Our range for product photography is Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 per product. Furniture that can come to a studio sits at the top of that. Anything large enough to need two people to move is quoted per job instead of per piece, and the reason is worth understanding before you compare quotes.
Why furniture is not priced like other products
Most product photography is priced per item because the cost scales with the number of items. Forty skincare bottles take longer than four, but the setup barely changes. You light it once and work through the tray.
Furniture breaks that. The cost is driven by space and time rather than by how many pieces you have. A studio that can shoot forty bottles in a day might fit two sofas, and each of those sofas needs the lighting rebuilt around it. Ten pieces of furniture is not ten times the work of one piece, and one piece is not one fortieth of a bulk rate.
So when a studio quotes you a flat per-image rate for furniture without asking what the furniture is, they either have not thought about it or they are going to revise the number later.
What actually drives the cost
Size and handling. A side table is a product. A wardrobe is a logistics problem. Somebody has to move it, position it, and move it again for the next angle, and that time is real whether or not it appears on the invoice.
Assembly. Flat pack pieces arrive in boxes. If the shoot includes assembly, ask whether that is inside the quote. It is often half a day.
Lighting a large surface evenly. A small object can be lit with one softbox and a reflector. A three seater sofa has a two metre stretch of upholstery that has to look consistent from end to end, and fabric shows every unevenness. Wood and gloss finishes are worse again, because they reflect the room.
Styling and set. Furniture is rarely bought on a plain white background alone. Buyers want to see it in a room. That means props, rugs, plants, sometimes a built set, and somebody sourcing all of it.
Angles. Furniture listings usually need more angles than a small product: front, three quarter, side, back, a detail of the material, a detail of the joinery or stitching, and often a scale reference.
Studio or on location
Small and medium furniture travels. A chair, a stool, a side table, a lamp, a compact shelf. Those can come to a studio and get the controlled lighting that makes a catalogue look consistent.
Large furniture usually does not travel economically. Once you are paying to transport a sofa both ways, insure it, and risk it arriving marked, shooting where the furniture already sits often costs less overall even though the day rate looks higher.
We work on a courier-in basis from our studio in Thane, which suits small and medium pieces well. For large furniture the honest answer is that it needs a conversation about location first, because the logistics decide the price more than the photography does. Any studio that quotes you for a wardrobe without asking where it is has not priced the job.
What to check before you agree a quote
Ask these four things and most of the vagueness disappears:
Does the quote include moving and positioning the furniture, or is that assumed to be your side? Does it include assembly if the piece arrives flat packed? How many angles per piece does the number cover, and what does an extra angle cost? Is styling included, and if props are needed, who sources and pays for them?
A quote that answers all four is usually more expensive on paper than one that answers none, and cheaper by the time the job finishes.
How this fits with everything else
If you are shooting furniture alongside smaller products, it is worth planning them as one project rather than two. The smaller items can be batched efficiently at a per product rate while the furniture is handled as a separate block, and you avoid paying setup twice.
The general breakdown of what product photography costs in India, including the per image and per product tiers and what moves them, is in our pricing guide. For other categories, our product photography services page covers how catalogue and campaign work are priced differently.