Professional photographers often charge $150 or more for one hour of service – isn’t that excessive?
It’s actually not “one hour of service”. It’s one hour of “coverage”, which equates to roughly four hours or more of total work. After the shoot, professional photographers download the image files then process each one using software such as Photoshop. Digital processing is painstaking work for many photographers because we want to present perfected images to our clients. In addition, there’s leg work involved in any project. Getting prints made, delivering finished products and pre-scouting for locations are among the elements of the job that take our time. Photographers also have at least one assistant on hand to help with setting up lights and coordinating the session. Those assistants need to be paid. Other expenses such as fuel, batteries, equipment depreciation or loss, and computer and software upgrades are among the costs included in our hourly rates.
