This is just the time that is needed for a photographer to produce a photo session. In addition to that, if the photographer is to stay in business, he or she has to make enough to also pay day to day living expenses.
Let's go through an example four hour photo session. According to the chart above, the total time spent for that 4 hour session would be about 32 hours, if you were the only subject he or she was photographing. However, many of the tasks would be shared by other peoples sessions, so it's not quite that much time for each. Probably more like 12 hours needed for each 4 hour session would be close. Then we really need to add to that the amount of time they spent learning about lighting, composition, post processing, posing, etc.
Next, we have to deduct expenses - self employment taxes, equipment, repairs, travel to location, work space, insurance, business license, etc.
And finally, one more thing that goes into pricing - the photographers expertise (artistic vision).
There's a story about Pablo Picasso - someone said she would pay him to draw a picture on a napkin. Picasso pulled out a pen and drew a sketch on the napkin, handed it to the lady, and told her that would be $10,000. $10,000 the lady exclaimed, but that only took you 30 seconds! Yes, said Picasso, but it took me 50 years to learn how to draw that in 30 seconds.
That explains why some photographers charge more than others - because of their expertise and experience.
Moral of the story - well, there's actually a few: photographers aren't really charging you too much. If they photographed you and got some spectacular images, and they don't charge enough, they will go out of business and you won't be able to hire them again.
Whatever the photographer does charge, make sure they offer a 100% money back guarantee that says if you aren't happy with the results, you pay nothing and get every penny back that you already paid.
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