Photography insurance
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Rated 4.7/5
Based on 39,130 reviews
Claims paid in 24 hours
For 80% of settled claims
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
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
In case you've made a mistake in your work or provided a service that didn't meet the expected standards.
Public liability insurance
In case you accidentally injure someone or damage their property.
Employers’ liability insurance
In case your employee is involved in an accident or mistake while they’re working for you.
Portable equipment insurance
In case something happens to your photography equipment while you’re out and about.
Stock insurance
In case something happens to the materials you’re responsible for.
Business and office equipment insurance
In case your photography equipment is lost, damaged or stolen.
Legal expenses insurance
In case you’re faced with legal costs from running your business.
Personal accident insurance
In case you or anyone you've covered has an accident.
Professional indemnity insurance
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 for photographers
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.
What’s typically covered by legal expenses insurance?
- 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 £5.55 per month
Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.
Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes
How we work out example prices We take the highest price from the bottom 10 per cent of all our customers paying in monthly instalments (based on data from 1 July - 31 December 2020). Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.
Example photographer insurance quotes, real prices
£10.47 /month
£84.68 /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
£66.86 /month
£594.29 /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 27/08/2020). 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
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We handle claims, so you can get on with business
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?
Which type of workers do I need insurance for?
Does photographers insurance cover my work correctly?
Do I need cover for other types of work?
Which public liability cover limit should I choose?
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 these services alongside building work, 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 - 05.00pm, Sat 09.00am - 02.00pm
Call our team
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.
£30 million in claims paid out in 2019
Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2019
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 800,000 small businesses
We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 800,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.
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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.
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 take professional advice. Read our full disclaimer
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