Here are our tips and advice for a photographer’s workflow process - from setting up your perfect photo shoot, to editing and providing images to customers.
Photography is a creative art, a craft and requires technical skills to understand a shoot concept and the photography process.
Step 1 - Prepare and create a plan
A good photoshoot has a plan right from the very start. For example, location, time, models and props. It’s important that everyones expectations are aligned. Ensure you and your clients objectives are clear before you make a start.
It is always helpful to have a shoot schedule agreed, and a shot list, including all the people or items that will be involved - think everything through and maximise your photo studio work space.
Also think about what format you will shoot, memory cards and storage.
Step 2 - Set Up
On shoot day it’s always best to arrive early at your location and scout out backdrops and lighting. You will want to ensure all your gear is ready, for example have your lenses close to hand - get everything you need and all the pieces in place.
Think about all the photography equipment needed, product/subject preparation and product/scene staging.
You will need a variety of photos, so once your shot list is agreed, feel free to be a little creative and go off script at times to try and capture something unique or any unexpected events - keep the camera rolling!
Budget depending, hire or train photo studio helpers to improve productivity.
Step 3 - Organisation
Once your photo shoot is over, it’s important to organise your images. Using a professional software application such as Adobe Lightroom can be excellent for editing and organising . For example time stamping, creating different folders by date, client or keyword - have a structure for folders and naming files.
Ensure you develop an efficient photo studio workflow.
You’ll want to go through your images, remove duplicates or photos with mistakes - only keep your best shots in the selection process.
Step 4 - Back Up You never want to be in a position where all your hard work is lost - a device crashing or files corrupting etc. Uploading to a cloud case storage and keeping on an external hard drive are two key recommendations to give you piece of mind.
Step 5 - Editing
Post production editing to make your photos ‘pop’ can transform a picture. There’s no strict right or wrong way to edit photos - it depends on your own style. You may look to crop to focus on a particular subject, or adjust brightness and contrast - be creative, there are no boundaries.
Minimise the time between photography and image QA.
Step 6 - Delivery
The last step is delivering your photos to the client. Submit your finished photos to your client, don’t forget to add the to your personal portfolio, share on social media and even earn money by selling your photos on websites such as Shutterstock.