Five Reasons to Raise Your Portrait Photography Prices

You get what you pay for. In most cases, this saying rings true. However, there is another narrative playing out in the photographic world. This other, rather untold story has a central character getting much, much more than what they pay for. When it comes to portrait photography, clients are reaping rewards from photographers who are unwilling or too fearful to raise their prices. There comes a time when something other than a photographer’s livelihood must give. 

Your Reputation

Like most vocations, your photography business is built upon reputation. Without a solid reputation, your career as a photographer is destined for failure.  More than likely, you already have a reputation in your service area. Clients and fellow photographers alike recognize and label you. Hopefully, you aren’t immediately associated with low prices. One descriptor that you never want to have attached to your name is to be known as the “cheap photographer.” Believe it or not, undervaluing your services can have a counterintuitive reaction. Clients see rock-bottom prices and will recognize that you have little value as a photographer. 

On the other hand, the “competitive rates” you have established will attract a slew of clients. However, the clients you will attract will not value you as a photographer or the art that you create. Soon, clients and industry peers will recognize you as the “discount option,” and this reputation will be hard to overcome. By raising your prices, you distance yourself from the economical option. Far away from rock-bottom prices, you establish value for your service and show that your experience, artistic vision, and technical prowess are worth your rate. 

You Aren’t a Work Horse

Too much work is a bad thing. You aren’t built to put in 60, 70, or even 80-hour weeks. Long, grinding hours are not sustainable and leave photographers mentally and physically exhausted. Low prices are the quickest way to inherit this unsustainable grind. Depressed pricing attracts customers who consider budget over everything else. While these cost-minded clients do bring photographers a small payday, they also refer new clients with similar values. Soon enough, you will have a steady stream of meager-paying jobs but will not have the time to do much else with your life. 

While higher prices for each portrait session might result in less work at first, you will still maintain your same annual bottom line with less effort. Use simple math. The average annual income for a portrait photographer in the United States hovers around $50,000. If a photographer raised their prices by a modest 20 percent, their new income would reach sixty thousand dollars. While this extra cash will by no means will make you rich, the extra income will provide you with the flexibility to work less hours and increase free time to spend with your family, relaxing, or working on your craft.

Consumer Confidence 

Professional photographers realize how their clients feel when being photographed. The last thing you should want your client thinking during a session is about how they do not trust you as their photographer. It is a photographer’s goal to make their clients relax in the knowledge that they are in great hands. 

Higher prices will inevitably lead your customers to have confidence in you. If a client pays dearly for your service, they have confidence that your work will live up to its price. With consumer confidence high, your client will not doubt the decisions you make before, during, and after your portrait session.

Raise the Industry Standard

As a portrait photographer, you can immediately name the photographer down the road that is willing to shoot for hours, deliver heaps of high-resolution images, and only charge pennies-on-the-hour for the whole package. Many photographers fall into the trap of lowering their prices to compete with the photographers who undercut their services and lower the value associated with the portrait industry. 

At first, lowering your prices to compete with the competition seems like a good idea. However, this logic is flawed and is counterproductive to your goals as a career photographer and to the industry at large. Clients use pricing comparatively and create pricing anchors. If all photographers have deflated rates, consumers enter a mindset where little value is attached to photography services. Considering this, photographers should collectively raise prices. Instead of lowering your rates to meet the low end of the market, do all in your power to raise the standard for the entire industry.

Career Longevity

No one said that starting a photography business was going to be easy. Starting a business is one of the most challenging endeavors you can face as a creative. In fact, many professionals don’t last in the field because of financial uncertainty. By increasing your prices, you are gaining an edge against the odds and positioning yourself as a staple in your market. 

Knowing that you are receiving a decent wage for your work, you will be more likely to show up for your portrait shoot motivated and full of excitement. With fresh energy, you are more likely create better work that will, in turn, attract the clients you have always desired. With increased revenue, you will soon be able to pick the projects that deeply interest you and will add years to the lifespan of your photographic career. 

In Conclusion

Most photographers choose their career because of a deep passion for the craft and a calling to create beautiful images; financial prosperity is just an added bonus. But somewhere along the way, a shift towards full-client rosters became paramount. Photographers are now quick to gobble up any client they can get and actively price their products based on arbitrary anchors. 

Many photographers forget that the business of photography isn’t all about clients. The photo business is also about you, the photographer.  By raising your prices, you will be able to hold your head up high and approach your work with renewed energy. With higher prices, you will create a sustainable business model. In a world where every Tom, Dick, and Jane is a photographer, elevate yourself by asking for a fair wage.