Should You Put Your Pricing on Your Photography Website?

Should you put your pricing on your photography website? It is a tricky question: on one hand, without it, you might annoy potential customers who want an idea of what they should expect to spend. On the other hand, with it, you might scare aware potential clients before you have had the chance to make your case for why you are worth the money. If you are wondering how to approach this, check out this great video tutorial that will give you some helpful advice on the topic. 

Coming to you from Chelsea Nicole Photography, this excellent video tutorial will give you some useful advice for approaching including pricing on your photography website. The important thing to remember is that beyond simply establishing your worth, the way you introduce your pricing is very much a crucial part of the process of booking a client. It matters not only for simply landing the customer, but for possibly selling them on bigger packages and generating more income, particularly since many clients do not know what they are looking for from a photographer and may be open to upgrading if presented with the information in the correct manner. Check out the video above for the full rundown. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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6 Comments

I personally think that putting the pricing is important. As someone who more often than not used to spend time looking for a photographer for hire I can say I loved those whose websites had both their portfolio and the whole price that included additional services like a Smartshow 3d video or an editing-on request type of things. You may not find these prices suitable for you but at least you know exactly what the photographer is doing and you don't have to wait for their response or ask additional questions like 'Can you do this and how much would it cost?'.

One portrait photographer who has been extremely successful for half a century asserts that it's extremely important that the sitting fee not be too low. In his experience, people unconsciously set a value on a photographer from the sitting fee and a price point for how much they'll be willing to spend in total.

Thus, photographers who set a low sitting fee "to get them in the door" with the expectation of substantially upselling them later are outwitting themselves. People who start cheap expect to end cheap, and will resent being pushed into more expense than they expected. People who see it's expensive just to get in front of the camera have chosen up front to spend considerable money.

This photographer estimates that people will spend three times the sitting fee on product without feeling "upsold." The sitting fee sets the tone.

Unless your target audience is high end commercial clients or your pricing is based off of constantly changing variables then I'd say you should list your pricing. Average people will pass you over in favor of some one that has a price listed. it takes extra effort and time to call or email about something like pricing and people these days aren't interested in spending extra time and effort on something if they don't have to.

I've opted to try out putting pricing online now.

I guess it woild be much better to put pricing labels on the site. Otherwise, your customers will annoy you questioning about prices in DM.