How Many Photos Will I Get Back From My Photoshoot

Anytime you purchase something, you want to know the value of what you are buying! Is it worth your money! If I buy 10 bananas, I want to know the breakdown price of each banana. We do this every day when we go shopping because it tells us the value of each item, and then we can determine if we agree with what we are paying for each individual item. But is that how we should look at the total number of photos we get back with our photoshoot? Does each photo carry a price tag?

When someone hires a photographer, they often ask “How many photos will I get back?" This is a hard questions for photographers to answer, as each photoshoot is unique. Regardless, today I am going to give you a few numbers and examples from my years of experience to help you know roughly what to expect when it comes to amounts.

First, its good to understand that each photoshoots duration of time will be different. Some may be an hour long, some might be 10 hours long, some may even be multiple days long. The duration of the photoshoot will strongly influence the total number of photos you get back. The longer the shoot, the higher likelihood to get more back.

In addition, location diversity will have a bearing. Is the photoshoot in just one location? If it is, the photographer will probably sort the photos in a way that you are not getting 500 photos of the same shot, at least I hope not. You may get about 25-75 back from that spot or specific location. Now I say that given the hopeful thought, that your photographer is also going to edit the photos and deliver them professionally, not just hand over the RAW files of every shutter click. If they do, you may want to consider a new photographer the next time.

To give you some tangible perspective, I recently did a 1 hour photo shoot in the city. On this shoot our model moved to 6-7 different spots within our 2 block radius of working locations. After the shoot was completed, I had taken around 8-900 photos total. Of those photos, after sorting out the bad, the duplicates, the unfocused, the poor lighting, and editing the finals; we provided the client with about 215 photos total. If we break that down into each location, they received about 30 photos per location - mind you of different posses, looks, edits, and lighting.

Another example is of an event we recently shot. Now in this setting, the location itself, the stage, the lobby, did not change much, but the interactions of the location with the people did. Each speaker, or showcase warranted its own set of photos despite the fact that it was on the same stage. This event lasted 3 days, ran 12 hours each day, and there were 2 photographers shooting. In total we took around 8,000 photos! Of those, we delivered about 2,500 photos in the end. A higher percentage per say, but one that fit the ever changing event and circumstances.

Now subject matter may have another bearing on how many photos you get back. If your photoshoot is of a product, you may only get 20-30 photos back. Why? This is because the set probably won’t change a whole lot, nor will the subject. Most professional product photos are going to be carefully produced with props, lighting, and backdrops. Creating a unique image for the product takes a lot of time, creativity, and diligence. With that in mind, most won’t change the set around that much, but rather spend a lot of time working to create just 1 high quality image with slight variations. Now, that image may be used for marketing or to be put into a magazine to stand the test of time! Yes, just one good image may be all that the client needs to reach their goals.

In Real Estate, an over abundance of images does not help either. Most homes displayed on Zillow and other real estate platforms, are only going to have 15-25 images total. The home is a fixed place, and you only need so many angles of the same space. Thus depending on size and uniqueness of a home or property you may not get that many photos in return.

As a consumer then, if you know your subject, how many locations, and the specific circumstances, you should be able to calculate approximately how many photos you will get upon delivery.

So what is the worth of each individual image? Rather than thinking of the amount of photos taken in bulk, focus on the quality of the images, the diversity of the shots, and the uniqueness of each creation. That should be the true determining factor of the value of each photo. And when you do that, the total number you get back really won’t matter that much.