Every London photographer I know has said the same sentence at some point. "I should just shoot in Manchester." The theory: same quality studios, same kit, 40% less cost. The reality: it's not that simple, and some of the time you save less than you expect. Other times you save more. Depends on the shoot.

I've shot in both cities regularly for the last three years. Here's the actual maths.

The headline numbers

Mid-size studio (1,000-1,500 sqft), 4m ceiling, cyc, standard flash kit, one assistant on site, 8-hour day.

London zone 2 (Hackney, Shoreditch, Peckham): £650-900/day.

London zone 3 (Tottenham, Walthamstow, Deptford): £500-750/day.

London outer zones (Park Royal, Croydon, Enfield): £450-650/day.

Manchester city centre (Ancoats, Northern Quarter): £350-550/day.

Manchester outskirts (Salford, Old Trafford, Stockport): £280-450/day.

Pure studio-rate saving of booking Manchester over zone 2 London is typically £250-400 a day. On a three-day shoot that's £1,000+. Real money.

Where the saving holds up

Crew-based shoots where everyone travels together. If you're a Manchester-based team, or you're travelling with a small photo crew who are happy on a train, the studio saving is real and uncomplicated. No London tax on the kit, no London tax on assistants.

Local clients. Manchester has its own production ecosystem. Brands, agencies, production companies based there. If your client is northern, the saving is absolute — you're not adding transport friction to justify the cheaper studio.

Big spaces. Manchester gets you more room for the money. A 2,500 sqft warehouse cyc in Ancoats is £500-650/day. The nearest London equivalent is £900-1,300. If you need big space, Manchester is dramatically cheaper without a meaningful quality trade-off.

Long bookings. Four-day brand shoot. Five days for a content push. A week for a catalogue. The per-day studio saving compounds, and the discount structures on Manchester bookings tend to be more flexible than London's.

Where the saving disappears

London-based team travelling to Manchester. Four crew members on trains, £120-200 return each. A van of kit driven up, another £150 in fuel and tolls. Overnight accommodation for everyone, £100-150/head. The first day of the shoot, transport and accommodation has added £800-1,200 to the production cost. The studio saving of £250-400/day has just been eaten. On a one-day shoot, you're probably worse off.

Specialist gear. Manchester has rental houses but the depth isn't as good as London. If you need a 12K HMI, a steadicam operator, a specific cine lens set, a motion control rig — you're often either flying kit from London or compromising. Those logistics costs can eat the studio saving.

High-profile talent or clients. If the brief requires a specific talent who's London-based, or a client who insists on being at the shoot and doesn't want to travel — location becomes a fixed cost, not a variable. The studio saving doesn't matter because the shoot has to be in London.

Multi-location shoots. If the shoot needs both studio and London street exteriors, you can't move the studio to Manchester. You have to commit one way.

Crew cost — the real difference

This is where the saving actually lives, more than in the studio rate itself.

A good 1st assistant in London: £400-500/day.

Same experience level in Manchester: £280-380/day.

A stylist in London: £500-750/day.

Manchester: £350-500/day.

Makeup artist London: £400-600/day.

Manchester: £300-450/day.

For a five-person crew across a two-day shoot, the Manchester crew saving is typically £600-1,200. That's more than the studio saving, and it compounds on longer bookings.

The quality difference, in my experience, is nil. Manchester has proper working commercial crews. The city shoots a lot of fashion, beauty, and ecom content. The people are pros.

Kit rental comparison

Rental prices on standard kit are broadly similar across both cities — maybe 5-10% cheaper in Manchester. Profoto heads, Aputure LEDs, C-stands — the gap is small. It's not a meaningful cost lever.

The difference shows on specialist stuff. A larger Arri light — say a SkyPanel S60 Pro, which is a 15 kg native soft light with RGBW colour — might cost £220/day from a Manchester rental house versus £180 from a big London one. London's just more competitive because there are more rental houses. But the saving on the studio more than covers the specialist rental difference.

Transport, done properly

Euston to Manchester Piccadilly is 2 hours 10 on the fast train. Off-peak return £90-130. Advance booking £50-80.

Van from central London to Ancoats: 4 hours driving, £80-120 fuel each way, M6 toll £7.50.

If you're moving serious kit, the van is essential. If you're a two-person team with a Peli case, the train is obviously better.

Either way, plan for a full day lost to travel either side of the shoot. Which means a one-day shoot in Manchester eats two days of your crew's time. Bill accordingly, or lose the economics.

Accommodation

Manchester hotels are dramatically cheaper than London equivalents. A decent city centre hotel in Ancoats, £90-130/night. London zone 1, £180-280 for the same spec. Airbnb flips this — similar quality flats are close to London prices in central Manchester, especially over weekends.

For a crew of four, two nights, the hotel saving is £400-600 vs London. Real saving. Not enormous.

What both cities have in common

Studio quality at the top end is equivalent. The best Manchester cyc studio and the best London Park Royal cyc are functionally the same tool. The fashion houses use both. The car brands use both. You won't get different output from the better of each.

The bottom end is similar too. Scrappy garage-conversion studios exist in both cities, good enough for portfolio work, not good enough for commercial clients.

Where Manchester is actually better, not just cheaper

Parking and load-in. Most Manchester studios have actual parking or proper loading bays. Park Royal has it. Central London generally doesn't. For shoots with lots of kit or multiple talent, that saves real stress on shoot day.

Space per pound. Manchester's warehouse conversions are bigger, taller, and more flexible than London equivalents at the same price. If the brief is "an interesting big space" rather than "a specific cyc", Manchester wins.

Evenings. Manchester's food scene is genuinely excellent now — Ancoats, Northern Quarter, MediaCity — and everything's walkable. Post-shoot dinner in London means a Uber across town. Not a real production issue, but a crew-happiness issue.

Where London is actually better, not just closer

Rental house depth. If you need something weird, London has it. Manchester has most things. London has everything.

Specialist crew. If the shoot needs a DoP who regularly works on Netflix productions, or a specific food stylist with name recognition, they're probably London-based. Expecting them to travel to Manchester is asking them to book out a day of travel on top of the shoot day.

Client presence. Most agency clients are London-based. Getting them to Manchester for a day adds friction even if they're happy to do it. For shoots where client sign-off on set is critical, London is less painful.

Airports. Heathrow. Gatwick. If talent or crew are flying in, London is the obvious choice.

My decision tree

Shoot crew is already in the north, or client is a northern brand: Manchester, always.

Shoot is 2+ days with 3+ crew, and no specific London lock-in reason: Manchester, probably.

Shoot is one day with a London crew and London client, no specific Manchester advantage: London. The travel kills it.

Shoot needs big space, specific large-ceiling cyc, or a more generous kit setup: Manchester gives better value per pound.

Shoot has tight timelines, specific last-minute crew requirements, or requires London-based talent: London. Don't fight it.

The hidden Manchester advantage

Studio owners in Manchester tend to be more flexible on arrangements. Extended days, unusual requests, early load-ins, custom kit lists. I've had Manchester studios open at 5am for a sunrise shoot without charging extra. I've had London studios refuse to open before 8am full stop, no matter what I was willing to pay.

Scale. Most Manchester studios are owner-operated. You're talking to the person who owns the space and makes the decisions. In London, many studios are run by staff who have to escalate anything non-standard to management, which takes days.

The final answer

If your production is flexible, if your crew are willing to travel, if your client doesn't need to be on set, and if the shoot is more than a day — Manchester saves you meaningful money. Total production saving on a three-day shoot is usually £2,000-4,000.

If any of those conditions are false, London is probably the right call despite costing more on paper. The friction costs of moving a London-centric production north usually outweigh the studio-rate saving.

Don't default either way. Run the actual maths for the actual shoot. The worst mistake is assuming Manchester is always cheaper and getting to shoot day realising you've spent more.

If you're comparing studios in both cities (or any UK city) side by side, Creative Studio Hire covers the full UK without charging commission on bookings — so the rates you see are the rates the studio owner actually charges, no platform markup.