How I price product photography (and why there's no price list on my website)

People ask me for a price list all the time. I understand why. It would be easier for everyone if I could say "one product, one photo, this much" and be done with it. But two shoots that look the same on paper can be completely different jobs, and a flat price list would either overcharge one client or quietly underpay me on the other.

So here's how I actually work out a quote. I first wrote a version of this when I was running the studio in Manila. I've since moved to Sweden, and the numbers changed, but the thinking didn't.

Start with what the shoot really costs

Before anything creative, there's the boring maths. Studio time. Equipment wear. Props I have to buy, rent, or build. Backdrops and surfaces. Electricity, transport, and the hours I spend sourcing a very specific shade of green velvet in a flea market. If a quote doesn't cover those, it doesn't matter how lovely the photos are. The studio won't last.

These costs are also very local. What a studio costs in Manila is not what a studio costs in Mölndal, and rates in Sweden are shaped by Swedish living costs, Swedish VAT, and what Swedish brands expect. Copying someone else's rates from another country is a fast way to get it wrong.

Then price the styling, not just the clicking

The camera part is often the shortest part of my day. Most of the work is concept, set building, and prop styling: deciding that a serum should sit on a fluted plinth in a cloud, then making that cloud exist. A quote that only counts "number of photos" leaves out the part clients are actually hiring me for.

So I look at:

• how many products are in the shoot
• how complex each set is (a clean packshot is not a built set with props, food, and movement)
• whether I'm sourcing props, building them, or using my own collection
• whether the brief includes video and reels as well as stills

Don't forget the edit

Retouching, colour correction, and exporting files for every channel all take time. Beauty products especially: every swatch, every speck of dust on a lipstick bullet, every label that needs to be perfectly straight. I put post-production in the quote as its own line so nobody is surprised by it later.

Packages, not mystery numbers

What I do offer is structure. Most projects fit one of a few shapes: a launch package for one product, a monthly content set, a one-off shoot, or set and prop styling on its own. Each one has a clear scope, and I build the quote inside that scope. It means a small brand can start with something manageable, and a bigger brand can add more without renegotiating everything.

Know your market, but don't race to the bottom

It's worth knowing what other studios charge. It's not worth matching the cheapest one. If your work is conceptual and styled by hand, say so, show it, and price for it. The clients who want that will understand. The ones who only want the lowest number were never going to be a great fit anyway.

Why every quote starts with a chat

When a brand gets in touch, I ask about the product, the launch date, where the content will live, and roughly what they want to spend. That last one feels awkward, but it's the most useful question of all. It lets me suggest what's possible for that budget instead of sending a number into the void and hoping.

If you're a brand wondering what a shoot would cost, say hej and tell me what you're making. I'll come back with ideas and one clear quote.