Understand Photography
Stop sitting at the computer instead of enjoying your life! Here are a few ways to speed up your workflow:
- The most important time saver - Shoot right in the first place. You should not have to “fix” your pictures! Study and practice. For portrait and wedding photographers, you must be an expert at lighting and posing! All photographers must develop a critical eye to see weird shadows, where horizons are, crooked necklaces, composition. Practice, practice, practice!
- Lightroom - the learning curve is steeper than I’d like but it’s worth it. You can do most of your editing, cropping, resizing and organizing all in one program. I thought I was fast before, I’m lightning fast now with Lightroom!
- Drop ship with boutique packaging to your out of town clients. Years of experience have taught me that I can’t tell if a client will like her picture or not. If you have a lot of out of town clients, you’ll save a LOT of time by using the beautiful packaging your lab provides.
- Learn shortcuts. In both Photoshop and Elements, many shortcuts are listed in the drop down menus. If you see yourself doing the same thing often, learn the shortcut.
- Check and respond to your emails only 3 times per day.
- Go on Facebook to post YOUR marketing for the day, then stay off. Turn off notifications so you are not tempted. Hide people so that you don’t have to see every post.
- Buy a little kitchen timer. Give yourself, say 5-6 minutes to retouch each picture. Also time your phone calls. I have two timers - one so I remember to stand up and stretch every 60 minutes!
- Make a daily To-Do list. If you have employees or subcontractors, make prioritized To-Do lists for them.
- If you must be DIY, buy the right tools. If you are framing and/or matting, you will save yourself time and heartbreak by investing in good equipment in the first place. If you are printing your own pictures, spend the money on a good trimmer.
