For photographers
A wedding a year away is a date you’ve turned everyone else down for. Hold it with a deposit, invoice the rest on delivery, and put the address on every shoot.
Holding the date
A date held by a deposit
A project takes a deposit when your client accepts it, and the rest is invoiced on delivery with reminders from your name.
An address on every shoot
Each offering can carry an address, so a studio portrait shows the studio and a mini session shows the park.
What gets in the way
A wedding booked a year out is a date you’ve turned everyone else away from.
The shoot takes two hours and the editing takes two days, and your client only saw the two hours.
Some clients come to your studio, some want you on a beach, and booking tools ask for a video link.
Your page on the first day
This is the design or creative setup, and it’s what your page starts with. Change any of it where it appears.
- Clients can book from tomorrow onward.
- Moving or canceling is free up to 24 hours before.
- Before booking, your page asks: “What are we making, and by when?”
Your project agreement opens with this: Half of the project price is due up front and half on delivery. The scope is what we agreed in writing; new work is a new agreement.
Questions photographers ask
How much deposit should a photographer take?
Enough that the date is worth holding. The project setup on your page takes half up front; for a wedding booked a year out, that half is what the date is worth to you.
Should a photographer charge for editing time?
It’s in the price, so price it in. Add the hours after the shoot to the hours of the shoot, and quote one number.
What should a photography contract say about usage?
Who can use the photos and for what: personal use, the client’s business, or advertising. Each is a different price, and saying so up front keeps a portrait off a billboard.
How do photography mini sessions work?
Short shoots, back to back, at one place on one day, at one price. Each slot comes off your page as it’s booked.
When should a photographer deliver the photos?
When the balance is paid. Send the gallery from the tool you edit in, and let the invoice reminders do the asking until then.
Should a photographer publish prices?
A starting price for each kind of shoot, yes. People who can’t afford you find out before they write, and people who can arrive already decided.
What it doesn’t do for you
There’s no client gallery, no proofing and no print store. You’ll deliver photos from the tool you edit in.
Others who start from the same setup
Graphic designers · Copywriters · Web designers · Videographers · Translators · Interior designers · Illustrators · Ghostwriters · Brand designers · Proofreaders · Makeup artists · Voice-over artists · Personal stylists · Event musicians · Tattoo artists · Podcast producers · Wedding planners · Freelance developers · Social media managers · Landscape designers · Calligraphers · Music producers · Portrait artists · Technical writers · UX designers · Video editors · Animators