Additional articles

Maximizing revenue from a picture day at a school, youth sports league, or dance studio is vital to growing your volume photography business. Traditionally, these money-making opportunities have been viewed as a one-time, short-term chance to market pictures and products to families and encourage them to purchase as much as possible in one order.

This strategy works well during your busiest times of the season when your calendar is filled with school pictures and sports sessions. But what happens when the shoots spread out a little more, and your usual selling opportunities start slowing down?

It’s time to get creative and look to the seasons for inspiration! 

Take advantage of late-year celebrations to promote holiday gifting, or consider individual or family portrait sessions with Santa to create a whole new revenue stream. Last-minute group photos and the unique keepsake products available through your lab make excellent holiday gifts.

How Can I Use Seasons to Sell More?

The basic idea is to reuse pictures you’ve already taken and update them to give customers a new reason to buy based on the time of year or an upcoming holiday. You can do this in many ways, but three of the most obvious are changing digital background options, offering special promos, and switching up your price sheets and packages to include calendar-specific products. This is also the perfect time and opportunity to upsell products like photo calendars, photo mugs, framed photos, and other relevant products your lab offers.

Seasonal Backgrounds

If you’re already adding digital background options and making multiple graphics available in your galleries, why not utilize holiday-specific graphics to drive sales? The busy season for school pictures usually ends around November—just before prime gift-giving time. 

Update your galleries with winter, Christmas, and Hanukkah backgrounds to give your images a fresh look that offers parents and grandparents another reason to buy. PhotoDay Knockouts combined with holiday graphics can make changing backgrounds a breeze! Since you’ve already knocked out images and uploaded PNGs to your galleries, all you have to do is change the graphic set in your gallery to take advantage of this seasonal opportunity.

Offering Promos

Special promos are a great way to get back in front of customers a second time. Whether they’ve already placed an order or not—why not provide a second chance to buy?

Creating a holiday-specific promotion provides even more motivation for family members to buy. Imagine Mother’s Day is coming up, and you send a text message reminding customers that the holiday is approaching with a link to the spring pictures you took just a few months ago. You have their gift-giving covered without them ever leaving the house!

Show them a new photo product they haven’t seen before and make your promotion time-sensitive to drive buyer urgency. You can offer discounts, but be very careful about undercutting your standard pricing. If buyers notice this pattern, you may inadvertently teach them that they don’t need to purchase pictures in the initial offering because a considerable discount is coming.

PhotoDay provides a turn-key marketing solution to ensure you maximize profits on a special sale through special gallery offers and custom promos. We have pre-built SMS campaigns you can request to send to anyone who opted-in to any gallery you’ve created in the last year. You can also design your own campaign to send through PhotoDay’s built-in email flyers.

Holiday-Specific Products

After you’ve updated your galleries and while planning your holiday promotion, think about photo gifts that make sense for the time of year. Christmas and Hanukkah are the perfect time to promote custom gifts like ornaments, calendars, and canvas prints. Don’t forget stocking stuffers like keychains and photo magnets, too!

The holiday gifting season is an excellent opportunity to review all of the products your print lab offers and see if they fit into the promo you are preparing to run or would be a strong seller in the future.

Getting Organizations Involved

Since you likely have a revenue-sharing agreement with the schools, sports leagues, and dance studios where you photograph, they should all be excited to support your seasonal sales as an additional fundraising opportunity. Build even more enthusiasm by showing them examples of specific products, like a custom Christmas ornament, to help them understand how your holiday promotion differs from a “normal” picture sale.

Be transparent with your organizations about your intent to remarket galleries at specific times during the year and clearly explain how it also benefits them. Ask about in-person opportunities to set up a table displaying photo products at an open house, during recitals, or on a special game day, where you can show some of the unique products your studio offers. Letting customers see the quality of your products could spark the perfect gift idea and encourage additional sales.

Propose New Ideas

Spring pictures are an exciting time to try something fresh and new! Brainstorm ways to evolve spring sessions from your standard picture day flow to create unique images and develop a new revenue stream for your studio and the school.

Why only take class pictures in the fall? Classes change, kids develop new friendships, and some parents may have skipped ordering due to devoting their fall budgets to holiday gifts and back-to-school shopping. Giving them another chance to order is a bonus revenue opportunity for you.

Look for new events or themes to explore. Consider suggesting graduation-style pictures for kindergartners and students in their last year of elementary school or dual photoshoots for siblings or friends if the school allows.  

With alternate spring photo opportunities, you should provide a customized price sheet. Maybe your fall price sheet emphasized gifts due to the approaching holiday season, while your spring price sheet might focus more on packages offering multiple poses, backgrounds, and sizes. 

PhotoDay makes it easy to customize price sheets, share multiple products and options in your galleries, and upsell to maximize revenue. It’s as easy as clicking a button to edit or swap price sheets for a gallery!

Using Mini Sessions to Drive Seasonal Revenue

After the busy season wraps and your studio’s calendar has more space between picture days, it may be an excellent time to set up some seasonal mini sessions.

Mini sessions are themed shoots you set up outside your typical organizational structure, book slots, and then sell pictures and gifts as usual. If your studio doesn’t have a physical location, you could consider renting a studio space or shooting outdoors in a public place if it’s profitable.

With mini sessions, the only limit is your imagination! You could design a fall set with hay bales and pumpkins or hire Santa to sit in for a Christmas session. You could use fun props like beach balls, shovels, and pails for summer. Maybe you could plan a spring shoot with a live bunny. You also have the option to keep it simple and shoot on a plain background and incorporate PhotoDay Custom Backgrounds.

Seasonal mini sessions also offer a new revenue opportunity because you can involve the whole family instead of the individual portraits you usually take with your organizations. Family pictures make great holiday gifts for loved ones. Ensure you allow plenty of time per session and charge appropriately if working outside your normal parameters.

However simple or complex you choose to go with your sessions, you can use PhotoDay’s wealth of available automated marketing tools to encourage participation from your customer base.

Promoting Seasonal Sales Opportunities

You should promote your seasonal offers and mini sessions with the same resources and enthusiasm you use to advertise regular picture days. 

Recent studies show SMS (text) message marketing to be the most effective, and PhotoDay has you covered with free Smart Text Marketing features. From automated reminder series to custom promo requests, PhotoDay is committed to helping you get the word out about picture day, published galleries, and special sales. Custom promos allow you to request pre-made campaigns with your specific gallery and the included offer. Each series is crafted with well-researched timing and frequency allotments as well.

All messages must communicate what is being sold, who is selling it, when it will happen, and why the customer should act. Succinctly sharing this information will improve your conversion percentage—and PhotoDay takes care of this for you! 

Promoting a Seasonal Gallery and Gifts

Promotions should run for a limited time to build urgency and encourage quick decision-making. Here is a sample message for PhotoDay’s “Flash Sale” custom promo campaign:

FLASH SALE: SmileJoy Studios via PhotoDay: Today only! Get free shipping on orders of $35 or more with offer code HAPPYHOLIDAYS. Order now: https://my.photoday.com/g/LMDEMO23 | STOP to cancel

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When requesting a custom promo through PhotoDay’s smart messaging tools, you can customize who will receive the messages. Studios can request that the text message promo be sent only to gallery opt-ins who haven’t placed an order yet or to all gallery opt-ins regardless of whether they have purchased. After ordering, they can receive order confirmation messages and shipping updates.

If you’re publishing a gallery for the first time, our automatic text message campaign is perfect for spreading the word! The reminder campaign automatically sends for all jobs in PhotoDay. Customers subscribed to receive SMS communication receive a notification when the gallery is first published and reminders to order on days 3, 5, 7, 14, and 30; the reminder series stops as soon as a customer purchases.

Promoting a Mini Session

Mini sessions require more planning and advanced notice, making an extended email campaign more appropriate. Ensure customers understand your plan, who you are, what they need to do to participate, and why it will be valuable. 

Offering an incentive like free high-resolution downloads with purchases over a certain amount is a valuable way to generate interest. Everyone wants to share their photos on Instagram or Facebook!

PhotoDay’s integrated marketing kit contains a series of email templates with modifiable text that you can send to gallery contacts who would be most interested in your session. Customers who already have a relationship with you and have seen your great work are much more likely to register for your event.

Include a sample or inspirational image in your email when possible, and be sure to attach your special offer.

To continually grow your volume photography business, you must find creative ways to drive revenue year-round. Picture days at schools, dance studios, and sports leagues will always be your bread and butter, but when these fixed events become sparse on your calendar, seasonal strategies can help you fill in the gaps.

PhotoDay is the ideal partner to help your studio thrive. We’ve loaded our platform with all the tools and features you need to engage customers and sell unique photographs and gifts at any time of the year.

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Your volume photography studio is thriving. That’s great news!

As you take on more photo sessions, you’ll inevitably have to take the big leap to expand your team to support your growing business. Maybe you have done everything yourself or had close friends who’ve been helping out, but now, it’s time to look beyond and bring in some fresh faces. That can be scary, but it’s a necessary step in taking your business to the next level.

We’re here to help! In this blog, we will cover the anatomy of a well-written job description, where and how to post it, and even share a few sample job descriptions that cover many studio roles.

Let’s get started!

Writing Compelling Job Descriptions

Sure, it's essential to include the nitty-gritty technical job requirements in your description, but remember to sprinkle in a bit of your studio's personality and culture. After all, skills can be learned, but you can't teach someone a whole new personality. Think about it: you're going to spend those long hours with these folks, so making sure they're a good fit from a cultural standpoint is key.

Here are some things to consider when writing your job descriptions.

1. Start with a Compelling Job Title: This is the first thing potential candidates see, so ensure it is enticing and accurate. “Photographer” is a perfectly descriptive title, but doesn’t “School Photography Specialist” sound much more enticing? Make the title specific and creative to stand out.
2. Define Clear Responsibilities and Expectations: Ensure applicants precisely understand the role. Describe the skills and qualifications you expect, such as experience, post-processing efficiency, style, knowledge, and customer service.
3. Highlight Studio Culture and Values: Represent your studio’s culture and values to attract candidates that align with your vision. For example, if your studio focuses on being eco-friendly or active in the community, share that passion.
4. Showcase Growth Opportunities: Advancement is a powerful incentive for top talent. Emphasize opportunities for personal and professional growth in your studio, including working on exciting projects, gaining exposure, or taking on leadership roles.
5. Offer Competitive Compensation: You may not have to include salary details in your job description, but transparency could make a difference. Consult with your professional network and ensure you understand the cost of photography labor in your market. If you offer benefits like health insurance, bonuses, or PTO, ensure job-seekers know that.
6. Highlight Technology and Equipment: If your studio utilizes specialized equipment or software, mention these tools in your job description. This will appeal to candidates with the experience you need and shorten the onboarding process.
7. Be Transparent About Work Conditions: Be upfront about the unique requirements of working for your studio. Travel to photo sessions, long picture days, and managing equipment on location will all be required, so ensure a good fit by ensuring candidates know what they are signing up for.
8. Encourage a Personal Touch: Ask candidates to include a brief introduction and a link to their portfolio (if it’s a photographer position) with their application. These elements will provide insight into essential photography traits like personality and creativity.
9. Use an Engaging Tone: Treat applicants like customers. Write your job description conversationally and avoid a lot of jargon or terms that candidates may find intimidating. Sure, you're seeking skilled individuals for the role, but at the end of the day, you're essentially "selling" them on the idea of joining your team. 

A well-crafted job description does more than just catch people's attention; it sets the stage for a great working partnership. Be transparent as possible, and don’t forget to add that personal touch. 

Time to dig into the good stuff! Let’s jump into some sample job descriptions you can use as a base and add your own flare. 

Sample Job Titles, Roles, and Descriptions

As your studio grows, you will uncover staffing needs that you must fill to streamline picture days, cover days with multiple shooting locations, process photos, or even manage the administrative tasks of your business. Typical studio roles include poser/assistant, check-in table associate, photographer, office manager, and production specialist. 

For small studios, it’s pretty common for one person to wear multiple hats, which isn’t a bad thing. It allows individuals to broaden their skill sets and learn a ton in a short span. If this is the case for your studio, you can create hybrid positions. Just be super clear about what you expect from your team in the “responsibilities” section of your job description. That way, applicants know exactly what’s on their plate from the get-go, and you avoid any tough conversations post-hire.

Starting with a blank slate can be challenging. Here’s a tip: scout for similar job listings and then tweak your favorites to suit your studio’s vibe. You can also use AI tools like ChatGPT to whip up a draft and then add your own flare. Cheers to technology! 

Before you try those options, take a look at our templated job descriptions. These are only suggestions. At a minimum, you will need to provide basic studio information and elaborate on some of the more general text, like the “Responsibilities” section. Some posting platforms may have fields others don’t that are required to fill in to post a job. Be sure to scope that out before writing.

We suggest a double-proofing process: review them yourself first, then have another team member review them for tone, accuracy, and grammar.

View Job Descriptions Here

Posting Your Jobs

Okay, so you’ve written your job description (virtual high-five) - time to make it public! 

Indeed and LinkedIn are two of the most popular for their reach and relatively low costs. You also have no-cost options you should definitely take advantage of. Other platforms you may have heard of, like ZipRecruiter or Glassdoor, require monthly subscriptions that run hundreds of dollars to post jobs. 

Here’s the rundown on Indeed and LinkedIn.

Indeed

Indeed is a big name in the world of job hunting. It’s one of the most widely recognized job search platforms with an extensive user base. Indeed casts a very wide net, which can have pros, like ensuring many people view your job, and cons, like receiving applications from unqualified candidates.

• Pricing: You can post for free or opt for paid options like “Sponsored Jobs” to increase visibility. Sponsored postings are priced on a pay-per-click basis and can vary from $0.10 per click to $5 depending on location and competition. View their Employer Guide to learn more.
• Tips: Use relevant keywords in your job title and description. Take advantage of Indeed’s screening questions to filter out unsuitable candidates faster, and utilize the resume database to search for potential hires proactively. 
• Reviews: Scrolling through Trustpilot reviews will yield mostly positive feedback like, “Indeed was easy to use, and we had qualified applicants very quickly.” However, there are some negatives to consider as well. One review said, “The billing is hard to understand,” and another called the platform “good” but did state that “the functionality could be better.”

LinkedIn

This is probably the first platform that’s crossed your mind. LinkedIn is a professional networking platform designed to connect employers with candidates possessing specific skills and industry experience. Just to give you an idea of the crowd, there are almost 200 million registered users in the United States alone. So, posting your job here means there's a solid chance the perfect candidates will spot it.

• Pricing: LinkedIn allows you to post a job for free and then charges if you post additional positions concurrently. The platform also provides paid promotional opportunities to increase the visibility of your posting. You can find further information here.
• Tips: Use LinkedIn’s powerful search filters to target candidates with the qualifications and connections you seek. Also, remember to leverage your network for referrals and encourage everyone to share your job posting with their network.
• Reviews: The reviews on posting jobs on LinkedIn are mixed. You hear about subpar customer service and unexpectedly high costs among the common gripes in the negative reviews. One thorough, positive review on GetApp stated that LinkedIn is “A place where you can get the best candidate without much effort” and “jobs are so easy to post.”

With so many employers posting jobs and employees seeking employment, it is no wonder there would be many varied experiences with each platform. Treat this process like any other major business decision if you are considering online job posting. Do your research, ask your colleagues where they have found success, give it a try, and don’t be afraid to pivot quickly if you are not receiving the results you expect. Adapt and thrive!

Free Resources

Don't forget there's a treasure trove of free resources at your disposal. Some of the tools you're already using to expand your business can also be handy for building your dream team. And who knows, there might be a few hidden gems in places you haven't explored yet.

Studio Website: You should always post job openings on your website. This helps candidates already interested in your studio’s work easily find opportunities.

Social Media: Share your job postings on your social media channels for the same reason. Followers can also share your job post to help you reach a broader audience. Tip: frequently make “culture” posts on your social platforms to help attract candidates. Did someone film a funny moment on picture day? Share it!

Local Educational Institutions: Reach out to the career services centers at local colleges and universities. They are a great resource to fill entry-level positions with talented people seeking experience.

Professional Network: Ask other photographers you know for referrals, join industry-specific forums and associations, and attend network events to connect with potential candidates.

Employee Referrals: If you have employees, see if they have any friends or associates who would be an excellent fit for your studio and offer some sort of incentive for successful hires.

We’re so excited that your studio is growing! It’s an amazing accomplishment that should be celebrated. Once you’ve popped the bubbly and you’re ready to roll up your sleeves, we hope this article helps kickstart your team expansion journey.

Spend some time thinking about the culture you want to foster at your studio - that’s the foundation for a happy boss and employee relationship. Then, take a pass at reworking one of our job descriptions to match your studio's personality. 

Remember, your job description really counts. So does where you post your job and how you promote it. Make the most of all the resources available to you and lean on your professional network and your team for support.

Keep up the great work, and here’s to successfully growing your team!

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When it comes to making sales, what you offer and how you present it can be as important as the products themselves. Creating an appealing mix of packages and a la carte items with strategic pricing strategies has a powerful impact on who orders and what they ultimately purchase. 

It is vital to keep your offerings simple and appropriate for the job. This blog will discuss popular items, strategic bundling, and how to use price sheets and limited-time offers to drive sales for your volume photography studio.

What Products Do Customers Usually Buy?

Even though print labs can produce hundreds of products, knowing which items are most likely to yield multiple sales is essential so you know what to make available to your customers. Using this strategy to price and package items accordingly will make it easier for your customers to find the products they want and ultimately for you to maximize your profits.

The top ten items photographers sell on PhotoDay are:

1. 5x7 Print
2. High-Resolution Digital Download
3. Pack of 4 Wallet Prints
4. 8x10 Print
5. 3.5x5 Print
6. Social Sharing Download
7. 4x6 Print
8. 3.5x5 Magnet
9. Memory Mate Vertical 8x10
10. 3.5x5 Prints (Set of 2)

As you can see, these are “normal” items that fit standard frame sizes and are easy to display. Remember this when building your packages and price sheets, and offer these more practical items before adding niche products like canvas prints or bag tags.

Consider the types of photos you take, the age of your subjects, and your target market when determining your product mix, and only offer what fits your job. A holiday ornament makes sense for fall picture sales at an elementary school, but it wouldn’t work for a spring baseball league. Likewise, you probably wouldn’t want to offer trader cards on a dance studio job.

Building Price Sheets

PhotoDay enables you to create custom price sheets to build packages, add products, and set pricing. During the building process, you will determine a starting point for your pricing margins by specifying either a percentage-based or dollar-based markup on your cost from the lab.

Multi-pose is your main key to success here, meaning offering multiple shots of the same subject. You should offer at least 4-6 images per subject, but as many as 20 or more depending on the type of event. With online selling, consider the gallery photos as your inventory. Having more options for customers can lead to more significant sales opportunities. Depending on your picture day strategy, these could be different poses and looks from a single pose: full body, half body, headshot, horizontal, smiling, game face for sports, or silly and serious faces for schools. 

The options to boost your digital inventory are endless: combining varied poses, different crops, black and white versions, buddy shots, graphic backgrounds using PhotoDay’s Knockouts, and group photos like teams, classes, or dance groups. Be proactive on picture day to ensure your image inventory will match your price sheet and adjust it accordingly if you cannot capture the number of photographs you need. 

Remember the top ten list and keep your offering concise and straightforward. Stick to what you know your customers want, and keep in mind what is relevant to the type of organization you are servicing.

Be strategic and take advantage of your opportunity to make multiple price sheets. Even though your efforts are generally the same, you should price every market differently for volume photography. With school pictures, for example, you can leverage higher volumes against lower margins to make a substantial profit. With leagues and dance, parents have committed to involve their children in these extracurricular activities so these audiences will view a photograph’s value differently. You should be able to adjust your pricing upward.

General Pricing Strategies

A great way to upsell is to build your packages with bulk savings in mind. Packages offer an instant discount that a parent is more likely to choose over the higher cost of multiple mix and match a la carte items.

How you price your photographs will be a significant factor in determining the number of sales you generate and your profitability. You must build your overhead, costs, and processes into your pricing. Photographing on a natural background will take you less time to process than making composites. If you are adding effort in post-processing or using a paid service like Pixnub to finalize images, do not absorb that cost. Keep in mind that your time is money.

You need to know your market and ensure your prices aren’t below average. Remember, you are selling more than just images and products. The quality of your photography matters. You are selling your studio’s professionalism, service, and experience. Make sure you compensate yourself accordingly.

As with any pricing strategy, ensure you understand your market and customer. Do some research and consult with your professional network to find out what other photographers in your area charge for similar products and services. Avoid the temptation to win jobs by making your studio the lowest-priced option. Higher-end opportunities may interpret a low cost as low quality and look elsewhere.

Once you’ve considered all these factors and set your pricing, you can utilize discounts and limited-time offers to drive ordering.

A “Best Price Expiration” sale is a great example. Let customers know that you are offering your best price for a limited time, and that price won’t be around forever. Tell the customer that money-saving packages will disappear after your best pricing is over. Creating this sense of urgency will naturally create a bump in sales.

General Package Strategy

Now it’s time to have some fun and make some sales!

How you present packages can make all the difference in your sales. While it might be tempting to get creative with package names, we’ve learned that keeping package names as clear and easy to understand as possible increases your chances that a parent will purchase a package over a la carte items.

Rather than using Package A, B, or C, consider naming your packages more along the lines of Large Family Pack, Most Popular Pack, The Perfect Pack, Economy Pack, Basic Pack. Not only do these package names allude to what they include, but they direct your customer to packages that offer a better deal.

Your packages are part of your marketing, so make sure your creativity shines through. Don’t use boring names like Package A, B, and C; have fun and interact with your audience, even use emojis!

Would a sports league parent rather buy Package 1 or the Ultimate Athlete Combo? Dance families would appreciate the En Pointe Print Set. Little Learner Bundle for school pictures or a My-Kid-Is-Too-Cute-Not-To-Order Package could apply almost anywhere. Just make it memorable.

Provide bundle savings of at least 15% and scale the savings with the size of the package. Keep your lowest-priced packages basic and add the most wanted items into the higher tiers to encourage higher sales. Clearly define the savings in the package description and ensure parents fully understand why purchasing a more extensive package is advantageous. 

Drive value further by telling parents they can mix and match poses within a package. Realizing they can choose multiple images will make them more likely to buy more pictures and products. This wasn’t an option in the paper order form days. Parents and grandparents with that experience might not even consider packages if they don’t realize multiple photos are an option.

Finally, be sure to offer digital downloads. They are very popular and deliver high profitability with minimal overhead. Adding them to packages instantly boosts your real value and the customer’s perceived value, which could be the difference between selling or not selling a bundle.

Finding the right product mix and pricing strategy for your studio is a primary driver of sales and profitability. You will get there if you pay attention to what is selling, offer your customers realistic choices, and price appropriately. Shorten the learning curve with PhotoDay's many resources to guide you toward a volume photography business that thrives.

A hallmark of virtually every thriving volume photography business is a powerful website where prospective clients can get to know the studio and view a stunning portfolio. According to PEW Research, 79% of consumers shop online and rely on online data to make purchasing decisions. It is safe to assume that parents with children ages 4-14, your target audience, comprise a high percentage of that group.

With that in mind, going online is less of a choice and more of a paramount need for your studio to thrive. If you’re not online yet, you need to get there quickly.

You don’t have to be a professional coder to have a great website, and doing it yourself could save you the expense of hiring a professional. Many tools and builders are available for photographers of all technical skill levels. This blog will examine basic website concepts, discuss some of the tools available for DIYers, and discuss factors to consider when deciding whether to build your own platform to showcase your capabilities, skills, and images or seek the help of a freelancer or professional agency.

What is a Content Management System (CMS)?

The foundation of most websites is the content management system or CMS. The CMS is the functionality that allows you to create, manage, and publish your content on the web without extensive technical knowledge. Your chosen CMS provides a user-friendly interface that lets you create, structure, and control the appearance of the contents of your webpage.

A CMS simplifies web development and maintenance by keeping the code and structure of a website separate from the site’s content. A standard CMS allows others to create and manage content while providing fail-safes like version control, backups, and permissions to control access and editing rights.

Standard CMS features include:

Content Creation and Editing: Users can easily create and modify text, image, and video content using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, which lets you lay out your pages visually on screen and then does the coding for you.

If you feel stuck on the specific text or “copy” that should be on your site, you can use an AI tool like ChatGPT to help you word specific sections. You can type something as simple as “What should I say on my volume photography studio website?” or “Write copy for a Contact page on my volume photography website” into the prompt, and it will provide a wealth of information. However, the key to receiving specific information lies in writing very specific prompts. Give the tool as much information as possible and give the tool additional revision requests. Remember, a robot generates the text, so read over it and humanize it where possible before placing it on your page. A tool like Grammarly can help you with tone, grammar, and spelling for AI text or your own copy.

Content Organization and Management: Content Management Systems simplify navigation and searchability by enabling you to categorize and tag your content, which will help your visitors find what they are looking for when visiting your website.

Templates and Themes: CMS platforms often provide pre-designed templates and themes that you can customize to your specifications without any custom coding. There are also online resources where you can search for templates that match your vision. We will tell you more about this option later in this blog.

Publishing and Scheduling: Your CMS gives you control over the timing and visibility of your content by allowing you to publish it immediately or schedule it for publication later. This lets you work on future enhancements, announcements, or blog posts whenever you have free time without publishing the content immediately.

Search Image Optimization (SEO): Most CMS platforms provide tools to help you improve your search engine visibility by simplifying SEO concepts like metadata, URLs, and content tags. It is essential to understand how these tools work so you can attract site visitors and generate more opportunities online.

Plugin and Extension Support: Plugins and extensions expand the capabilities of your CMS and can be helpful for everything from layout to appointment setting. CMS platforms have something similar to an app store where you can download add-ons to help shape your website to your needs. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. If you have a problem to solve, there is likely a well-rated plugin for it (and most of them are free). 

Factors to Consider Before Building Your Website

Before you build a website, it is crucial to have a plan for what you want it to accomplish. You are devoting time and resources to this endeavor and must ensure your efforts are rewarded with a beautiful website showcasing everything that makes your studio great.

Using Templates

Templates are a great place to start. These pre-designed pages allow you to arrange content on an approved visual layout that you have chosen as an accurate extension of your brand. Using a template provides a consistent framework for your website, making the creation process more efficient. Templates are also beneficial because they have been tested and proven to ensure your website is well-organized and easy to use.

The designers who create and license templates are up on the latest web design trends and provide customizable pages that will make it easy and enjoyable for visitors to navigate your site and find the information they are looking for.

An additional benefit of templates is the number of built-in customization tools that allow you to use many advanced features without any coding. Sometimes, using these advanced tools can cause site performance issues if the template is built poorly, so be sure to check reviews and do as much testing as you can before making a final selection.

Content management systems usually offer several template options, but there are also vast template marketplaces like Creative Market and Themeforest, where you can browse, review, and purchase templates to build your studio website.

Whether you are using a theme or building your site from scratch, here are several things you should be sure to incorporate on your studio’s website:

Portfolio Showcase: You should be able to easily display your best work prominently and maintain a current, categorized portfolio showing potential customers your volume photography style and skill.

Services and Packages: Clearly outline your services and give examples of your products and packages.

Contact and Booking Information: Ensure all your contact information is easily accessible on your website. You should have a dedicated contact page to simplify booking for clients.

Testimonials: Positive feedback from satisfied clients builds trust and credibility with new clients. Prominently featuring this influential content is invaluable to generating business.

Mobile Optimization: Research shows that over 55% of global internet traffic comes from mobile devices (Howarth, 2023). Therefore, making your website mobile-friendly is crucial to ensure that you effectively reach and engage with more than half of your potential online audience.

Speed and Performance: Fast loading keeps visitors from becoming frustrated and leaving. It can also impact search engine ranking. Compress images, minimize code, and choose a reliable hosting provider. Make sure that your hosting provider specializes in your CMS. For example, WordPress users should consider WpEngine, while Squarespace users will likely use the default hosting offered by Squarespace. 

SEO and Online Visibility: Use the tools provided by your CMS and include words that potential visitors to your website will use to find you. If your studio does most of its work in a specific geographic area, include that information wherever possible.

Social Media Integration: Your CMS will likely have a plugin or tool that helps you share your social channels. Be sure to provide links to the platforms you are most active on and embed social media feeds if you can to showcase real-time updates and engagement.

Adding Pages Easily: If you plan on consistently adding pages and information to your website, ensure there are no technical limitations like limited space from your hosting service or page restrictions from your CMS that will inhibit your ability to do so.

Branding and Visual Consistency: Photography is a visual art, and your website should be as stunning as your pictures. Make sure you create a cohesive, memorable experience for your visitors. Use consistent colors, fonts, and design elements that visually represent your studio.

Getting Started

At this point, you must evaluate your technical skills and the time you want to devote to building your website. Do you have basic skills and want to get your website up quickly without outside assistance? Are you reasonably skilled with resources to help you with anything you cannot do alone? Or do you want to lay out the specifications and hire a freelancer or agency to build your site? 

Here are some options and suggestions based on the answers to those questions.

Beginner

There are many one-stop basic web-building providers available. These platforms will host your site and provide a CMS, templates, and some elemental functionality and plugins. Platforms like Wix and Squarespace are a great place to start if you don’t have a high level of technical savvy. 

Here is a comparison of the two platforms based on criteria essential to building your volume photography website:‍

Ease of Use

Wix: The highly intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes creating and customizing websites easy for users. It also provides a high degree of creative freedom and flexibility when designing pages.
Squarespace: Squarespace’s editor is also user-friendly, but the platform generally takes a more structured approach to design with less room for customization by comparison. 

Templates and Design

Wix: Wix is known for a vast collection of templates aligned with multiple industries and styles. The templates are highly customizable and are suitable for users seeking the flexibility of creative control.
Squarespace: While customization options are more limited within Squarespace, the platform is generally renowned for beautifully designed, modern templates that achieve users’ aesthetic goals without requiring extensive customization.

Features and Functionality

Wix: The platform’s App Market offers many tools for streamlining e-commerce, customizing functionality, and integrating third-party services like your social media channels.
Squarespace: Squarespace organically includes features and tools that streamline functions like blogging and appointment scheduling. The absence of an app store may limit some functionality, but it provides a cohesive experience out of the box.

Mobile Optimization

Wix: Wix automatically optimizes sites created on the platform for mobile. It also provides a mobile preview and customization options if something needs to be tweaked. 
Squarespace: Mobile optimization is also a feature of the Squarespace builder. Templates are responsive and designed to provide a great user experience from any device.

Price

Wix: Wix offers monthly plans ranging from $16 to $159. All plans include free, customizable templates, tools to boost online presence, custom domains, and 24/7 customer care.
Squarespace: Squarespace offers multiple monthly business plans ranging from $33 to $65. All plans include free templates, advanced analytics, mobile optimization, and personalized support.

Both platforms are exceptional choices for quickly publishing a beautiful, effective online site. In general, Wix will provide you with more flexibility for customization, while Squarespace provides feature-rich templates that require less customization. Your best option will ultimately depend on your preferences, skill level, and expectations.

Intermediate to Advanced

If you are confident in your technical abilities, you can bypass all-in-one website builders and move to a fully customizable solution. In this case, you can use a CMS like WordPress and add a builder or customizable template to lay out your pages how you want them. ‍

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an open-source content management system for creating and managing websites without extensive coding knowledge. The tool’s core functionality provides a solid foundation to build your perfect website. 

The range of features and functionality WordPress provides includes:

Content Management: WordPress provides extensive tools for organizing content, managing media files, and applying formatting options. The tool’s interface is very user-friendly, so you can get comfortable with it quickly.

Themes: WordPress comes loaded with pre-designed themes and templates if you don’t want to purchase one to control your website's overall look and layout but still want unlimited flexibility for customization.

Plugins: The vast number of plugins available within WordPress to extend its functionality sets this CMS apart. You can find excellent plugins in the WordPress app store to simplify SEO, contact forms, page editing, and more.

WordPress is great for setting up critical elements of your website. Once these elements are in place, a builder application within WordPress will allow you to create and customize your pages without coding using tools and widgets in a visual editor. 

What Builder Should I Use?

There are many builders available within WordPress. Some of the most popular are Elementor, WebFlow, WPBakery, and Beaver Builder. As with most technology, there are pros and cons to each plugin. 

Here are some crucial things to consider when deciding which builder you will use for your website:

Ease of Use: Make sure you can use the builder or are confident you can pick it up quickly. The page editor should be easy to understand and provide drag-and-drop functionality for visual editing.

Design Options and Flexibility: Ensure your builder can achieve your creative vision. Look for a tool that provides an array of templates, customizable elements, and styling options.

Responsiveness and Mobile Optimization: Remember that more than half of your visitors will find your website with a mobile device. Choose a builder that supports responsive design and allows you to preview and customize the mobile version of your website.

Integrations and Compatibility: Verify the builder’s compatibility with popular plugins and third-party services like forms, analytics, or CRM integrations you need on your site now or plan to add later. 

Performance and Loading Speed: Your builder should generate optimized code and not frustrate your visitors with high lag and poor performance.

SEO Features: Your builder should simplify complex-sounding features like customizable meta tags, clean code output, and schema markup to increase your website’s search engine visibility.

Support and Documentation: You will need assistance learning a new tool. Look for resources like documentation, tutorials, knowledge bases, and active support channels like forums or live chat.

Pricing and Licensing: Understand the builder’s pricing structure and licensing terms. Some require a one-time purchase or annual fee, while others are free. Ensure the builder's value aligns with your budget to make an informed decision.

User Reviews and Reputation: Carefully research reviews, ratings, and feedback from other WordPress users before making a final decision. You will gain valuable insights into the builder’s reliability, performance, and user satisfaction. 

Hiring a Professional to Build Your Website

Depending on your skill level and available resources, it may be most logical to put your website design in the hands of a professional. Plenty of highly skilled freelance web designers and agencies specialize in website creation. These professionals are adept in the latest technologies and design trends and can work with you to bring your vision of your website to life. 

Choosing this option is a big decision for your business. Seeking agency and designer recommendations within your professional network can offer peace of mind as you move forward. When considering referred designers or vetting new ones, here are some crucial things to consider:

Portfolio and Experience: Review the designer’s overall quality and look for projects that align with your style and the volume photography industry. Determine if they have created work that matches your website's expected complexity.

Client Testimonials and References: Search for reviews from their previous clients. Use this information to get a feel for the designer’s or agency’s professionalism, communication, skills, and reliability level. Speak directly to prior clients, if possible, to learn more.

Project Management and Workflow: Ask about their processes and understand how they plan, execute, and deliver projects. Determine their approach to timelines, milestones, revisions, and feedback. Ensure you and your partner have clear expectations from concept to completion of your website.

Pricing and Budget: Understand the agency or designer’s pricing structure and ensure it aligns with your budget and expectations. Be sure to determine if you have received a fixed project cost quote or one based on an hourly rate. Ask your partner to clearly define all items included in the price and determine if there is a potential for cost overruns.

Support & Maintenance: Your website will require ongoing attention after completing the initial version. Ask the designer you are considering if they will provide support and maintenance after launch. If you intend to avoid handling maintenance, you must ensure they have a strategy that meets your long-term needs.

Contract and Legal Considerations: Carefully review the contract or agreement provided by the designer and ensure it covers the scope, deliverables, payment terms, and other important considerations, like who owns the site’s code and other intellectual property if your relationship with the agency or designer ends. The complexity of the agreement may require you to seek legal counsel to ensure you are protected.

Trust and Compatibility: Before making a final decision, consider whether you feel comfortable and confident working with the individual or agency. Evaluate their understanding of your goals and ensure their enthusiasm for the project matches yours.

Maintaining Your Website

Whether you design your website yourself or hire a creative partner, the site is never “done.”  Your online presence requires regular content updates, security checks, and performance optimizations to remain functional and improve your search engine visibility.

Here are some things you must do regularly to maintain the effectiveness and functionality of your website:

Updates: Your CMS, plugins, and other tools will periodically release security and performance updates that require implementation. Failure to stay current on these patches could break your site’s functionality and create a frustrating user experience. 

Backups: Regularly backing up your website will protect you against data loss and can be invaluable in resolving security issues. You can set backup intervals and criteria in your CMS.

Security and Maintenance Checks: Ensure your website is regularly scanned for vulnerabilities and that security measures like the SSL certificate and firewalls are up to date. Stay aware of new threats to your CMS and plugins and do what is necessary to remain protected.

SEO Maintenance: Continuously optimize your website for search engines by researching keywords, updating meta tags, adding relevant content, and strengthening your internal linking.

Performance Optimization: Minimize file sizes, optimize images, and remove unnecessary plugins to keep your website running efficiently. This tool can help audit your website’s overall health and show you where to improve.

A robust website plays an indispensable role in the success of volume photographers. A powerful online presence goes beyond immediate networks by attracting valuable business opportunities. 

Numerous user-friendly tools and builders are available to photographers at all skill levels. This blog has explored some of these options and provided insights into important factors to consider when selecting a platform to showcase one's capabilities, skills, and images. By utilizing these resources, photographers can establish a compelling online presence that attracts business and propels their success.

Even the best photographs need some editing before they are ready for sale in your online galleries or as standalone pieces. Correcting color, exposure, contrast, and saturation is as much a part of a photographer’s job as setting up and capturing photos in the first place.

Thankfully, in our digital age, several software products and tools are specifically designed to simplify and speed up post-processing. Some options are even free. This blog will discuss the capabilities and specifications you should consider when evaluating photo editing software and some of the most popular choices.

‍Considerations for Choosing Photo Editing Software

Experienced photographers know that post-processing is part of where the magic happens. Transforming raw images into keepsake masterpieces is an art form.

Volume photographers need photo-editing software to streamline this process on a large scale. Photographers editing individual photos also benefit from freeing up their time to focus on their next session and other aspects of their business.

Every software has varying tools, capabilities, and performance. When selecting the perfect platform for your studio, you must evaluate these things to make the right choice.

Custom Presets

‍If you find yourself repeatedly adjusting the same settings during post-processing, you will love the capability to create custom presets that repeat the process for you and provide your pictures with a consistent look. Some software will even allow you to import downloaded settings from another creator to adjust to your desired feel. You will be amazed at how much time custom presets can save you. Ensure the software you choose supports this feature in a user-friendly way.

Storage and Performance

‍Photo editing can be rough on your computer. It takes a lot of resources to post-process a full day of images from a school, sports league, dance studio, or other volume picture day. Before choosing software, you must know your current system can handle its storage requirements. You should also understand how the platform treats your images. Does it save the raw image when outputting an edited file? Can it handle the high volume of files you will be processing without slowing your computer to a crawl? You must answer these questions to ensure a seamless editing experience, especially if working with large image batches. 

Paid vs. Free

In the past, you would virtually always have to utilize a paid product to access all the tools and features needed to perform effective bulk processing of photographs. Today, many options exist, from subscriptions to software like Lightroom or pay-per-image processing like PhotoDay’s color correction and extraction features. Weigh your needs against your budget to determine what bulk editing process best fits your studio.

PC vs. Mac

‍The “best” operating system debate is always hot. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and comfort. Most photo editing software has one version that will work with either a system or a platform-specific option. If the platform matters for the software you choose, ensure you know the specific version of the operating system you are running to ensure you get the software that will perform best with your computer.

Learning Curve

‍As a photographer, you will use your editing software often, so choose one that is intuitive and easy to use. Independent product reviews provide great insight into the user-friendliness of the program. The intent of your software is to speed up and simplify the process, not frustrate you. Seamless navigation between tools and functions is a must. Check the company’s website for documentation, videos, and tutorials to help you quickly get up to speed with your software.

Remember, we live in the information age. Due diligence is critical when selecting an editing software you will use daily. Read reviews, participate in online forums, consult your professional network, and attend webinars if they are available. Choosing the right platform from the start and mastering it is more beneficial to your studio than learning and moving on from multiple systems in your quest to find the perfect tool.

Top Options For Editing Individual Images

Some powerful options are available when trying to get one image just right. Most have similar capabilities, but some are easier to use and more budget-friendly than others. Here is an overview of some of the more popular choices.

Adobe Photoshop

‍Photoshop has become synonymous with editing photographs in many ways. The software has been a pioneer in the industry for decades. The application is constantly evolving, so it is no surprise that it remains the photographer’s top choice.

• Pros: Photoshop’s advanced editing capabilities are unsurpassed. The software provides numerous tools and creative possibilities that can be manually adjusted or preset for time-saving automated output. Due to Photoshop’s popularity, multiple resources are available to help photographers realize the full capability of the software.
• Cons: Despite these resources, the number of tools available creates a steep learning curve. The software can be so complex that it becomes overkill for basic edits. Many users also find it resource-intensive, so it slows their workflow. Finally, Adobe’s subscription model can make Photoshop pricey, especially if you don’t use it often.
  

Affinity Photo 2

‍This robust photo editing software is gaining popularity among hobbyists and professional photographers. Affinity Photo 2 is relatively new compared to Photoshop, but many have found it a more than suitable alternative.

• Pros: Photo 2 offers extensive editing tools to accomplish most post-processing needs. It supports most file types, including RAW camera files, and offers non-destructive editing that prevents permanent alteration of the original image. Users appreciate the responsiveness of the publisher and the regular updates that Affinity provides. Photographers who use the software also celebrate the one-time licensing fee instead of a monthly subscription charge. 
• Cons: Though less complex than Photoshop, Photo 2 users may experience the same challenges mastering the software. It can also be resource-intensive—since Photo 2 has a smaller user base and less extensive history, tutorials, and other online resources are less common.
  

Evoto

‍This new, exciting tool harnesses the power of AI to speed your digital editing. Users marvel at how effortlessly and accurately Evoto retouches skin tones, whether processing individual or batch images.

• Pros: Though cloud-based, the application runs on your PC or Mac, so it is blazing fast compared to other products. The product already has most of the expected features, but the manufacturer continues adding more tools and updating the software regularly.
• Cons:  Since processing is cloud-based, you must be connected to the internet to use the software. Also, usage is credit-based (as opposed to a subscription or one-time license), so you must pay per picture when using Evoto.
  

Skylab Technology

‍Skylab is a digital editing tool that leverages AI to streamline your editing process. Boasting “human quality” at “machine speed,” Skylab has garnered attention for its ability to efficiently retouch skin, extract backgrounds, whiten teeth, color correct, crop, and remove glass glare and braces when processing single images and large batches.

• Pros: You can use Skylab locally on your PC or Mac or through a web browser. Their range of services fits many volume photographers’ needs and allows you to create “profiles” that act as customizable templates to suit your preferences. 
• Cons: Rather than a subscription model, Skylab employs a credit-based pricing model, where users pay per picture processed, so be sure to factor this into your editing budget.

AfterShoot

‍This software utilizes AI to speed post-processing as well. AfterShoot primarily focuses on culling your images and finding the best ones in the batch for processing. The AI filter can weed out pictures based on improper exposure or poor focus and can even determine which photo in a group has the best smile.

• Pros:  Having your system weed through your pictures can save a ton of time. AfterShoot is Mac or PC-compatible and integrates with Adobe Lightroom if you need to do further editing. The software developer has recently added features, too.
• Cons: The software’s capability is complex, but so is the learning curve for both the user and the AI. Machine learning based on your preferences will be required before achieving the expected results. The main complaint of current users is that the software weeds out images that are intentionally soft-focused or photos where no smile is intentional, like a “game face” sports pose.

Luninar Neo

‍Devoted users call Luminar Neo the future of photo editing software. Skylum, the application’s developer, has tapped into the power of AI to introduce innovative tools that simplify many post-processing tasks for users.

• Pros: Luminar Neo offers efficient editing tools and creative filters and effects bundled into a user-friendly interface that makes the software accessible to all skill levels. The AI tools are particularly great for image smoothing and background enhancement. Users looking for quick post-processing and artistic effects without too much complexity will significantly enjoy the product.
• Cons: Luminar Neo is a relatively new product, and some advanced users have uncovered bugs that the developer is continually patching with updates. Though simple to use out of the box, photographers should expect to devote some time to mastering the advanced features of the software’s AI tools. The lack of online resources may magnify this problem as the application grows its community. Subscription pricing could also be a concern for some users.

If you have post-processing needs for individual images, any of these software options are worth learning more about. If you’re unsure, consult your colleagues and see what they recommend. Their specific experiences could save you time and money trying a platform that doesn’t work for your studio.

Top Bulk Photo Editing Software

Given the demand, it is not surprising that there are many bulk editing software options. All offer similar outcomes but vary in process, usability, and performance. Let’s look at four of the most popular and discuss their pros and cons.

Adobe Lightroom

‍For advanced tools, settings, and presets, Adobe Lightroom is the biggest name in the bulk editing software space. Adobe has an extensive history on the artistic side of photography, so it is no wonder the software giant has developed such a popular tool.

• Pros: Lightroom’s full slate of editing tools, like exposure adjustments, color correction, and retouching that can be set and saved as presets, make it a top choice. Users also enjoy an organizational interface that allows tagging and other features that will help you easily store and archive images. Finally, Lightroom’s seamless Photoshop integration is appreciated if more complex edits are required.
• Cons: Lightroom’s extensive toolset might feel overwhelming for new users to master. Additionally, the application’s monthly subscription cost of $10 (if licensed separately from the Adobe Creative Cloud) can be prohibitive.

PhotoWorks

‍Since 2003, the makers of PhotoWorks have been providing software and tools to enhance images of amateur and professional photographers. 2 million users worldwide enjoy this powerful and simple photo editor.

• Pros: The platform's intuitive, user-friendly interface is users’ favorite feature of PhotoWorks. It is an excellent choice for quick and straightforward editing. The simplicity extends to the AI-laden built-in presets that enable one-click enhancements to batch photos. Finally, in a world of monthly subscriptions, PhotoWorks' pricing stands out. Photographers can purchase the Pro version for an annual licensing fee of $39.20 or pay $79.80 for Ultimate, which contains additional features and a Lifetime license.
• Cons: PhotoWorks is excellent for quick edits and simplifies everyday tasks like light correction and retouching volume photographers often need. However, more experienced photographers may find the software needing more advanced editing features. 

BatchPhoto

‍BatchPhoto has been a popular post-processing software for nearly two decades. Long-time and new users enjoy the platform's simplicity, efficiency, and effectiveness in processing up to thousands of photos at a time. Photographers can use the integrated presets or create their own to generate finished images with uniformity in size, orientation, and appearance.

• Pros: As a software explicitly designed for post-processing high volumes of images, BatchPhoto offers a wide array of editing functions beyond the basics, like watermarking. It also allows your studio to create workflows and automate repetitive tasks to save you a ton of time. The lifetime licensing cost of $59.95 is another positive mark for the application.
• Cons: BatchPhoto handles basic edits and tasks that photographers need but doesn’t offer the advanced editing capabilities of other software. Additionally, some users who use the platform find the interface less modern and intuitive. The company just released an updated version that attempts to address these issues, so it will be interesting to see if opinions change soon.

PhotoDay

‍PhotoDay is unique to the other platforms on this list because, besides offering exceptional customer-facing editing services and batch post-processing services, it also includes job management, online galleries, e-commerce storefronts, and effective sales and marketing tools tailored specifically for volume photographers.

• Pros: PhotoDay’s powerful suite of tools operates online, freeing up resources on your computer and eliminating the need for downloading software. The integrated workflow enables volume photography studios to edit and sell on one dedicated platform.
• Cons: PhotoDay utilizes the latest technology and powerful AI tools to deliver users accurate and beautiful post-processed images. Since these processes are automated, your control is limited compared to other software. PhotoDay users are pleased with the time saved by not having to fine-tune each photo. 

These are just a handful of the many options available! Other photographers in your professional network may have a specific recommendation that suits your needs perfectly. Take advantage of free trials to test the software and investigate its capability. The software you are most comfortable using will be the one that saves you the most time.

Editing is a significant part of every photography session. Making the perfect adjustments to get the images just right demonstrates your studio’s expertise and skill. Don’t let these tasks' redundancy and time-consuming nature take you away from scheduling and photographing more sessions. Instead, let today’s innovative tools automate and streamline post-processing for you. You’ll feel like you’ve hired two new employees.

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If you’re unsure how to start using custom digital backgrounds in your volume photography gallery, you’ve found the perfect article. We will discuss the basics, like why you would use custom graphics, where to find them, how to use them, and how to incorporate them into your galleries to drive orders and increase sales while delighting your customers.

PhotoDay makes several free backgrounds available to users within our volume photography platform. Your chosen print lab will probably have graphics available for free or a small fee that you can mix and match with our collection of backgrounds or even create and use your own custom backgrounds.

Why Use Digital Backgrounds?

Custom background graphics add visual consistency to your images and provide options for your buyers to encourage them to purchase more. With online selling, your photos are your inventory—so the more you can offer, the more you can sell. There is a time-saving benefit on picture day because you can set up one backdrop and add imagery in post-production. With PhotoDay Knockouts, you don’t even need a backdrop! You can quickly extract the background from photos taken against a traditional backdrop or a natural environment.

There are many other benefits, too. Incorporating creative backgrounds demonstrates your studio’s commitment to a thematic approach that adds value and enhances the memories your photos capture.

As you prepare for a photo session, think about how background graphics can enhance the finished product. If you’re photographing a youth sports league, search for or create backgrounds that align with the nature of the game and represent team colors and the spirit of the organization and its athletes. 

You can easily apply this approach to dance studios, as well. Consider the theme of the studio’s upcoming recital and utilize backgrounds that reflect the elegance and power of the dancers within that theme. You could even consider adding visual elements that represent the dancers’ styles.

School pictures create unlimited opportunities for creativity. Beyond school colors and mascots, you have options to include scholarly themes. Be mindful of the seasons as well—offering a fall or holiday theme may get family members thinking of gifts and keepsakes they might not consider if they were buying just another school picture.

A traditional portrait might get framed or posted on social media, but a graphically enhanced image could become a grandparent’s coffee mug, an aunt’s keychain, and a dad’s yearly calendar. There is no limit to your upsell opportunities.

It is also important to consider that nostalgia is huge right now. Remember those laser backgrounds you got with your pictures as a kid? So do today’s parents. They love seeing them and appreciate the old-school twist on school pictures. Don’t ignore whimsy when selecting what backgrounds to offer. Fun things like space cats, taco dinosaurs, and other retro themes can generate surprising sales.

Where to Get Backgrounds

Free Ready-to-Use Backgrounds

PhotoDay offers four customizable background collections you can add to your galleries if you connect to Miller’s Professional Imaging, Reedy Photo, Richmond Pro Lab, or White House Custom Color and have one of their price sheets attached to your job.

Creating Free Custom Backgrounds

Want to show off your creativity by making your own digital backgrounds? You can create and upload your own or even mix and match with a combination of PhotoDay's backgrounds and your own! When you design them, start with a 2400px x 3000px (reverse for horizontal) canvas using an RGB colorspace. Save your completed design as a JPG up to 15MB and 8000px or less in either height or width. Before you start designing, check out this article for valuable tips and tricks.

Using AI: Artificial Intelligence is a buzzy technology, and it will only become increasingly prevalent in the years to come. Multiple AI background generators that create eye-catching designs based on word prompts are already available. Some tools, like Canva, have a free version available that you can try. Note that you will need the Pro version to unlock its full potential.  Fotor is another popular choice. On top of high-quality graphics, you can also prompt for solid backgrounds. Like Canva, Fotor also offers a free and a Pro version.

Paid Backgrounds

Another option is purchasing premade backgrounds. Many websites have huge collections available for download, and there are also several private sellers in online marketplaces like Etsy. Ensure that any graphics you purchase meet PhotoDay’s specifications. Also, be sure that you clearly understand your purchase's licensing and usage rights so you are not subject to legal action in the future.

When searching for backgrounds, remember there is a difference between composite graphics and a more traditional background. Composites are generally more complex graphics and designs combined with your portrait during post-processing and can require manual adjustment to work correctly with your images. Backgrounds are much simpler and have a high concentration of workable space, allowing for proper photo composition with minimal effort in your photo editing software.

Composite graphics are often used in youth sports photography, while traditional backgrounds are more commonly utilized in school pictures.

These partners have provided great results for real PhotoDay users:

Traditional Backgrounds

• Squijoo: Squijoo offers a wide range of creative and attractive digital backgrounds. Photographers love their customer support team and the availability of unlimited graphic downloads for $10 per month.
• PERC Photography School:  PERC offers valuable educational opportunities for photographers and great digital background options. Their variety of color and texture options could provide the ultimate complement to any photo setting.
• Etsy:  This online marketplace provides seemingly unlimited options for backgrounds. Tapping into the creativity of so many different designers is bound to inspire. Enter “digital backgrounds for school pictures” into the search bar and prepare to be amazed at all the options. Ensure your downloads include appropriate licenses and are compatible with your photo editing software.

Composite Graphics

• 3rd Creative: This Texas photography studio creates versatile Photoshop templates and bundles of compelling background graphics for their local clients and makes them available for purchase so you can impress your customers, too.
• JHphotodesign: Sports photographers particularly enjoy Joshua Hanna Photography’s collections of designs, layered Photoshop templates, and other editing tools. View his large selection and let your creativity run wild.
• Pixnub: This site offers templates, digital backgrounds, and excellent tools and plugins for Photoshop, as well as helpful tutorials and resources. 
• Shirk Designs: Ben Shirk is renowned for his creative imagery and Photoshop skills. Extensive backgrounds are available for youth sports, dance, and more. Most templates also include lighting diagrams and video tutorials.

Consider Your Backgrounds When Photographing and Processing

It’s essential to ensure your subjects look natural against the digital backgrounds you are offering. When photographing, set your lighting to match the designed background lighting so the finished product looks authentic. You should also crop full-body images to avoid floating feet. Softening your background can also help add dimension to the final image. 

How to Use Backgrounds

Now that you have taken your photos and selected or created the perfect backgrounds, how do you get them into your galleries for your customers to use?

It’s as simple as adding your background collections to your PhotoDay account. Studios can upload up to 12 background images into each collection. They can all be custom background images or mixed and matched with PhotoDay’s complimentary backgrounds. If you’re a PhotoDay user, sign into your account and check out our support articles for step-by-step instructions and tips for creating optimal backgrounds.

How Do Backgrounds Work For Your Customer?

Providing customers with multiple background options increases their chances of ordering various products. Many customers will buy the same pose with multiple different backgrounds as prints, digital downloads, and more!

PhotoDay’s intuitive gallery interface puts your customers in control. They can preview their photos on all the backgrounds available in the collection you created for the gallery. With a simple swipe and preview, customers can mix and match poses and backgrounds on various products. They can also rotate, zoom, crop, and choose horizontal and vertical images for ordering.

Once your customers have found their favorite combinations of poses, backgrounds, and products, they can proceed to their shopping cart to complete the order.

Digital backgrounds are a valuable tool for volume photographers. Using graphics improves the photograph's impact, increases your revenue per order, and can simplify your next school, dance, sports, or event picture day.

PhotoDay makes it easy to utilize backgrounds in your online galleries. Whether you want to use the ones we have provided or bring your own, our user-friendly studio tools will empower you to build your customizable galleries and sell your dynamic photos in a flash.

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You probably became a photographer because you’re passionate about capturing life’s most beautiful and memorable moments—not because you love the administrative work that comes with running your own business. Tracking marketing activities, appointments, sales, and scheduling picture days can be a chore. You need a powerful software tool that simplifies and organizes these tasks in one place.

That software is called a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. 

What is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system?

A CRM is a comprehensive client management tool. It empowers you to effectively monitor vital details like client contact information, service history, associated costs, product preferences or wish lists, and a record of their latest interactions and current activities with your studio.

Simply put, it’s a powerful software designed to make your life easier by handling tedious admin work so you can focus on the aspect of your business you actually love: taking photos!

CRMs have been around for a long time, but photography studios haven’t used them heavily until recently. Initial CRMs were far too complicated to make sense for small businesses of any kind. Fortunately, today’s systems have become much more user-friendly and intuitive. 

Several options are now available specifically for photography studios. Finding the perfect match can be overwhelming since every CRM for volume photographers is built with different features and volume levels in mind. 

Even with a great CRM, running your business takes effort and dedication. You want to ensure the mix of software you use works together to make your processes as simple as possible. When researching providers, it’s important to choose which parts of your business you’d like to automate. 

When deciding which platforms are right for you, here are some factors you should consider.

What Features Do I Need?

In the dynamic realm of volume photography, where capturing and managing a multitude of moments is the norm, finding the right tools to streamline your workflow is paramount.

As you navigate the diverse landscape of CRM options, you must identify the features that will truly make a difference in your photography business. From automated communication to intuitive order tracking, we'll explore the must-have features that define the best CRM solutions available to your studio. 

Let’s delve into the essential functionalities that can elevate your volume photography business, ensuring a seamless experience for you and your clients.

Lead and Contact Management

Lead and contact management is the primary purpose of a CRM. You probably started searching for a solution because you are tired of all the sticky notes, text messages, phone memos, and buried emails you currently use to try and keep things organized. 

Look for software that offers user-friendly tools to effortlessly create, import, and manage contact records. Additionally, features like contact tags, the ability to send emails to multiple contacts at once, and automated reminders prove invaluable in maintaining your studio’s organization and keeping client interactions well-managed.

Finding a CRM that streamlines capturing lead information is essential. Every CRM will allow you to input contact information for clients and leads manually, but having automated capture is valuable. Some software will create a contact record by simply scanning a business card.

Marketing Automation and Workflows

This may be one of the most valuable CRM features outside of contact management. Imagine the time you will save automating reminders for crucial marketing efforts like updating your social profiles and website, reminding your clients and customers that picture day is coming, and providing helpful marketing tips so the school or league can assist with your revenue-generating efforts.

Look for a CRM system that offers email templates for multiple use cases and an option to include them in automated workflows. 

Workflows are designed to guide tasks and processes, ensuring no crucial steps are missed. From lead generation to post-picture day follow-ups, CRM workflows automate repetitive actions, sending reminders and triggering actions at specific points.

If you have an upcoming photo session at a school, you can set up a workflow to send reminder emails to your clients so they can prepare the students and their families.

Another great use for workflows is for lead capture and onboarding. When a new lead inquiry arrives through the website form, the CRM springs into action, sending a welcome email, letting them know someone is taking care of their request. Not only does this welcome email save you time, but it also ensures the client feels confident that you will address their request promptly.

The option to manage social media campaigns in the CRM platform is another great feature. Many CRM systems enable you to post on your social platforms automatically and even view reporting. Each platform has its quirks, so be sure to compare each feature. 

If you want to learn more about how to market your volume photography business, check out our course here.

Invoice Management, Proposals, and Payments

Invoicing and payables can get highly complicated for volume photographers. CRMs play a pivotal role in streamlining invoice and payment management. Even though many of your sessions involve returning commissions to your client, there are specific cases where you would need to send an invoice. For example, you might photograph an event and provide all your images for a set fee, or you could handle the printing of banners, yard signs, window clings, and other materials for a league. Your CRM will let you record those costs and generate an invoice for the client.

Additionally, CRMs often allow for easy tracking of payment statuses, sending automated reminders for overdue payments, and even enabling secure online payment options. This ensures a smoother financial workflow and maintains a professional and organized approach to handling transactions.

Some systems even provide invoice templates for you to customize with your studio’s branding.

Having professional and itemized proposals can dramatically increase your close rate. These proposals ensure you and the client are communicating expectations clearly and can open important conversations early in the process. This may not be a make-or-break feature for you, but it’s something to consider. 

Scheduling and Appointment Management

Calendar management is a vital component of CRM software. Top-notch solutions offer features like online booking, automatic appointment reminders, and adaptable scheduling choices. 

Look for a CRM with calendar sync so that when you receive a booking, it automatically gets added to your Google or iCalendar. This helps prevent double booking and is very convenient when you’re on the go.

You should prioritize a CRM system equipped with robust reporting functions. By grasping the analytics, you can gain insights into time allocation and effectively monitor crucial client details, including appointment history, attendance trends, and payment records.

Contract and Questionnaire Templates

When you’re ready to scale your volume photography business, you may already have tried and true contract templates, but if you’re looking to switch things up or you’re just starting out, it is wise to find a CRM with templates. It will give you a solid place to start; just make sure they’re easily customizable. 

When you’re ready to adjust the templates but lack confidence in term structuring and other contract-related language, check out our Foolproof Guide to Contracts and Commissions course.

Another feature to consider is questionnaire templates you can use to gather all the information you need from new clients during onboarding. You can refer to this information for marketing insights and opportunities throughout your relationship with the client. 

Integrations

The best-case scenario is that your chosen CRM integrates with as many platforms as you are already using as possible. It’s unlikely that you’ll find a perfect match, so focus more on streamlining lead capture, contact management, invoicing, and other high-level business functions that would benefit you most if you automate them. Carefully review the capabilities of each CRM or contact their technical support to see if the system works with a tool you are already using or has the potential to replace it. This can simplify your business and save you money.

The Top CRM for Volume Photographers

We went through the top CRMs for volume photography and compiled their features and prices to give you a head start in your search. While this list may equip you with the information you need to create your shortlist of platforms, we recommend signing up for free trials and testing them yourself.

HoneyBook 

HoneyBook ranges from $12.50-$52.80/mo and bills annually. They describe their platform as an “all-in-one clientflow platform.” The starter account offers unlimited clients and projects, invoices and payments, proposals and contacts, calendars, professional templates, a client portal, and basic reports. The upgraded accounts boast features like QuickBooks integrations and dedicated account managers. Regardless of your package, you’ll have access to support 7 days a week with a live chat feature on the site. 

This platform is perfect for someone who wants a high level of organization and automation. With the ability to set up workflows that automatically update clients and triggers that remind you to complete tasks, it’s perfect for ensuring you don’t miss a beat. If you’re a sticky note and list creator, this might be the platform for you to keep all of your to-dos in line. If your whole day can be thrown off when someone turns on a fan and your notes go flying, it might be time for a CRM that handles task management, workflow automations, and calendar integrations.

What Others Are Saying

While HoneyBook has a lot to offer, current customers mention system blackouts, difficulty navigating the platform, and slow communication from support. Some reviews boast the ease of organizing contacts and contracts. With 43 reviews on Google, they rank at 3.8 out of 5 stars.

Dubsado 

Dubsado packages start at $200/yr and go up to $400/yr with the premier subscription offering scheduling, automated workflows, and a Zapier integration to simplify all your automation needs. Billing can be done annually or monthly, with the annual option being the cheaper of the two. Dubsado claims to be a volume photography CRM that has everything in one place. Their main features include customizable client forms, simple online invoicing, personable automation, interactive client portals, and built-in scheduling. Like HoneyBook, Dubsado offers unlimited clients and projects in their basic package. 

Dubsado is a great CRM for volume photographers who want to focus on their client experience. Every step of the process is customizable to make your client feel heard and long-term relationship-building with your customers much more effortless. If you connect with the phrase, “look good, feel good,” Dubsado might be the solution for you.  Each customer will have a professional and personalized experience. 

What Others Are Saying

Dubsado doesn’t have many Google reviews, but a quick search on G2 shows 4.3 out of 5 stars with 65 reviews. Reviewers are saying the platform is best for freelance-style businesses, with the flexibility of the auto-billing feature being particularly troublesome for recurring invoicing. Many reviews agree this platform is excellent for creatives working with project-based billing cycles. 

Bloom

Bloom has a free and paid version of their platform. The paid version is $29/mo billed annually or $37/mo billed monthly. The free plan includes up to three active projects, proposals and invoices, lead capture and management, one workflow, client image galleries, contract templates, deposits and retainers, one instant booking, client portal, various platform integrations, one automation, 500GB of storage, and ACH and alternative payments. The paid version of the platform allows for unlimited projects, bookings, workflows, and automations. The paid version of Bloom’s CRM for volume photography also upgrades the storage to 1T. Both versions of this CRM allow you access to live chat on their website and email support. 

Between the vast number of integrations and flexibility of the platform, you can easily make Bloom work for you. If you are not satisfied with the number of tools you have to use to get your work done, this is the CRM for you. 

What Others Are Saying

Bloom doesn’t seem to have a Google profile set up, but we found reviews from a G2 profile. With 14 reviews, the company comes in at 4.7 out of 5 stars. One review that stood out was from a long-time customer who’s been with them from the beginning, saying they’ve worked diligently over the years to add features to the platform that have addressed all of their issues. The most common feature reviewers ask for is more templated website options and SMS messaging. Several reviews are asking for email marketing in the platform, but Bloom has responded to those reviews, saying they are focused on the CRM and make it easy to plug into other email marketing platforms. 

PhotoDay includes a wealth of marketing automation tools and many other benefits, making it a perfect complement to Bloom if you like everything else about this particular CRM.

17 Hats

17 Hats has three package options, starting at $15/month. Their Essentials Package offers standard CRM functions like contact storage and project details, online invoices, quotes, contracts, questionaries, email and document templates, online payments, online scheduling, and more. That’s a pretty robust offering for $15/month. You must upgrade to the Standard Package for $30/month to use more advanced features like workflows and bookkeeping. The Premier Package offers a branded client portal, advanced workflows, recurring billing, and Zapier integrations. 

If you want to give 17 Hats a try with no commitment, you can start a 7-day free trial for any of the three packages. They also offer multiple date options for live demos and workshops at no cost. This makes the research process very hands-on. 

What Others Are Saying

17 Hats has 194 reviews on Google and a 5-star rating. Overwhelmingly, the reviews rave about their responsive and supportive customer service. Streamline client management is another frequent mention in their reviews. Some reviewers on G2 mention struggles with syncing email and bank accounts and the need for a more aesthetically pleasing dashboard design.

How Can I Get Started?

The best way to learn about CRM systems is by watching demos, signing up for free trials, and researching. Your professional network and the online forums you regularly visit are also powerful information sources. Deciding which platform is best for you is a significant choice you should make carefully. This guide and other resources will reduce your worry and help you navigate the key considerations efficiently and confidently.

Cancellation

Be sure to look into the cancellation policy. If you sign up for a platform, use it for a few months, and decide it isn’t for you, you want the ability to cancel with minimal to no penalty. Most options don’t lock you into yearly contracts and allow you to downgrade if you decide the platform isn’t right for you.

Support

Regardless of the CRM you choose, make sure you utilize their support. It’s easy to feel like sending in a support ticket means you’ll end up in a sea of emails the company will never respond to, but that’s typically not the case. Most CRM software platforms truly want their clients to be happy and have a great user experience. This means they’re open to feedback and willing to build highly requested features. Don’t overlook the live chat features and support ticket functions. 

Take a look at the platform’s reviews before committing. You’ll typically see a lot of complaints if customer service isn’t up to par. 

Juggling marketing efforts, appointment scheduling, sales tracking, and organizing picture days can quickly become overwhelming. By seamlessly consolidating and streamlining these essential tasks into a single, user-friendly platform, a CRM system empowers you to focus on what truly matters—taking amazing photos for your customers. 

With the ability to efficiently manage client interactions, streamline processes, and enhance overall business organization, a CRM system becomes an indispensable tool for turning the passion for photography into a thriving and efficient business.

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If you’re a volume photographer, you understand the importance of efficiency and delivering high-quality images in a fast-paced environment. Having the right gear is essential to achieving these goals.

This blog will dive into the gear needs specific to volume photography and explore equipment to help you streamline your workflow, capture great images, and exceed your customers’ expectations. 

Discussing everything from cameras and lenses to lighting setups and accessories, we’ll cover everything you need to gear up for success. We’ll also provide insights on when and how you can save money by buying gently used gear.

Does High-Quality Gear Matter? 

You probably guessed our answer from the intro—yes, it absolutely matters! Timeframes are tight on picture day, leaving no room for an equipment malfunction. We’re not saying you always need brand-new gear, but it should be reliable and in good condition. 

Every school, dance studio, and youth sports league is different. Sometimes you have plenty of room to set up and work; other times, you may find yourself in tighter quarters. Your gear must be versatile for either scenario while handling the rigors of being constantly set up and taken down.

Your studio’s equipment must be portable, dependable, and versatile to capture the best photos most efficiently. When selecting your gear, it is crucial to do your due diligence. If you need to acquire something new, ask colleagues, read reviews, and check online forums for other volume photography pros to find out what make, model, or gear style they recommend. 

Once you’ve zeroed in on your desired gear, we recommend checking out Robert’s Camera for excellent pricing, selection, and service on new and refurbished equipment.  

Buying Used Photography Gear

Remember, you don’t always need the latest equipment to get the job done. You simply need gear you know will handle the demands of volume photography. Whether you are assembling your first location kit or expanding your inventory to support your growing business, consider buying used.

Finding items in the secondary marketplace is the best way to acquire quality equipment without breaking the bank. Finding what you are looking for can take legwork and patience, but the cost savings will be worth the effort.

Treat a used purchase the same as a new purchase. Research the item and make sure it will serve its intended purpose. Understand the seller's return and warranty policies if you buy from a well-known marketplace like eBay or the B&H Photo Used Department. Usedphotopro is a trusted PhotoDay partner for pre-owned gear. They have a vast inventory, offer free shipping, and extend a 180-day product warranty. If buying from an individual, rigorously inspect the condition and test the equipment’s functionality before exchanging money.

Facebook groups and other forums can also be excellent sources for finding second-hand gear. Asking about a specific piece of equipment will likely get you a lot of information and an offer to buy something a group member is no longer using. Members can also share their tips, tricks, and websites for successfully sourcing great secondhand gear, which will expand your options and increase your buying power.

Volume Photography Gear You Need to Get Started

A well-equipped studio is essential for success. Here is a list of gear you will need to capture and deliver high volumes of quality images efficiently:

Lighting

Great lighting makes a huge difference in the quality of your photos and the post-processing time. When building your volume photography site kit, you’ll need some essentials to control the outcome of your photographs.

If you’re starting from scratch or ready to improve your photos' quality, Lvl Up Imaging has powerful tools and systems designed to create high-quality lighting with less equipment in tighter spaces. If you go the more traditional route, here’s what you may need:

• (2) off-camera flashes with umbrellas: The straight-on lighting from your camera’s built-in or on-camera flash can be intense, too flat, and wash out your subject. Off-camera flashes sync with your camera, enabling you to position them at ideal angles, while the umbrellas soften the lighting and prevent shadows. Do your research before purchasing to ensure compatibility with your camera.
• (2) continuous lights with softboxes: Continuous lights with softboxes provide soft light to fill dark spaces evenly if the light is low or fill in shadows if the ambient lighting is harsh. Continuous lights and softboxes come in many shapes and sizes. Select a model with maximum portability and versatility for your shooting locations. You should also consider Pro Light Mods to see how you can creatively transform your lightboxes for more dramatic, unique photoshoots.
• (1) large reflector: A reflector redirects light toward your photography subject. Like a softbox, it effectively fills light in dark spaces or reduces shadows. Find a reflector with multiple colored sides like gold, white, silver, and scrim. Each color redirects light differently, providing maximum versatility for indoor and outdoor sessions.
• (3) light stands: To position your lighting perfectly, you need portable light stands with simple height adjustment. When rounding out your gear, paying attention to a light stand's load capacity is essential. The stand you choose must be capable of supporting the weight of your light and any modifiers, like reflectors, softboxes, and continuous flashes.
• (1) light meter: An accurate reading of the light concentration around your subject is crucial to produce well-exposed photos since this measurement determines your shutter speed, aperture, and ISO values. There are a wide variety of light meters available. Important factors to consider when choosing one are metering range, ease of use, compatibility with your camera, and indoor/outdoor versatility and accuracy.

Camera

Volume photography can test the limits of a camera and its accessories in terms of durability and versatility of shooting locations. While you don’t necessarily need the newest, most expensive camera, you should consider a camera’s features, longevity, and durability. Whichever kind you purchase, make sure it will withstand the rigorous photo sessions you will put it through. 

• Full-frame camera: Full-frame cameras let in more light and produce cleaner, more detailed images in all lighting conditions. They also provide better depth-of-field control so your subjects stand out against a background. Full-frame images perform better in post-processing, too. Additional data stored in the photo enables you to crop it without compromising image quality. If you’re on the market for a DSLR, a strong recommendation is the Canon R6 Mark II or the Nikon Z6 II which both have all the features volume photographers need at a great price point. If your budget allows, mirrorless cameras have an incredible amount of helpful features that can streamline your picture day and post-processing workflow. 
• Lenses: There is a vast array of lens sizes at varying price points available to photographers, but you should be able to capture all your volume photography images with a 24-70mm lens for wide shots and a 70-200mm lens for tighter shots. We recommend investing in “fast glass” with an aperture of F/2.8 or wider. Since lenses generally outlive the camera body, splurging on high quality glass is a valid investment. Not all lenses fit all camera bodies, so ensure compatibility before purchasing, particularly if you buy from an individual or company that doesn’t allow returns. If a particular lens isn't compatible with your camera, in some cases, you can purchase an adapter accessory.
• Tripod: The tripod holds your camera steady while taking pictures. You should look for sturdy, durable, and easy-to-set-up tripods. You should also be interested in features like a quick-release plate that saves time when attaching or removing your camera and rubber feet, which provide maximum stability on the various surfaces you will be setting up. Tripods can be a great way to stretch your creativity and streamline your workflow. Some photographers experiment with rolling, two-camera-mount tripods, and more! 

Tech

Your volume photography equipment stack must also include some valuable supporting technology. It’s important to ensure your camera continues to run on shoot day and that you are prepared to store and back up the high quantity of photos you will be capturing.

• Extra batteries & rapid charger: Time is always of the essence on picture day. Keeping a battery charging while you are onsite protects you against any downtime. Modern chargers fully restore batteries within an hour. Remember that your battery pack is camera-specific, so make sure to choose the correct model charger for your device.
• Memory cards: It is always ideal to have plenty of backup memory cards in case the one in your camera fails or fills up. As a volume photographer, you will take many images rapidly, so you should focus on capacity and write speed when choosing a memory card. A 128GB memory card can hold between 4,000-7,500 images. Write speed is indicated by a “V”  in the card’s full model name. This number determines how quickly your camera can store images on a memory card. Due to the high volume of photographs you will take in rapid succession, you will want a write speed above V60. 
• External hard drive: External hard drives help keep data safe and organized without bogging down your computer. They also provide a convenient medium for moving photos from the site back to your studio to be processed for production using the office desktop. Today’s external hard drives offer extensive capacity at an affordable price. This Western Digital device offers 8 terabytes of storage and retails for only about $150. This SanDisk drive is slightly more costly but has integrated Thunderbolt 3 technology for lightning-fast Mac integration. Also consider adding a RAID (short for redundant array of independent disks) storage to your backup strategy. Check out this article all about recovering and preventing lost files to learn more about recommended backup systems.‍
• Transport: Moving all this gear will require free hands and extra precautions to keep your gear safe. ‍
• Camera bags: From camera backpacks to shoulder bags to rolling suitcases—there are endless bag types designed with photographers in mind. They usually have pockets for memory cards, batteries, and chargers. They also boast cleverly designed padded compartments to keep your camera and lenses protected in transport. One highly-rated camera backpack choice is the DayChaser Travel Camera Pack which looks excellent and has configurable foam inserts to customize the bag just for you. Rolling bags and cases, like this Pelican Case, are also a favorite among volume photographers. If you’re frequenting airports, consider this Think Tank carry on roller bag.‍
• Collapsible Wagon:  Now that your more fragile equipment is safely on your back, you will need a collapsible wagon to move bulkier gear in fewer trips. A sturdy collapsible wagon with all-terrain wheels is the perfect solution to move lights, stands, and backdrops and reduce your setup time. If you need more space, consider a double-decker wagon. Many options are available from many retailers, including sporting goods and big box stores. You can often find them secondhand at garage sales or local online marketplaces. ‍
• Trailers: Depending on your setup and the amount of equipment you need to bring to picture day, consider a towable trailer. If you’re tight on trunk space, a small utility trailer could do the trick. If you want to go bigger, some photographers use large enclosed cargo trailers to create mobile studios. The options are endless!

Having the right equipment at the right time is essential to running any business. Since all your work occurs on location, volume photographers must be doubly prepared with everything you might need to finish a day’s session. Optimizing your picture day equipment stack will ensure you are ready for any challenges that come your way. 

You don’t have to spend top dollar on top-of-the-line equipment. It is okay, even encouraged, to research the gear you need, then find the best price and value, whether new or used. Knowing what to bring along eliminates a lot of preparation. Now you can focus on marketing, selling, and taking the great pictures for which you are known!

PhotoDay offers a seamless experience without any expensive licenses or contracts. Our additional features, such as post-processing knockouts and color correction, can be easily integrated. We promise it’s fast and easy to get started and even provide a personalized one-on-one demo so you can be set up and start selling with PhotoDay within minutes, not hours or days! To explore further, embark on your game-changing journey with us now.

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As a photographer, you always want to show off your best work and reach new audiences. By using Adobe Express in tandem with your PhotoDay account, you can easily create beautiful slideshows, banners, brochures, and posters that will help promote your business and showcase your work. In this guest blog post courtesy of Adobe Express, we'll take a look at some tips on how to take advantage of this powerful tool.

Adobe Express is an Affordable Alternative to Photoshop

To start, Adobe Express is an excellent alternative to Photoshop for photographers looking for an affordable way to create projects using their photos. Whether you're looking to promote your work online or provide information about the PhotoDay workflow to clients and customers, Adobe Express offers tons of tools that allow you to make a variety of projects in mere minutes. Let's take a look at some examples:

Create a Beautiful Slideshow That Highlights Your Work

Adobe Express makes it easy for photographers to create beautiful slideshows that can be shared when pitching to potential clients and organizations or on social media to excite customers and attract more accounts. With Adobe Express’s slideshow feature, you can choose up to 25 photos —show off those custom composites, impeccable editing, creative lighting, or multiple poses— and add music or voiceover audio for added effect. You can also use features like transitions between images or text overlays to customize the look of your slideshow, allowing you to display a portfolio of your work in just minutes easily.

Design a Professional Banner for LinkedIn

PhotoDay encourages photographers to create and use custom banners for various purposes, including printed instructions for subscribing to a gallery on picture day, personalizing manual marketing flyers, and posting to social media. It’s easy to remember Instagram and Facebook, but don’t forget professional networking platforms like LinkedIn. With Adobe Express’s banner feature, you can effortlessly create professional graphics highlighting the best aspects of your volume photography business. From choosing colors and fonts to adding images or text overlays, creating a banner has never been easier, and it's a great way to show off your work while also giving potential clients a look at your personal style.

Make A Beautiful Brochure For Your Photography Business Using Examples Of Your Work In PhotoDay

Another great way to promote yourself as a photographer is by creating a brochure showcasing examples of your customer experience. Consider including screenshots from your PhotoDay galleries to show the user-friendly photo viewing experience, examples of the high-quality and customizable products you offer, and the ease of PhotoDay’s e-commerce shopping cart. With Adobe Express’s brochure feature, you can quickly choose images and create an attractive layout that showcases all the best aspects of your work and picture day experience. You can also add text descriptions or personal messages on each page so potential clients know exactly what services you offer and why they should hire you.

Create A Poster Advertising Your Work On PhotoDay

Whether you're a school photographer, sports photographer, or just want to reach a new market, creating a beautiful poster is a great way to grab attention and fill in potential customers on how they can utilize PhotoDay to access, customize, and order photo products. The process is fast and easy with Adobe Express, so you can have a professional-looking poster in no time at all. Show off your photography and help customers learn more about how to use PhotoDay's features!

Having access to powerful tools like Adobe Express makes it easier than ever for photographers to display their work and reach new audiences by creating stunning visual elements such as slideshows, banners, brochures, and posters. By taking advantage of these features, you can market your work, provide valuable information for parents and organizations, and create buzz around your volume photography business. Take a look around Adobe Express today to learn more about these features and get familiar with the tools available.

Getting started with PhotoDay is free, and you only pay when you sell, so there are no expensive licensing fees or contracts. The setup process is quick and easy, and we’ll even walk you through it with a complimentary one-on-one demo! Sign up for a free account or get in touch today!

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