My Top 7 Time-saving Tools For Brand Photographers
Every brand photographer needs an array of time-saving tools up their sleeve!
As a brand photographer with ten years’ experience, I am oh-so-aware of the hours of preparation, editing, and admin that make every branding photoshoot happen.
That’s why, over the years, I've curated a careful list of the tools that have saved me hours somewhere along my core workflows! I value every minute of my time, and I'd love to spend as many of them with a camera in my hands as possible.
Today, I wanted to walk you through some of the tools that have saved me the most time as a brand photographer, so that you can start saving a few hours a week too. I really hope you enjoy!
narrative select
Narrative Select + Edit is a culling tool that has made the world of difference in my least-loved part of a shoot. I use Narrative to cull through the thousands of shots I have from a day shooting. It has tools that show whose eyes are closed, whose faces are in focus, and can filter out the pics it thinks you’re least likely to use with its AI tools.
Narrative also lets you apply quick edits when you export, but as I've had mixed results with its early iterations, I’m not yet ready to recommend this feature… but trust me, the culling software is so handy you won't feel like you are missing out on anything.
I've had so many thank-yous from photographers who needed a tool like this but haven't found it before – you can check it out here:
Vista Social
Can I be honest for one second? There is NO way I’d be able to maintain a presence on my seven social platforms if I couldn’t easily schedule and cross-post. I've tried so many of the big-name social media schedulers, but none of them have offered the breadth of functions that Vista does. It’s also much more reliable than some I relied on and was disappointed by in the past – I’m looking at you, Planoly.
It’s so easy to write a post and then tweak it so that it can easily go out on multiple platforms, and I love the Instagram planner that lets me view my grid before I post anything. I know it would take me hours to schedule things manually without it, and I'd lose hours of downtime to less reliable platforms too.
Zapier
I have a good chunk of experience writing about automation, but recently I've been going all in on finding ways to smoothen my client and admin processes. Enter Zapier: an amazing automation platform that syncs hundreds of apps and allows you to link actions between them that you've been doing manually for too long.
There are the expected automations (called Zaps), like automatically posting Instagram posts on Twitter, but I've also set mine up so that I get texts when a new lead comes in through my website, to back up all my new email subscribers on Google Sheets, and more. It's not as complex to use as you might think and I am really enjoying the process.
TextExpander
This is one of those apps that I couldn't believe existed and now can't imagine being without! TextExpander lets you set up “Snippets”, where when you type an abbreviation the app replaces it with any text you add to your Snippet. For example, when I type “www,” it becomes “With warmest wishes, Anna” and I have Snippets for emails to remind clients about our calls, my brand colours, even a PNG Snippet of my email signature. It tells you how much time you've saved each week and I'm obsessed.
I use TextExpander for anything from common typos, to names, to full emails I find myself sending on repeat. I now can't imagine not using TextExpander; that's the amount of time it has saved me.
Dubsado
I honestly can't put into words how much Dubsado has transformed my business, but I've done my best over in this blog post! I use it to create client portals, host their questionnaires and booking forms, book in my consultations and 1:1 mentoring sessions, and sooo much more. Clients regularly tell me they love the interface and I love the ease it brings to their client journeys.
If you are new to Dubsado, it’s a client relationship management (CRM) tool designed to help you organise your client projects. It’s been nearly a year since I signed up and I can’t tell you how much I love the platform!
Dubsado has helped me to transform my client journey, creating a more professional experience
Dubsado has also saved me SO much time in typing, and admin, thanks to its workflow automations that do hours of work for me
Dubsado has been just as loved by my clients, many of whom said they love it and have signed up for the platform as well
Scrl
This is my most-asked-about photography tool! SCRL lets you lay out your images into a gorgeous design, including turning landscapes into a dreamy swipe-through. This is what I use to create dreamy Instagram carousel posts, that display my landscape photos beautifully, even in a portrait-orientation post. I used to try and do this in Photoshop, but it took me so long and I often messed up… Thankfully SCRL is way faster and easier to use.
Want to see it in action? I used it to make this Instagram post here. Hours in Photoshop, be gone!
sunsama
I am a planning obsessive, as you may have guessed by now, and I genuinely didn’t want to fall in love with Sunsama the way I did! It’s a beautiful and intuitive app that lets you block your time with intelligence. It asks you to set how long you’re working on a task so that it can alert you if you’ve said you’re taking on too much, with a daily wrap-up review, the ability to categorise tasks stylishly, and more.
On the days I've tried to plan without Sunsama, I've lost so much time to not knowing what I was working on or what most needed my attention when a task was done. It’s been worth every penny since I invested!
There you go my loves!
I hope these tools give you some serious inspiration for where you could be saving time as a brand photographer! If ever you need more time-saving recommendations, you know where I am.
In the meantime, lots of love and happy Tuesday,
Anna xxx
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