Creating a Great Workflow Post Portrait Session

AFTER THE PORTRAIT SESSION WORKFLOW:

Portrait photography post-shoot workflow is something that most photographers don’t focus on when first starting their business.  With all the hustle of just going out and getting your first clients, let alone someone who is actually paying you, setting up a good workflow system is overlooked.  But setting up a good system from the very beginning can actually save you time and help you stay organized.  Which in the end will help you be a happier, more creative photographer.

Why should great workflow be a concern to you as a Portrait Photographer?

1. Because you need to be able, year after year, to locate all of your client files.
2. Because there are a lot of little tasks to take care of and missing, even one step, can be detrimental to your business.
3. Because having a good portrait workflow will help your photography look and feel consistent over all of your portrait sessions.

A PHOTOGRAPHERS STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO POST PORTRAIT WORKFLOW

The first step is to actually book and shoot a portrait session.  From there, follow these detailed steps to ensure a successful workflow for every portrait session:

• Back up the images to an external hard drive (I use Western Digital Portable External Drive because they are VERY stable):  Immediate after the session/ sessions, I come back to my office and back up the images onto an external hard drive.  At that point, I have the portrait sessions in two places in case anything should break or become faulty.
• Create a Master Client Folder on an External Hard drive: I shoot in raw so I create a Master folder with the clients last name and the year, i.e Smith 2018, and then inside that folder, I create the first subfolder called Smith raw files.  Now those files are in two places, on the compact flash card and on my external hard drive.  Here is a quick visual covering the first two steps:

ORGANIZING YOUR IMAGES ON AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

•  Cull the Images using Photo Mechanic Software:  Once all of the images from that session are on my hard drive and still on the compact flash card, I open Photo Mechanic Software.  This is the culling (narrowing down to the very best) software I use to select the images that my editor will work on in  Lightroom.  You can cull in LIghtroom, but I find that Lightroom is a little too slow when culling.  

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USING PHOTO MECHANIC SOFTWARE TO CULL YOUR IMAGES

• Create A Lightroom Catalog:  Once I cull the images from the session to a manageable number (typically about 100 images for a family session), I create a lightroom catalog with Build Smart Previews enabled (this make it really easy for me to send the lightroom catalog to my editor over the internet).
• Export my Lightroom Catalog and Prepare for External Editing:  I then send out my lightroom catalog over the internet to my editor by emailing the Dropbox Folder link to my editor (she edits the images and picks the top 20 images for a full retouch).
• Download the Edited Lightroom Catalog from Dropbox:  Once the edits in Lightroom have been completed, my editor uploads the completed files into a dropbox folder and I download that folder from the internet.

CREATING AN EXPORTABLE CATALOG IN LIGHTROOM

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EXPORTING THE LIGHTROOM CATALOG AND EDITING THE LIGHTROOM CATALOG OFF SITE.

• Export High Res jpgs out of Lightroom and into the clients file on the external hard drive:  Export my high res jpgs or Tiff files to the folder I created in my external haridirve
• Export small Jpgs to clients file or hard drive:  Export small jpgs (about a 4x6 300 dpi file) to my clients folder
• Export the 20 favorites from the sessions to a folder called “Smith to retouch”
• Back up High Res Jpg files to Smugmug:  Send the high res jpgs to Smugmug so they are backed up online

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SORTING AN EXPORTING IMAGES FROM A LIGHTROOM CATALOG

USING SMUGMUG TO BACK UP YOUR IMAGES INTO THE CLOUD

• Upload 20 images to Blue Sky’s Retouching for a full portrait retouch:  Send the top 20 images from the Dufault retouch folder to Blue Sky’s Retouching for a full retouch
• Download Retouched files from Blue Sky’s Retouching:  Once I receive the email from Blue Sky’s Retouching that my files are complete, I download the files and I back these files up into a folder in Dropbox called, “2019 Client Retouched files”.  I then print these images as 7x10 prints and mat them for the client preview.

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UPLOADING IMAGES TO BLUE SKYS RETOUCHING FROM YOUR COMPUTER

• Load images into Proselect Software for the client’s review session:  I create a Proselect client file and put this into their folder.  I also upload this proselect folder to Dropbox into a folder called 2019 Clients Reviews.

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CREATING A PROSELECT CLIENT FILE FOR IN PERSON REVIEWS (IPS)

• Create an Animoto Slideshow with the best images from the Session:  I create an Animoto video/ slideshow with the retouched images and the short video clips I create at the session.  Click on the example bellow from Emilie's session.

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AN ANIMOTO SLIDESHOW WITH THE FAVORITES AND VIDEO CLIPS

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• Schedule a Review session in the studio for the client (ideally one week or less after the actual portrait session):  Contact the client to book a review session in our studio.  Make sure they have access to our product guide and pricing prior to the ordering session so they have an idea of what they would like to purchase.
• Take the client order  This is the fun part!
• Email the client a copy of their receipt and an email that outlines the timeline for the processing of their portrait order.  I always want to set the expectations so they don't have to call us and ask about their order.  I always try to exceed their expectations, so if I tell them it will take three weeks for their order to arrive, I usually have it arrive in two weeks.
• Export order from Proselect Software  As I mentioned in the Proselect video, it is easy to export the completed order for processing directly after the review session.
• Prepare Client's order and make sure all images are retouched:  Retouch any images on the client order that were not retouched in the initial retouching order.
• Send proofs to the client of any enlargements or portrait photography albums.
• Send the completed order to the lab with instructions to drop ship the order directly to the client
• Lab Ships completed order to the client
• Send an email to let them know that their order is on the way.
• Send a Thank you note to the client I Use Ink Card app to send them a thank you note with one of their favorite images from the session.
• Send a Follow up email to the client making sure they received their order and asking to refer any of their friends or family who may want a portrait session and also asking for a review on Google.

I know this list can feel a little overwhelming, but take it from me, having a great workflow provides you with peace of mind and makes running a portrait business fun!

Links to all of the software and products mentioned in this article

Western Digital portable hard drive
Photo Mechanic Culling Software
Lightroom Software from Adobe
​Smugmug Backup images
​Blue Sky's Retouching for Editing
​Proselect Software
Animoto Slideshow Website

Click here
Photo Mechanic click here
Lightroom Software click here
SmugMug click here
Blue Sky's Retouching click here
Proselect software click here
Animoto click here

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