Photographer Travel Fee Calculator
Accurately calculate and present your travel expenses for client shoots
Calculator Settings
Distance & Vehicle Information
Accommodation
Additional Expenses
Custom Additional Expenses
Flight Expenses
Accommodation
Local Transportation
Additional Expenses
Custom Additional Expenses
Travel Fee Breakdown
Professional Photographer Travel Fee Calculator User Guide
This tool helps photographers like you figure out how much to charge clients for traveling to a photo shoot. It adds up costs like gas, flights, hotels, meals, and other things so you don’t lose money on your trip.
I’ll explain every part of the calculator step by step, so even if you’ve never used it before, you’ll understand everything. Let’s get started!
What the Calculator Does
This calculator is made for photographers who travel for their work. It helps you calculate all the costs of your trip so you can tell your client a fair price. Whether you’re driving or flying, staying in a hotel, or paying for food, this tool makes sure you cover everything.
Starting with the Settings
Before you start entering your travel details, you can change some basic options. At the top, there’s a button called “Customize Calculator Settings“. When you click it, a panel opens up with a few things you can adjust. Let’s go through them one by one.
First, there’s Currency. This is where you pick the type of money you want to use. You might choose dollars if you’re in the U.S., euros if you’re in Europe, or pounds if you’re in the U.K. Pick the one your client will pay you with so the numbers make sense to them.
Next is Distance Unit. This decides how you measure how far you’re traveling. You can choose miles (common in the U.S.) or kilometers (used in many other places). If you pick miles, all distance questions later will be in miles. If you pick kilometers, they’ll be in kilometers.
Then, there’s a little switch called “Include Tax Calculations“. It’s like an on/off button. If you turn it on, the calculator will add tax to your total cost. If you don’t need tax, leave it off. If you turn it on, a new box shows up where you can type the Tax Rate. This is a percentage, like 10% or 15%. For example, if your tax is 10%, just type “10” in the box.
Finally, there’s Theme Color. This lets you pick a color for the calculator, like blue, green, purple, orange, or dark. It doesn’t change the numbers it just makes the calculator look nice to you. Choose whatever you like!
When you’re done with the settings, close the panel, and now you’re ready to use the main part of the calculator.
The Main Parts: Driving and Flying Tabs
The calculator has two big sections, or tabs, at the top: Driving and Flying. These are for figuring out your costs depending on how you’re traveling. The Driving tab is open when you start, but you can click Flying if you’re taking a plane instead. Let’s look at each one carefully.
The Driving Tab
If you’re driving to your photo shoot, use the Driving tab. It’s split into a few sections to help you enter all your costs.
Distance & Vehicle Information
This part is about your car and how far you’re going. First, there’s a box called Round Trip Distance. This is the total distance you’ll drive to the shoot and back home. If you chose miles in the settings, type the number of miles.If you chose kilometers, type the number of kilometers.
Next is Vehicle MPG. MPG means “miles per gallon,” which shows how much gas your car uses. If you picked kilometers in the settings, this changes to Fuel Efficiency (km per liter). Check your car’s manual or guess based on what you know about it.
Then, there’s Fuel Price per Gallon/Liter. This is how much you pay for gas. If you’re using miles, it’s per gallon. If you’re using kilometers, it’s per liter. Look at a gas station price to get this number.
There’s also a switch called “Add wear & tear fee for long trips”. If you turn this on, you can charge extra for long drives that might wear out your car. When you turn it on, two boxes appear: Long Trip Threshold and Wear & Tear Rate per mile/km.
The threshold is the distance where you start charging extra, like 100 miles. The rate is how much you add for each mile or kilometer over that, like $1.50. For example, if your trip is 150 miles and your threshold is 100 miles, you’d add $1.50 for each of the extra 50 miles.
Accommodation
This section is for hotel costs. There’s a switch called “Include hotel expenses”. If you’re not staying overnight, leave it off. If you are, turn it on, and two boxes show up: Hotel Cost Per Night and Number of Nights. Type how much the hotel costs for one night and how many nights you’ll stay. The calculator will multiply these to get your total hotel cost.
Additional Expenses
Here, you can add other costs. First, there’s a switch for “Include meal expenses”. Turn it on if you want to charge for food. Then, you’ll see Meals Per Diem Rate (how much you spend on food each day) and Number of Days. Type those in, and it’ll figure out your total food cost.
Below that is a part called Custom Additional Expenses. Click “+ Add Expense” to add things like parking fees or tolls. For each one, you type a name (like “Parking”) and an amount (like $20). You can add as many as you need.
The Flying Tab
If you’re flying to your shoot, click the Flying tab. It has its own sections for plane-related costs.
Flight Expenses
This is about your plane tickets. First, enter the Flight Cost (Round Trip)—the total price for your tickets there and back. Next is Baggage Fees, where you type any extra charges for your bags.
Accommodation
This is the same as in the Driving tab. There’s a switch for “Include hotel expenses”. Turn it on if you’re staying in a hotel, then enter the Hotel Cost Per Night and Number of Nights.
Local Transportation
This is for getting around after you land. There’s a switch for “Include rental car”. Turn it on if you’re renting a car, then type the Rental Car Cost (Total) and Estimated Fuel Cost for the rental. There’s also a switch for “Include other local transportation”, like taxis or Uber. Turn it on and enter the total cost for those.
Additional Expenses
This section has a switch for “Include meal expenses”, just like the Driving tab. Turn it on and enter your Meals Per Diem Rate and Number of Days. There’s also a switch for “Include equipment shipping” if you’re sending your camera gear separately. Turn it on and type the Equipment Shipping Cost.
Like the Driving tab, there’s a Custom Additional Expenses part. Click “+ Add Expense” to add things like airport parking, with a name and amount for each.
Calculating Your Travel Fee
When you’ve filled in all your costs, look at the bottom of the calculator. There’s a big button that says “Calculate Travel Fee”. Click it, and the calculator adds everything up. The results show up in a section called Travel Fee Breakdown.
It lists each cost you entered, like gas or hotel fees, with the amount next to it. At the bottom, you’ll see the Total Travel Fee. If you turned on tax in the settings, it’ll also show the tax amount in the breakdown.
Here’s a simple table to show how it might look:
| Expense | Amount |
| Fuel | $50 |
| Hotel | $200 |
| Meals | $60 |
| Tax (10%) | $31 |
| Total Travel Fee | $341 |
How to Use the Calculator Step by Step
To make it super easy, here’s what you do. Start by clicking “Customize Calculator Settings” and pick your currency and distance unit. Decide if you want tax and set the rate if you do.
Choose a color if you want. Then, pick the Driving or Flying tab based on your travel plan. Fill in all the boxes for your costs, like distance, gas, hotel, or flights. Turn on the switches for any extra things like meals or shipping, and add custom expenses if you need to.
When everything’s ready, click “Calculate Travel Fee” to see your total. If you need to change something, just go back and adjust the numbers, then calculate again.
Extra Tips
Some parts of the calculator might be hidden at first. For example, if you don’t turn on the hotel switch, you won’t see the hotel boxes. So, make sure to turn on switches for anything you want to include.
Also, the calculator only uses the tab you’re on, Driving or Flying, so it won’t mix up the numbers if you switch between them. If you’re not sure about something, play around with it or ask for help!
That’s it! Now you know how to use the Professional Photographer Travel Fee Calculator. It’s a simple way to make sure you charge enough for your trip. Happy shooting!
Also, you can try our other photography calculators to calculate your photography cost perfectly.
