Photography Pricing Calculator

The honest formula is shooting time plus editing time plus equipment depreciation plus travel plus a sensible markup. A half-day portrait session at 4 hours of shooting plus 6 hours of editing at £50/hour is £500 of labour alone, before camera depreciation and travel. Many new photographers quote £150 for the same session because they only count the shoot itself, then wonder why they cannot afford to upgrade gear two years later. The calculator forces every cost into the open: shooting hours, editing hours (auto-set per shoot type, since weddings need 3x edit-to-shoot ratio while portraits only need 1.5x), camera and lens depreciation, mileage, second shooter, deliverables.

UK market rates as of 2026: portrait sessions £150-300 per session, family events £400-800 per day, weddings £1,000-3,000 per day for full-day coverage, product shoots £300-800 per shoot, newborn sessions £300-600 per session. The wide ranges reflect experience level, location, post-production complexity and what's included. London-based wedding photographers with 5+ years experience routinely charge £2,500-4,000 for full-day coverage; rural or starter photographers in less competitive markets charge £800-1,500 for the same day. The calculator suggests a price targeting roughly 150% gross margin over costs.

A £1,500 camera body lasts about 200 paid shoots before needing replacement (shutter wear, sensor cleaning, repair costs). That is £7.50 per shoot in pure depreciation, before lenses, batteries, memory cards, computer upgrades and software subscriptions (Lightroom + Photoshop is £21.99/month). Add a £800 lens that lasts 300 shoots and you are at £10.18 per shoot just to maintain your kit. The calculator builds depreciation in by dividing equipment cost by your expected shoots; if you only do 50 paid shoots a year, the per-shoot depreciation is much higher and your prices need to reflect that.

Travel costs are easy to under-charge. HMRC mileage allowance is currently 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles a year, dropping to 25p after that. A 30-mile round-trip site visit before the shoot, 30 miles to the venue and back, plus 10 miles for an album delivery adds up to over £30 in mileage alone. The calculator handles this via the travel distance and mileage rate fields. Pair with the [photo print cost calculator](/photo-print-cost-calculator) if your packages include album or print sales as add-ons.