Property photography, priced before you ask
By Mustafa Haroon · Foldscapes, a web design and photography studio in Halifax, West Yorkshire
Nearly every property photographer answers “how much?” with “get in touch for a quote”. There is no good reason for it. The shoot is a fixed price and the only thing that genuinely varies is how far I drive — so here is the rule, and here is what it works out at in every town I cover.
The whole pricing rule
- The shoot — photographed, edited, delivered
- £180
- First 10 miles from Halifax
- Free
- Every mile after that
- £1
That is the entire rate card. It means the furthest town on this page costs £16 more than the nearest — Harrogate at £196 against £180 on the doorstep.
Every town covered, and what it costs
Distances are road miles from Halifax town centre, one way. Tap a town for what the property stock is like there, which postcodes are covered and how the shoot actually runs.
West Yorkshire
- HalifaxHome£180no travel fee
- Huddersfield8 miles · HD1–HD9£180no travel fee
- Bradford9 miles · BD1–BD18£180no travel fee
- Batley9 miles · WF16–WF17, Dewsbury WF12–WF13, and Cleckheaton BD19£180no travel fee
- Keighley14 miles · BD20–BD22£184inc. £4 travel
- Leeds16 miles · LS1–LS29£186inc. £6 travel
- Wakefield18 miles · WF1–WF5£188inc. £8 travel
Greater Manchester
North Yorkshire
Further than 50 miles
I shoot anywhere in the UK, but I am not going to pretend a drive to Cornwall is a mileage line on an invoice. Past about 50 miles the travel stops being an add-on and becomes most of the working day, so it is quoted as a day rate rather than by the mile.
That usually works in your favour. A day covers as many properties as we can reasonably get through, so an operator with four units in one city pays once for the journey instead of four times. Tell me how many, and roughly where, and you will get a figure the same day.
- Several properties in one area — priced as a day, not per property.
- Portfolio landlords and letting agents with units across a city.
- Serviced accommodation operators refreshing a whole listing set at once.
Shot for the site it is going on
Foldscapes is a web design studio first, and a fair share of this photography is shot for a website I am also building. The photographs come out differently when that is true — framed to the crop the layout actually uses, rather than shot square and cut down badly afterwards. If you are setting up a holiday let site that takes direct bookings, the photography and the build are usually worth doing as one job.
Common questions
How much does property photography cost?+
£180 for the shoot, edited and delivered. Travel is free within 10 miles of Halifax and £1 a mile after that, so a shoot in Harrogate — the furthest town listed here, 26 miles out — comes to £196. The whole spread across every town covered is £180 to £196.
Do you charge a call-out fee on top?+
No. The mileage is the only thing added to the shoot fee, and it is shown as a line on every town page so you can check the arithmetic. There is no call-out charge, no editing charge and no per-image pricing.
Do you cover the whole UK?+
Yes, but the published prices stop at 50 miles from Halifax. Past that the drive stops being an add-on and becomes most of the day, so it is quoted as a day rate instead — which usually works out better anyway if you have several properties to get through, because a day covers as many as we can reasonably fit in.
Can you do several properties in one visit?+
Yes, and it is much cheaper than booking them separately — you pay the travel once. Portfolio landlords, letting agents and serviced accommodation operators with a few units nearby are the usual case. Tell me how many and roughly where and I will price the set rather than each one.
Is it you taking the photographs?+
Yes. Foldscapes is a one-person studio — Mustafa Haroon drives there, shoots it and edits it. Nothing is passed to a subcontractor, which is the reason the coverage map has an honest edge to it rather than claiming every town in the country.