What does brand photography actually cost, and is it worth it?

This is the question most people want to ask first and feel slightly awkward asking. So here it is answered plainly, with real numbers.

The short answer

For most small businesses, a brand photography shoot lands somewhere between a few hundred pounds and just over a thousand. At Wildmoor a two hour shoot starts at £300, a half day at £600 and a full day at £1,100.

The range is wide because a shoot is really just time, and how much time you need depends on how much you are trying to come away with.

What actually changes the price

• How many people. One person is quick. A team of eight, each needing a portrait plus working shots, is a different day entirely.
• How many locations. Moving between sites eats time. So does waiting for a room to be free.
• How many images you need. A handful for an about page is not the same as a library to last a year across your site, socials and print.
• How much setting up is involved. Products, styling and controlled lighting take longer than natural light portraits.
• Travel. Local work costs less than a day that starts with a two hour drive.

Is it worth it?

The honest test is not whether the photos are nice. It is whether they change what people think before they contact you.

Stock photography is the giveaway. Most people cannot name what is wrong, but they can feel it. Perfect strangers smiling in a glass office does not tell anyone anything about you, and worse, it signals that there was nothing real worth showing. Real images of you, your team and your actual work do the opposite. They make you look established and human at the same time.

If you are a business where people are handing over money, trusting you with their finances, their health or their home, that shift matters more than almost anything else on your website.

How to make the money go further

• Shoot for a library, not a moment. A half day that gives you twelve months of content beats three separate rushed sessions.
• Think about crops before the day. Square for social, wide for website banners, tall for print.
• Include the boring stuff. Hands working, tools, spaces, details. These fill gaps on pages where a portrait would look odd.
• Book around something real, like a job you are already doing, so it looks like work rather than a photoshoot.

A reasonable rule of thumb

If your photography is going to sit on your website, your proposals and your social media for the next two years, then spread across that time even a full day is a modest cost. Compare it to one client you did not win because your site looked amateur, and the maths usually answers itself.

If you want a figure for your own situation, the ballpark tool in the corner of this site will give you one in about a minute, or just drop me a message.