The last couple weeks I’ve been posting about different software programs that help keep me efficient in my business, and I’ve gotten some questions about the photography-specific programs that I love and use.
The last two posts I wanted to make sure were relatable to all small service-based businesses because much of my audience would be helped by that, but there are always interests when it comes to the photography side too, so here we go:)
My Favorite Software Programs to be Efficient in my Photography Business
Photo Mechanic
The first thing I do after downloading and backing up any photo shoot is to open the images up in Photo Mechanic and take a look at the images.
Photo Mechanic Is A Fast Media Browser That Helps You View, Organizes, Manage, And Export Digital Photos.
While I could injest into Lightroom, that takes a bunch of time to import and render before I can go through the images and review, so Photo Mechanic saves me a ton of time as they are rendered and ready for review the moment I open the app.
I look through, make sure all the images are there, nothing is corrupt in the transfer, and if I’ve shot on multiple cameras
Lightroom
I spend the vast majority of time in Lightroom like probably 90% of my time working with images is in Lightroom. It’s a pay for program by Adobe, but they’ve made it only $10 a month for LR and Photoshop. Compared to how it used to be $400+ each so I see that as a win.
Lightroom lets you create presets to give you a starting point. I have custom presets that I use on all my work to give it a cohesive feel. And then I tweak exposure and color hue dependant on the image’s needs. I organize and make sure the edits and color all look cohesive in the grid mode.
Then I rename the images and export them to jpgs for my clients.
PhotoShop
Photoshop is a super powerful program that I use for all final retouching where an image is going to be printed or put into an album. Photoshop is overkill for most editing unless I know the image will be printed or used larger than a screen.
JPG mini
This program is amazing for all images that need to be uploaded to the internet as it makes a jpg image and lowers the file size without lowering the quality of the image. So, basically it’s witchcraft.
Saving space on hard drives, on online galleries (where I get charged for my space) as well as making images load faster on my website are all things that I find very worth the $150 price tag of the program.
Animoto
Animoto is an online slideshow and marketing video creating program that I use in weddings and portraits as a final presentation of images and for branding shoots, I use it for making short marketing videos to help use the branding images in a dynamic way.
The great thing about Animoto is that it includes licesnsed music for the videos, so I know that I’m allowed to use the music in a commercial way, which is not allowed if you say buy a song off of iTunes for .99.
Animoto is $250 a year.
Pixieset
This is my online gallery system which makes it super easy to share not only the gallery of images, but offers a 1 click download of final images for the clients who ordered the digitals, as well as a storefront that allows people to order prints and products easily.
Pixieset is about $220 a year.
Canva
Canva is an online program that makes designing graphics for your business seemless and available even if you have 0 design skills. With tons of templates and the ability to upload your brand fonts and colors with the paid version ($90 a year).
Since finding Canva, I use it almost daily uploading images and adding text to it for Instagram posts, blog graphics and more. It’s an amazing program!
And it’s free if you don’t care to have specialty fonts and colors!
And there you have it! My top programs I use that are related to photography and imagery in my business!
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