Hourly rate calculator for photographers

Work out what an hour of shooting should really cost: prep, travel and editing are work too. From your own numbers, no sign-up.

Three mistakes that pull your income down

1. An hour of shooting taken as the rate. If an hour of shooting carries three more hours of travel and editing, your real rate is a quarter of the one on your price list.

2. Gear left out of costs. A new camera every few years is part of the yearly budget. Spread its cost over those years and add it to the amount you enter in the calculator.

3. Counting a season as a full year. If most of the work falls in a few months, enter an honest number of months without bookings. Otherwise the rate comes out too low.

An hour of shooting isn't an hour of work

The client buys an hour of shooting, but behind it are prep, travel, culling and editing. One paid hour can easily carry several unpaid ones.

Second — gear. Cameras, lenses, lights and software wear out and age, and they have to be part of the yearly budget.

The calculator gives you the rate per working hour. To price an hour of shooting, multiply it by all the hours behind that hour.

Working out your rate is half the job

The calculator tells you what to charge. The timer shows what you actually get: how many hours you worked today, how many of them are paid, and how much is left until your daily target.

A rate without tracked hours is a promise to yourself that nobody checks.

Five of your numbers, not someone else's median

Going by someone else's rate makes no sense: it's built from someone else's life — another city, another tax, another share of paid hours. Yours comes from five numbers, and all of them are about you.

Common questions

How much does a photographer earn?

As much as they sold hours at their rate, minus costs and tax. Two photographers can differ several times over: because of hours, costs and clients. So it's more useful to work out your own rate than to look for someone else's. More in what others earn.

How do I price an hour of shooting?

Take the rate from the calculator and multiply it by all the hours one hour of shooting takes: prep, travel, culling, editing. Log them on a few jobs and the multiplier gets accurate.

How do I build gear into my rate?

Add up the cost of gear and software, divide by the years it lasts and add it to the yearly amount you need to earn.

How many months without work should I enter?

As many as there really are, off-season included. This field moves the rate directly: the fewer working months, the more each hour costs.

How do I count travel on a location shoot?

Travel is working hours: you can't sell that time to another client. Either count it in the hours behind the shoot, or as a separate line in the estimate.

Rate, hours and projects in one place

A minute on how it works day to day.

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