Ask ten photographers what percentage they take as a deposit and you'll get ten different answers, most of them delivered with more confidence than the reasoning behind them deserves. Some grabbed a number off a forum years ago and never revisited it. Some don't take a deposit at all and just hope for the best. Neither approach is really a strategy — it's a guess wearing the costume of a policy.
A deposit isn't just about getting some money before you start. It's a filter, a cash-flow tool, and a commitment device, all at once — and the right number depends on what you're actually trying to protect against.
What a deposit is actually protecting you from
Before picking a percentage, it helps to be specific about the risk. For most photography work, a deposit exists to cover three separate problems:
Cancellations and no-shows. If a client books a date and then cancels close to the shoot, you've likely turned away other work for that slot and can't easily fill it. A deposit makes cancellation cost the client something, which filters out casual bookings from serious ones.
Upfront costs you're carrying. Location fees, second shooters, equipment rentals, travel — anything you're paying out before you've been paid yourself. A deposit should, at minimum, cover whatever you're personally fronting.
Full ghosting after delivery. As covered in our post on what to do when a client ghosts you, a client with zero money down has nothing at stake if they disappear after final delivery. A meaningful deposit changes that math — they've already invested in the relationship continuing.
Once you know which of these you're actually worried about for a given type of booking, the right number gets a lot easier to land on.
A workable starting range
For most freelance photography work — weddings, portrait sessions, commercial shoots, events — 25% to 50% of the total project cost is the range that shows up most consistently across working photographers, with the specific number depending on the situation:
Closer to 25%: shorter-lead-time bookings, repeat clients with an established track record, smaller total project values where a higher percentage would feel disproportionate.
Closer to 50%: high-demand dates you're turning other clients away for (weddings especially), new clients with no payment history, projects where you're covering significant costs before the shoot happens, or anything booked far enough in advance that a cancellation would be hard to fill.
100% upfront: worth considering for very small bookings (mini sessions, quick portrait sittings) where the admin cost of tracking a partial payment and a balance isn't worth it relative to the total project size.
There's no universally "correct" number in this range — what matters more is that you have one, apply it consistently, and can explain your own reasoning if a client asks.
Why too low doesn't actually protect you
A small, symbolic deposit — something like 10% or a flat $50 regardless of project size — often ends up doing neither job well. It's not enough money for a client to feel real loss if they cancel, so it doesn't filter out casual bookings. And it doesn't meaningfully offset whatever you're fronting in costs. If you're going to require a deposit at all, it needs to be large enough to actually function as skin in the game — otherwise it's mostly just extra paperwork with none of the protective upside.
Why too high can cost you good clients
The flip side matters too. Requiring 75% or 100% upfront from every client, regardless of relationship or project size, can read as distrustful before you've done any work together — especially for clients who are used to standard industry deposit ranges and see an outlier number as a red flag rather than reasonable caution. This is where new photographers sometimes overcorrect after one bad experience with a canceled booking, and end up losing perfectly good clients who balk at unusually high upfront asks.
Making the deposit non-negotiable without making it awkward
The deposit works best when it's simply part of how you book, not something you negotiate fresh with every client. State it plainly in your booking process — the date isn't confirmed until the deposit is in, full stop — rather than treating it as an optional add-on you mention halfway through a conversation. Clients rarely push back on a policy stated upfront and applied consistently; they push back on terms that feel like they're being introduced mid-negotiation.
It also helps to make the deposit itself frictionless to pay, since a clunky payment process can undo the good of a well-reasoned policy. CreateCollect lets you send a deposit invoice with its own payment link, separate from the final balance, so the booking-to-deposit step is as easy for the client as tapping a link — no separate Venmo request, no manual tracking of who's paid what percentage of which job.
The number itself matters less than having one you've actually thought through and apply the same way every time. That consistency is what makes a deposit feel like a normal part of booking you, rather than a hurdle a client has to clear.