If you’re just getting started with product photography or looking for product photographers for hire, knowing the rates might help you. Product photography pricing dramatically varies and depends on a range of factors, such as the number of products you want to shoot, the location of the photo shoot, the equipment on the set, and the photographer’s experience.
Professionals have higher product photography rates based on experience and previous accomplishments – ranging from $150 to $500 per hour.
On the other hand, hiring an amateur product photographer could save you a lot of money, as amateurs could charge between $30 and $80 per hour. So, the average cost of product photography may range from $30 to $500 per hour.
Keep reading to learn more about the product photography pricing structure, additional charges, etc.
In this article
Product Photography Is Essential
Product photography is essential for any business organization that markets products or services online. For example, top-notch product images can help your marketing team establish brand credibility and build client trust.
Product photography is vital to providing each customer with an exceptionally great experience that differentiates your brand from the competition. An eye-grabbing photo is the first thing a potential prospect sees when they land on your website.
It’s the first impression a client gets of your brand. According to a study, 93% of online buyers will make a purchasing decision based on visuals. In other words, top-grade product photography makes all the difference between losing and winning a new customer.
Here are a few points that emphasize the importance of professional product photography today.
- User experience
Online shoppers base their purchasing decisions on customer experience. You’ll lose potential prospects if your website doesn’t meet their expectations. Immersive and professional photos can help your target audience visualize your product or service and make informed buying decisions, which leads to a positive brand reputation and higher customer retention and conversion rates.
- Higher conversion rate
Impeccable product images can do wonders for your conversion rates. Since they give customers a great first impression, high-end product photos can impact consumer purchasing decisions and turn website visitors into loyal customers.
- Brand loyalty
E-commerce is a fiercely competitive business landscape. Therefore, you have to work twice as hard to reach more customers. Building trust and brand loyalty is vital to beating your competitors and establishing your brand as authoritative, reliable, and trustworthy.
- Brand recognition
Once you position yourself as the leading brand in your business niche, customers will feel more inclined to buy from a trustworthy brand.
This trust, immersive visuals, and unique content allow you to empower your brand with a memorable personality and recognizable voice that can resonate with consumers across the marketplace.
That voice is the foundation upon which you build brand credibility and establish recognition through immersive product visuals.
Product Photography Pricing Overview
If you’re curious about product photography costs, this overview can help. Different studios use different pricing structures to set their prices. In most cases, pricing depends on experience, expertise, and type of photography.
Product photography can cost around $60 per image to several hundred dollars per hour. Before you get into the product photography pricing in 2023, here’s a breakdown of different pricing models that you can find in the world of freelance photography
1. Product Photography Costs per Image
Per image is a popular pricing model for both professional photography studios and independent photographers. However, per-image rates involve different things for both options. For example, most freelance photographers charge per image taken.
The price usually includes basic editing services. Freelancers price their photos by collection or batch number of images. This tiered approach benefits you by reducing the price the more you buy.
So, you can charge anywhere from $50 to $150 for 1 to 10 images. Remember that per-photo rates don’t include additional charges, such as specialized equipment, studio rentals, and hourly rates.
2. Product Photography Charges per Product
Per product is another popular pricing model in product photography that enables freelancers to charge a fixed rate per product they shoot. However, this approach is somewhat limited by the number of photos a photographer can take for each product.
On the other hand, different products can entail different rates. For example, if a photographer finds your product difficult to shoot, the price could increase due to additional time and effort invested in the per-product setup. In addition, the rate will include the post-production fee as well.
3. Product Photography Pricing per Hour
If you take a look at the professional photography rates per hour, you’ll probably have to pay around $150 out of your pocket for an hour of shooting. Students and amateur photographers are much more affordable as they may charge about $50 per hour.
If you’re new to product photography or plan to hire a photographer to shoot your product, pay special attention to the required skill level. For example, you can charge small businesses around $150 per hour for product photography. If you’re a business owner, expect to pay a similar price for product photography services.
4. Product Photography Costs per Day
A half-day or full-day product photography rate can range between $1,000 and $2,000, depending on the location. These are average rates for a local freelance professional photographer.
Naturally, the rate could vary depending on your specific needs, including the quality requirements you’re after for each product you plan to market. Per-day rates typically include the fees for setting up a stage and editing time.
Product Photography Rates Change Based on Experience and Quality
Quality and experience are the determining factors that influence product photography rates in the e-commerce business landscape. Since this market can be overwhelmingly competitive, how much you charge for your services will depend on your experience and skill.
There are huge differences between the rates charged by amateurs and professionals. Amateurs typically charge $10-$30 per product photo for e-commerce business clients. Professional rates, however, may go above $3000 per day.
Professional product photography services usually include additional services and guarantee higher-quality images that match your brand’s identity. Though these rates may seem extremely expensive, they have additional costs, such as the extra effort to set up the stage, background, equipment, etc.
Remember that professional photography requires a significant time investment to understand the client, their brand, their needs, and their products. The calculation should include initial costs that can grow as the shoot progresses.
A typical freelance product photographer can earn up to $3,000 monthly, whereas a professional gets paid $5,000 per job.
Additional Charges to Consider
Whether you’re a local freelance photographer, professional, service provider, or agency, your rates will likely include additional charges. On the other hand, hiring any of these options will undoubtedly expose you to additional fees to worry about.
Whatever the case, you must ensure these extra charges provide top-quality results. Your clients need to know what they’re paying for. If you’re a client yourself, you’ll want cost-effective services that won’t bleed your budget dry. With that in mind, here are additional product photography charges for your consideration.
Editing
Including basic editing in the base fees is a common practice in the product photography world. Basic editing typically includes retouching, lighting adjustment, color correction, and removing small imperfections. If a client requires more editing, that would entail an additional fee.
Reshoots
If the content captured at the initial shoot doesn’t meet client requirements, a reshoot is always an option. Most freelancers, service providers, and agencies practice reshoots if the first results aren’t satisfying enough. However, a reshoot usually involves an additional fee.
Models
Product photography with a live model can be an excellent conversion tool. Models can add depth to your product images and make them look more realistic.
Photos with models give your target audience a better perspective of how your products could fit into their everyday life. They show how your product works and the use cases for it.
However, hiring models for your product photo shoot involves more than one additional fee:
- A model’s hourly fee;
- A licensing fee.
Styling
Whether you need to hire a stylist for your photo shoot depends on the type of photography you want. A stylist can help you capture top-quality photos by ensuring your products look impeccable and creating scenes with props.
They can also help you coordinate the shooting set according to your needs. Hiring a stylist typically involves paying an hourly fee.
Props
Props can improve the feel of your shooting set by adding to the scenery. They enhance your content and give it a real-life feel.
Adding props for your shoot will cost you extra, but the final price depends on the photographer and the props you choose.
Product Photography Pricing Based on the Type
Here’s a breakdown of product photography pricing in e-commerce based on the type.
1. E-Commerce Product Photography Pricing
E-commerce photography usually entails lower costs. However, more affordable pricing may also mean less experience and fewer skills. In e-commerce photography, experience and expertise make all the difference in pricing.
In other words, photographers must know their value to set realistic and competitive prices. E-commerce photography pricing also depends on the number of photos a client requires. In general, you can expect to pay up to $50 per photo for a decent-quality image of your product.
2. Close up Photography
In most situations, close-up images of products include small-scale items like beauty products, electronics, jewelry, etc. The quality of close-up photography depends on the camera and the zoom lens. These tools tend to be quite expensive.
In addition, most photographers use a lightbox for better lighting to get the most out of the close-up shots. The lightbox ranges between $40 and $150, depending on the size and quality.
3. Real-Life Photography
Real-life images require a hand-picked background environment and natural lighting. Since these require time and effort to come by, real-life photography tends to be more expensive than other photography types listed here.
However, it also has the power to help viewers connect with products captured in photos, thus increasing the purchasing chance. In real-life photography, the cost also depends on whether you hire a model.
If a live model is involved, the price will go up. The average price for real-life photography ranges between $2,000 and $5,000 per day for one session.
4. Amazon Photography
If you want to get your products on Amazon, you should be prepared to pay between $200 and $600 or higher, depending on your needs.
The most affordable images on Amazon are the ones that display the product on a white background.
If you want a photo to include locations, people, props, and other elements, that will increase the price.
Thankfully, Amazon offers different pricing packages to choose from:
- Essential – $545 for five ultra-quality images;
- Seller – $845 for seven premium quality images;
- Pro – $1,295 for ten extra quality images.
AI Product Photography Tools Pricing [NEW]
Nowadays, you have an extensive range of top-shelf AI tools for product photography available on the web.
Each tool comes with a packed arsenal of top features such as denoising, lighting, upscaling, and other photo editing capabilities.
Since these tools can come in handy, here’s a brief overview of pricing rates for top AI tools on the market today.
Wondershare VirtuLook
Wondershare VirtuLook is an excellent online product photo generator that generates immersive product images in minutes.
You can set the tool on Autopilot and relax while the program does all the editing work for you.
Wondershare VirtuLook charges per image, ranging from 10-50 credits per image. You can buy the credits based on your business needs:
- $24.99/month with 100 credits
- $199/month with 850 credits
- $499/month with 2500 credits
- More: Contact Wondershare VirtuLook for custom enterprise solutions
Good news is, this product is still in beta phase, it currently offers a free demo version.
Lensa
Lensa is an AI-powered photo editor for smartphone. The app is available for Android and iPhone users. Lensa empowers you to accomplish great results in the simplest of ways. For example, you can customize image editing with powerful sliders or retouch your product photos with a single tap.
Lensa is available as a free download. However, the free download includes only the basic version. Additional in-app purchases range from $1.99 to $49.99 for unlimited access.
Topaz
Topaz Photo AI is an excellent image editor that can enhance and maximize image quality using AI-powered modules like Image Upscaling, Sharpen AI, and Remove Noise. You can fix motion blur, reduce noise, upscale images, and recover faces with an AI-powered Topaz photo editor.
Topaz comes from Topaz Labs – a hub with access to top-grade AI tools like Sharpen AI, Gigapixel AI, DeNoise AI, Video AI, and Topaz Photo AI.
Topaz pricing includes the following plans (all plans include one year of unlimited upgrades):
- Topaz Photo AI – $199;
- Topaz Video AI – $299;
- DeNoise AI – $79.99;
- Gigapixel AI – $99.99;
- Sharpen AI – $79.99.
Conclusion
As you can see, product photography pricing greatly varies based on multiple factors, such as the number of products you want to shoot, the location of the shoot, and the photographer’s expertise. In the amateur vs. professional case, professional photographers win the day by earning $150–$500 per hour.
Amateurs, on the other hand, may charge $30–$80 per hour. You shouldn’t forget about additional charges that may significantly increase the price of your product photography.
If you opt for a per-product pricing rate, you can expect to pay between $20 and $50. However, the total sum will depend on the number of products and the type of photography you choose.