Photography can be either a business or a hobby. If you are reading this website, it's because you are already operating a photographic business or want to become a photographic business. All businesses have customers.

To put more simply: No customer = No business. If you have customers, you will need to charge for your photos.

• So how much do you charge?
• How much should you charge?
• How do you set you prices?
  1. Same as your competition?
  2. What your customer can pay?
  3. What you need to earn a living?
  4. What you think you are worth?

Before you decide, you should look at your costs. As a photographic business, you will have overheads such as an office/studio, telephone, cameras, lenses, hydro… What about a salary for yourself; maybe even assistants? How many industries do you know, where successful business owners set their prices without knowing their costs? None, zero, nada, zilch.

Before setting your prices, you must figure out your costs. The National Press Photographers Association: NPPA has a cost of doing business calculator where you just plug in your figures. It even has suggestions that are a fairly good starting point.