Product Photography : Charge for product photography (2022 pricing guide)
Wondering what is the standard pricing for product photography? If you are a beginner or just starting in product photography you should understand what pricing you may get from clients when you start your career and what’s the standard pricing plan for product photographers in the modern age. And after this entire article, you’ll be able to define How much to charge for product photography yourself!
For the last 9 years, we are tirelessly working for ThePhotoFix and we have gained a lot of experience in the sector of commercial freelance photography and product photo editing service.
Let’s discuss some of the lessons we have learned regarding product photography pricing and how clients act with us.
How Do Product Photography Service Providers Differ?
Well, Product photography rates vary from service to service. The very first step we took at the starting of our career is deciding the type of product photography which will best fit our needs. For example, product photography has generally two types of photograph studios.
- Local Independent Studio.
- Full service dedicated studio.
I’m not going to distinguish the difference between them. Both of them have their pros and cons. What you have to do is choosing the service that will perfectly meet your needs. Let’s break some more points to make this product photography pricing guide more clear.
Local Independent Photography Studios
Don’t think much about How much to charge for product photography. We will have to acknowledge some key factors before we determine the pricing for a photographer.
If you have ever hired a professional photographer for your wedding or to take a beautiful family portrait then you have already worked with an independent photographer. These photographers offer a range of services by sharing a studio with others – often while working from home.
Pros of local independent photography
- You have multiple independent photography options and therefore the main requirement is taking good photos. (The hassle of commercial photos are always tough)
- The negotiation of product photography rates per hour or per photo becomes flexible when dealing with one person.
- The salty headaches of shipping, communication, or traveling become minimized by being hired by local customers.
Cons of Local Independent Photography
- Plenty of independent photographers doesn’t offer individual or local photography because of bargaining and place-related issues.
- Independent photographers may lack the portable accessories and the skill to photoshoots in any situation and anytime.
- More time gets consumed while setting studio and optimizing things for independent photographers. They are busy which may cause delays.
Full-Service product photography studios
If you are willing to work as a full-time photographer with a professional studio then choosing a full-service photography career might be the right choice for you. You typically get a good and fixed monthly or weekly commercial product photographer salary with agencies.
In general, these types of studios are more than an agency, offering a variety of services and handling bigger projects of other mid-level companies or eCommerce giants.
Pros of full-service product photography studios
- You have all equipment near your proximity.
- Product photography dedicated studios can offer lower photography day rates.
Cons of Full-Service product photography studios
- The shipping cost will be higher if the studio is far away (not local)
- Limited choice of the studio may lead you to have to compromise on style and shooting
How are product photography services charged?
Wondering how much do photographers charge for photoshoots?
I know your curious mind would get satisfied by the direct answer but believe me, there are still some key factors to determine the price.
Now Finally, Let’s discuss the product photography pricing guide below and get the answers to all your questions.
By the hour or day
Plenty of people nowadays are interested to know How much to charge for product photography
Depending on the day or hour, the price for studio-oriented photographs varies. As you would expect, this method costs a flat hourly or daily standard photography rate. For instance, a studio could charge $150 / hour or $1200 / day for still images. On the other hand, for 360 exact images, they could charge $200 / hour or $1600 / day (because they require more accessories and specialized equipment)
In cases, if your project has special image requirements that vary from product to product then it is harder for a studio to estimate daily or time-specific production. In this stage, studios usually opt for hourly or daily photography rates.
We highly recommend our readers not to go for an hourly or daily pricing basis arrangement with their product photography service provider. In this way, it becomes difficult to budget and there’s no ceiling on your cost. Rather than, one should refine their image requirements and make the photographer understand what things you exactly need for each product category. In this way, photographers will be able to quote your project price by product or by image.
By the Product
With this method, the photographer will charge according to per image of the product. For example, at $20 per product for 100 products, the total project cost is $2000.
With this “by the product” method, the photoshop service provider allows you unlimited images per product. This is a beneficial method for you but bad-minded photographers could end up producing more images of a specific product than your budget.
The photography pricing sheet or structure comes with two Important conditions:
- The photographer charges specific product photography rates per image if the number of images exceeds the maximum or minimum amount. This secures the photographer if the customer wants too many images per product.
- Each product category will feature its per-product rate. For example, a project for a cycle company where the subject is a cycle could be charged at a different freelance photography rate than small things like pedals and other accessories.
“By the product” pricing plan usually goes through a tier. The table below could give you a better concept regarding the pricing plan by the product.
| Amount of Products | Price per Product |
| 0 – 5 | $50 |
| 6 – 10 | $55 |
| 11 – 20 | $50 |
| 21 – 50 | $45 |
| 51 – 100 | $40 |
| 101 – 200 | $35 |
| 201 – 500 | $30 |
| 501 – 1,000 | $25 |
| Over 1,000 | $20 |
By the image
Quite similar to”by the products” this method charges you a price for each image produced. Suppose if the rate of photography per image is $6 and you have 200 products and you want a total of 300 images then the total project cost would be $1800.
Interestingly, most product photography service providers prefer this pricing structure for mainly two reasons:
- It gives them the best price because they incur every time they capture, edit, QA, and format an image.
- They get paid for every single image they produce. Not like ‘” by the product” method where the number of images is regardless and a flat rate per product.
The “By the image” method works and suits fine for customers as long as they invest their time analyzing the image requirements.
Here also the price goes through a tire. Below is an example of how it looks like.
| Amount of Images | Price per images |
| 0 – 10 | $20 |
| 11 – 30 | $18 |
| 31 – 60 | $16 |
| 61 – 100 | $14 |
| 101 – 300 | $12 |
| 301 – 600 | $11 |
| 601 – 1,000 | $10 |
| 1,001 – 2,000 | $9 |
| 2,001 – 4,000 | $8 |
| Over 4,000 | $7 |
What should I charge for the product photography
Right to the question, how much should a beginner photographer charge?
When You work with professionals, execute with the studio and other best accessories of photography your pricing gets higher automatically with your experience. (Which means the experience is a factor when it comes to salary)
Because of no space limitation and all the equipment in proximity, the hassle becomes minimized for studios. But studio that focuses on product photography can offer lower product photography prices
The pricing plan varies from service to service. When the product is an eCommerce listing product, the photographer rate per image should be $20-$50 depending on the complexity of the image.
A custom freelance photographer will cost between $500-$3000 a day + other expenses. However, photography is an art, and the pricing mostly depends on the market, project complexity, photographer reputation, and your area.
If you are a beginner level photographer and you are interested in freelance independent photography then offering huge discounts would be a good decision (but it depends upon you)
When I started my photography business we offered a flat 20% discount for a month and in this way, we had about 85 customers in the first month. And after that 20% of them became our regular clients because of our honesty, quality, and accessibility.
You can grab more attention if you release some packages like 360 images at $800 + editing ($200) or one-day shooting at $1000 + editing + 50 free images.
The above photography package pricing examples are just for a little concept. You should make the pricing and package plans according to your needs.
Initially, you could search for product photographer jobs or opportunities on freelance platforms like Upwork, Freelancer.com, or online has made it easy for us to sell our photographs to thousands of people.
Two Product photography pricing models
The pricing plan for a product photography project should be based on the type of the project and the situation of the market rate (the market pricing may fluctuate often)
From the discussion above, we have got to know that product photographer usually bills their shoots in two ways; either per shot or by a day rate. per photo, the method is mostly used by e-commerce and creative photos are based on a day rate.
E-commerce Product Photography Pricing
Your concern regarding how much to charge for product photography will get more clarified once you read the specific pricing plan for eCommerce
E-commerce photos have a big place in the photography space. Most studios that focus on e-commerce products usually bill the “by the photo” method. Product photography with white background ranges from $20-$50 for high reputation, good-skilled, and equipped studios. They can even upcharge for more complex photos.
Getting 2-3 photos per product for most of the businesses is enough. E-commerce shops should at least budget $200-$300 per product’s images needed to create a full product listing.
Large companies or enterprise-focused catalog studios handle huge projects with different image requirements. These kinds of studios are generally transparent about their pricing. A client should approach them with over 8k images. And there might be a photographer price list for different categories of products.
Custom product photography pricing
For unique or creative photoshoots you will need a custom photography service. And the billing plan of custom photography is typically a day rate + production expenses.
It takes multiple days of negotiation, plans, and preparations for professional photography productions and you’ll most likely need to stay at the shooting spot on the day of shooting.
For example, with a creative product photographer, a 10-hour day rate would be $500 based on experience and can go as high as $3000 with the average rate being at least $1500-$2000. But this cost doesn’t include other expenses like production, buying and returning props, meals, styling options, models, location, or other extra fees that go into the creation of a photoshoot.
I recommend a client to expect to pay between $2000-$4000 for a day of commercial product photography like this and perhaps more depending on the complexity.
When bidding on a project businesses should keep in mind to be careful with their RFP (request for proposal) and be very particular about the image requirements, placement, and type of photos. That’s because creative photos specifically create 2-5 final photos per product depending on the complexity of the project.
Photography pricing strategies for photographers
The value of photography is all about skills, perception, and abstraction. A photographer should feel the reason for why he is worth it. How much do photographers make or the concern of salary must not be a feature of a good-minded photographer? Instead, one should research image requirements, be passionate and work hard. When you have skills, money is a matter of minutes only.
But never bill less than your cost to complete the shoot. Some beginner photographers think giving a big discount to clients may think them to hire them again. But that’s wrong in common sense. Your reputation gets lower this way!
Professional photography prices could always be high when the photographer’s reputation is good enough. Sometimes it’s not unlikely that two photos of the same product are billed at a different rate where the images are pretty similar. This is because there are still potential paths to get to the final photo.
In a situation when you have no customer requirements or production needs, which means you could photograph the same photo in your own house using the same techniques. Therefore it is fair to create similar photos in both environments despite you have multiple options for choice.
You might get a little curious at this stage. The question does arise that if you could take a photo free of the bill whereas a professional photographer charges a bill for the same photo, what’s the value of the photo? The answer is that the photo doesn’t contain any inherent value other than the buyer assigning you to do it. That’s why the answer to “How much to charge for product photography” entirely depends on how you. The more the photo is appealing the more you get the pricing.
When would clients love you as a photographer?
The above part is important for negotiations and pricing strategies. Your professional photoshoot prices must meet what you think it’s worth and that should be equivalent to what your customer believes that it’s valuable.
If you feel like you won’t get paid enough with the initial negotiations with your customers you should research those specific customers that for what reason they think you are overpriced. If the customer has a budget problem then the matter is different but if the customer is willing to pay more for well-qualified photos but not for you then you may have vulnerabilities. And you have to find out your problems.
For a beginner-level photographer, discovering How much to charge for product photography takes time and experience and this is also one of the hardest parts of being a professional and skilled photographer.
Day by day, your clients will give you hints to improve your qualifications and as to what you can bill and the market will always help you understand potential clients and market strategy.
What additional charges should you anticipate?
We have learned how much to charge for product photography by this time. Now let’s see what are the other ways photographers earn
Because you want to involve uniqueness and perfection in your product photographs and you need the images to meet the requirements well the service provider might need to apply additional charges to your product.
I have included some of the common additional charges you should consider when budgeting your project
Product Weight
A surcharge for heavy products may be applied to your budget. Heavy products are tough to handle and often require a helper to lift and place the product on the table or any other place.
This is awkward as well as a time-consuming method and at times you may need equipment like a heavy-duty optimistic photography table.
Product Size
Large-sized products are also tougher to maintain. It requires a second person to lift and position the product on the table. Photographers always need extra equipment like a large photography table and large camera stand so that the product can get fit into the image frame. There’s an additional charge for large products that goes into the photographer’s price list.
Product Prep
Some products require no prep. Straightly take it out from the box and shoot. But other products that need extensive cleaning, placement, or accessories require an assistant. In most cases, the basic prep is built into the price but if extended prep requires the service provider would charge an additional fee
Product Styling
Styling is necessary for many products before getting a shot. For instance, let’s name some of the products that require styling.
- Food – Dishes and meals require extra stylings like the layout on a cutting block or countertop or grouped with other products. In these cases, food photography pricing bills an additional charge.
- Clothing – clothing items may often need a mannequin or dressing accessory.
- Other products where there’s a package or inconsistent shapes.
Product Layout
Products that need layout on the photography table require more time and if this time is not included in the initial image price then an additional charge applies. Some examples are given below.
- Toys with many components need an arrangement.
- Industrial products like an engine with kits or any machine with parts.
Set Construction
Some products need settings before they can be photographed effectively. And the settings often consume high time. For example, home decors and furnishing products like kitchen, bathroom, or bedroom sets. And photographing set products are tougher than photographing products on the table-top. That’s why the service provider would charge an additional fee.
Lifestyle Images
Lifestyle products are clothing items. These types of images show a product being used or in action. For example, a person wearing apparel of sports and working out or a vehicle with advanced tires or rims parked or running. These photoshoots require special persons and special scenarios with different camera settings. Therefore, an additional charge could be applied.
Specialty Images
If you want specific or unique views for your products the photographer may have to rearrange their studio setup and settings. It takes time for the photographer to change things. The best examples for these types of products are closeup and specific aspects of shots of a knob, connector, or an area on the product that is the subject.
Group Images
If you have products that you want to be photographed together in an image frame the photographer will need to prepare multiple products (cleaning, placement, unpacking, layout on the table, etc.) Additionally, the photography for grouped products takes longer than usual. If this is the case an additional fee could be applied.
What other costs should you consider?
I think you have gained a good perception of the average cost of a photographer. Now let’s consider the cost of preparing and shipping the products to the service provider and returning the products to the business.
Let’s take a look at the cost of the items below:
- Producing a list of products that need to be photographed.
- Getting the products out from the inventory or storeroom.
- Shipping the products to the studio.
- Returning the products to the business from the studio.
- Re-packaging the products where the package was damaged during photography.
Conclusion
In this post, we have covered the full photography pricing guide with in-depth knowledge about product photography service providers, different paths how photographers charge for their service and what clients usually want, and other additional charges that need to be factored into the budget of your project.
I have personally seen a lot of beginners fall off in the photography industry and I have even seen photographers building mansion houses throughout their photography career. I don’t think you have any further concerns regarding How much to charge for product photography. But if you still have any further queries, please comment down below or email us, our team will reach you promptly.
