The Average Cost of an Event Photographer
by Joe Jenkins
The Average Cost of an Event Photographer and How To Price your Event in New York City
Entry level event photographers in New York City start at $100/hr and go up from there. Having been both a general as well as a corporate events photographer in the industry myself for over ten years, I can very much guarantee that this is very much a ground level price for sourcing a photographer for your event that operates on a professional level.
While you can and will find professional photographers operating at a level below that can and will operate below that rate, the further below that figure you go, the higher the probability goes up that you may really just be hiring someone that owns a camera.
This being said, let’s take a look at some averages and what you can expect to pay for ny event photography, and then compare it to other national averages.
As well, we’ll take a look at what exactly that quote includes, and whether or not things like editing, color-grading, private albums, and physical albums are included in that fee.
Hourly Rates for General Event Photography
According to VSCO.com, the average cost one can expect to pay for an event photographer is right around $300 for two hours of photographic servicing. This is a national average, of course, and will either go up or down a bit, depending on the location.
A New York City Photographer, for instance, has a much higher average in light of things like the market, cost of living, and that the incomes of the people doing the hiring tend to be higher than the incomes of the national average. With this said, the average a typical New Yorker could expect to pay for two hours of professional event photography with an established photographer is right around $500 (or $250/hr, respectively). Daria Taylor, a Los Angeles Event Photographer, states that Los Angeleans should expect to hover at around the same rate for event photographers in their city, plus or minus a less than $50 differential.
Hourly Rates Broken Down by Type
Corporate Event Photography - $250-$300/hr
Private Events, Birthday Parties, Anniversaries - $150-$200/hr
Wedding Photography - $400/hr
Bar Mitzvahs, Bat Mitzvahs, First Communions, Baptisms, and other Religious Ceremonies - $200/hr
Conferences - Usually a day rate is cited for these, and hovers around a $2000/day average
Expected Services
The expected set of services performed by the event photographer will oftentimes dictate that photographer’s rate. A Corporate Event Photographer, for instance, may have a few additional requests by their clients for things such as same day delivery, additional post processing (as they’ll be used for marketing materials), licensing buyouts (so that the business can use the images in whatever marketing scenario they’d like), and in certain circumstances light videography work. With this said, below is a fairly common set of deliverables for the various client types commissioning the photographer:
Private Events - Private, Online Album that can be shared with guests/families/attendees. A wetransfer/dropbox link for the full set of images sent over after the event. Post-processing and color-grading of the images.
Corporate Events - Private, online albums aren’t quite as popular amongst the corporate buyers, as usually they’ll prefer to send out their images internally and on their own. Post-processing, color-grading, and retouching however is a must in every corporate circumstance, along with a wetransfer/dropbox link of the high resolution images sent out thereafter. Additionally, depending on the brand and the photographer working for it, licensing and image usage may come up and typically at an additional fee (this dictates where and how the photos may be used for marketing. It is only common in very high end functions with established brands that plan on using the images for serious marketing).
Wedding Photography - Wedding Photographers typically include a myriad of things others don’t - most notably a physical and curated album of the day’s events and, in fact, the vast majority of money that a wedding photographer will charge will be outside the day’s shooting. A good wedding photographer’s rate will often start at $400/hr, and the average wedding in NYC shot by a capable photographer will start at $10,000.00 USD and go up from there.
Hourly Rate Average
“Your event is a very special one and that belongs to you and you only. Picking the right photographer protects the most valuable thing one could ever have - their memories”
— Joe Jenkins Photography