Pricing is one of the most complicated things you have to do as a photographer, you are sometime stuck between overpricing and underpricing. On the one side you want to attract more clients with your pricing and still be competitive with other photographers in the industry. But, you don’t know the industry rates or what everyone else is charging at the moment. From my experience pricing is personal, there are people who mange to build their portfolio up so much that they are able to charge that price, we are all different and at different stages in our careers to compare pricing. The belief that your clients determine your pricing is true, where you are situated, what your skill level is and who your clients have worked with play a major role in the client determining the price range. With all that said, let’s dive in to how I am going to be pricing myself and my services going in the 2022. For the most part of 2021 I was charging per hour rates, I was ranging between R1200 to R1800 per hour depending on what I was photographing. I came to a stumble a few times when the hourly rate did not make sense, I could see it and so could my clients. This led me to rethink how I want to charge going forward, I must admit this is not something that is set in stone because things happen, i.e covid. Going forward my pricing is going to be project/brief based, I will need to determine a few things before I am able to quote my clients. This will help me from underpricing or over pricing my self out the market. There are basic rules that I must still follow like factoring in equipment hire (camera, lens, flash, memory card), travel costs, project management, post production and lastly usage rights. These are costs that vary but must be accounted for in most cases, project management is one of the line items we often overlook because it’s pat of our job. Having worked at 3 media agencies before going full time in photography, everything has to accounted for if you are growing a business and let me tell you good photos are always needed by agencies. The project/brief scope will determine the rest of the pricing, what is required of you to execute the photoshoot? Do you need a studio, how many photos are required, where will they be used, do I need an assistant, extra equipment that you do not own, a project manager. These are the questions that I will most likely ask the client to find out what is needed of me, nothing worse than undercharging and realising that the work is way more than you expected. You feel cheated, well at least that is how I have felt after realising that I have undercharged because I was using my hourly rate to get too my pricing. Remember to negotiate copyright to the photos with your client, I find this has helped me monetise my photos better on stock photo website. We both share the copyright or commercial copyright to the photos. Ask your client questions that will help you find their pain points, this way you will be able to add value to them knowing what it is that bothers them most and need your help on the most. Once I have all the information I need I am now able to quote according to the project/brief and I deliver knowing what is expected of me. The last thing to do is draft an agreement, this doesn’t have to be looked at by a lawyer but an agreement that you both agree on according to how you will work and deliver the work. That’s it for this first and last blog of 2021, happy shooting.