Every service, with real London ranges
The left column is my starting price. The right is what the wider London market charges for the same work in 2026, based on quotes I lose, quotes I win, and what clients tell me they were offered elsewhere.
| Service | My from-price | Typical London range | What that buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headshot photography | £150 | £150-£450 | One person, 30-60 minutes, 3-8 retouched images |
| Real estate photography | £180 | £180-£500 | Flat or house, 10-25 images, delivered in 24 hours |
| Corporate photography | £250 | £250-£900 | Half day on site, headshots or working shots |
| Real estate videography | £350 | £350-£900 | Walkthrough film, one property, edited |
| Event photography | £350 | £350-£1,400 | 2-3 hours upward, 48-hour turnaround |
| Drone photo and video | £400 | £400-£1,000 | CAA-authorised, one site, permissions handled |
| Restaurant photography | £400 | £400-£900 | Half day, 12-16 dishes, all crops |
| Event videography | £500 | £500-£1,800 | Highlights film plus speeches |
| Social media content | £500/mo | £500-£3,000/mo | Monthly batched shoot, edited assets |
| Corporate video | £600 | £600-£4,000 | Interview or brand film, script to delivery |
| Restaurant videography | £600 | £600-£1,500 | Reels and atmosphere, one visit |
| Branding photography | £600 | £600-£1,800 | Half to full day, multiple looks and locations |
| Wedding photography | £950 | £950-£3,500+ | From short coverage to a full day with a second shooter |
| Wedding videography | £1,100 | £1,100-£3,500+ | Highlights film, full day, 6-8 week delivery |
Weddings, headshots and wedding film each have their own detailed breakdown, so rather than repeating them: see what wedding photography costs in London, wedding videographer costs, and how much a headshot costs.
The six things that move a quote
Camera equipment is not on this list, and any photographer leading with their gear is answering a question nobody asked.
- Hours on site. The obvious one, and the least significant of the six beyond a point.
- Editing time. Usually longer than the shoot. A four-hour event produces roughly a day of culling, correcting and exporting. Ten seconds of finished vertical video can take forty minutes.
- Usage licence. Images for your own website cost less than images running as paid advertising for two years across Europe. This is the biggest single swing in commercial work and the one clients least expect.
- Second shooter. Adds £250-£450 to a day. Necessary for large weddings and multi-room conferences. Not necessary for most other things, and I will not charge you for one you do not need.
- Travel and access. The Congestion Charge, ULEZ, no loading bay anywhere near a City venue, and a lift too small for a light stand in a period conversion. Zone 1 jobs with awkward access legitimately cost more.
- Turnaround. Standard delivery is 24 hours for property, 48 for events and headshots, four to six weeks for weddings. Compressing that means clearing other work, and it carries a premium.
How a day rate is actually built
A one-person business does not get to bill forty hours a week. Between quoting, scouting, travelling, backing up, invoicing and chasing invoices, a working week produces perhaps two paid shoot days. Add insurance, kit replacement, a licence renewal for the drone, accountancy, and the months when weddings simply do not happen because it is February.
None of that is your problem, and I would never present it as one. But it is why a day rate cannot be an hourly wage multiplied by eight, and why the people quoting £120 for a half day are either subsidising it with a salaried job or will not be doing this next year. I have seen both, repeatedly. The photographers who last are the ones who priced honestly from the start.
What a suspiciously cheap quote usually means
Sometimes it means nothing bad at all. A photographer building a portfolio in their first two years can be excellent and cheap simultaneously, and I would happily recommend one for a low-stakes job. That is the honest version.
The other version is more common, and it splits into three. First, the price covers the shoot only, with editing, extra images, travel or rush delivery invoiced afterwards, so £120 becomes £340. Second, there is no insurance and no backup — no second camera body, single card slot, no plan if a drive fails. Most City venues and corporate offices will ask for public liability cover before letting anyone through the door anyway. Third, the person is undercutting because they have no other way to compete, which usually means they will still be undercutting when your date arrives, or not answering their phone.
The test I would apply is simple: ask what happens if a memory card fails, and ask for the total invoice including everything. Both answers tell you more than any portfolio.
Where it is fine to spend less
Plenty of photography advice exists to sell you more photography. This section does the opposite. Every item below is something I have talked a client out of buying, usually while they were holding a card in their hand.
- Drone for a small garden wedding. Skip it. It is noisy, the permissions are a faff in most of London, and two aerial shots of a marquee add very little.
- Second shooter under 60 guests. Unnecessary in a single-venue wedding. Put the money into more hours instead.
- Twilight property shots on a mid-market flat. They work for a £3m house with architectural lighting. On a two-bed conversion they read as over-processed.
- A full branding day when you need one portrait. Book a headshot session and stop there.
- Interiors before your restaurant is finished. Empty rooms photograph as empty rooms. Wait until it is full.
- Same-day turnaround you do not need. It costs real money and most people do not look at the gallery for a week.
Why the same job costs different amounts in different postcodes
A half day photographing a Mayfair townhouse and a half day photographing a two-bed in Walthamstow are not the same job, even though the camera work is identical. Central London jobs mean no parking, a loading bay you cannot book, kit carried from a station, and often a building manager who needs insurance documents a week ahead. That is an hour of unbilled time before anything is photographed.
I do not run a postcode surcharge, because it feels like nickel-and-diming, but it is the honest reason a City corporate shoot quotes higher than the same brief in Zone 3. If you can arrange parking or early access, say so when you enquire. It moves the number.
Bundling photo and video, and when not to
Booking stills and motion together with one person is usually cheaper than two suppliers, because the travel, setup and briefing happen once. For restaurants and property it is close to free money. For weddings I would be more careful — one person genuinely cannot shoot a ceremony properly on two formats at the same time, so a photo-and-video bundle should always mean two people on the day, and you should check that it does.
The straight answer on budget
If you have under £300, buy one thing done properly rather than three things done thinly. A single strong headshot session, or a solid set of property images delivered the next morning, beats a half-hearted attempt at everything.
If you are a business with £500 to £900, a half day of corporate photography covering headshots for the whole team plus working shots is the best value in this entire list. It refreshes a website, a careers page and fifteen LinkedIn profiles in one visit.
If you are planning a wedding, budget £1,400 to £2,200 for photography and treat anything below £900 with real scrutiny. And wherever you are in the city, ask for the all-in figure before you compare quotes. I work across all boroughs, including regular jobs in South London.
Every price above is a starting point, not a menu. Tell me what the job actually involves and a fixed figure comes back with nothing hidden underneath it. Get in touch and there will be a reply inside one working day.