Having a successful wedding photography business requires a lot of hats. You’re a photographer, bookkeeper, social media guru, influencer, dress-fluffer, bouquet-holder, wedding planner, and the list goes on. So often I hear how being a Lightroom pro and editing tens of thousands of images a year for your business is the one hat that many wedding photographers don’t want to carry long-term.
Wedding photographers often turn to large editing companies only to be disappointed with the lack of consistency and relationship. As a private photo editor, I can appreciate when a new client comes my way because they’re unhappy with the previous service they’ve been given.
If you’re a wedding photographer, and finding yourself in this position, you’ve come to the right place. First off, congratulations on building a successful business! The fact that you are outsourcing your editing means that you value your time, and your business, enough to want to create a better workflow that will create space for you to grow in other areas of your life and photography business.
Today, I want to talk a bit about how to create and maintain a professional relationship with your private photo editor. So let’s jump right in, shall we?
Communication
Communication, to me, is the #1 reason why many professional relationships go badly. Miscommunication or lack of communication are two easy traps to fall into. It’s very likely that your private photo editor does not live near you. Your relationship is completely virtual.
Miscommunication can easily creep in as things may get lost in translation through emails. Not being able to hear someone else’s tone and inflections in their voice as you read an email could cause you to take in a completely wrong way.
Lack of communication can be just as detrimental. For example, as a successful full-time private photo editor, I am diligent about asking for feedback from my clients. Even if we have been working together for years, I will always ask for feedback if I come across a particular gallery that maybe had some difficult lighting situations. I want to make sure that I am editing those images the same way they would.
The same goes for you as a wedding photographer. If you are noticing things that just aren’t quite right with the galleries you’re receiving from your editor, don’t be afraid communicate that. I suggest creating a few screenshots of “before and afters,” along with a quick explanation of what you did differently, so that your editor can visually see the difference and make notes on what to do differently in the future.
Lack of communication can also be as simple as not responding to an email that was sent to you. For example, I will send a brand new email each time I upload an edited gallery. The subject line will always be labeled as the name of the couple of that gallery. No matter how simple it may seem, I recommend responding to each of those emails, even if it’s just to say, “Thank you!” It’s communicating to your editor that you have been notified of the gallery’s completion, and your editor doesn’t have to wonder whether you received the email or not.
Email over text messaging. This is another biggie for me. With technology today, our smartphones make it so easy to communicate. However, I highly recommend keeping your professional relationships email only. Except for the occasional personal check-in via text, all of my professional communication is done through emails. Why? My biggest reason is for organizational purposes, which is actually subject of tip #2 for today. With email, I can easily search for a specific message chain that I’m looking for. I don’t have to scroll endlessly through text messages, waiting for older text to load. Plus, it helps to keep a professional and personal relationship clearly defined as you continue to build a friendship with your editor.
Stay Organized
Surprisingly, organization is something that many photographers struggle with; perhaps, even most business owners in general. Whether you are considering hiring a private photo editor, or you are already outsourcing, it is incredibly important to be organized and have a designated workflow.
Whether you prefer all the virtual bookkeeping options out there like 17Hats, Honeybook, and Quickbooks, or you’re more old-school (like me) and prefer putting a pen to paper, you need to find what works best for you and your business. Break your day down into time slots, and assign tasks for each time slot that makes sense based on priority and the length of time it will take you to accomplish each task.
I recently wrote a post about how to stay productive while working from home that will give you some helpful tips on how to better organize your day. When you prioritize staying organized, you’re basically saying that you value your time, and you respect the time of others. This leads us to my last (but not least) tip for you today.
Respect Their Time and Schedule
This is perhaps my most important piece of advice. So I suppose you could say I’m saving the best for last. =)
Due to the nature of having a virtual relationship, the importance of respecting others’ time can be all too easy to drop the ball on. The lack of a face-to-face makes it all too easy to neglect a person in ways that you normally wouldn’t in real life.
As a full-time private photo editor, I rely heavily on my clients delivering their galleries on time just as they rely heavily on me returning their edited galleries within the timeframe that I designate in my contract. Delivering galleries late to your editor can have somewhat of a butterfly effect (for both parties). As a photographer, it could start a bad habit of being consistently late in delivering your weddings to your editor. After all, you’re still receiving your edited galleries back with plenty of time to spare for delivering the wedding to your couple, right?
Meanwhile, your editor is working on the backend, rearranging their work and personal schedules in order to accommodate a late gallery while still maintaining to uphold the standards they hold themselves to in turnaround times.
If you are noticing that you are delivering your weddings to your editor consistently late, I suggest reverting back to tip #1 from today and communicating with your editor about perhaps needing to change your delivery date. During our initial meeting, I always encourage all of my potential wedding photography clients to choose a realistic delivery day. I want them to be honest with themselves and not try to choose an ideal day, but more like a “worst case scenario” day.
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