How to Price Architecture Photography

What should you charge for architecture photography? How should you price your architecture photography? Let's examine a few ways we can do this so you can decide what's best for you and your business...
00:00 - Intro - In 2022 I made $148,152 with architecture photography
00:48 - Three most common price structures for architecture photography (hourly, day, and creative fee + licensing fee)
05:31 - Cost-sharing (when multiple companies want to commission a photo shoot)
07:37 - Hypothetical scenarios of how much money you can potentially make
12:05 - Real world examples of architecture and interiors photography invoices
15:16 - Business expenses for architecture photographers
17:33 - How much money I personally make as an architecture photographer
Learn to License Your Photos Course: www.licenseyourphotos.com
More educational resources for architecture, interiors, and real estate photographers: adamtaylorphotos.com/education/
Follow me on Instagram: / adamtaylorphotos
-------------
Adam Taylor is a Hawaii interior and architecture photographer based in Oahu, and servicing all islands, including Maui, Kauai, and Big Island.

[@donnapace6332]

This was incredibly helpful and your transparency is so rare and appreciated! This kind of detail is priceless to someone venturing into this niche with a million questions. Thank you for putting it together and for sharing it freely. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will support you and your courses in appreciation!

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks so much! That kind of comment truly means the world to me!

[@christhompsonphotography6783]

"Stay in your lane" great advice

[@adamtaylorphotos]

@@christhompsonphotography6783 Haha for sure!

[@stevebridge3558]

This is superb information! I’m shooting real estate right now and want to start doing A and D work aswell but finding how to charge is impossible! You’ve just answered so many questions in one video!! Legend!!

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Awesome, glad you found it helpful! Make sure you check out my other videos about transitioning from REP to A/D... How to transition to A/D… kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYeroJ6wqbF-iNU Why you might fail as an A/D photographer: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3jZaZmpnph5irc How to shoot A/D compositions: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqqWhWOla9h4mc0

[@_guitar_dad]

Incredible knowledge mate. Thank you so much. I'm literally at the beginning of my journey so this is so valuable.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Glad you found it helpful! Be sure to check out the workshops I have available on my site too... adamtaylorphotos.com/education/

[@scottbrunner9831]

Great info Adam. Thanks for your generosity.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

You’re very welcome. Glad it helped!

[@mmtriadphotography3157]

Awesome video, thanks for taking the time doing this.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@photos-fera7392]

I had to comment on this video! This is absolute GOLD!! Well done!! I will now be looking into your courses! Awesome stuff!!

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks so much!

[@SergiyKadulin]

Cool! Thanks for a video!

[@fufrube]

Thank you so much for this! It’s rare to find content which actually speaks of real numbers. As someone said, I’m sure you will be compensated by followers and students. I believe this sort of info elevates the general quality and pricing for all, Thanks 🙏

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks so much! That really means a lot!

[@kansaitraveler]

A big THANK YOU for making this! 😃

[@adamtaylorphotos]

A big YOU’RE WELCOME!

[@ismichelman]

So thankful I found you, Adam! I broke into the interiors space this year and your videos have been SO helpful to me as I get all my administrative processes set up. Currently using a flat day rate pricing system as I build up my interiors portfolio, but really liking the idea of a creative fee + licensing fee structure for the future. Also just got my first cost sharing inquiry, which I didn't understand until I watched your videos. Thank you!!

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Awesome, Ian! So happy the videos have helped! Based off what you just said, I think you'd get a lot out of the two residential shoot workshops I have on my site... adamtaylorphotos.com/education/

[@Treviso100]

Great info! Thanks for doing this! Note: I've never charged sales tax as I've been told by my accountant that if they are getting their files electronically (Dropbox) I don't need to charge sales tax. You might want to look into that. Maybe it's different where you are.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

@@Treviso100 Yeah it’s different in Hawaii. I also don’t have to add tax for companies paying me from outside of Hawaii. It’s weird.

[@kennethjonesphotography]

I've been shooting real estate for my own real estate business since mid 1978. For over 4 decades I've shot thousands of properties throughout the continental U.S. and elsewhere. In 2016 I decided to wind down and close my real estate businesses and concentrate on photography which, for the most part, I've done. Since 2016, I've watched dozens of YT videos about various photography genres, and I must tell you this is, far and away, the best video I've ever watched. Thank you. I've spent the past couple of years refining my photography and editing skills, But, I've also found myself vacillating between whether I should pursue architecture and interior photography (which I perceive as being a long road to financial reliability) vs. say, headshots (which I see as a faster track to income stability). This waffling is primarily due to the fact that I'm older and don't want to invest 5-10 years to develop a business that I may not live long enough to fully enjoy. More important to me than the general benefit of the depth of the information you've provided in this video, is the fact that while I believe I have the talent and business ability necessary to achieve "success" in this field, nevertheless this information has reinforced my previously held perceptions of the probable extensive time frame that will be required to achieve financial reliability in the field of architecture and interior photography. Having owned several businesses, I completely understand the financial aspects of what you've discussed and am fully able to accept and deal with them. Finally, I can't tell you how grateful I am for the information you've provided. Thanks again.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Hey Kenneth, thank you SO MUCH for this. Seriously...reading this comment really means a lot to me and I appreciate that you took time to write.

[@mikestewart4733]

Adam, thanks for putting this out into the world. I'm confident that your willingness to be so transparent will return to you many times over in educational sales and other opportuntiies from the many photographers who will be hugely benefited from this very honest approach to the industry. More videos like this on aspects of building an A&D photo business would be well received by everyone.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks so much Mike, that means a lot!

[@BartEdson]

Thanks Adam for this content and for being so transparent with your own finances. I really enjoy your channel. Here are a few of my observations based on my 12 years in the business. I prefer a per photo pricing model. The advantages are that the client knows exactly what they are going to get, and they know exactly how much they're going to pay. I also don't like my clients having to do a bunch of math to figure out what their total cost is going to be. If I charge $150/photo and they believe they will need 10 photos, it's easy for them to figure out the total cost of the shoot ahead of time, and they know exactly how many photos they'll get for that cost. Also, if, while onsite, they want to request 3 additional photos, again it's easy for them to figure out the additional cost without even having to ask me for clarification. And I've found that pricing this way usually comes out to about the same amount as these other pricing models, but is more clear and is more precisely defined. As for "cost sharing", I don't like that term as it can sound misleading because clients may assume that everyone involved just gets to share (split) the base price of the normal pricing model among themselves. I've also found that not all parties are always interested in receiving the entire portfolio (even with the discount), as many photos just may not apply to the work they did on the project. I do like holding the original commissioning client responsible for the entire cost, and letting *them* collect from the other parties rather than me. This is genius. I also really admire your licensing savvy. This is an area I need to improve on. Just my two cents. Thanks again.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thank you Bart! Appreciate your insight!

[@straitjacketstudios]

Great video. Thanks so much for this one!!! Also a LTLYP member. Such a great course!!

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks so much AJ! Glad you got something out of it, and always appreciate your support!

[@KylaGrace]

Thank youuuu for being so detailed and giving actual numbers

[@adamtaylorphotos]

You’re very welcome! I’m glad you found this helpful

[@lionelhenshaw4885]

Really helpful to me at this moment in my career, thanks a mill! Really well structured. I'm also currently going through your marketing strategies course more in depth for the second time.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Awesome, thanks for watching Lionel! And I hope the marketing workshop helps out!

[@flyfastmedia]

This is great, I shoot RE media on the side of my corporate job, and I'm always looking for detail like this on what's "beyond" RE media. Thank you so much man!

[@adamtaylorphotos]

So glad you found it helpful dude!

[@FLANOsFOTOs]

Adam, thank you for sharing insight into the prospect of making good use of the sales time and potential earnings. I have not done architectural photography but can see how this approach with creative licensing fee could work for me. I appreciate your attitude to put it out there in a value to help other photographers. This is a subject that suffers greatly in all genres of photography today. I also watched your interview on Matthew Anderson's channel, and I will surely be checking out your education courses that you offer. Thanks again, FLANO.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thank you so much Flano! Happy you got something out of this!

[@lukaszforster]

Many thanks for this. It was really insightfull!

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Happy you found it helpful! Thanks for watching.

[@slava-slavik]

Amazing level of honesty.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thank you! I was super nervous to post this, but will make another for 2023...

[@joseundercover]

Thanks for this video! It gave me a lot of clarity and perspective on what to really expect while starting my architectural photography business.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Awesome, glad it was helpful!

[@oxxxeee]

thanks Adam... great video

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks Bill!

[@justinmartin3170]

Adam, thank you for putting the effort into this. This was definitely the best Arch Photo related video I’ve seen all year. I really appreciate your research and transparency. Please also send my thanks to the two photographers who sent you their invoices to share with us all. Two questions for you if you don’t mind. 1. Do you have a different rate for residential vs commercial photography? 2. Were the workshops all online or were those in person workshops also? Thank you 🙏🏼

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thank you Justin! I don’t necessarily price residential different than commercial. I price different based on the company, their reach, and what the project will involve. So of course I have “basic prices” as a starting point for “typical jobs”, but my creative and licensing fees will fluctuate based on any number of factors. All the workshops I’ve done have been online, and replays of all are available at AdamTaylorPhotos.com/education.

[@amir_aghareb]

Very informative and reassuring in how I charge because I also cover these pricing methods in my classes so knowing other fellow photographers are somehow following the method I suggest is nice

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks Amir!

[@TrailsOfDoom]

Great video! Really interesting

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks!

[@denizahmet2299]

Very informative share.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Glad you liked it!

[@user-zr4km5ns8t]

Excellent.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks!

[@DanFrancisPhoto]

Great video! Question for your second invoice… did you add the 30% surcharge license with the travel expenses as well? I’ve heard to just do the license surcharge on just the images as you would be getting paid an additional 30% on your rental car, airfare, parking, meals, etc with each additional client as well. (With three clients that’s around $280.00 extra on travel.) I’ve had some clients questioning that in the past. But I guess it’s cleaner by just taking the total and adding 30%, just wondering if you’ve had any feedback from clients.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks Dan! I don’t add the 30% to any reimbursable expenses or assistant fees.

[@AtomicusPrime]

I'm happy to sign up for your email list. I hope you will consider sharing contract information someday. Thank you for the super useful videos.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks Tommy! I actually have never used a proper contract but have been trying to schedule a call with my lawyer to get that squared away.

[@AtomicusPrime]

@@adamtaylorphotos i guess i should do the same :) I was telling my wife that from your lesson, it seemed clear that the contract must say that the client may not license the photo to other businesses--otherwise the cost sharing plan is now up to them. I'm sure it sounds obvious to you by now, but we are still dialing a lot of things in at the same time.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

@@AtomicusPrime For my whole career I’ve only used a one page “agreement” that’s on my deposit invoice and almost never even require a signature on that. But want to change that very soon. Not because it has failed me…just because I know it’s the right thing to do.

[@haakon_b]

As a European I’m a bit jealous. Your tax rates are insanely low, your rates are insanely high and you have good weather. 😂

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Haha, thank you! I am extremely grateful for my circumstances!

[@AlexWidmer]

Seldom do you find genuine advice such as this without a hook or a plug somewhere in here for me to give up information to access this content. I appreciate your transparency and vulnerability to share your philosophy, values, and over-arching goals to build your brand and help other along the way. If anything, this video establishes your credibility and authority 10x more than if you were to gain newsletter subscribers or whatever other vanity metric you'd want. Now, I'll sub because I truly value your intent to add value and contribute to the community, not take more for yourself. Cheers!

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks so much Alex, that truly means a lot to me!

[@stevebridge3558]

Question, in your opinion let’s say I wanted to use similar ‘starting out’ pricing to what you laid out in this video, as I’m in the UK would you recommend just swapping the dollar sign for pound and prices the same or covert the price into uk based on exchange rate

[@adamtaylorphotos]

I'm honestly not too sure...but...probably? Someone actually just started a UK based A/D Photo FB group. You should check that out for sure... facebook.com/groups/355946793557021/

[@JewelsFlowers]

Great vid Adam! My question is about sales tax. Only the last invoice showed a sales tax fee. None of the others had tax except for your excise tax. My state does not charge tax on digital files. Should photographers expect to charge sales tax? How do I find out? Do you or anyone here else charge a sales tax on your invoices?

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Great question! I think each state is different and I would ask an accountant that’s local to you to make sure you’re on the right track.

[@LifeFromAbove.]

Wow ! I can´t thank you enough, this is exactly what I needed to see. I am an Architecture Photographer myself (started 6yrs ago as a Passion, been professional at work since the start of this year). THANK YOU !

[@adamtaylorphotos]

You’re very welcome! Thanks for watching.

[@sydfuller6610]

Hello, I currently do something that's sort of a hybrid of the Day Rate and Creative Fee structures you've mentioned. Since you said that you utilize the creative fee structure I wonder how you manage a client trying to keep you for as long as possible but not licensing enough images to make it worth having spent your entire day there?

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Great question… I make sure my creative fee is enough that it’s worth it even if we only make 5 images. But that also means I’m not shooting more than those 5 images. I don’t shoot a bunch and then let them select from those. I shoot what they need/want/pay for.

[@charlottem9272]

thanks for such an informative video. A question about cost sharing -- in the example, you determined the 30% surcharge based on a creative fee + licensing fees. does this suggest that the client hires you to create a certain number of images, with the guarantee that they will buy that many images ? I thought that the point of a fee + licensing structure was that clients could choose which images to license after seeing the results. Does this structure mean that the cost sharing clients are licensing the exact same images? thanks so much.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Thanks Charlotte! Great question…in my business all cost-sharing parties get the same images. With my process and the way I shoot, clients receive all images created on shoot day. I don’t make extra images that they pick from that get left behind. I put a lot of time into each image, and the images are curated with the help of the client, who is almost always on site helping direct.

[@charlottem9272]

Gotcha!! Thanks for the insight and prompt response. Really appreciate your content !! @@adamtaylorphotos

[@renaplank]

Don’t take this the wrong way but what do you do for 8 hrs on site? I made $163,000 as a RE photographer last year. I shoot architectural/commercial projects all the time but I treat these the same as shooting a house. What’s the main difference between the two. Help me understand.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Hey Brian, happy to help explain... When I shoot with an architect, designer, etc. we do a walk through of the property and I have them tell me the story of the project. What's important? What challenges did they face? What do they want to highlight and ignore? What messages are they trying convey with the images? Part of the time is spent chasing the sun...waiting for it to be in the right spot for the best possible shot of a certain space. A large part of the time is spent testing angles and compositions to find the best solution for any given goal... So if the client wants to show off a kitchen space, instead of shooting 15 quick photos of the entire room, we test and retest several comps, then agree on the one or two most impactful images of that space to focus our time and efforts. Once the client and I agree on a composition, we spend time rearranging furniture and staging items within the scene to balance the image and curate the room the way the client intends it to look. Then I spend time lighting (or un-lighting) the scene with flashes, flags, scrims, etc. And finally, I take brackets, flash shots, CPL shots, etc. (as needed) to be able to successfully composite the image together. For more insight into my process, I give a very in depth timeline of what this looks like (on a 15hr shoot day, producing 26 images) in my latest residential architecture shoot workshop here: adamtaylorphotos.com/kukuiula-workshop/

[@GPadugan]

what about editing / post production? I didn't see anything in any of the options that really set aside a significant chunk of time for that. Typically one hour of shooting is at least one hour of editing. Even if you farm out the editing to a third party, there is still cost with that. Does that time / cost out of the creative fee?

[@adamtaylorphotos]

My fees include editing. However, anything above and beyond my normal scope of editing work is billed hourly...but that almost never happens as my "basic" editing is already very high end.

[@GPadugan]

@@adamtaylorphotos makes sense and adds some meat to the "creative" part of the creative fee. A good point to support your fee if pushed back in by the client.

[@panomaxstudio8454]

Hi Adam . In Norway , Goverment will take 50 to 70 prosent tax you earned .😀

[@adamtaylorphotos]

Whoah! That’s crazy!

[@wearechangecthartford]

Fascists!

[@abril1127]

So they pay $100 per image you took and edited or do they pay $100 per image they pick from the stack of edited photos? I feel like if I edit it they should pay me.

[@adamtaylorphotos]

I work with my clients to curate the images on site so I only make images they agree on. (Almost all images take a lot of time to set up and produce.) So all are edited and billed for. Only on rare and specific occasions will I give them any additional to choose from. And if I know that will be the case I can increase the creative fee since it will entail extra work on my end.

[@MichaelCTruth]

​@@adamtaylorphotosGreat video. Is someone charges per hour, do they charge extra to edit images?

[@adamtaylorphotos]

@@MichaelCTruth Depends on the person. There are infinite ways to do it. Many people charge a fee per image for editing. I roll that into my creative fee and licensing fees so it’s included in there already.

[@Divy91311]

Hey Adam , really nice video! I was wondering if I could help you edit your videos and also make a highly engaging Thumbnail which will help your video to reach to a wider audience .

[@adamtaylorphotos]

No thanks.

[@mevrouwsamat]

stay in your lane :)))