Essential Tools and Resources for New Photographers
Resources to Make Your Photography Business Life Easier
In case we haven't met...
My name is Anja. I’m a photographer and filmmaker for small businesses and families based in Worthing, West Sussex.
The main goal with all my work is to instil confidence in my clients by encouraging them to show up as they are – without changing what they look like, act like or what they care about.
I’ve started my business in 2010 as a side hustle without knowing what I was actually doing. I just wanted to charge people for their photos legally.
In 2019, I went full-time and suddenly realised that I couldn’t continue my business like I had for the past 9 years. I learned a lot. I made mistakes, I spent unnecessary money and acquired skills I never thought I needed (hello, bookeeping and accountancy 😆).
If you’re new to running a photography business, maybe this resources can give you some guidance on what tools I think are essential or at least helpful to a photgraphy business.
Running a photography business is challenging, and I’ve learned a lot over nearly 6 years. If I’d known everything at the start, it might have felt overwhelming, but taking it step by step and learning from others makes all the difference.
So, I’m not going to tell you all the things you need to know or have in place – I’d rather provide you with a resource that might give you a little breathing space by sharing my experiences and recommending tools you may or may not know yet. If you’re a new photographer, trying to turn your hobby into something that generates income, there’s nothing wrong with taking a few shortcuts, but taking advice from people who’ve been where you are now.
With that said, I’d love to introduce you to some tools and resources that may make your business life a bit easier.
Just to note, I’ve used almost all of these resources myself, and some may contain an affiliate link (marked with *). I will let you know which tools I’m no longer using, but I would never recommend anything I have no connection or experience with.
So here it goes…
Image processing and delivery
Photo Editing
If you want to speed up your photo editing, you can’t really look past either outsourcing that to a person or to an AI tool. Personally, I’m a huge fan of Imagen AI*. I created my profile over the past 2 years, and most of the time, it’s amazing. I still hand-edit every single photo I deliver though.
Another option for AI editing is Aftershoot. It’s a bit cheaper than Imagen AI (Imagen charges by the image, Aftershoot has all-inclusive pricing). I tried Aftershoot for a 30-day trial period and didn’t manage to create a profile that was consistent enough - probably because it takes more than a month to fine-tune. Aftershoot is great if you need to edit a large volume of photos consistently. I didn’t do that so Imagen AI is enough for me.
By the way, using AI for editing - or anything in business - isn't cheating. It's all about how you use it and how much of your own thoughts and skills go into it.
Another option for AI editing is Aftershoot. It’s a bit cheaper than Imagen AI (Imagen charges by the image, Aftershoot has all-inclusive pricing). I tried Aftershoot for a 30-day trial period and didn’t manage to create a profile that was consistent enough - probably because it takes more than a month to fine-tune. Aftershoot is great if you need to edit a large volume of photos consistently. I didn’t do that so Imagen AI is enough for me.
By the way, using AI for editing - or anything in business - isn't cheating. It's all about how you use it and how much of your own thoughts and skills go into it.
Photo delivery
Another tool I don’t want to work without anymore is my client gallery system. I put a lot of energy into my work and want to make sure they land appropriately with my clients.
There are plenty of gallery options, and I’ve tried a few.
I started with SmugMug about 15 years ago. I moved to Pixieset in 2019 and then swiftly changed to Pic-Time because they had a beautiful online shop attached. Pixieset and Pic-time are very similar - but Pic-time has automations that no other software offers. It’s an investment - I pay $400/year for unlimited photo storage. But that allows me to use their serves as my cloud backup and I don’t ever have to delete any galleries.
I started with SmugMug about 15 years ago. I moved to Pixieset in 2019 and then swiftly changed to Pic-Time because they had a beautiful online shop attached. Pixieset and Pic-time are very similar - but Pic-time has automations that no other software offers. It’s an investment - I pay $400/year for unlimited photo storage. But that allows me to use their serves as my cloud backup and I don’t ever have to delete any galleries.
Photography communities and marketing support:
In 2020, when the world seemed to stop, I was 6 months into my new business. Everything came to a screeching halt and I suddenly had way too much time on. my hands - but no work (for obvious reasons). I dove into communities and started to learn what it meant to run a photography business. Here are some communities I found and loved.
The Photographer’s Voice
Julie Christie, the genius behind The Photographer’s Voice has been my mentor for the past 5 years. Over time I needed less and less help from her but she created more than a learning platform for photographers. She built a community. I made friends as well as clients there.
The community is run on facebook with a separate member’s platform where photographers can lern how to run a profitable, successful and aligned business.
DFP - Documentary Family Photographers
A community to strives to elevate this beautiful genre of family photography. There are courses to watch and learn from and the online community lives on circle for exchange and support.
This can’t be that hard
Run by photographer and educator Annemie Tonken, this community serves all sorts of photographers with marketing support, courses and a facebook community. I’ve bought a few of Annemie’s courses - she has come up with fantastic revenue streams for photographers and in her weekly podcast she covers topics every photographer can relate to.
Content creation
One thing I had no clue would be on my weekly to-do list before going full-time was email marketing. I didn’t think people would want to get emails - because we all receive so much spam already. Turns out, people do read emails. As long as they're interesting or provide value.
People also still read blog - not as mucha s in the past but someone who's invested in a topic, will read. So we gotta write something for those people...
People also still read blog - not as mucha s in the past but someone who's invested in a topic, will read. So we gotta write something for those people...
Liz Wilcox - Email Marketing
When I started writing emails, I needed help. I didn’t know what to talk about or how to make my business interesting to potential clients.
Until I found Liz. She’s an email whizz and has a membership that costs only $9/month. It’s a steal, really. She provides templates and talking points and has a vault of previous suggestions to dig into. Her content is not specific for a single business so not everything always relates to a photographer but most themes can be adapted.
I was a member for 2 years until I realised I didn’t need her help anymore. I email my list weekly and pretty much always have something to talk about.
That’s another thing - the moire you do something, the easier it gets. That’s how every week, I can write an email that gets lovely responses and encouragement.
Until I found Liz. She’s an email whizz and has a membership that costs only $9/month. It’s a steal, really. She provides templates and talking points and has a vault of previous suggestions to dig into. Her content is not specific for a single business so not everything always relates to a photographer but most themes can be adapted.
I was a member for 2 years until I realised I didn’t need her help anymore. I email my list weekly and pretty much always have something to talk about.
That’s another thing - the moire you do something, the easier it gets. That’s how every week, I can write an email that gets lovely responses and encouragement.
Annemie Tonken’s Consistency Club
Annemie Tonken, who I mentioned before, has been running this online membership to help photographers create a variety of content. This one, I’ve never tried myself. However, I know that Annemie knows what she’s talking about, and I would endorse pretty much any of her products. So if you need help with emails or social media content - this one might be worth checking out.
Other tools I love (not just for photographers)
My business relies on a lot of help - in the form of humans and tech. A lot of the tools I use, aren’t just for photographers though - However, I still want to mention them here.
CRM - customer relation management system
A CRM is a tool that helps you stay organised by keeping track of client inquiries, bookings, contracts, and communication in one place. It streamlines your workflow so you can spend less time on admin and more time doing the work you love.
In the past, I used Studio Ninja. It’s built by photographers for photographers. I also had an amazing discount code which made it a no-brainer to use SN as my CRM. Over the course of 3 or 4 years though, I felt like my needs had outgrown the system and I moved to Dubsado.
Dubsado is a CRM that’s used by many different professions - it’s not just for photographers. I does a lot. It’s a bit confusing at times but I’m really glad I’ve moved. After 7 months of getting to grips with it, I feel like I’m at home there now.
In the past, I used Studio Ninja. It’s built by photographers for photographers. I also had an amazing discount code which made it a no-brainer to use SN as my CRM. Over the course of 3 or 4 years though, I felt like my needs had outgrown the system and I moved to Dubsado.
Dubsado is a CRM that’s used by many different professions - it’s not just for photographers. I does a lot. It’s a bit confusing at times but I’m really glad I’ve moved. After 7 months of getting to grips with it, I feel like I’m at home there now.
Project Management Tool
There are many tools that help businesses manage their tasks and project. My favourite is Notion. I tried Asana and Trello before and didn’t get on with them. Notion is different though. My whole business lives in it. I’m writing this article in it. My client process is all mapped out in databases.
It’s my business’s lifeline.
‘Nough said.
I created some templates to help others use this programme too. Have a look here.
Or grab my free goal tracker here.
It’s my business’s lifeline.
‘Nough said.
I created some templates to help others use this programme too. Have a look here.
Or grab my free goal tracker here.
Organise your ideas
Milanote is a free tool I use sporadically. It’s great for mood boards or visual idea mapping. It’s very straightforward and it looks fancy. If you like drawing your ideas out on a big piece of paper, this could be the equivalent for you.
Tasklist
Lastly, I want to share my favourite task list tool: Todoist
That’s all this app does, it helps you prioritise your tasks in a list. You can tick them off when they’re done, you can tag them to help prioritising or move them from today to tomorrow to next week (done that plenty of times).
A lot of people use Notion for task lists but personally I think that just clogs up your Notion boards. It’s way too advanced for this. When I want to make sure I get done what I had set out to do, I don’t want any distractions. Todoist gives me that. It works on my phone and computer and sync as long as the device is connected to the internet
That’s all this app does, it helps you prioritise your tasks in a list. You can tick them off when they’re done, you can tag them to help prioritising or move them from today to tomorrow to next week (done that plenty of times).
A lot of people use Notion for task lists but personally I think that just clogs up your Notion boards. It’s way too advanced for this. When I want to make sure I get done what I had set out to do, I don’t want any distractions. Todoist gives me that. It works on my phone and computer and sync as long as the device is connected to the internet
I hope this helps!
There you have it, these are my most-recommended tools for photographers (minus the obvious editing tools or camera overview). This is, of course, not a complete list but if you’re just setting out with your photography business, I hope these suggestions will help you stay focussed and minimise getting caught up in doing everything manually and the hard way – because oftentimes it’s better to invest a little bit of money to get help than spend hours figuring it put yourself. Use that time to look after your clients – or yourself even.
If you’d like to read more insights into otehr articles I wrote to draw back teh curtain from me business, feel free to browse through some of my most popular blog posts:
In the past, I’ve worked with a number of photographers as well – we, too, need photos to represent our business. So if you’re local to Sussex (or even if you’re not), let me know if I can help you show up in your bsuiness through some brand photography.
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