The average income in the creative industries (excluding photographers) in 2009 was £30,550.
Average Photography related income (2009) - £24,150
Average freelance photographer income (2009) - £18,821
29% of freelancers made a profit (before drawings) of between £1-10K
16% of freelancers made no profit (before drawings)
The initial figures for 2011 look even bleaker with the average photographers salary now hovering around £12,500 (source - Salary Tracker).
Now please remember the average salaried wage in the country is £23,244 per year. So why do photographers appear to earn so little yet are charging day rates of between £400 to £2k a day? The simple fact are our costs, which have risen exponentially over the last ten years. A couple of years ago, with a fellow colleague Nick Goode, we looked at the typical costs of running a photographic business outside of London, both as a studio facility and freelancer working from home and from those figures deduced the day rates that should be charged:
| Studio Photographer | Per Year |
| Rent on 700 sq ft studio and ancillary offices | 16,000 |
| Rates | 2,400 |
| Electricity | 800 |
| Water | 400 |
| New Equipment purchase, replacement of old etc | 5,000 |
| Stationery and postage | 500 |
| Portfolio and advertising | 3,500 |
| Insurance – Studio and equipment | 1,200 |
| Pension Fund | 2,700 |
| Burglar Alarm maintenance | 250 |
| Air Conditioner | 200 |
| Redecoration of studio | 500 |
| Telephone and answering service | 2,100 |
| Two staff: assistant and secretary/stylist | 24,000 |
| Staff meals, including clients | 3,000 |
| Car leasing and insurance | 4,800 |
| Petrol and servicing | 3,000 |
| Foreign location travel insurances | 400 |
| Cabs and messenger service | 2,000 |
| Parking tickets | 200 |
| Carnets | 80 |
| Initial Towel laundry service | 240 |
| Account’s fees an other services | 1,200 |
| Bank charges on average balance of £20,000 expenses owed by clients | 3,000 |
| Total | 69,600 |
| Typical Working days per year (2009): 150 Amount needed to be earned per day | 464 |
A studio photographer would typical have set-up/equipment costs of £37,750 which would include cameras, lighting, kitchen, sound system, office equipment, software, tools, backgrounds, sundry props, burglar alarm, data storage and phone system.
| Location Photographer | Per year |
| Part-time assistant | 4,000 |
| Rates | 1,000 |
| Electricity | 600 |
| New equipment and replacement of old | 4,500 |
| Stationery and postage | 500 |
| Advertising and portfolio | 3,500 |
| Insurance – equipment and public liability etc | 750 |
| Telephone & answering service | 1,800 |
| Part time secretarial assistance (wife/partner) | 6,000 |
| Vehicle Leasing | 4,800 |
| Petrol and servicing for 28,000 miles p.a. | 3,500 |
| Travel insurance for foreign locations etc | 600 |
| Cabs and courier service | 900 |
| Parking tickets | 250 |
| Carnets. Visas etc, | 400 |
| Accountants fees etc | 900 |
| Total | 34,000 |
| Typical Working days per year (2009): 150 Expenses per day worked | 226 |
A location/freelance photographer would typically have set-up costs of £32,250 which would include cameras, lighting, office equipment, software, tools, sundry props and security systems.
Now we have our base figures of £464 (studio photographer) and £226 (location photographer), we must consider how much they should earn in the way of drawings from their business. Given that the majority of real photographers have undertaken a substantial amount of training prior to their commencement of practicing (3-5 years at college/uni followed by 2/3 years as an assistant), it would not be unreasonable for them to expect to at least earn the average wage.
So lets divide £23,244 by 150 (typical amount of days worked/chargeable in 2009) = £154.96
If we now add this to our existing figures we get:
Studio Photographer - £464 + £154 = £618 (must earn in gross profit per day)
Location Photographer - £226 + £154 = £380 (must earn in gross profit per day)
So as you can see, the photographer is left no real options but to charge a realistic rate to cover his out-goings and also survive. The other thing that should be noted is that the amount of days chargeable, since 2009, has been greatly reduced - and is now around 75 days per year (1.5 days a week).
So when you are berating your photographer and trying to beat his costs down further, please try to be a little more understanding :)
Yours,
Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
Ps
All figures for photographers' costings were produced in 2009, most costs have risen between 15-75% since this exercise was undertaken. A range of 15 photographers were used to compile this info - from industrial to portrait/social photographers. Industry figures - Skillset 2009
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