How to Charge What You are Worth as a Photographer and Why

A Post By: Darlene Hildebrandt

Bambi Cantrell may not be a name you recognize unless you are a wedding photographer. She’s been doing photography since about 1982 and was someone who I followed early on in my career in photography. She’s a frequent speaker at the popular WPPI conference every year and was a recent teacher on Creative Live. These videos are segments of that talk that discuss that area of value of yourself as a photographer and pricing so make a profit and a good living.

In this video below Bambi talks about many extremely important aspects to being a photographer including:

• How important what you do as a photographer is to documenting the lives of your clients, not just what they look like but who they are as people
• How you need to follow your dreams and to never take no for answer, but to always keep moving forward no matter what anyone else says
• Doing what it takes to make it, and perseverance is key to success
• If you can afford yourself you are too inexpensive
• How to charge what you are worth confidently and to value yourself as an artist and photographer
• Perceived value and when it’s okay to spend more money on something

The second video below covers some of the same concepts again and more in depth on the topic of valuing yourself and your work, and charging enough to take enough money home at the end of the day.

So if you are an aspiring photographer hoping to make it as a pro, or maybe you’ve been doing it for a while and just can’t seem to turn a profit – give these a listen!

You might also want to learn about creating relationships to help you grow your business, how to make your next big decision be the right one, and the Ultimate Guide to Going Pro – all right here on dPS.