Photography Business Calculator

Photography business profit depends on shoot volume, price per shoot, and overhead. Typical pricing: weddings 1,500-5,000, family 200-600, corporate 400-1,500, newborn 300-800. Most photographers run 4-10 shoots/month at startup, 10-25 at established scale. Equipment and marketing costs typically 500-2,000/month.

6 shoots/month × 800 average + 4 editing hours per shoot = 4,800 revenue. 300 equipment + 200 marketing = 500 fixed. Net 4,300/month, 51,600 annual. Effective hourly: 6 shoots × 8 hours (shoot 4 + edit 4) = 48 hours × 4 weeks. 4,300 / 192 hours monthly = 22/hour. Quite modest once hours are fully counted.

Scaling photography: raise prices (20-50% jump every 2 years is typical for growing reputation), shift to premium segments (weddings vs family), add products (prints, albums, frames - 3-5x markup), offer higher-ticket services (mentorship, workshops, licensing). Many photographers double revenue via prints/albums without increasing shoot count.

Quick example

With shoots per month of 6 and avg shoot price of 800 (plus editing hours per shoot of 4 and equipment monthly of 300), the result is 4,300.00. Change any figure and watch the output shift — it's often more useful to see the pattern than to memorise the formula.

Which inputs matter most

You enter Shoots per Month, Avg Shoot Price, Editing Hours per Shoot, Equipment Monthly, and Marketing Monthly. Not every input has equal weight. Adjusting one input at a time toward extreme values shows which ones move the result most.

What's happening under the hood

Monthly revenue = shoots × price. Net profit = revenue - equipment - marketing. Annual = monthly × 12. The formula is listed in full below. If the number looks off, you can retrace the calculation by hand — that's the point of showing the working.

Using this as a check-in

Re-run this every three months. A single reading tells you where you stand; four readings tell you whether things are improving. The trend matters more than any individual snapshot.

What this doesn't capture

The score is a composite of the inputs you provide. Life context — job security, family obligations, health, housing — doesn't appear in the math but shapes the real picture. Use the number as a prompt, not a verdict.