Author: A Photo Editor

My go to answer:

You can search though these instagram posts as most people have described their typical shoot pricing.

You can also search these articles on my blog for examples:
https://aphotoeditor.com/category/pricing-negotiating/

You can hire @wonderfulmachine to help you

You can hire a consultant: https://aphotoeditor.com/2008/02/04/list-of-photography-consultants/

@blinkbid and @cradoc_fotosoftware fotoquote have software with pricing

You can ask your peers.

My income is 75% first assist, 25% photography (20% commercial 5% editorial). For editorial, I cover a lot of Florida based conservation projects. Sponge divers, oyster farmers, controlled burns, etc. For commercial, I cover a lot of outdoor brands. Paddle board, surf, and lifestyle brands that fall into an outdoor realm. Underwater usually plays itself into both categories.

I deduct 30% from each paycheck for taxes. I write off the bare minimum in hopes of buying a house one day, which is why my expenses are low.

When assisting, it’s all over the US. Large outdoor brands and Fortune 500. Personally, I have one Fortune 500 client, and a handful of small companies I’d shoot for throughout Florida.

My overhead is usually travel expenses that get reimbursed. My main overhead is website, Dropbox, insurance, intuit, etc. Comes out to around $2k a year.

I’ve been stashing as much savings into a high yield as possible this year in hopes for a home. I have 0 debt though, so that helps increase my savings.

I work roughly 100 days a year.

I detail cars and boats on the side. I pay myself the bare minimum from my photography business account, so this cash flow helps if I have unexpected cost that come up, extra savings I want to put away, or the extra money to take a small vacation. On average, I detail around 8 days a month. (96 days a year) this income is not reflected in my photo salary. I typically make an additional 12k a year from this side hustle.

Average assist rate is $500 for 10 hours. Anything after is OT. If it’s out of town, travel days are half rate, expenses such as gas and food are covered.

Photography rate is $1k a day. Working on getting my rate up. Typical shoot is 6-8 hours. Travel days are half rate, travel expenses and post days are added in as well. For every two days on a shoot, I bill for one post day @500/day. Take home for a two day shoot is $2,500 (not including expenses). After taxes, $1,750.

Best paying shoot was for a fire truck company. For a three day shoot, travel days, post and expenses included, $8200. Take home after expense and taxes was $4305. No licensing terms added.

Worst paying shoot was a four day campaign + 2 travel days for a very large, very successful CA based surf brand when I was first starting out. Rate + expenses was $2650. After taxes and expenses I took home $1400.

Video makes up 5% of my income.

I’ve learned that cold emails don’t work for me. What’s worked best is meeting people in person and working on personal projects. I’ve learned that the best way to get new business is to provide value, and I think that comes across better for me in person.

Best advice: be a person that people want to be around.

Worst advice: ask for more money when I was first starting out.

Don’t be an asshole. People will treat you like shit in this industry, but that doesn’t mean you have to do that when you’re finally established. Be kind to the new people coming in. Give back and be willing to help. You never know what roles those folks will take on as they advance in their career.

As you can see, on paper the numbers look a little all over the place, but the year that represents “normal” business for me the most is 2021. A lot of my years prior to 2020 are closer to 2021’s numbers or slightly above. I included 2023 numbers so far because things are on track to be “normal” for me again. In 2020, there was an obvious slow down from COVID, then in 2022 I voluntarily took off about 6 months to help with the birth of my son.

In a regular year, my gross income is around $450k to $550k. I don’t have a lot of overhead. I mostly travel for my jobs, and pass on all the related expenses to my clients. I don’t own a studio, and only have a small home office. No full time staff. I hire all my assistants, techs, producers, etc on a per job basis. I have my regulars that I work with often, and have different crews local to NY and LA and decide which to use based off where the job is. Outside of that, I’m usually looking for any reasonable business expenses I can safely write off. I have an agent that gets 30%, and my gross number already reflects that since I don’t take in their portion of a project’s fees.

Speaking of 30% agency fees; I read the comments on these and often see this as a point of debate. You can book some amazing, well paying jobs without an agent. This plays no part in whether you get hired, however, if you value your time like I do, then the right agent can be helpful and worth the money. My agency in particular makes me feel secure about our relationship. I talk with them all the time about strategy, and other things I’m curious about as far as how to better my business. They also add a huge layer of infrastructure that I feel like I need to handle my client base.

I don’t find sitting in front of the computer communicating with clients all that fun, or working on scheduling details for hypothetical projects which happens a lot. It sounds small, but when you’re working multiple jobs going from city to city, the last thing you wanna do is spend an hour answering emails once you have a moment to chill out. At the end of the day I consider this a highly personal decision, and not all agents are created equal, but if you have the right one then it can be something that adds to your bottom via a time return which in some ways can be more valuable than money.

I spent the majority of my career working in advertising with a concentration on sports and athletics. At the time that I got into it, it wasn’t nearly as popular of a category as it is now. Athleisure wasn’t a thing yet, but with my style and perspective I brought something different to a space that was overlooked by others who wanted to be in fashion and celeb entertainment. Eventually, I got my business to a place where I regularly work with celeb talent for big brands exclusively. Today, the category is more popular than ever and for that reason I’ve invested time in expanding beyond just sports. I now work with clients in tech, finance, pharma, and entertainment. This business moves in waves, so my expansion and ability to bring my style to other genres have helped me stay as busy as I want to be. A typical month for me can include working with a celebrity athlete for a big international client, then the following week working with non celeb, real people talent for a completely different kind of client like a bank or pharmaceutical company, then another week later shooting the keyart for a tv series. I think that this kind of versatility in my work and skillset is a unique edge that helps me earn the way I do. The key is that I shoot all these different types of subjects without changing my creative voice or point of view.

I’ve had a CPA from year 1, and right away she advised me to open a SEP IRA which I max out every year. This helps me save a nice amount on taxes by deferring them to when I start making withdrawals. This process has helped me build a rather nice sized retirement account which is valued at about $650k now. The first year I opened it with about $7k, so I’m proud of how much I’ve been able to grow it in such a short time through saving and investing. I pay pretty close attention to my investment portfolio outside of my retirement account, but this is more so a long term vehicle that I don’t really take money out of, and only continue to add to it when I have any extra money.

I normally do 1 or 2 multi day shoots a month that amount to about 2 weeks of physical work. Maybe 3 if things are really busy. Otherwise, I spend my days off on creative calls, and production related calls for any projects I’m working on. I also spend a good amount of time researching and understanding whatever is happening in the industry that affects me. This includes doing a lot of reading or even being on IG researching what agencies clients are working with, and trying to understand who I need help getting work in front of. In the past, more towards the beginning of my career I did a lot more shoots per month, but they were lower quality as far as day rate, and usually less shoot days. That meant I had to do around 5-6 shoots per month to equal the monthly return I get now. My current workload is perfect for me and my family’s lifestyle. I work just enough to not feel like I’m getting burned out.

I had a couple of years in the past where I netted $750k, or close to $900k. I was a bit younger then with a more intense drive because I knew how hard it was to get started. I was saying yes to nearly everything with almost no regard for my body or well being. I was on a mission, so none of that mattered. I just wanted to make as much money as possible. In that phase, I wasn’t necessarily looking for balance, where as in this current phase of my life I value the time I don’t spend working a lot more. I enjoy being home, and spending time with family and friends.

There has been a deliberate decision to pull back and focus more on the quality of jobs versus the quantity. In turn, that has lowered my bottom line but I couldn’t be happier. Granted, I used the income from those “go hard” periods to pay off student loans for myself and my wife, buy a home, and knock off other big financial burdens which allow me to take it a little easier now. Now, I’m making a really good living without the pressure of needing to find a way to get bigger.

My best paying shoot was for a tech client. The shoot was about 2 weeks long including all the travel, prep, and shoot days. My fees were $170k after expenses and rep commission. This is my best paying job as far as the amount, but I had another job that paid around $80k after fees, and it was just a two day shoot with about 4 travel days. This was my best job as far as how much I made against how much time I actually worked.

When i first started I did a shoot as a favor for an art director, and got offered a pair of sneakers. I never got the sneakers lol, so this was my “worst” paying shoot. Honestly, I was super young, and the pics I got from it ended up being worth more than the sneakers. I used the shots to get so much more work after that, and thats the lesson I would pass on to any one reading this. Free work is almost inevitable, but be strategic about it. You need to assess how you can leverage a small opportunity into something bigger. The something bigger might not be the shots you get. It could also mean getting on set with an agency, or art buyer/art director you really wanna meet. Also, you still wanna do proper paperwork/estimate for this kind of exchange then show how you discounted you normal rate to meet whatever payment you agreed to. This helps you not short change yourself if you continue working with these same people again in the future.

I also direct video, but it’s almost a separate thing from my photography. I never personally shoot video, and sometimes get added fees as a director on my photoshoots. I always bring on a DP that can match my style, and direct them on what I want. I’ve directed some decently budgeted commercials before too where I did no still photography, and could do this more but I don’t love the process although it can be fun sometimes. A pretty small percentage of my income comes from this setup. I’ll likely explore straight up directing more in the future.

In the age of everything being digital, I’m a huge fan of trying to meet as many people as you can in person. No matter how good your work is, a huge part of being successful in this business is who you know, and who knows you. I have a rather easy going personality, and have been told that I have a calming presence. A lot of my clients describe situations that are chaotic or need me to work with celeb personalities that can be unpredictable. It helps if you are not adding to this stress, and they know you can handle a high pressure situation with ease. This is something thats very important, but hard to get from an email or DM. When there’s a client I want to meet, my agent usually leverages their existing connections to get me a meeting when I’m in town, and more recently Zoom/virtual meetings if schedules don’t allow for in person. In addition to that, my agency advertises as a group through newsletters, social media, and events like Le Book along with specific blasts about what each artist is working on. I used to do printed promos and mailers, but stopped after I took a break for a while on doing it, and business stayed strong. Instead, I invest money occasionally in personal shoots that interest me.

I started my professional career in 2011/2012, and as many other Black photographers have experienced at some point, I was told back then that I needed to shoot more White people and if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be successful in this business. Even though it wasn’t that long ago, that was a common thought back then. Black faces in front of the camera for ad campaigns just wasn’t a normal thing at that time, so when you presented a book full of them, some people didn’t know how to critique it without making the work about that. Needless to say, that was the worst advice I was given.

I have so much to say here, but I will try to keep it brief and concise. I’m very proud of the career I’ve had thus far. It can end tomorrow, and I would be happy with all the things I’ve done. A relentless work ethic in developing my skills, a keen understanding of business, and a bit of luck are all the things I think were key in getting me here.

Bury yourself in the craft, and develop a strong creative voice/perspective. I think too many are concerned with getting work too fast, instead of focusing on building their taste level. A strong creative voice will bring you more work than you can imagine, but getting there takes time. Once you get into business, and start making money the pressure to continue making money only increases, which in turn takes away from the time and energy you have to really focus on getting better and understanding what you like. That cycle can be hard to break, and can create an environment where people find themselves stuck at a certain level and/or unhappy with the work that they attract.

Next, get out and meet people within the industry face to face. Emailing, and dm’ing is great for opening a conversation, but I found a lot more success from meeting people in person. I think its because you become a real person at that point as opposed to being black and white letters on a screen. Art directors, art buyers, etc are busy people and get emailed a lot so it can be hard to stand out. Don’t get discouraged by not hearing back right away. You have to stay persistent and keep trying.

As a working artist, the insecure feeling of “it can be over tomorrow” never leaves. It’s a feeling you must learn to live with, and work through. I have learned to use this feeling as motivation versus it being something that debilitates me. The task of becoming and continuing to be a working artist can be overwhelming, so I committed a long time ago to doing at least one thing a day that helps my business, and it doesn’t matter how big or small the one thing is. I do this because it helps me stay focused on the process and know that even when I’m not seeing the results everyday I’m still moving forward.

Lastly, know your client’s love language. For most of the projects I get, I have to go through a bidding process that includes a creative call and sometimes presenting a treatment. My win rate increased a lot when I became good at understanding from job to job what qualities my potential client valued. From there, knowing how to articulate my understanding of those values in real time gave me an edge. Reading people, and knowing how to sell yourself is a huge part of being successful in this business. Having good work is just one part of the equation, but once you add the confidence to sell yourself you’ll be able to take your opportunities to the next level.

P.S. ChatGPT wrote all of this, just kidding! Thanks for reading.

It’s been quite humbling reading through these and realizing how business savvy so many photographers are. I have not been particularly smart about running my business. I feel like it’s been 12 years of focussing on the creative side, then just crossing my fingers and praying that people pay invoices within 30 days. I keep everything to the bare minimum with low overheads. I have many different clients in different industries but the bulk of my work is shooting portraits within entertainment/music/arts. Sometimes direct for client sometimes through ad agencies. My income is 65% commercial, 25% editorial, 10% fine art.

I don’t want to be a small business owner – I want to be an artist who can live an acceptable lifestyle solely through my art and I want to have spare time to travel and pursue hobbies. Yes I would like to earn more money and be more successful but I constantly remind myself how lucky I am to be doing this and making any kind of living at all.

I was a professional musician in Europe in my early 20s which lead to my photography career. So I have always had steady work for major record labels and music management companies in the US and EU. Some of my music clients moved into advertising so I began shooting for ad agencies – stills on set mainly. Around 2018 this eventually led to good work with large alcohol and tech companies shooting smaller campaigns.

Then most of these clients disappeared entirely during the pandemic. A lot of my contacts lost their jobs, left the industry or simply changed creative direction. It was worrying for a while.

In that void I have built a little editorial career I never had, shooting for major newspapers and some established magazines. The money is not good but its not too bad and most portrait shoots are short, easy and inspiring. I still do a lot of work for record labels and smaller creative agencies.

I rent a tiny art studio for desk work and fine art stuff. Its a luxury and I love it. Its $425/month. I stopped shooting film this year which has been life-changing financially (and artistically!). I have owned a medium format digital system for a six years now and it is paid off. I own a lot of pretty basic lighting and video gear. I rent it out sometimes which helps.

I am an only child from a single parent. We were comfortable but not wealthy. However I live my life knowing one day I will inherit a house in a major city and that allows me to take risks with my career that many others may not have the privilege to. I am enormously thankful for this.

Also important for people to note that there is a huge amount of unspoken, generational wealth in the photo world. A lot of nepotism too. Especially the more glamorous fashion/fine art side of things. If you feel bad for not publishing that book or finishing that series just know that a lot of people you are comparing yourself to may not face the daily restrictions that you do.

I’m lucky to have a partner with a slightly more stable income who is very supportive.

I shoot about 50 – 70 days a year. Then a lot of editing and admin time in the studio.

I have just reached my pre-pandemic income again. 2020/21 was incredibly tough.

In 2017/18 I had some health and financial problems and a friend got me a job as a camera operator for (some terrible) reality TV productions which paid well for about 30 days of work.

Never forget that as a photographer you have technical knowledge that is valuable to people and you might be able to find some niche work if you ever feel stuck.

I shoot a few editorial portraits a month. These range from $450 to $1k. They usually take 1-2 hours, then I deliver the contact sheet and 1-6 final images. Travel can often be the most time consuming part!

My current commercial jobs are usually 1-2 days, 8-12 hours per day. My base rate is $2500 per day. I make sure that is minimum take home. It is sometimes more, rarely less and never below $1800.

Edit and delivery will often take a day or two. I make sure I charge between $400-600 for these days. If clients want multiple retouched images then more.

I only do all-in budgets or buy-outs really. I need to get better at understanding licensing.

My best paying job was a campaign for a large alcohol brand. 2x travel days, 3x shoot days, 4x edit days. I agreed an all-in fee of $25k and needed to deliver 4 images which were total buy-outs.

I do a lot of favors for friends and my wider network when I have spare time. I never go below $350 for a few hours. If its a full day I’ll charge at least $750. Whether this is headshots for actors or little music videos etc.

People will always ask you for favors as a photographer. Have the courage to say no if you feel so inclined. Just make sure nobody is using your work to make income directly, if they are or if they have personal wealth then ask for your commercial rates.

I used to shoot a lot of video up until 2020. I found it an easy way to make money but weirdly unsatisfying. I have a good portfolio of music videos and branded docs as both director and DoP but really want to focus on stills right now. I would say I was 50/50 in 2019 and in 2022 I was 80/20 stills/video. I think my video career harmed my stills career and stunted my growth as an artist. I am trying to focus on stills from now on but video work will come calling I’m sure.

In this fine art/editorial/commercial world – I think that creating coherent bodies of personal work, then submitting them for features in prominent online magazines is pretty much the best marketing you can do. The last time I did this, it lead to some really great commercial work. I think a lot of people in positions of power, need to see initial recognition from somebody else before taking that leap and commissioning you.

Instagram is of course the necessary evil and undoubtedly the most important marketing tool for a photographer – I put in minimum effort and try to have fun with it. I would say I have a good following for my type of work, but I would also like to get better at using it. It can be real bad for confidence though, just know that a lot of people with big followings are just playing to algorithms or buying followers. Its a fine line between using the platform smartly and keeping your distance from it.

Best advice was to have a positive routine before traveling to a shoot. For me this includes looking through my recent comparable work, thinking about what I should do differently and what I should repeat. I might look through a photo book for inspiration and I’ll try not to think about any stressful everyday life stuff too close to the shoot!

Worst advice was my Dad telling me to “take any job for money”when I was young and inexperienced. I did this for years, it slowed my progress in crafting a personal style which is key for long term success. Don’t listen to your parents too closely if they haven’t had a creative career ha!

Take inspiration from outside photography. Look at paintings, watch sports, get into gardening. Photography careers are evolving rapidly but I still think it’s a long game and the most curious people always win in the end.

I work for a childrenswear retailer. This position was listed at $55k max, but with the retouching and excel skills I brought to the job, plus experience, they were able to increase it to $60k which I still feel is undervalued for what I provide.

When I moved to South Carolina the options to work as a photographer were slim. I was previously working in North Carolina for a shoe retailer making $72.5k as a lead photographer.

I work for a single employer as a typical M-F 8-5 w2 employee. I do have an employer matched 401k and 13 paid vacation days plus additional sick days available.

Their cycle of shooting is a bit chaotic and changes with the seasonal release of product to vendors. Photography consists of necessary files for store plannograms, ecommerce on white, flat lays and on figure (both on white and lifestyle). I do not have an assistant and do all of my my own lighting and editing. We do bring in a stylist as needed. We are a team of 3 photographers plus a manager and we each handle a specific brand and retailer in the children’s clothing business. While the other brands are split amongst photographers here, I handle a single brand and all of the types of photography listed above for that brand. It can be hectic.

Worst advice: Being a photographer will make you a starving artist. You should go in to marketing.

I’ve done well in my career, and while this position has been a step back financially, in many ways, it was a necessity in my career.

Learn photoshop – and more than the basics! It has helped me to be an asset to the companies I have worked for and helped me advance in my career.

My income is 80% Weddings and 20% Commercial Photography. My business is structured as an LLC but taxes as an S-Corp.

My commercial clients are smaller businesses. I work with a lot of commercial video teams that bring me on to take stills alongside video.

Overhead:
Studio space – $300/mo
Equipment upgrades – $5,000-10,000 a year

I have a Roth IRA that I contribute a little bit to, and then I also have a small real estate investment portfolio. The goal is 10 houses in the next 8 years (I currently have 2 houses at the moment). After those 10 houses, the goal is to continually scale.

Realistically working roughly 160 days a year.

General increase of income year over year from 2018 until 2020. I still did roughly 100k in 2020. while in 2021 I photographed more weddings than any year prior and had an income decrease to 90k. 2022 picked back up with work, I shot less weddings but more commercial work and brought my average business income back to 95-100k.

I have two houses (3 rental units total). I live in a duplex and rent out the other side which covers 80% of my mortgage. I live for next to nothing because of my real estate income, which averages to about $400 a month take home. It’s not much at the moment, but I plan to scale and purchase another house within the next 12 months.

An average wedding is around 8-10 hours of coverage, and they are usually 30-90 minutes away from my home. Average wedding couple spends around $5,000. Take home after paying assistant and taxes is around $2,500.

Commercial projects are roughly 8-10 hour shoots with 3-4 hours of editing. My day rate is between $2,500-3,000 depending on the scope. Historically there have been few expenses per project, so take home is roughly that full amount.

Best shoot was for a local internet provider asking for photos of local spots in two nearby cities. Pay was initially $3,000. For some reason they dragged their feet on payment for three months. As an apology they added an extra $2,000 making the total take home $5,000 for about 6 hours worth of work over 3-4 days.

The worst paying shoot was for an education company. They wanted studio layflat images and then 2-3 headshots. The payment was $1,700 for 40 images. After I sent a contact sheet, they chose to select only headshots and lifestyle portraits of the owners. Which meant 40 heavily retouched photos. I outsourced the editing for time. After outsourcing and studio / light rentals, take home was around $1,000 for 8 hours of work.

I do not shoot or offer video.

I am strictly word of mouth. I have a wedding website, and have yet to build the commercial photography website.

Best advice was to learn how light moves, and hire an accountant.

Worst advice was to shoot destination weddings for free or next to nothing.

When quoting a commercial photography project, quote a number that makes your stomach turn. The worst thing they can do is say no for this project. Then when they have a project that has the budget you quoted, they’ll likely remember you and come to you. We all know higher price is often higher perceived value.

I commission photographers for 1-2 shoots a month in addition to performing daily photography research.

This is my first photo editing role.

For retirement I have an 8% contribution to a 401k. Condé has a decent match policy but I’m unsure of the specifics off the top of my head.

Standard full time job. 260-ish days a year.

My income has increases recently from $55k to $60k due to a raise fought for by my union.

Email with a portfolio is the best way to reach me! I also don’t mind instagram DMs.

I use Instagram, stock agencies, Google, Tumblr (still), and word of mouth recommendations to find photographers.

We hire editorial photographers that have extensive previous experience shooting for magazines, key art, event, interior, or celebrity portraiture.

I work 260 days a year. I have a 401k for retirement. My income hasn’t changed in the last few years because my company does not give raises.

My job consists of helping the photo director/producers with budgeting, invoices, sourcing everything for a shoot (photographers, stylists, locations, catering, permits, etc). I go to almost every shoot as both producer and assistant. I produce shoots as well but tend to stick to photographers who have worked for us in the past. I would love to find newer, untapped talent but my job likes to hire the same, safe options, unfortunately.

If you want to work as a photo editor, administrative experience is super important and will go a long way. I know it’s the tedious part of a creative job but it’s necessary to know how to invoice, fill out forms, stay organized, communicate via phone and email, troubleshoot, etc.

Also, consume art as much as you produce it too! We cannot get stuck in our own little world, consume art out of your comfort zone, art that you don’t understand, etc. You never know where you’ll draw inspiration from and I think it helps cultivate your own unique creative eye.

Best Advice: Be polite and treat every job no matter how big or small as important.

Worst Advice: “Don’t respond to photographer’s emails when they reach out if you don’t like their stuff, they are annoying” – I just think this is a disrespectful way to think about reach-outs. YES, I am SUPER busy and I do WAY more than photographers think I do, but they are equally busy and I can give them the respect they deserve of giving them a simple yes, no, maybe later. On the flip side, photographers please do not take “no” personally; just because you are not the right fit for us, doesn’t mean you are not perfect somewhere else. Photo editors especially tend to be constrained by higher corporate people who heavily constrict our creative vision and we have certain aesthetics and brands that we have to stick to.

Work email is the best way to reach me! Attach a link to your website and portfolio. Some people can be very verbose when sending reach out emails, but I don’t mind if you just get to the point and be polite. Personally, I think it’s okay to repeatedly email and check in every once in a while, especially after your portfolio has new additions that you think would fit in with the style of our publication. Instagram, art galleries, other magazines, agencies.

We use Instagram, art galleries, other magazines, and agencies to find photographers.

Here’s my advice:

-People are more willing to talk about their job/how they got there than you think! If you’re considering transitioning from freelancing to photo editing, don’t be afraid to reach out to people and ask them if they have any free time to talk about their career. Worst case scenario, they decline and you ask someone else. But people love to talk about themselves so just try!

-As someone who came from a different field prior to entering the photo world, I’ve noticed that there can be an us vs them mentality amongst photo editors and photographers. I understand that this stems from years of industry BS and some jaded photo editor’s attitudes, but I really hope that my generation can bridge the gap and fight for the rights of freelance artists as much as we can. We can be limited by the corporate overlords we work for, but we can TRY to make change happen. I try to show photographers/crew I care and respect them wherever I can and I try to share their work widely and often. I think sharing creatives work is a small thing we can do show our support. I really hope you can get 5 other jobs from the job you did with us!

-Similarly, can we PLEASE credit everyone?? It’s not hard and it’s the tiniest thing you can do to help someone out and acknowledge their hard work. There is no shoot without them!

-I love my job but the pay is unacceptable, especially in one of the most expensive cities in the United States (for reference I had multiple years of relevant job experience prior and I have a BA). I want to stay in this field, but unless I find a job that provides a livable wage, I will have to pivot which is depressing because I love working with photographers. 40k in 2005 is NOT what 40k is today…i’m drowning and my job thinks it’s okay because it’s technically “entry level”….That being said, the stability of just having consistent income and insurance is a privilege.

-Be respectful to everyone on set. I’ve worked with amazing photographers/hmu/stylists who I will never hire again because they were incredibly entitled and rude to other crew members for no reason. It’s 2023, basic respect is COOL! Along those lines, perhaps consider having a public-facing social media page with your work, and a private one for friends/family.

I currently only work for 1 photographer as a lighting tech but in the past have worked primarily by referral through photo agencies.

I shoot as well but assist 75-150 days a year. Over the last few years it’s been less labor and more money. Lots of tracking down incident angles and adding gradients in surface.

I make 450 for editorial and advertising base is 750-1200/day. Prep days and travel are full rates. Business class if flight is over 3 hours .

Editorial assisting is usually a noon call time. Load in. Find the frame. Shoot subject and load out by 3.

Advertising jobs is a prep day going over the deck and making EQ orders, scouting the location and path of sun. Shoot day is always a solid 10 hrs with 2-3 OT. Typically IBM, Apple and Google jobs are 5 day jobs total with 1-2 being shoot days.

For my best paying job I was supposed to go to Bulgaria for 8 days. Job confirmed and then something happened and the creatives pulled the plug. I got paid full rate for cancelation.

Worst paying was a 3 day job and the week after it was shot and rounds of retouching were being approved agency went radio silent. Turns out CEO was taking money from the company and they had to shut the doors mid project. Job never paid out.

Shoot what interests you. 17 years in fashion was brutal and boring from a personal stand point. Now working in science and technology and talking to engineers is so much more fulfilling.

Know the value you bring to the table. I’d say 75% of agency photographers would be lost without their first. Assisting is a thankless job that’s hard on the body and at the end of the day it’s the center of advertising work being produced.

Also take the time to really understand how light works. The different qualities of light and how that relates to shape and texture of the subject.

Best advice: Be nice to people! Make genuine connections. You can work hard and be kind. Treat everyone on set with respect and just try to be helpful to anyone you can be.

I’m about to hit my two year mark and cross over into my third as an assistant. I have a degree in photography and imaging but started my first year post-grad assisting to gain more on-set experience.

Year one (2021- 2022) part-time job at a tabletop prop house, supplemented by assisting. I was very green and grateful for the opportunities and chances given to me. I worked mainly on food sets and my average assistant rate was $400. I was mainly working smaller jobs with just the photographer and me.

Year two (2022-current 2023) managed to get on some larger productions at the end of year one that helped me gain experience. On these sets I was mainly second or third assistant, with a rate somewhere between $400-500. As the year progressed, my hours at my part time job became significantly less because I was fortunate enough to have assisting opportunities that took precedence. My goal is to be able to full time freelance by the end of 2023. I began working more frequently on larger productions and have worked up to first assisting on a couple of them. My rate is usually between $600-$750 and I’m still picking up work at the $400 rate as well for smaller productions.

2021: $100k gross (75k assisting, 25k photographing)
2022: $125k gross (100k photographing, 25k assisting or 2nd shooting)

2022 was sort of a transitional year. 2023 is my first year supporting myself exclusively as a photographer. My clients are primarily New York based editorial and small commercial clients. Some West Coast based tech clients. I’m a sole proprietor. Not yet making enough for incorporating to be a high priority.

70% commercial, 30% editorial though of course that percentage gets flipped if you ask about shoot days for each.

I try to keep overhead fairly low:
I share a studio/office with a few other photographers for ~$400/month
Insurance ~$700/year
Software licenses ~$500/year
No other recurring consistent overhead.

I probably put off buying new equipment longer than some photographers though I expect to spend about $15k on cameras and maybe a new computer this year.

I’ve been maxing out a Roth IRA for the past 3ish years. When I first opened it, I was contributing around $100/month and have gradually increased my monthly contributions as my income has allowed. In 2022 I opened a SEP IRA and I try to contribute around 10% of my gross to that as the checks come in. Some months that’s not possible. Both of these accounts are invested in low-fee target date funds.

As an assistant, I was working many days at fairly consistent rates and by my last year assisting, I could often command $750/day as a first on commercial projects and was rarely being paid less than $600. I would also still occasionally assist friends on editorial for $200–500/day.

Generally I pay my assistants now as much as I can. Sometimes that means paying out of my own pocket. On commercial jobs that means $500-750/day depending. For editorial anywhere from $250-500. I try not to ask assistants to take any rate I wouldn’t have taken when I was in their shoes.

Now, as a photographer I am on set many fewer days and the amount I make varies wildly. After expenses, I make anywhere from $0–1000/day on editorial. Commercially, I have made anywhere from $2000–6000/day including usage, etc. though rates at the high end of that that are very rare for me at this stage. Honestly, I don’t have an average.

My best paying shoot was a Tech/B2B services company. 4 shoot days, 1 tech scout. ~5 different creative calls and pre-pro meetings in the weeks leading up to the shoot. Whole shoot was work for hire. I netted around $26k. I recognize that’s low for WFH.

My worst paying shoot was a web-only editorial. Probably a total of around 13 hours of work between shooting and post. $400 flat rate. I used all of it to hire an assistant.

Not really shooting any video, but have some projects in the works that will change that.

Never feel like I’m doing enough marketing. I do one fairly large printed promo per year. Also do end of year gifts for select clients. I do individual emails with tailored PDFs or mini-sites for the person I’m contacting. In my experience, the more personalized my emails, the higher the response rate. I try to post work I’m proud of on Instagram regularly. I definitely go for quality ahead of quantity though I could probably use to shift that somewhat.

Best Advice I received is to just keep making work. Truly, deeply, deeply wish I could’ve internalized this about 5 years sooner than I did.

Forming genuine relationships with other photographers as well as with those in hiring positions will probably do more for your career than any marketing email you will ever send.

Also, and this is advice for myself as much as for others: don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Nobody will know you exist unless you tell them.

My responsibilities are to take photos that promote the film, both behind the scenes and on-set. The images end up online, billboards, posters, etc.

I’m shooting along side the rest of the crew each day of filming. Smaller jobs and some tv don’t require you to be there everyday.

The job requires the normal skills of a photographer but also a great deal of experience not being in the way, while being creative and very adaptable.

The current writers strike has not only hurt writer’s incomes but all film crew jobs. The TV and commercial markets weren’t hit as hard and many friends who have a foot in both worlds are at least surviving. I have made a good living, up until recently, just being a set photographer so I never diversified. I’m now regretting that choice.

The only income that I’ve made this year is from a random commercial job that came my way because of an old relationship with a producer.

Last fall most production slowed down and stopped even before the contract negotiations between the WGA and AMPTP even started. No one wanted to start a project knowing that shooting would be interrupted.

All photographers working on larger films are in the camera union, IASTE – Local 600, and have separate contracts from the writers. Our contract was renegotiated recently and many were disappointed with the results. The Union has very limited ways of assisting during these hardships.

Ask anyone who works in film and tv, as fun as it sounds from the outside, the truth is often quite different if you aren’t high up on the pay scale. Working 12-16 hours a day is not uncommon. Having 10 hours to sleep, eat, and travel to and from the location, day after day, becomes difficult and often unhealthy. Shooting conditions are not always ideal and you have to be ready for everything. Sometimes it can be fun, or you may shoot in a place that you would never have access to, but mostly it’s a lot of work and time away from family.

Where to go from here? I’m not sure. The greed that the studios have displayed is really disturbing and disgusting. This behavior, and the response to it, seems to be happening in many different fields. Corporate greed is nothing new but the outpouring of people willing to try and change it is hopeful.

am a studio product photographer shooting remotely. I shoot mostly outdoor clothing along with bags, shoes, hats, belts, and other accessories. Clients send me the product via FedEx ground, and I photograph it in my home. I have two rooms dedicated to studio / office space. I shoot most items on white and then do all the postproduction myself. I deliver the images to my client via Dropbox and then send the product back. In the past I have had a variety of clients but for the last 5 years I have only been working primarily with one client, a national clothing company.

I used to also shoot outdoor lifestyle images but since having kids 12 years ago my focus has been studio images.

I coordinate with the local high school and hire students with learning challenges to work a couple hours a week during the school year. The school pays the kids minimum wage which is currently $15 an hour in California.

I write off a portion of my home expanses for the studio space I have in my house. My house is paid off, but I have done a lot of renovations in the last 3 years. I also have accumulated a lot of studio and camera equipment over the years and try to upgrade when I have had a profitable year. I also use cleaning companies, and contract photo assistants / photoshop tech when I am busy with tight deadlines. My cleaning service is $350 a month for a few hours of work 2 days a month. I pay my photoshop tech who is currently a college student and works remotely $24 an hour.

I would like to add that Health Insurance has always been a big expense for our family. I don’t think I could still be in business today if it wasn’t for the implantations of the Affordable Care Act. Expanding the income levels has also been helpful. When my husband was still alive, and we were both self-employed, we weren’t always able to qualify for subsidies depending on how profitable were in a given year.

Now that it is just me and two kids, I have been able to qualify each year. This is a gigantic savings for me. I currently have a Silver Blue Shield policy for the 3 of us that would be over $1800 a month on the open market. Through Covered California is it costing me around $450 a month instead.

I always maximize both my Traditional IRA and SEP IRA accounts yearly. In 2022 I contributed $7,000 into my Traditional IRA and over 16,000 into my SEP IRA. These contributions also lower my “Adjusted Gross Income” which usually allows me to qualify my family of 3 for some health care subsidies through the Affordable Care Act.

In 2022 I worked about 180 full days on client work. Other days are spent paying bills, bookkeeping, ordering supplies, upgrading my studio space, and end of the year tax stuff.

My income has always fluctuated depending on how many clients I have at the time and the size of the companies I am working with. Some of my biggest earning years were 2009, and 2017. My wages have not kept up with inflation and I was actually making more per day in those bigger years. In the past, the fluctuation didn’t matter as much because my husband had a full-time job as well. However, he died in 2020 at the start of the pandemic so now the income fluctuation is a concern. My current client is trying to do more images in-house so I expect my income to drop this year unless I can find additional clients. During years that my business slow, I would spend my time doing home improvements to better the equity in our home. My husband did the same. We both had home offices so this also improved our workspace. We were lucky that our business yo-yoed at different times and the home projects helped our long-term financial goals. The only time we both plummeted in profits was 2010 and 2011 which was also when we finally had kids. Things were tight for a while, but it also allowed me more time with my kids when they needed me the most.

My two kids get survivor benefits from their deceased dad until they are each 18. The money goes to me to cover their monthly expenses. I also put a portion of it into their college savings account. Each kid gets about $1700 a month for a total of $3200 a month. This has been additional income since my husband died in 2020 and it is a great buffer in slow months. However, it is less than 1/3 of what his income was when he was alive. Having a partner for over 20 years that also had a full-time job was instrumental in my success as a photographer.

I try and work 7 hours a day 4 days a week when I know product is coming my way. If I am asked to meet a tight catalog deadline, I might work 10 hours a day and on the weekend. In the past I would also charge a “rush fee” for overtime hours but I haven’t done that lately.

I charge per item and the rate depends on the type of item or accessory. Therefore, my rates are consistent and more dependent on how productive I am on a given day.

I have done very little in the last 12 years to market myself. This is something I need to work on if I want to stay in business. It is not a good idea to be reliant on only one client.

I was told that I could never make money as a photographer and that photography should only be a hobby. Best or worst advice?

This is a tough business. It is easier to be lean, aggressive, and mobile when you are young and single. However, now that I am a single mom with two kids, I am not sure it is the best career choice. I am trying to find ways to diversity my work so I can find a more secure place for my family. Save when you can and put money away for the slow times. Also, when you have extra cash, invest in things that will help you and your business in the future.

I am primarily an architectural photographer but much of my work blends into the commercial space since a good portion of my clients are retail and hospitality brands and just architects and developers. My business is a registered S Corp.

My clients range from mid size architectural firms to fortune 500 companies. It’s quite a mixed bag of budgets, expectations, usage needs etc.

Most of my overhead is travel expense for me and my assistants as 80% of my work requires it. So hotels , flights, transportation etc. Otherwise my overhead is pretty low. I don’t buy much gear these days as I already own everything I need, and the rest is just things like subscriptions to the various softwares and programs i need to run my business.

Last year was lightning in a bottle. Between shooting and retouching, i’d say I worked easily over 100 days. It’s usually closer to 50-60. 2022 was a crazy year for my business and I was booked to the point of burning out. I went from averaging around 120- 150k/ year to more than doubling that.

I have been working on developing passive sources of income and turning myself into a photography brand as I don’t wish to continue relying on client work exclusively.

An average shoot for me depends on the client. For the fortune 500 companies, they usually demand buyouts, so I charge appropriately and they tend to be very demanding for what’s needed in post production. Often times, the client doesn’t even know how “photo ready” some of the sites will be until we arrive, so we have very honest discussions about expectations and what can be achieved in post. I’ve gotten pretty good at the photoshop miracle. For architects and developers things are more reasonable and usage fees are pretty standard.

One project required two visits with an enormous amount of travel and two weeks of shooting. I had two assistants, and had to bring a retoucher with me to edit images as we shot because they needed to go to press ASAP. I would shoot for 12 hours a day and then join my retoucher to edit images all night long. For both projects I billed over 150k.

I pay my assistants 500-600 / day. A little higher than most, but they’re so crucial to me that I want them to drop what they’re doing whenever I need them.

I come from a heavy video production background and do my fair share of freelance DP work. It’s common for clients to want to bundle video and photography services. Although the last couple of years photography has been my main source of income and honestly I prefer it. It’s less work and the profit margins are much higher.

I am terrible at marketing myself. My biggest effort goes into SEO where I rank number one in google for several key terms in my target markets. It’s a mixed bag of results. It helps with website traffic, but 80% of it is people just kicking tires. Otherwise I suck at marketing. I am making a better effort this year to be more intentional and traditional with generating leads.

Worst Advice: you need to specialize. That might have been true ten years ago. But in this day and age, the more things you can do, the more value you can offer. Clients and agencies have arduous vendor uploading systems, so if you’re already in their database and can do something they need, you’re likely to get that call. Not saying you have to try to be a jack of all trades. But you should definitely at the very least be proficient in video services as well.

And you should start understanding AI. Whether we like it or not, it’s here to stay and will play a major role in the day to day development of marketing assets in the near future.

Best advice: If a client bitches about price. Don’t lower your rates. Lower your deliverables to meet their budget.

Don’t obsess about gear. Gear is just a tool and honestly any camera made in the last 5 years is going to deliver excellent results. Invest in the tools that make your life easier, like tilt-shift lenses for me. Invest the money you’d otherwise spend on gear into personal projects. Personal projects are what make you stand out and carry your own unique voice and perspective on the world, which is what attracts people to want to pay you to do the same generic shit they always do. You can polish your skills, and you have complete creative control.

And please stop undercutting the industry. You’re only hurting yourself and the rest of us in the long run.

Only the last 4 years my income was solely from photography. I have one large retainer client that allows a balance of consistency and flexibility.

My income is 30% – Lifestyle, 30% E-comm (in studio), 15% Product (in home studio, very basic,) 25% – Retouching. These are mostly west coast based brands that sell all over the US and a few start ups/local businesses.

Not much overhead other than basic rent/utilities. Most expenses are basic marketing/website needs. I own most of my equipment and will expense any additional rentals need for each project.

Does the lottery count as retirement haha.

I work 8-10 days per month on average. Sometimes more depending on the season. The rest of the days are spent marketing/networking/shooting for myself.

In my early 20s, after getting my BFA, I worked/pursued shooting action sports as a career but that quickly went away once I realized the income was terrible unless you were at the top 5% of the field. I transitioned to commercial fashion and spent a good 5-6 years assisting and working on my portfolio by doing test shoots.

I was fortune enough to have a great relationship with a local modeling agency that allowed me to quickly build up a book of some models that went on to be very big in the industry. At the same time, I assisted in a creative agency where I learned as much as I could about all the business side of the industry while expanding my network.

After I felt I had learned all that I could, I took an in-house photographer position at a local brand that was quickly on the rise. I enjoyed the team, but the brands overall aesthetics were not aligned with mine. I was often told my work was too “professional” looking, which admittedly did make sense for a brand that catered to the youth/IG/TikTok market.

So I decided to go out on my own full time freelancing… in February 2020. COVID put a halt to any plans I had for that year. So that first year was incredible hard and I had to take anything I could just to keep a roof over my head. That often meant shooting product from home in a makeshift studio and even shooting family portraits.

Over the last two years I was slowly able to start getting more work that fit my style. I’m lucky that my partner was a designer at a midsized clothing brand that was growing fast so I took on most of their photo work (lifestyle and ecomm). I was also able to start working as a second shooter for larger campaigns via some photographers I had assisted in the past which I’ve been very excited about as its allowed me to work with a great team and enhance my portfolio.

I will sometimes take on select retouching jobs to supplement my photography income but its not something I put a lot of time or effort pursuing. I may do it more in the future as it can but pretty profitable but I don’t enjoy the aspect of having to lock myself in front of the computer for hours and hours at a time.

Average day for a lifestyle shoot is either a full day (8-10 hrs) or a half day (4-6 hrs) and my rate usually is a lump sum creative fee. Then Ill spend a few days after the shoot culling, color editing, and some light retouching if the client is willing to pay for that. Avg take home pay is $1500.

Licensing has been the most frustrating part educating clients about and I’m often stuck in a limbo of needing the money regardless so I often give just a simple 1 year usage that goes into my creative fee. But i’m hoping to change that going forward as I’ve had some clients take advantage of that. ( licensed for social use doesn’t mean the same thing as paid ads.

Best shoot was second shooting for a large international fitness leisure brand. It was a work for hire agreement but i was still allowed to use the images for my portfolio. The shoot was 4 days over two locations and take home pay was 5.5k. Great team and amazing producers made it feel like a breeze.

Worst paying job was a half day e-comm job where they asked to add a small lifestyle shoot at the end of the day. The client assumed a half day rate was hourly and tried to say the lifestyle shoot only took an hour so it should only be 20% of what the e-comm rate was. the half day rate was $400 and my lifestyle rate was $1000. they attempted to get both for $500, after having audacity to show my images on the front of the website before acting surprised that the rate would go up.

I quickly dropped them and I don’t do half day rates anymore or last min add ons without prior conversations. I also used it as a sign to up my rates overall to filter out cheap clients.

I did one small video job last year where I was brought in as a specialist (I have extensive experience shooting surfing in the water). All i did was shoot for 30 mins and the client handled the edit. I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of my footage used in the final ad.

I would love to pursue it more but learning how to approach video vs stills is a bit daunting. My goal would to at least have some short motion clips to pepper in throughout my book.

I’ve upped my game in reaching out to potential clients this year via direct email with curated PDFs but still haven’t been able to translate them into jobs just yet. In addition to that I do my best to send out a quarterly newsletter. I’m not as consistent as I should be but have found its always easier if I have new work to show, so I focus on that first, and then go from there.

Best advice – Unfollow photographers you like on IG. All it does is fuel an inferiority complex.

Worst advice – Take any work you can. Its ok to say no to jobs/clients that you don’t feel like are a good fit to you.

Trust your gut and shoot what inspires you. Always be kind and pleasant to everyone you meet on set. Don’t be afraid to take the boring e-comm jobs because at the end of the day you gotta pay your rent (you don’t have to share them on you portfolio). Always aim to find one thing you can learn each day on a shoot. Fake it til you make it.

I manage a team of other photo editors and we work with editors to produce food, interior, lifestyle, and style content for a few brands.

I was promoted a few years ago to Director which came with a decent salary bump.

I work full time (5 days per week) and often work weekends as well.

I have a 401k and the company matches up to 6% and I contribute 6%. I have about 100k in there right now.

If you are interested in my line of work: it’s a tough industry right now, but anything you can do to get your foot in the door; internship, contract work, etc. helps a lot.

Best Advice: Treat every shoot with the same stamina, whether it’s a product shot in the studio or cover image with lifestyle.

I want photographer to reach out to me via Email or Linkedin.

I find photographer in competitor magazines, regional magazines, portfolio introduction emails. I also use Instagram. Word of mouth in this industry goes a long way.

I (or someone from team) try to meet with all photographers who send me their portfolio so that I can provide feedback.