Are You Still Editing Your Wedding Images?
Lagging Behind on Delivering Wedding Gallery //
Can you relate? The wedding season is over, but you are still sitting at your desk editing images from the past few weddings. You have no idea how all this work piled up and how you are lagging so behind…
Are you starting to get emails inquiring about when the images will be ready? Which adds to the stress and dissastifaction of knowing that you are not providing your clients with the experience that they deserve.
Hi, I am Aida, host of My Wedding Season -The Podcast!
If you prefer listening, this blog post is also available in audio format on my podcast: Episode 15.
Yes, this year has been exceptionally crazy with all the rescheduling that happened from 2020! Most of us had to shoot way more weddings in a small period of time compared to the past.
But generally speaking, if you are often feeling overwhelmed with the editing portion of being a photographer, what can you do differently for the upcoming wedding season?
Here are some ideas that may help you:
1. GET BETTER ORGANISED
What does your workflow look like?
Not having a plan as to how you go about the post-processing portion of a wedding can negatively affect your delivery time. It is wise to have systems and templates in place for your editing workflow as well as your client workflow. This way, you don‘t miss any steps and don‘t need to reinvent the wheel every time.
Are you disciplined when it comes to when you edit your images?
Mark the days on the calendar that you dedicate to editing, and stick to it. Of course it is smart to calculate in a bit of a buffer for unexpected interruptions. Accomplishing your tasks in good time will actually keep you motivated to keep on going…
2. CONSIDER OUTSOURCING
There are some people who are resistant to outsourcing the editing of their images/videos – which is totally fine. But if you are open to it, this might be an option worth investing in. There are companies and freelancers who offer editing services for reasonable prices. In the beginning, it may take some trial and error to ensure that they fully understand your editing style, but eventually, the effort does pay-off. Another option is to keep the editing in-house whereby you have an intern that helps you.
3. TIME TO RAISE YOUR PRICES
Putting the pandemic aside, is it possible that you constantly take on too many weddings a year?
Would raising your prices help reduce the number of weddings you need to book in order to reach your financial goals?
With more time on your hands, you will be able to keep up with your client work and provide them with a better experience. If this is the case, take the time to reevaluate your prices and adjust them accordingly.
Ideally, when you give your clients a delivery time (e.g. 4-6 weeks), you will do your best to send them the gallery/video in less than a month – they will be pleasantly surprised! And this leads to happy clients! And who doesn’t love having happy clients?!?
Listen, I want you to know that although you might be lagging behind with delivering the wedding images to your clients, you are still a rockstar for getting through this wedding season. It has just been A LOT! You probably have had to face challenges not only in your personal life, but running a business has been tough! So go easy on yourself. Make sure that you are taking the breaks that you need and not running yourself into the ground.
And if you have clients constantly contacting you trying to find out when they are going to recieve their wedding images, take the time to explain to the special circumstances that you find yourself in this year. Instead of just writing them an email, consider getting them on the phone so that you can properly explain it to them. Let them know that you want to ensure that you don’t want to rush and handover subpar work. In the meantime, you can perhaps edit a handful of images from the day that you send over to them that they can enjoy until the recieve the entire gallery – I am sure that will also help them become more patient with you.
If you have any additional questions, send me a message on Instagram (@aidaglowik) – I am happy to help!
Cheering you on,
Aida