Why do photographers charge so much for prints on top of Session Fee?

This question has been asked by millions of customers who are buying prints from photographers and there have been a million different answers.

There are a lot of factors that go into photographers pricing their prints. Some include; cost of the print, shipping, preparation, overhead, the photographer’s target market, competition, overall volume, and so on. Photography is no different than any other business.

With all of that aside you are really paying for the image the photographer created. Yes you could get the same image printed at a drug store for $0.10, but most customers are willing to pay “extra” because they know they couldn’t create that image themselves.

If you went out shopping for a piece of artwork for your living room you don’t look at the product and say, “why would I pay $100 for that when it probably only cost about $5 to make”. Instead you would say, “This is exactly what I was looking for….I’d buy it if it was $200”. That artwork meant something to you for whatever reason and you really didn’t care about the price as long as it was reasonable for you.

My philosophy on my print prices is to create a memorable image that you will enjoy and offer those images at a reasonable price. When you choose me as your photographer you pay a session fee and pay for whatever prints you want. The session fee is for my time spent doing the actual session, travel, and time spent downloading and organizing 50-200 photos. Most of the post-production costs are calculated into the price of the print. I could easily charge higher session fees to cover all costs, but I feel it is my responsibility to deliver high quality images, so that is why most of the other costs are built into the price of the print.

After a session, which usually takes approximately 1 hour for basic portraits, I have around 50-200 images to work with. Download time takes about 15 minutes. Once I have downloaded the pictures they have to be sorted to determine the best pictures from the set, this takes another 20 minutes. Then I spend 2-4 hours to get the images ready for you to view. This includes converting, batching, image enhancements, downloading to website, and more. Sometimes there is extra time spent helping you finalize your order or any special requests you have. I usually average 4-6 hours spent from the start of the session to the time the images are ready to be ordered.

Yes the price of prints include the expertise and time spent by the photographer, but remember this, in the end you are not just paying for the paper but also for the image that was created and symbolic meaning it has to you.