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Photography insurance uk

Join over 3,400 photographers like you with PL cover from £3.19 per month*

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Photographer talking to model at a photo shoot

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Rated 4.7/5

Based on 39,755 reviews

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Claims paid in 24 hours

For 80% of settled claims

What's on this page

  • Why is insurance important?
  • What does it cover?
  • How much does it cost?
  • How do I choose insurance?
  • How do claims work?
  • FAQs
  • Helpful articles

Why do you need photographer insurance?

Photography insurance helps you spend more time doing the work you love and less time worrying about mistakes and accidents. Whether you drop your camera, your kit is stolen at an event, or your photos fall short of your client’s expectations – photography insurance can guard against unplanned costs.

  • protection from big claims like injury or damage caused to someone else
  • peace of mind that your expensive gear is covered in the case of theft, loss or damage
  • a safety net to help you handle the consequences of unhappy clients
  • quotes start at £3.19* a month based on 2020 data

Start your quote

What does photography insurance cover?

Because you know your business best, you decide what to include in your photographers’ insurance policy. We offer a range of options to protect you, your clients, your reputation, and the equipment you’ve invested in, so you can customise your cover to meet your needs.

Professional indemnity insurance for photographers

In case you've made a mistake in your work or provided a service that didn't meet the expected standards.

What’s typically covered by professional indemnity insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • professional negligence
  • advice that you give as part of your work

For example:

  • you’ve been hired to photograph an event and your camera has a technical glitch afterwards that means you lose all the photos
  • you’ve taken on a photography job where the brief is specified in your contract, and your client doesn’t think your work has met the brief

Read more about professional indemnity insurance

Public liability insurance

In case you accidentally injure someone or damage their property.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance for photographers?

Claims against your business for:

  • injury caused by you or an employee
  • damage to property – whether it's yours or someone else's
  • property damage caused by other photographers or clerical assistants you’ve employed

For example:

  • a member of the public or a model you’re working with trips over your tripod and injures themselves
  • your photography equipment scratches a client’s floor paint while you’re setting up at their premises
  • one of your employees stands on the bride’s dress and tears a hole in it

What you’ll need additional cover for

  • underwater photography
  • using your equipment in the air, for example when strapped to a drone

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case your employee is involved in an accident or mistake while they’re working for you.

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • your employee injuring themselves or getting sick over the course of their work

**Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

For example:

  • one of your photographers falls down the stairs during a shoot and breaks their wrist

Portable equipment insurance

In case something happens to your photography equipment while you’re out and about.

What’s typically covered by portable equipment insurance for photographers?

  • loss, damage or theft of your own cameras, tripods, lenses, laptops or lighting kits while you’re in transit
  • loss, damage or theft of other people’s equipment that’s under your control (e.g. you’re transporting an employee’s equipment to an event on their behalf)

For example:

  • your camera is stolen when you’re on site at a shoot

Stock insurance

In case something happens to the materials you’re responsible for.

What’s typically covered by stock insurance?

  • loss, damage or theft of the materials you need for your business

For example:

  • there’s a flood at your property, and the marketing flyers you’ve had printed are ruined by water damage

Read more about stock insurance

Business and office equipment insurance

In case your photography equipment is lost, damaged or stolen.

What’s typically covered by business and office equipment insurance?

  • loss, damage or theft of things like cameras, tripods, lenses, laptops, or lighting kits that you keep at the address you’ve specified in your policy

For example:

  • your photography gear is destroyed by a fire
  • a burglar breaks into your office and steals your camera

What you’ll need additional cover for

  • any photography equipment that exceeds your policy’s limit for the value of a single item (for example, if your single article limit is £2,000 and your camera is worth £3,000, you’d need to have extra cover in place)
  • loss, damage or theft of equipment while it’s elsewhere

Read more about business and office equipment insurance

Legal expenses insurance

In case you’re faced with legal costs from running your business.

  • legal expenses resulting from your day-to-day business activities, like disputes with employees
  • the cost of legal claims relating to property damage, nuisance or trespass
  • HMRC investigations, and tax and compliance disputes
  • includes a tax advice helpline, a 24/7 confidential legal helpline, and crisis PR support to help you protect your business’s reputation

For example:

  • if you’re investigated by HMRC (or selected at random for an audit), this cover could help with the tax enquiries – for you and any other directors, as well as for the business
  • you need to defend your legal rights following the dismissal of an employee

Read more about legal expenses insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case you or anyone you've covered has an accident.

What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

  • injury or death at work or outside of work, for anyone covered on the policy
  • lost income, medical costs and hospitalisation benefit

For example:

  • you trip and fall over a tripod and break your ankle
  • you shut your hand in the car door on the way to work and break a finger

Read more about personal accident insurance

How much does photographer insurance cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £3.19 per month

Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.

Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes

Start your quote

10% of our customers paid up to £38.32 a year for a public liability insurance policy between 1st April 2023 - 30th June 2023. Equivalent to £3.19 per month based on a monthly cost when paying for the policy in one annual payment. Paying monthly is usually more expensive as you'll pay interest. Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.

Example photographer insurance quotes, real prices

chiswell insurance

£8.37 /month

£63.72 /year

A photographer working on public and private locations

  • 5+ years' experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in Birmingham
  • Public liability insurance

    £1,000,000

  • Professional indemnity

    £250,000

  • Contents/business equipment

    Not included

optima insurance

£57.42 /month

£510.36 /year

A photographer working on public and private locations with equipment cover

  • 5+ years' experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in Birmingham
  • Public liability insurance

    £2,000,000

  • Professional indemnity

    £1,000,000

  • Contents/business equipment

    £20,000

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 22/02/2022). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Professional indemnity

No excess

£2500

Public liability

£200

£750

Contents

£100

£750

Portable equipment

£100

£500

Employers' liability

No excess

No excess

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

  • Pick what goes into your policy

    Only pay for what you need

  • Get prices from a range of insurers

    Choose the best fit for you

  • Buy online in minutes

    Get your documents the same day

Start your quote

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Compare policies from a range of trusted insurers

Buy online or over the phone in minutes

How do I choose insurance?

Making sure you have the right type and level of business insurance can be the difference between getting a claim paid and having to cover the cost of an expensive accident yourself. Read our tips for guidance on what to consider when buying a policy.

Is public liability enough for third party property damage?

You may need more than public liability to cover certain types of damage.

Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ people.

If you have people working for you, including bona fide subcontractors (BFSC), labour-only subcontractors (LOSC), part-timers, or full-time staff, employers’ liability insurance is required by law.

Read on for our simplified guide to the difference between labour-only subcontractors and bona fide subcontractors.

Does photographers insurance cover my work correctly?

Make sure you're picking the right cover to protect you properly. It’s important to know that if you have another trade or job, you'll need additional cover. For example, do you need to consider videographer insurance or designers' insurance?

Do I need cover for other types of work?

If you provide other services, make sure you’re covered:

Other Covers

Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

Think about the maximum possible loss your business could face in the event of a claim, and make sure you take legal fees and damages into consideration. You can choose from three levels of cover – £1 million, £2 million, or up to £5 million.

Talk to an expert

Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am - 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am - 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am - 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am - 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am - 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am - 02.00pm

Call our team

0333 043 8527

Online

Contact us on our website whenever suits you

Phone

Call our insurance experts during office hours (calls are charged at a local rate)

FAQs

Find answers to common insurance questions

How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive. The figure below is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.

£39 million in claims paid out in 2022

Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2022

Example claim

Having photography insurance through Simply Business has saved photographers thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Daisy saved more than £2,581.75

While Daisy (not her real name) was walking backwards, she collided with her camera by accident and the equipment fell and hit the ground. She tried to turn it on afterwards but the screen loaded up with an error message and the camera shut down. The lens was physically damaged and couldn’t focus. Thankfully she was able to turn to her photography insurance.

  • Insurance payout

    £2,581.75

    Covering the cost of accidental damage

  • Daisy’s costs

    £100

    The excess amount stated in Daisy’s policy terms

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

  • Compare and buy in minutes

    Documents arrive today

  • Rated 4.7/5

    Based on 39,755 reviews

  • Here to help

    Help from UK-based experts

  • 24/7 claims

    Make a claim any time

Photography insurance FAQ

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about photographers’ insurance. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

  • Yes. It’s important to make sure you have the right type and level of insurance for the different types of work you do. For example, if you’re a plumber, you may also do building work on certain jobs – you’ll need additional cover for this, but you can have it all on the one policy. When you start your quote, you’ll have the option to add another trade or profession to your policy. If you need to add a third trade, give us a call on 0333 0146 683 and one of our insurance experts will help you set up your policy in minutes.

  • Yes. You may start offering additional services that require you to use different skills or carry out different tasks. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s important to give us a call on 0333 0146 683 to update your policy before you take on this new work. If you don’t have the correct type of cover in place for the work you do, you may be unable to claim on your policy if something goes wrong.

  • Each insurer looks at CCJs and IVAs differently – some apply stricter rules than others, but having a CCJ or IVA doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to buy insurance.

  • If you change your business legal structure from sole trader to limited company mid-way through your policy, give us a call straight away on 0333 0146 683. It’ll only take us a few minutes to cancel your existing policy and replace it with one that correctly covers your new legal structure. It’s worth bearing in mind that your insurer and premium amount may need to change.

  • This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

    If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

    There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions

Helpful articles for photographers

A photographer holding a professional camera

14 April 2022 • 6-minute read

How to become a freelance photographer

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