Whether you are a professional photographer or just starting out, having an efficient photography workflow is paramount to success. A photography workflow is a series of steps or processes that photographers go through to plan, capture, edit, and deliver their images. This workflow can vary depending on the type of photography being done and the specific needs of the project. In this article, I will dive into each aspect of a photography workflow, so you can better understand each part of the process.
But before I do, let’s start with the importance of a good photography workflow.
The Importance of a Photography Workflow
A well-defined and consistent photography workflow is crucial for achieving high-quality results, meeting deadlines and client expectations, and streamlining the process. By following a workflow, you can ensure that all important steps are not missed and that your images meet industry standards.
One of the most important benefits of a photography workflow is that it helps increase efficiency. By having a set of steps to follow, photographers can work more quickly and efficiently, allowing them to take on more projects and increase their income.
A photography workflow also helps improve the quality of the final images. By following a consistent process, you can ensure you captured the best possible images and properly edited them to achieve your desired results.
Additionally, a photography workflow can help you stay organized. By keeping track of all the steps involved in a project, you can easily refer back to previous steps and make sure you haven’t missed anything. This can be especially helpful when working on large projects or when collaborating with others.
Developing a Photography Workflow
Developing a photography workflow can be daunting, but it is essential for anyone who wants to achieve high-quality results and meet the needs of clients. The key to developing a successful workflow is to start with the basics and build on them.
The first step is to define the steps involved. This should include planning, capture, editing, and delivery. Once these steps have been defined, you can then begin to develop more detailed processes for each step.
Another important aspect of developing a photography workflow is to continually evaluate and refine it. You should regularly review your workflow and make changes as needed to improve efficiency and achieve better results.
Finally, it is important to adapt the workflow to the specific needs of the project and the client. You should be willing to adjust your workflow as needed to meet the unique requirements of each project.
Now that that is out of the way, let’s dig into each step.
Session Planning
The first step in a photography workflow is planning. This includes researching the subject matter, location, and lighting conditions. Photographers will also consider the equipment they will need for the shoot, as well as any necessary permits or permissions.
For some photographers, like those who photograph weddings, the planning stage is commonly more repeatable due to the nature of wedding timelines and venues. But for others, like personal brand photographers, each client brings a new timeline, new scenes, new props and so many other potential variables.
As a surprise proposal photographer, I have to plan every job as a unique one. Not only do the locations change for every client, but also the weather, timeline, and method each client has planned for his or her proposal. One tool I use for planning my sessions is a mobile app called PhotoPills, which allows me to visualize the field of view, where the sun or moon will be, and much more.
Photo Capture
Once the planning is done, it’s time to capture the images. This step involves setting up the camera, adjusting settings, and taking the photographs. You most likely will capture various photos to ensure you have a good selection of photos to work with.
On the podcast, Workflows, I ask every guest what one thing they have done behind the camera that has saved them time. One of our favorite answers is getting things right in camera. Whether that’s framing and composition or lighting and exposure, either way, having your photo look and feel how you want in camera will save you time and money for the remainder of your post-production photography workflow.
See what Lindsay Coultter has to say about the capture part of her photography workflow.
Photo Selection
Photo selection, also known as photo culling, is a necessary part of a photography workflow. Culling is often referred to as the most tedious part of a workflow. To many, it is also one of the more personal parts, as how you sort, include, or exclude photos for your clients depends on the story you want to tell and the emotion felt and seen in the work. Since the selection process can be very personal, it is up to you to decide which photos are shown to clients or edited.
Fortunately, Imagen has a solution to help with the photo selection workflow, and it is built into the same app thousands of photographers already use in their post-production workflows. With Imagen’s culling feature, you can quickly choose your best photos for a project and then seamlessly and quickly edit the photos. But I will talk about editing next.
Photo Editing
After the photographs are captured, and the best photos are picked, they are edited. This step involves adjusting exposure, color, white balance, contrast, and other settings to improve the overall look of the image. While this may seem like a very simple step, it is one of the most important ones to take. The look and feel of your photos will significantly impact what your clients will think and how others will receive your brand.
The most popular solution for editing photos is Adobe’s Lightroom Classic, a non-destructive digital asset manager that offers flexible and robust editing capabilities for practically every camera. Photographers who do not edit with Lightroom Classic commonly use CaptureOne.
If you are the type of photographer who either does not enjoy editing or is trying to free up time to focus on other aspects of your photography business and personal life, consider Imagen. Our app will be able to edit for you in no time. When I say fast, I mean it. Imagen edits 1,500 photos in 10 minutes or less.
- If you already have an editing style, our software learns how to edit in Lightroom Classic, and then edits new photos for you.
- If you have Lightroom Presets but want more consistency and speed of edits, then Imagen has your back with Lite Personal AI Profiles, which are trained on a Lightroom Preset combined with your personal touches.
- If you do not already have an editing style, then using the built-in Talent AI Profiles might be the solution you need. These AI Profiles are made with thousands of diverse photographs to provide accurate and consistent results no matter what you throw at it.
One of the beautiful things about Imagen is that the edits provided do not impede your creativity. Since the edits are non-destructive, you can continue adjustments anytime. Many Imagen users finalize their photos with additional retouching as they need, whether in Lightroom Classic or an app like Photoshop.
See what Dawn Richardson has to say about the editing part of her photography workflows.
Product Delivery
For some, the next step would be to design albums, but that’s a topic for another day. For others, the final step in a photography workflow is delivery, which is sending the final images to the client. If you deliver prints to clients, that’s amazing! For those delivering digital files to clients, you are more likely to deliver JPEG files than anything else.
For those delivering prints, it is recommended to package it beautifully with your branding. Make sure the final product is memorable to your clients.
For those delivering digital files, the times are always evolving. It used to be that files were delivered on CD or DVD, then flash drives, and more recently, cloud services. If you are still new to the photography business, then something like Google Drive or Dropbox could be a good start. But I recommend using a platform dedicated to client delivery, like Pic-Time, Sprout Studio, Pixeiset, Smugmug, or Cloudspot.
See what Ashley Jean has to say about the post-session part of her photography workflows.
Conclusion
As said earlier, a photography workflow is a series of steps that you must go through to plan, capture, edit, and deliver your images. It is a crucial aspect of achieving high-quality results and meeting clients’ needs. By following a consistent and well-defined workflow, you can increase efficiency, improve the quality of your images, and stay organized. Developing and refining a photography workflow takes time and effort, but its benefits are well worth it.
Subscribe to my podcast, Workflows, wherever you listen to podcast, and keep learning about what other photographers are doing and learn about areas you might be able to improve.
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