This seems to be a question that many photographers struggle with. Whether it is selling a print, selling an image to a client/publication or third party usage via an agency or directly there seems to be a sense of indecision or complete lack of knowledge. So, I decided to help with this conundrum with some simple universal advice, but first I would like to pose a question that is relevant. How long is a piece of string? My father would ask me this whenever I asked a question as a child for which there is no definitive answer. The answer is of course it depends on the length of the piece of string in question. I’ll leave that with you.

Now, back to pricing a photograph. But, wait! Let’s use a metaphor in the shape of another question. How much is your house or apartment worth? Well, you could look at the sale price of similar houses in your area and make a guess but the true price and answer is whatever someone is willing to pay for it. The seller sets the price but the buyer confirms the value.

I want to know how to price my photographs I hear you cry not a house. I understand that, but they are the same thing. Both are products for sale that you want to sell and achieve what you consider to be a fair, appropriate and hopefully high price for. You will also have a price for that house which you need to achieve and below which you will not go. However, you will inevitably accept the price your buyer wishes to offer if you want to sell and that is usually less than the asking price. This is the basis of the problem with photographs. The valuation, the perceived worth can only be subjective. You can look at prices other photographers are achieving but any comparison will be loose and inaccurate at best. You can set prices based on this as a ‘guesstimate’ but it is not your opinion that matters it is that of the buyer.

Therefore the price you hope to get is of little relevance. The important price is the one you will not go below. The bottom line.

When I am asked about this by photographers and I am a lot. I always start at the top and work down. Would you sell it for 400? Yes, 300? Yes, 200? No! That no is often said firmly without hesitation and with a certain sense of indignation. How dare I suggest such a low price! But of course I am only playing devil’s advocate. The photographer now knows their bottom line and my take from that point is that anything over that figure is acceptable profit.

Now it’s up to you how greedy you want to be and how and if you really want to make a sale. You must always be willing to lose a buyer if you are going to push them on price. If the offer or budget is below your bottom line don’t sell. If your price is too high they won’t buy. Intrinsically the price of a photograph is the cost of its production. Anything else on top of that is subjective opinion. The answer to the question that titles this article may not be what you want to hear but it’s the truth. The value will be set by the market, it’s up to you how you play that market. Your hopes are exactly that!

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8 magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), and What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.

Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building. Seven magazines. Sixty Years of Stories is on sale now.

© Grant Scott 2025