Ask ten photographers how they landed on their prices and most will describe some version of "I looked at what other people in my area charge and picked a number that felt about right." That's not pricing, it's guessing, and it's how a lot of talented photographers end up working constantly while barely covering their costs. Real pricing starts with a number you can actually defend: your cost of doing business.
Start with your Cost of Doing Business (CODB)
CODB is every dollar it costs to run your business for a year, divided by the number of paid shoots you realistically do in that year. It includes the obvious things (camera gear, editing software subscriptions, insurance) and the things people forget: your own health cover, a portion of your car if you drive to shoots, website hosting, backup storage, marketing spend, and your own time spent on unpaid work like editing, client emails, and admin.
If your total annual business costs come to $28,000 and you do 40 paid shoots a year, your CODB per shoot is $700, before you've paid yourself a cent for actually being there and doing the work. Any package priced below that number is, mathematically, a business paying its clients to exist.
Add your actual labor, not just shoot time
The shoot itself is often the smallest time investment in a job. Culling, editing, client communication, contract and invoice admin, delivery, and revisions routinely add up to two or three times the on-site hours. Price for the whole job, not just the part where you're holding a camera.
Build packages around outcomes, not hours
Hourly pricing punishes you for getting faster and better at your job. Package pricing, a defined set of deliverables for a set price, rewards efficiency and gives clients something concrete to compare, rather than an open-ended number that feels risky to commit to. Three tiers (a lean option, a comprehensive option, and a premium option) covers most client budgets without a custom quote for every enquiry.
Charge separately for usage rights
A wedding client wanting personal prints and social sharing is a very different license than a brand wanting unlimited commercial usage of the same images. Baking broad commercial usage into every package quietly undercharges your highest-value clients. Keep standard packages scoped to personal/social use, and price expanded usage as its own line item.
Revisit your prices at least once a year
Costs rise. Your skill improves. Demand for your specific style shifts. A price list frozen for three years is a price list that hasn't kept up with any of that. Set a calendar reminder, not a "whenever I get around to it."
Don't compete on price alone
There will always be someone charging less. Competing purely on price is a race to the bottom against people who may not be accounting for their CODB at all, which is exactly how some photographers can seem to charge so little. Compete on the actual client experience: how easy you are to book, how clear your contracts and invoices are, how quickly you deliver, how professional the whole process feels from enquiry to delivery.
That last point compounds more than people expect. A client who has a smooth, professional experience from the first invoice to the final gallery is a client who refers you at full price, not one who tries to negotiate a discount next time. Tools that keep contracts, invoices, and delivery organized and on-brand, which is most of what SetBook does, are a small, compounding part of protecting the prices you've actually earned the right to charge.