How to Price Photography Packages in Egypt: From Cost to Final Price
How to Price Photography Packages in Egypt: From Cost to Final Price
Ask a photographer in Egypt how they set their package price and you will hear one of three answers. "That's what the market charges." "I checked what photographers like me take." Or, from the honest ones: "No idea. It felt right."
All three are guesses borrowed from someone else. They end the same way. You work a full season, deliver dozens of bookings, and at the end of the year the money left over looks small next to the work you put in.
This guide builds the price from the bottom up, starting with what a booking costs you.
A note on the numbers: every figure here is a worked example to show the method. None of it is a survey of Egyptian market rates. Swap in your own.
Why Copying Other Photographers' Prices Fails
You can't see their costs
When you compare your price with another photographer's, you see the final number and nothing behind it. You don't know whether they work from home or pay studio rent, shoot alone or pay an assistant and an editor, own their camera or still pay instalments on it. The price that earns them a profit can lose you money.
They may be losing money too
One photographer prices below cost, five others copy, and now six photographers lose money on every job and call it "the market rate." That is where the line "photography doesn't pay" comes from.
Low prices attract a certain client
Drop your price to win a booking and you win the client who chose you for being cheapest. In our experience that client asks for the most edits, pays last, and rarely refers anyone.
Step One: Find Your Price Floor
Your price floor is the number below which you lose money. You need half an hour and a sheet of paper to find it.
1. Add up your fixed monthly costs
Everything you pay whether you shoot or not: studio rent, subscriptions, internet, equipment instalments, basic transport.
Say that comes to 12,000 EGP a month.
2. Count your real monthly bookings
Use the average you delivered over the last six months. Say 6 bookings.
12,000 divided by 6 is 2,000 EGP. Each booking carries that share of your fixed costs before you spend anything on the shoot itself.
3. Add the direct cost of the booking
What you spend because this job exists:
Item · Example (EGP)
Assistant · 800
Editing and retouching · 1,000
Transport and fuel · 400
Prints or album · 1,200
Transfer fees and storage · 150
Total · 3,550
4. Put a price on your time
Most photographers leave this line out, which is why they feel busy and broke at once. Owning the business doesn't make your hours free.
Count every hour: replying to the client, preparing, shooting, culling, delivering, following up. A four-hour shoot can take 14 hours end to end.
At 150 EGP an hour, your time on this booking is worth 2,100 EGP.
5. Add it up, then add margin
Share of fixed costs: 2,000 EGP
Direct costs: 3,550 EGP
Your time: 2,100 EGP
Total: 7,650 EGP
At 7,650 you cover costs and pay yourself for the hours. The studio earns nothing. That is break-even.
Put a margin on top. We treat 30% as a sensible minimum, since margin pays for the next camera body and carries you through the quiet months after the season.
7,650 plus 30% comes to about 9,950 EGP, so the floor for this booking sits near 10,000 EGP. If you take a job below it, have a reason you can name, such as an empty Tuesday you would rather fill. Fear of losing the client doesn't count.
Step Two: Offer Three Packages
Show a client one price and they decide yes or no. Show three and they decide which one, and that question ends in a booking more often.
Package · Its job · Example (EGP)
Essential · Protects the floor, fits tight budgets · 10,000
Middle · The package you want to sell · 15,000
Premium · Raises the ceiling so the middle looks fair · 26,000
Two rules when you build them:
Design the middle first. Most bookings should land there. The other two packages exist to frame it.
Separate the tiers by what the client receives. "Number of edited photos, a printed album, a short film" tells a couple more than "one extra hour."
Keep the essential package decent. A thin entry tier makes the whole list look cheap, and you should still profit from it.
Write down what sits outside the package
Unpriced extras drain margin: an extra hour of coverage, rush delivery, a far location, raw files, edits beyond the agreed count. Price each one in writing and put it in the contract. Absorb three "small favours" per booking and you have cut your price without deciding to.
The clause wording is in A Photography Contract Template You Can Actually Use.
Step Three: Answer "That's Expensive" Without a Discount
When a client says "that's expensive," they usually haven't understood what they get for the money yet.
Break the price down
List what goes into it: hours of work, number of edited photos, delivery date, and what happens if a camera dies on the wedding night. A client holding 10,000 next to 6,000 compares two numbers. Once they see what each includes, they compare two offers.
Cut scope, keep the price
If the budget is smaller, move the client to the essential package with less in it. Handing over the middle package at a discount teaches them your price bends, and they pass that on to everyone they refer.
Let some clients go
If you win every quote you send, you are priced below your worth. Losing a share of enquiries tells you that you aren't the cheapest option in town.
When to Raise Your Prices
Your season fills up months ahead. Demand is bigger than your calendar, and price is how you balance the two.
A year has passed with no change. With inflation, a flat price is a cut you give every year without announcing it.
Your work has improved: better gear, faster delivery, a stronger portfolio.
Profit per booking is shrinking while the price stays put, because costs went up.
Apply the new price to new bookings and honour every price you agreed in writing. Tell repeat clients ahead of time and give them a window to book at the old rate, which gives them a reason to book now. Raise in two steps: two 15% increases in a year go down easier than one 30% jump.
Pricing Needs Recorded Numbers
Everything above assumes you know what a booking costs you and what each type of shoot earns. Without those two numbers you are guessing with more steps.
Start by recording, for every booking, what you collected and what you spent. After ten bookings you will spot things you didn't expect: a package that looks profitable and isn't, or a quiet shoot type that pays best per hour. The full method is in How to Track Your Photography Income and Expenses.
In Lnsly, each booking holds its own payments and expenses, so you can see what came in and what went out on every shoot without keeping a separate spreadsheet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I publish my prices or send them on request?
Publishing a "starting from" price saves you time and screens out people who were never going to book. Hiding prices gets you more enquiries and fewer serious ones.
How much deposit should I ask for?
25% to 50% is common. Put it in the contract with clear refund terms. We cover the wording in Deposits and Cancellation Terms for Photographers.
I'm starting out. Should I price low?
Start at your cost floor. Pricing below it leaves you with a habit that is hard to break and a reputation for being cheap that follows you for years.
Should I charge by the hour or by package?
By package, almost always. Hourly rates punish you for getting faster and turn the conversation toward hours instead of what the client receives. Work out your hourly cost for yourself, then quote a package.
What about "shoot for free, we'll promote you"?
Cost it like any booking. If the return is real and specific, it might be worth doing once. Doing it again and again is unpaid work.
Revisit your prices whenever your costs change or your work gets better. Pricing also depends on how well you keep hold of bookings, so read Seven Things That Cost You Bookings and Five Signs Your Studio Has Outgrown WhatsApp next.
