What goes on a photography quote
Most photography is quoted: a wedding, a package, a commercial day. The client is buying a known deliverable on a known date, and what the quote has to settle is the part nobody discusses until it goes wrong — what happens if the photographer cannot be there.
- The date, the times, and the locations
- The coverage: hours, and what happens either side of them
- A second shooter or assistant, included or not
- The deliverables: how many images, how delivered, and by when
- Albums, prints and products, itemized
- The license or usage the client gets
- The retainer, the balance date, and the cancellation and illness terms
The sample line items and example prices this sheet opens with are on the photography invoice template — the same table, which is about the trade rather than about this paper, so it lives in one place rather than on all six. Working out the price itself? The markup calculator turns your cost and markup into the figure to put on the quote, and shows the margin it leaves.
What you get
A PDF, and a link your customer can open in any browser. Word and Excel versions are not available yet — if a spreadsheet is what you need, this is not yet the tool for it, and saying so is cheaper for both of us than you finding out after typing everything in.
Pick how it looks
Six looks, from a plain classic sheet through a bold top band to a shop ticket, and your initials go on automatically until you upload a logo. See all six.
How to send it
Most customers want the paper on their phone, so the quote goes out by WhatsApp, text or email, or as a link that needs no app and no account on their side. Or download the PDF to print it or keep it for your own records.
Questions
What should the cancellation terms say?
What is refundable, when it stops being refundable, and what happens if you are ill. A wedding date held for a year and lost at a month’s notice cannot be refilled, which is why the retainer is non-refundable — and the time to explain that is before they sign. Say what you do if you cannot attend, too; it reassures far more than it worries.
How many images should I promise?
A minimum, not an exact figure. “At least four hundred edited images” is a promise you can keep; “five hundred images” is a number you will be counting to at two in the morning. Clients want reassurance about volume, not a contract about it.