Wedding photography pricing calculator
Your floor price comes out of five numbers only you know: what your year costs, the salary you decide on, your tax rate, the weddings you can deliver, and the hours one really takes. Put them in and the arithmetic is instant.
Last updated: September 3, 2026
A calculator, not an oracle
This is the pricing method from the videography package pricing guide, made interactive - and the arithmetic is identical for photography. It will not tell you what photographers charge in your city, because borrowed numbers carry someone else's costs, volume, and style. It tells you something more useful: the price below which a wedding costs you money to shoot.
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or saved.
The figures below are illustrative - the same ones the pricing guide uses so the arithmetic is visible. They are not a recommendation and not market rates. Replace every one with your own.
Everything a year of running the business costs: gear replacement, insurance, software, storage, travel, marketing, your accountant. Your salary and tax have their own lines below.
Decided first and written in as a cost, not whatever happens to be left in December.
The share of your taxable income - what is left after business costs - set aside for tax and contributions. Your accountant knows your real rate.
Not how many dates are free - how many you can shoot and edit at your standard without the queue eating the next booking.
From first inquiry to archive, not just the shoot day. The videography pricing guide counts them stage by stage - the method is identical for photography.
What the year must produce
$78,000
Costs covered, tax set aside, and your salary paid - the revenue the whole year needs before anything is profit.
Floor price per wedding
$3,900
The least one wedding can sell for. It pays your salary only - profit sits above it, and so does your price.
Effective hourly at the floor
$65
What one hour of the real work earns when a wedding sells at the floor. A reality check, not a rate to quote.
The $ is only a label. The arithmetic is addition, a percentage, and division, so it works the same in euros, pounds, or any other currency.
What the calculator does with your numbers
Three steps, no cleverness. First it grosses your salary up for tax: business costs are deductible, so tax falls on what is left after them - which is where your salary comes from. To take your salary home, that part of the revenue has to be your salary divided by (1 minus your rate). Simply adding the rate on top comes up short, because the extra money earned to pay the tax bill is itself taxed. Then it adds your annual costs, which are earned tax-free. Finally it divides by the weddings you can deliver, which gives the floor, and by the hours one takes, which gives the hourly figure.
The floor is salary-only. It contains no profit, no buffer for a slow season, and nothing toward the lens you want to move to - replacement is in your costs, but upgrades are not. Price at the floor and the business pays you a wage but builds nothing - which is why your price sits above it, and the gap is a decision, not an apology.
Common questions
Is the floor price the price I should charge?
No - it is the price below which a wedding costs you money to take. The floor covers your running costs, your tax set-aside, and the salary you decided on, and nothing else. Profit, a buffer for the slow year, and room to reinvest all sit above it, so your actual price does too. Treat the floor as the line you refuse to cross, not as a quote.
Why does my salary go in before the price comes out?
Because leaving it out is how photographers end up working a full season for whatever is left over. Decide what you need to live on, write it in as a cost like insurance or gear, and let every price carry its share. Profit is what remains after the business has paid you, not instead of paying you.
What belongs in annual business costs?
Everything a year of running the business costs before you shoot anything: gear replacement and depreciation, insurance, software subscriptions, storage and archive, travel and vehicle, marketing and listings, your accountant, payment processing fees, and education. Your salary and your tax set-aside stay out of this line only because the calculator gives each one its own - and the weeks nobody pays you are already handled by deciding your salary first and being honest about how many weddings you can deliver.
How often should I re-run the numbers?
Once a year against a wedding you actually delivered, and again whenever something underneath moves - gear replaced, software added, a different tax rate, or a change in how many weddings you can take. It takes five minutes. The floor you worked out two seasons ago is a historical document, not a price.
Does it matter that the calculator shows dollars?
No. The arithmetic is addition, a percentage, and division, so it works identically in any currency - type euros, pounds, or anything else into the same boxes and read the results in that currency. The $ sign is a label, not an assumption about where you work.
The floor is a number. The season is a calendar.
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