If you're trying to work out what a professional headshot costs in the UK, it's a surprisingly hard number to pin down. Ask around and you'll get a different answer every time. So here's a straight one, for the whole UK market and not just for me.
The range across the UK
For a single professional, headshots in the UK run from about £20 for an AI-generated image to £1,000 or more for a session with a celebrity photographer. Most people sit somewhere in the middle. Like most things, you get what you pay for.
Here's a guide to the prices you're likely to pay:
- £20 to £50, an AI headshot. Quick, you upload a few selfies and get an image back without leaving your desk. The catch isn't the quality, some look fine. It's that the face isn't really yours, and a headshot only works if people can trust it's you. I've written about why that's a problem.
- £50 to £125, a photographer who's just starting out. Real photos, but less experience directing you, which is most of the job.
- £125 to £500, an established professional. This is where most good corporate and personal headshots sit, mine included.
- £1,000 and up, a celebrity or high-end London name, where you're partly paying for the name.
What's included in the price for a session
Headshot photographers structure their prices in a lot of different ways, so it helps to know what to ask before you compare two of them.
- How the session is priced. Some charge a session fee and then each image on top. Others bundle the session, editing and images into one package.
- Outfit changes. A change of clothes makes the session longer, so some photographers charge for it.
- Studio or location. Either you go to their studio, or they come to you. Coming to you usually costs more, and travel can be added on top.
- Images. Whether you pay per image or for a set, watch for extras that creep in, retouching, different crops, black and white versions.
- The licence. Some photographers limit where or how long you can use the images, or charge again when you want them somewhere new. You want images you can put anywhere, for as long as you like.
- What you actually get. Ideally a high resolution file for print and a separate set sized for your website and LinkedIn, delivered somewhere secure rather than emailed around.
What I charge, and what's included
I have a session fee and an image fee, and I make both clear upfront so you know exactly what you're paying.
My individual session is £240 including VAT, and finished images are £60 each. Most people take two or three.
Acting headshots work differently, because casting wants a fixed set of looks in colour and black and white, so those are priced as a small package rather than session-plus-images. If that's you, tell me and I'll send the actor rates.
A business headshot session fee includes:
- Me coming to your location, no travel charges in mainland UK.
- A full headshot studio set up in your office or workplace.
- Specialist flattering light that shows you at your best.
- Expression coaching, so you walk away with a headshot that shows you as confident, approachable and trustworthy.
- Real-time viewing, so you can see what's working as we go.
- As many outfit changes as you like.
- No time limit on the session.
- No minimum order. You only buy the images you love.
Each image includes:
- A high resolution file. I shoot on medium format, so the files are very big. I deliver at 5000px and 2400px for print and web, which is plenty for most people. If you want your headshot on the side of your building, I can supply the full resolution version.
- Full retouching, including anything we discuss during your session, teeth, uneven skin, the odd blemish.
- Multiple crops, ready for social media, bios, your website and print.
- An unlimited commercial licence. You can use the images anywhere, for as long as you like.
Corporate and team work is priced by the day and the headcount rather than per person, so it gets cheaper per head as the team grows. My session info and pricing page has the guide, but it's usually better to talk through what your organisation actually needs, because I offer a range of options and most cost nothing extra:
- Custom backgrounds, crops and file naming.
- Your logo added.
- Lighting matched to your brand.
- Scheduling across the day.
- Multiple days or locations.
- Reduced rates for new hires.
- Composite team images.
The true cost of a headshot
It's easy to look at the session fee on its own. But a headshot isn't a one-off purchase you use once, it's an image that works for you every day for years.
Say you have a session and a couple of images, £360. You'll use that photo on LinkedIn, your website and your email signature for the next three years, 36 months. Spread across that time it costs you £10 a month, less than you might think for the first thing most people see of you.
Put it next to a business card. A card gets handed to a few people at an event. Your profile photo is on show every time you post, comment, send a connection request or reply to an email, which over a year runs into thousands of times. It's the hardest working image you own, so it's worth getting right.
Find a specialist
If you're going to pay for a headshot, use someone who specialises in them.
Photography splits into very different niches, weddings, landscapes, product, portraits, and each needs a different skill set. A headshot and personal branding specialist spends their days directing people who feel awkward in front of a camera, and has invested in the lenses and lighting that suit close, flattering portraits. That experience is most of what you're paying for, and it's the part that decides whether the photo actually works.
The short version
A single professional headshot in the UK runs from around £50 to a few hundred once you're past the AI tier, depending on how much of a hand you get and what you walk away owning. Team days are priced by headcount and get cheaper per head as the team grows. The number that matters most is what you can actually use at the end.
My full pricing is on one page: have a look at session info and pricing, then tell me what you need.
