Speeding up your Wedding Workflow | Tips for Wedding Photographers

Dallas Wedding Photographer | Dear Photographer Series

Dear Photographer, I see you. I understand how tough it is. Being a wedding photographer is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of time to prepare for a wedding day and then cull and edit thousands of images. So here are my 5 tips to speeding up your wedding workflow.

Automation

Automate what you can. Reminder emails, sending out questionnaires and checklists. I use 17hats for my client management and I really love it. I have a wedding workflow that reminds me to complete certain tasks and will send out reminders on appointments, due dates, etc. It has been a life saver for me as a mom of two littles.

I also love that it keeps all documents and emails for my clients in their portal so I can find them any time I need.

Outsource

Outsource what you can! This was a hard one for me since it was hard for me to give up control. I had that “no one can do it like I can” mentality. Well, if I am being honest, I know that’s not true. I didn’t start out knowing all the ins and outs of being a business owner. I learned…which means other people can learn. I currently outsource my editing during busy seasons. It is a super easy process. I cull weddings and edit all my anchor images which then my editing company matches to the rest of my images. It has really been a game changer for me. it allows me to still be present for my kids and enjoy time with family.

You could also consider outsourcing bookkeeping … This one is on my bucket list because it is honestly the part of running a business that I dislike most. I would LOVE for someone to tell me how I can save money and get tax breaks. Hiring someone who is an expert in this area would not only save me time but also my sanity.

Another thing that you could consider outsourcing might not even be related to your business. For example, housekeeping, food delivery service, grocery shopping, etc. I once listened to a podcast where they talked about as the CEO of your business, you should think what your hourly rate is. Say it’s $100/hr. Are you doing $100/hr tasks or $10/hr tasks in your business? If the answer isn’t $100 then you might want to outsource it.

Culling

I have tried what seems like all the methods of culling my images. Lightroom, bridge, photomechanic and most recently Aftershoot. It took me a long time (within the last year to branch out of importing everything into Lightroom and culling from there. Guys…it was such a game changer when I discovered there are better ways!

If you prefer to have total control of selecting images you would be a great fit for Photomechanic. It is super fast and you can quickly tag photos you want to keep. I can usually cull an entire wedding in a couple of hours.

Talk about speeding up your wedding workflow. Recently, I discovered Aftershoot which is an AI culling service. Guys…I love it. It culls for me and puts all the images into categories based on 1) focus issues 2) closed eyes 3) duplicates 4) selected and 5) sneak peeks. Now, I realize not AI processes are 100% perfect but I love having them sorted where I can go through and double check their selections. 9 times out of 10 … I agree with their picks. If I do want to add or delete one from my selections…its as easy as clicking a button!

Presets

I am a huge advocate for importing using a custom preset. I think that it helps make your work consistent and speeds up your editing workflow. My presets make basic adjustments in terms of exposure, temperature, contrast and sharpening. You’ll obviously need to make further adjustments depending on each image, but your import preset should be able to get you most of the way there.

“Sync” Feature

Man oh man, I love this feature so much. For any photo that was shot in the same location and lighting conditions you can use the sync feature. To sync the settings in Lightroom, make any adjustments on the first image in a series. Then select the entire sequence. After you have all of the photos highlighted, click Sync which is at the bottom right of the Develop module.Ta-da! Perfecto in 10 seconds flat!

I hope you found this blog on speeding up your wedding workflow helpful! Best of luck to you!