust photos
15 minutes to create online photo gallery for viewing
30 minute consult for client to view photos and make choices
1.5 hours to digitally master photos
10 to prep CD/DVDs
45 min to 1 hour to export photos and put them on the CD/DVDs

Total time needed to do a 1 hour photo session: 8 hours!
Pay per hour: $150/8 hrs = $18.75 per hour not including overhead and costs
Pay per hour with costs:
$150 - $20 gas = $130 - $100 overhead assigned per session = $30/8 hrs = $3.75 per hour that the photographer makes.

5 hour wedding (our price: $1500)
1 hour consultation prior to signing
30 minutes to sign contract
1 hour for phone consultations and questions between signing and site visit
1 hour site visit 2 weeks prior to wedding to scout the area
30 minutes drive time to site the day of the wedding
30 minutes of set-up and prep prior to the beginning of wedding day time
5 hours of wedding photography
30 minutes breakdown after the wedding
30 minutes drive back to studio
1 hour to load photos from camera to computer
3 hours to cull (take out the bad pictures) and adjust photos
30 minutes to create online photo gallery for viewing
1 hour consult for client to view photos and make choices
3 hours to digitally master photos
30 to prep CD/DVDs
1.5 hours to export photos and put them on the CD/DVDs
*note this is with no album creation or prints, only the HRCD*

Total time needed to do a 5 hour wedding: 21 hours!
Pay per hour: $1500/21 hrs = $71.43 per hour not including overhead and costs
Pay per hour with costs:
$1500 - $50 gas = $1450 - $900 overhead assigned per session = $550 - $10x8 assistant cost = $470/21 hrs = $22.38 per hour that the photographer makes.

Take these two per hour times together and multiply it by the number of weddings and portrait sessions we do per year and our photographers makes a grand total of $5,000 per year each ($15,000 total).

Compare that with a minimum wage job which makes $22,500 per year and we do not make much at all. Would You work for less than minimum wage?

So why do we do it? Why to professional photographers like me and my partners work so hard for so little? We LOVE photography and helping people make beautiful memories. It is as simple as that.

Now that you know what we make doing what we love, please don't gasp and drop the phone (which a client did to me last week when she called for a wedding quote) when we quote $1500 for a 5 hour wedding. Remember, it isn't really 5 hours, it is 21 hours of our time and talent.Also, the next time someone says they are a "professional photographer" and offers to do a portrait session for $30 or a wedding for $300 (I have seen both of these prices in the last week), ask yourself where are they cutting costs so much that they can afford to have their prices so low, or are they giving away their talent? If they are giving away their talent, why? Is it really talent if you don't want to charge for it?

I hope you have found this quick glimpse at a photography studio informative and helpful. I welcome any comments (and let the critisizm by my peers and those who don't believe me roll in because I know it is coming for being so honest). The truth is we are all hurting right now. Noone is getting rich off of weddings or photography in general, and costs are only going to go up as the economy continues to struggle.