The Session: What a Photography Session Actually Pays Per Hour

Your $175 mini pays $44.91 an hour once you count the editing. Here's every package on your list, timed.

A session is not the shoot. It is the drive there, the shoot, the cull, the edit, the upload, the card fee, and a slice of the camera bodies and software that wear out. This workbook times the whole job for every package you sell — shoot hours, images delivered, edit minutes per image, miles — and hands back what each one actually pays per hour of your life, graded against the hourly you want.

The year, honestly. Type how many of each package you shoot and the admin hours nobody pays for. The sample: 140 sessions, $56,150 profit, $64.21 an hour while shooting — $44.06 once email and booking are counted — against a $65 target. And the price the weakest package needs to be: $233, not $175.

The dashboard grades the price list — hourly all-in against target, packages that clear it, the year against the income you want, editing's share of the hours, admin's share, hours the business takes, gear and software per session, the weakest package — HEALTHY, WATCH or ALERT, with a chart of every package against your target. One portrait page, before you publish the next price guide.

Built for

Portrait and family photographers · wedding photographers · newborn specialists · headshot studios · real-estate photographers · videographers · anyone who sells a session and edits at night.

What you get

One .xlsx file, five tabs, instant download. Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ins, no subscription. A realistic six-package sample is loaded so you see every color of the grading before you type over it.