Top 5 Tools For Speeding Up Your Workflow
As photographers, we have all been there- tripping over ourselves to keep up with it all. Emails, imports, culling, editing, delivering, and somehow, finding time to sleep.
It's a never ending process of trying to keep up with it all while also maintaining your sanity.
So, over the past year I have made it my goal to simplify my workflow and find little ways to save time behind the computer so I can spend more of my time behind my camera doing what I love! Through these tools, I have found a workflow that works for me, and given me extra time to spend growing as a photographer while letting these tools do the work for me.
SO, HERE ARE MY TOP FIVE TOOLS FOR
SPEEDING UP YOUR WORKFLOW:
1. Dubsado
Guys. Woah.
This is a business management software that has CHANGED MY LIFE. You can do almost everything through this.
Honestly Dubsado deserves it's own blog post entirely to go into everything it is capable of and all the ways I utilize it in my business.
But if you are looking for a solution to managing your emails, contracts, questionnaires, invoices, and so much more, you should hop over and check it out.
They have a free trial, but if you go check it out and are madly in love, sign up with my discount code 'CASSIE' and get 20% off!
2. Anker 4 Port USB/Transend USB Card Reader
Okay, so this is my newest tool. I got it earlier this week and it is a lifesaver.
I have had so many people asking about this that I HAD to share it.
Picture this:
You just got home from a wedding, you're tired, you want a shower, a snack, and lets be real, some SLEEP. But you always import as soon as you walk in the door, right?
Instead of having to sit at your computer for a lifetime importing alllllll your cards from your wedding one after the other, waiting for one to finish so you can get the other one going, what if you could just import them all at once?
Plug all those babies up at once and let 'em go! Get all 4 cards going at once and walk away to kick back, relax, and not worry about going to switch another card out. WORD.
There are other products similar to this one, but this is the one that I opted for and it's perfect.
It's a multi-USB port paired with several Transcend USB card readers. Boom.
The Anker USB port has 4 spots, so you will need 4 of the Transcend Card readers to fit in there.
3. Photomechanic
Photo Mechanic is an incredibly fast media browser that helps you import, view, organize, and cull your photos.
So this is probably one of the biggest time savers for me, because until I got this program, I didn't cull. Like, at all. I just imported everything straight into Lightroom. It was overwhelming and daunting to look at every single photograph from a session (or wedding, yikes.)
It is super simple and it helps me cull down to the photos I will actually use. It simplifies my workflow my removing the unnecessary, unusable photos.
This program literally cut my editing time in HALF.
You can also color code your images, sometimes I color code each section of the day (getting ready photos, ceremony, family portraits, reception, etc)
If you are like me and want to try it out before you jump right in, they have a free 30-day trial!
4. LoupeDeck
This is, again, one of my newer tools but I swear by it already.
The best way I can think of to describe this is a keyboard built for editing in Lightroom.
My favorite feature about this tool is the crop/rotate knob. OMG. Guys.
I am the worlds worst and cannot take a straight photo for my LIFE but this makes going through a session or wedding so quick.
You can custom program buttons to your presets you use, as well as access all of your LR controls at your fingertips.
And personally I feel like it gives me more control in my adjustments.
Feel free to snag yours with the link below:
5. JPEG Mini
Alright, don't ask me to explain this voodoo, all I know is that it works.
JPEG Mini is a program used to reduces file sizes without reducing quality.
you may ask, HOW!?! (because that was my exact first words)
And my only answer is: pure magic.
Since it reduces file size, it makes uploading galleries and photos to blog posts SO much quicker (plus it saves a world of space on my hardrives, and optimizes photos to make loading on my website faster..... but thats another blog post ;) There is also a plug-in for Lightroom, so that as you export your images out it automatically puts them through JPEG Mini so you don't even have to open the program to use it!
Here are some FAQ about JPEG Mini if you need convincing.
That's all of my tools for speeding up your workflow (for now!) I hope you found it helpful!
What are some of your favorite tools!? Comment below or use the contact form at the bottom to share your favorite tools!
