Workflows - Photography Podcast

Get ready to wrap up Season 2 of the Workflows Photography Podcast with host Scott Wyden Kivowitz and an incredible lineup of guests. Discover the best photography workflows, tips, and insights from industry professionals in this episode.

  • (00:00) - Introduction and Season Wrap-up
  • (01:03) - Workflow and Client Management
  • (01:23) - The Art of Packaging and Presentation
  • (01:57) - Data Managem ent and Backup
  • (02:13) - Comparing Weddings and Bar Mitzvahs
  • (02:53) - The Journey of Self-Taught Photographers
  • (03:33) - Booking Process and Client Communication
  • (04:33) - The Importance of Technology in Photography
  • (05:10) - Pricing and Booking Strategies
  • (05:56) - Learning from Mistakes
  • (06:33) - Client Expectations and Surprises
  • (07:08) - Color Calibration and Editing
  • (08:08) - Off Camera Flash and Confidence Building
  • (08:29) - The Creative Process and Self-Criticism

In this season two bonus episode, Scott Wyden Kivowitz shares some of his favorite clips by a star-studded cast of guests including Dawn Richardson, Andre Brown, Taylor Jackson, Braulio Rocha, Susan Stripling, Bill Stank, Michael Anthony, Fer Juaristi, Nicole Ashley, Frederick Van Johnson, Seshu Badrinath, Ashley Jean, and Lindsay Coulter. They share their personal experiences, tips, and strategies for improving workflows, organizing clients, post-processing images, and incorporating technology into the photography business.

Tune in to this season two of the Workflows Photography Podcast to gain valuable insights and inspiration for enhancing your photography workflows. Don't miss out on the expertise of these industry-leading professionals.

Join the Imagen Community on Facebook to continue the discussions between episodes.
 
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Creators & Guests

Host
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
Community Manager at Imagen
Guest
Andre Brown
Destination Wedding Photographer
Guest
Ashley Jean
Guest
Bill Stank
Guest
Braulio Rocha
Guest
Dawn Richardson
Guest
Fer Juaristi
Guest
Frederick Van Johnson
Photographer, podcaster, and content creator.
Guest
Lindsay Coulter
Guest
Michael Anthony
LA-based Destination Wedding photography Studio
Guest
Nicole Ashley
Guest
Seshu Badrinath
Father & husband. Serve college prep schools, business executives, and high school seniors. Visit my sites: https://t.co/BiacsNW0ct & https://t.co/3g64XBEKos
Guest
Susan Stripling
She/her. Professional photographer. Educator. Writer. Theatre lover. Horror movie fanatic. Instagram @ susanstriplingphotography
Guest
Taylor Jackson

What is Workflows - Photography Podcast?

Ready to enhance your photography workflow? Welcome to Workflows, a podcast by Imagen that transforms how photographers like you manage their business, making every minute count.

Each episode offers advice on optimizing your photography workflows so you spend less time at the desk and more time behind the camera. It also tells real-life stories and shares innovative tools to optimize your operations, helping you maximize efficiency and creativity in your photography business.

Join host Scott Wyden Kivowitz, who, despite challenges like dyslexia and color blindness, has mastered the art of efficient workflows to excel in the photography business, as well as building and leading one of the most popular global photography communities on Facebook – the Imagen Community. Through insights and conversations with photographers fro m various countries, backgrounds, and walks of life, discover how structured workflows can save time and alleviate stress in your professional and personal life.

Get ready to overcome common industry hurdles and boost your photography business's profitability through effective strategies, innovative tools, tech, and automation.

Join the Imagen Community to continue the conversation and connect with fellow photographers, share stories, and access unique resources tailored to the challenges of managing a photography business.

Don't let workflow inefficiencies hold you back — tune in to Workflows for inspiration and guidance on crafting a thriving, productive photography business.

For photographers who prefer creating stunning images to getting bogged down by business tasks, Workflows is your gateway to a smoother, more rewarding photography career.

Join us today at workflowspodcast.com

Season 2
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[00:00:00] Introduction and Season Wrap-up
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[00:00:00] Imageners I cannot believe it, but we just wrapped up season two of the workflows photography podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in with us for this entire season. We are going to take a break. For the month of January and we will be back on February 1st we season three of the workflow's photography podcast. In the meantime, enjoy these clips from every episode of season two, as we prepare, for season three. See you real soon.

[00:00:33] Workflow and Client Management
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[00:00:33] Susan Stripling: The way I give my timeline to my assistants, I used to print them out, but I would always lose them. And sometimes there's like, I'll make notes on there that I don't really wanna leave, like laying around, if they're sensitive family situations and people don't talk to each other. It's written down on the timeline.

[00:00:48] Susan Stripling: And I would hate for someone to pick it up and be like, oh my God, they told her that. Like so and so and so and so don't talk to each

[00:00:53] Andre Brown: other.

[00:00:53] The Art of Packaging and Presentation
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[00:00:53] Andre Brown: I send out welcome packages to clients. It's really just all depending on where [00:01:00] they are, you know, package wise. If they're just in a regular package, they get an envelope that has contracts, information to other vendors or whatever.

[00:01:08] Andre Brown: I spray it with, it's my favorite scent from Louis Vuitton. Spread down or whatever. So when they, once it's been inside that packaging for a couple of days and you know, it's like poof. Right? So, although it doesn't cost me a ton, when they get it, they're like, holy snap. You know, I think

[00:01:26] Lindsay Coulter: organization

[00:01:27] Susan Stripling: is a

[00:01:27] Data Managem ent and Backup
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[00:01:27] Ashley Jean: really big thing for me. just making sure that, Everything is when I export my files from Lightroom, the first thing I like to do is put everything on two hard drives that I have and then also into a cloud-based

[00:01:42] Braulio Rocha: system.

[00:01:43] Comparing Weddings and Bar Mitzvahs
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[00:01:43] Braulio Rocha: Yeah, there's definitely challenges, but I find it. I find it easier than weddings. I shoot a lot of weddings and a lot of bar mitzvahs and I shoot a lot of weddings in the Jewish community. So I'm, I, you know, even there I can see the difference between shooting a wedding and shooting a Bar Mitzvah. The Bar Mitzvah [00:02:00] parties, they're, they're, they're big parties as big as weddings but the workflow is a lot easier.

[00:02:04] Braulio Rocha: And when we talk about business wise, we're business owners, right? We wanna make money, we wanna support our families. The, the. There's a potential of making more profit with half the work, half the headache, half the stress, the stress, half the anxiety on a Bar Mitzvah. I. Than on

[00:02:22] Lindsay Coulter: a wedding.

[00:02:23] The Journey of Self-Taught Photographers
---

[00:02:23] Lindsay Coulter: Even if you go that traditional route, you're still gonna be missing out on newer, more current methods.

[00:02:30] Lindsay Coulter: And for most of us, most of us didn't go that route. Most of us, like are self-taught or taught through friends or whatever. Even for those of us, like I'm self-taught, you know, technically through learning from other friends and everything, as most of us are, It's wild. The number of things that I think are like, that's obvious isn't it, that are not obvious at all, that people just don't know.

[00:02:52] Lindsay Coulter: And it takes a lot of like guts to ask a question and sometimes you don't even know that you have the question. Do you know what I mean? [00:03:00] Like you have to know something in order to know. That you don't

[00:03:03] Fer Juaristi: know

[00:03:03] Booking Process and Client Communication
---

[00:03:03] Fer Juaristi: it. It's all about, are you sure you wanna book me instead of please book me? So yeah, I, they see full weddings, slideshows and, and after that it's just a, a contract. I ask 25% of whatever. Millions are gonna pay me. And, and then after that, I send them a few links with, articles about how it's about to work with me. You know, like the, the importance of portraits, the importance of, documenting without stopping for the picture to

[00:03:35] Frederick Van Johnson: happen. It's brilliant and much needed.

[00:03:37] Frederick Van Johnson: It's a, it's another, it's another thing, right? You feel like. You know, I know a lot of photographers that I know will say, yeah, I gotta, I gotta have my fingers on everything and I have to build my layouts and you know, only I know how to do this. And you know, that's part of my sauce. Sure. For those people, this is not for them because they find a happiness in building the ship, in the bottle.

[00:03:57] Frederick Van Johnson: Right. They find. [00:04:00] Gratification in the journey, which there's nothing wrong with that.

[00:04:03] The Importance of Technology in Photography
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[00:04:03] Dawn Richardson: Of course, across the board, technology is very male dominant. And you know, I think there's amazing male educators out there that teach on technology. like I'm a huge fan of Marques. MKBHD like a huge fan of him.

[00:04:17] Dawn Richardson: I love everything that he does. but I think that sometimes it's really nice to have somebody that might feel a little bit more approachable, a little bit more like, of a friendly face. Like, I'm gonna, I wanna explain it to you like you're five, but not in like a, a condescending way.

[00:04:32] Dawn Richardson: Like, like here, like, this is a really great place and I think this could change your life, and I would love to show you how. So that's been my goal, to be a safe little corner of the internet.

[00:04:40] Pricing and Booking Strategies
---

[00:04:40] Dawn Richardson: One of

[00:04:40] Taylor Jackson: the massive changes that I made from a lead's point of view is that I actually now have all of my pricing public, which means I get significantly less inquiries overall, but when I do get them, so I use, I'm part owner of a company called Focal, and I use one of their websites and basically somebody just clicks the button to request a book.[00:05:00]

[00:05:00] Taylor Jackson: For the wedding date. so I'm not necessarily getting an inquiry. I'm getting like a, an actual booking request. And I can say if, if we have like very, basically like by having prices public, it means that you're gonna have way less tire kickers. That there's nobody gonna be coming in and just gonna wanna ask you 150 questions. you're very much burning. The potential that somebody may come in and they may fall in love with you, and they might find the budget even though they didn't have the budget to begin with.

[00:05:26] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Sure,

[00:05:26] Learning from Mistakes
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[00:05:26] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: there were recovery companies in existence back then. They were very expensive. But keep in mind, I was young, naive and had no money. Now the last story was pure stupidity. It was a mistake I will never make again. And one, I hope that you keep in the back of your mind so that you never make this mistake either. I wasn't thinking and I formatted my memory card in camera thinking it was an old photo session in fact it was the current photo session that I was in at that exact [00:06:00] moment. Yeah. Do you ever feel like you're less than a foot tall?

[00:06:03] Client Expectations and Surprises
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[00:06:03] Seshu: And here's the thing, here's the thing. Scott, you, you can ask the client, Hey, what kinda lighting do you have? And. They have no idea. You know, they're like, it's, it's a beautifully lit, it's a beautifully lit office space. And then of course there's surprises waiting for you when you get there, you know, so folks who understand that they're getting clear directions from a photographer are a little bit more comfortable with you, working with you and.

[00:06:28] Seshu: Even trusting you with not just the photos you're making, but with the way you're gonna handle them after the fact, right after the photographs are delivered to the to them.

[00:06:37] Color Calibration and Editing
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[00:06:37] Seshu: So

[00:06:38] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: what I would do is I would have the client hold this color swatch, and then at the computer, either in its standalone app or in Lightroom, I would use it software to automatically calibrate the color to that color checker passport. It would create what's called a creative color profile. So that would ensure very accurate color and I could adjust the [00:07:00] tone of where one of the skin tones to be, like the

[00:07:02] Nicole Ashley: signature way I edit and I get asked about how I edit, all the time.

[00:07:06] Nicole Ashley: Or if people want to hire for mentoring. They want to know about Editing and how I edit skin and stuff like that. which feels so like gross to brand, but it's, it's mostly Lightroom, but it's mostly Lightroom now because I have finesse the preset. So, and I actually do, I am working on new ones that have even further done that, but I found, I find now that I found the perfect amount that I want, you know.

[00:07:32] Nicole Ashley: With my color tones and curves and everything, I'm touching photos way less,

[00:07:37] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: which

[00:07:37] Bill Stank: is great.

[00:07:38] Off Camera Flash and Confidence Building
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[00:07:38] Bill Stank: Worst case scenario, the pictures don't come out well with off-camera flash. That's okay because the couple will still have, you know, pictures that they love and, and they're not missing out on anything. So you won't mess up their wedding.

[00:07:50] Bill Stank: You do have time, even if it's one minute, two minutes, and then you start building up from there, the more confidence you get,

[00:07:59] The Creative Process and Self-Criticism
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[00:07:59] Bill Stank: removing myself

[00:07:59] Michael Anthony: from [00:08:00] the process, that was the, the most important. Again, going back to us as creatives. Being creative director, we look at our work and we are the most critical of it, right?

[00:08:07] Michael Anthony: Mm-Hmm. So we're gonna look at our work and we're going to, you know, hyperly every little detail. And, and in doing that, we're taking a lot of time.