How to Get the Most Out of Outsourcing | Tips for Portrait and Wedding Photographers Looking to Outsource Photo Editing

How to Get the Most out of Outsourcing

You’ve officially made the leap to start outsourcing your wedding and portrait images by booking with an editor! But…now what?

Getting booked with an editor is a huge step, but it doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to immedaitely experience all the great benefits touted by editors. Throughout my 5 years of editing, I’ve noticed that there is usually one big difference between photographers who end up loving outsourcing and seeing those positive changes in their business, and those who never do and ultimately taper off their outsourcing. That difference is: the amount of galleries they send and the regularity in which they do so. Photographers who only dip their toes into outsourcing typically never get to really see the benefits of it, but photograhers who leap all the way in and outsource 80-100% of their galleries, always find outsourcing to be incredibly life-changing and beneficial to their business!

Now, you might be thinking this is super obvious, but you would be very surprised by how many photographers I’ve worked with over the years who plan on sending multiple galleries every week, but in reality only end up sending one or two a month, and then ultimately decide to discontinue outsourcing because they didn’t feel like it was saving them time despite not actually sending many galleries. This is the exact opposite of what you should do if you’re a photographer, and not because of it’s impact on me as your editor, but because of it’s impact on you!

While outsourcing your wedding or portrait galleries typically does not involve any huge changes to your workflow, especially thanks to the marvels of Lightroom, it does require a slight adjustment (which I guide you through every step of the way.) If you only send an occasional gallery here or there, that slightly different workflow will always feel like it’s slowing you down rather than saving you time. If you commit to the outsourcing process and start consistently sending me 80-100% of your galleries, the outsourcing workflow finally gets to shine because you’re not having to re-figure out how to send me a gallery each time. Instead, you’re just editing a few anchor edits per gallery, uploading it to my dropbox, and forgetting all about it until it magically shows back up in your inbox in a few days, ready to review and deliver to your clients! Once you’ve done the process a handful of times and get into the routine of it, you are guaranteed to start noticing a huge weight lifting off your shoulders. You’ll start feeling like you really have the extra time to either grow your business how you want to, or take that extra time and put it back into your family and life outside of work.

I’ve been editing full time for over 5 years now, and the photographers who have stuck with outsourcing for the longest periods of time (and still to do to this day) are the ones who build the extra cost into their client pricing, and outsource the majority of their galleries to me all year long. Whether the majority of your galleries turns out to be a couple a month or 10 a week doesn’t matter, it just matters that you’re allowing your editor to truly do the job you booked me to do!

So now that you’ve booked with an editor, if you find yourself not really feeling any weight lifted off your shoulders, or finding yourself to be a little slowed down each time you think about sending a gallery off, take a minute to reflect on if you’ve actually outsourced enough galleries to let it be the time-saving routine that it was meant to be!

Becca Mathews

Private Editor for Portrait and Wedding Photographers