Data Drop
Infrared photograph of live oaks with glowing white leaves and dark trunks framing a ranch barn and fence near Chappell Hill, Texas.
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress

Find your market.

What photographers charge for the work you shoot, by city and niche.

Ansel Adams split every print into eleven zones, black to white. We do the same with prices: Zone V is the middle studio.

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  11. X

Explore a market by city and niche

Pick a city

Each tile shows the family & portrait entry price.

What do you shoot?Pick one. The Austin numbers switch to it, and so does every chart in the city chapter.

Know your own price? Find your zone.

Type your cheapest family & portrait package on the Austin page and we place it among all 56 studios: Zone 0 is the cheapest entry, Zone V the middle studio, Zone X the priciest.

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The zone scale, from 0 (cheapest entry) to X (priciest entry)

Family & portrait in Austin: typical starting price $424.50.

Family & portrait photography in Austin

Typical starting price

$424.50

The middle studio’s cheapest family & portrait package. Entry prices run $75–$2,195 across 56 studios.

The same family job (one hour, 20+ edited images) runs 6.2x from cheapest to priciest across 13 studios.

Per delivered image
$21.83median · 62 packages
Per hour
$479median · 51 packages
Stated delivery
21 daysmedian max · 7 studios *
Show a price
62.2%23 of 37 Maps-found studios
Check where your price sitsOne-page Austin family & portrait summary

Family & portrait in every city

Switch the measure to compare cities per package, per photo or per hour, and by stated delivery time.

Each studio’s cheapest package. Dot = median studio, bar = middle half, line = full range. Log scale.

For family & portrait, the median entry price is highest in Chicago and Denver ($500) and lowest in Austin ($424.50).

Advertised prices, not invoices. Each city is its own sample, read the same way. * fewer than 10 observations, so read it as a sketch; under 5, too few to say. Tap a city to switch the page to it.

Where every niche starts in Austin

Each studio’s cheapest package, one row per niche. The dot is the middle studio. The thick bar is where the middle half of studios start, so anything left of it is the budget end of your market and anything right of it is premium.

Niche median (Zone V) middle halfMedianStudios
Entry price = each studio’s cheapest analysed package in that niche. Log scale. * small sample (fewer than 10 studios). Click a row to make it your niche.

Inside the Austin drop

Open the full Austin chapter for family & portrait
  1. Where each niche startsWedding starts highest at $3,000. Pet starts lowest at $175, from a small sample.
  2. The unit you price inPer photo, an Austin headshot costs 17x a wedding: $150 vs $8.58.
  3. Same brief, different priceThe same 8-hour wedding runs 3.9x from cheapest to priciest across 21 studios.
  4. The turnaround raceReal estate’s median stated delivery is 1 day. Wedding’s is 49 days.
  5. Who shows a price4 in 10 studios found on Maps hide the price. Newborn & maternity is the most open niche.
  6. Your first price list28% of prices say “starting at”. 82.4% of rated studios have exactly 5.0 stars.

Every city tells a different story

Each chapter is read the same way: package pages, prices next to what they include, every number with its count. Here is what jumped out of each one.

Per delivered image, a headshot costs this many times a wedding
  • Austin17x$150 vs $8.58
  • Chicago20x$100 vs $4.88
  • Denver13x$125 vs $9.23
  • Los Angeles9x$78.92 vs $8.34
  • New York10x$130 vs $11.87

Medians of package price ÷ edited images delivered, each city on its own. Ratios rounded; the exact medians are under each.

  • Austin, TX

    Nov 11, 2026

    453 studios · 554 package prices

    The same family session (one hour, 20+ edited images) runs 6.2x from cheapest to priciest across 13 studios.

    4 in 10 studios found on Maps hide the price (42.5%).

    Open the Austin chapterShowing above

  • Chicago, IL

    Nov 13, 2026

    509 studios · 501 package prices

    The same 8-hour wedding runs $1,000 to $8,000 across 15 studios: a 8x spread for the same day of work.

    6 in 10 studios found on Maps hide the price (58.9%).

    Open the Chicago chapter

  • Denver, CO

    Nov 13, 2026

    470 studios · 607 package prices

    A real elopement market: 38 studios publish an elopement entry price (median $2,425), and elopements are the slowest to deliver, at 70 days.

    5 in 10 studios found on Maps hide the price (53.1%).

    Open the Denver chapter

  • Los Angeles, CA

    Nov 13, 2026

    600 studios · 778 package prices

    Speed you can put on the page: headshot studios say 2 days to deliver (n=21); wedding studios say 42 days.

    5 in 10 studios found on Maps hide the price (53.6%).

    Open the Los Angeles chapter

  • New York, NY

    Nov 13, 2026

    727 studios · 637 package prices

    6 in 10 studios found on Maps hide the price (364 of 582). Showing one already sets you apart.

    Open the New York chapter

Which city should we read next?

Tell us where you shoot, or where you want to. Each new city comes with:

  • The typical starting price for your niche, and the full range around it.
  • A price checker that shows how many studios start below you: your zone.
  • The same job priced studio by studio, per photo and per hour, plus delivery times.

Requests aren’t open yet. Nothing typed here is saved or sent, and there’s no promise on which city comes next.