Wedding photography is one of today's most popular choices among career photographers. That's no surprise; it's fun and rewarding and you get to work with people in some incredible locations. It's also extremely competitive, and that should come as no surprise, either. If you've ever wondered what sets successful pros apart in this business, the answers have much to do with the tools they use after the shoot. Here are three of the “secret weapons” in the arsenals of professional wedding photographers.
Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom CC
While this first item in the list is 1) two tools, not just one, and 2) not at all secret, it still needs to be here and if you haven't used these post-processing applications because of the high cost, the Creative Cloud versions are the solution to that and other problems, such as the need for multiple installations.
These are, without a doubt, the most used applications for editing and retouching and that holds true for weddings as well as other genres. The innovative tools in these apps simply haven't been matched by any other software and they're designed to integrate seamlessly with each other and Adobe Bridge, to let you create smooth custom workflows that give you optimum results in the shortest possible times. If you haven't seen either of these programs lately, you owe it to yourself to find out what the CC versions offer.
Best of all, you can now have both applications, along with Bridge, for just ten bucks a month. There's just no good reason anymore to do without the top editing software. Get started easily with a subscription here.
SmartAlbum Software
How you present your images to your clients for proofing and in the final package can make or break your wedding photo business. Yes, it truly is that important. Creating albums manually is one of the most work-intensive aspects of this business. Fortunately, recent software innovations have given photographers better options in this area.
We like the SmartAlbums from Pixellu. This simple album design software eliminates the drudgery of creating layouts, resizing and cropping images, and manually placing photos into album spreads. With SmartAlbums, simply select your images, drag and drop, and immediately see a design.With beautiful layouts to choose from, easy customization, and time-saving technologies, there is no better way to design your album. Here are just a few of the features offered in SmartAlbums:
- Thousands of professionally-designed templates
- Customize and save preset layouts
- Supports over 100 professional lab companies
- Utilize Lightroom and Bridge ratings for sorting photos
- Import images in a wide range of formats
- Export layered designs to Photoshop and InDesign
- Cloud Proofing for album review and client approval
This is one of the newest and best tools available and will revolutionize the way you create your clients' albums. Get your hands on SmartAlbums with a free trial here. The trial is fully functional and watermark-free allowing you to design, proof, and print your album with little effort.
A Backup Drive
Is this a no-brainer? Maybe, but it's still surprising how many aspiring and even working wedding photographers simply don't invest enough in backing up their image files. It won't take more than one time to learn a very hard lesson in this business. In fact, losing a wedding client's images could easily be enough to end your career. Successful pros stay that way by protecting their businesses.
The bottom line is simple: backup your image files and then back them up again. External hard drives have become inexpensive enough that there's no excuse not to have one (better yet, two) and use automated backup software to ensure that when an accident happens, you've got it covered. Here's a great choice from Seagate.
These are obviously not the only secrets to wedding photography success. They are, however, some of the most important, although often overlooked in lieu of the equipment needed during the shoot. Add these tools to your kit to help ensure the profitability and longevity of your wedding photo business.