Software That Every Fashion Photographer Needs
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As a fashion photographer, there will be plenty of kit that you know you need. Lenses, cameras, backpacks, hard drives, laptops, etc... but what about software?
Over the years, I've discovered more and more amazing pieces of software that I now couldn't run my business without, and I wanted to share them with you here today. So let's go, here is all of the software that I recommend to all fashion photographers:
Squarespace: Ok, so the first one is a bit of a "trick question" because although I say you "need" Squarespace, what I really mean is that you need a website. In the day of "Instagram photographers" I truly think that to come across as a professional photographer, a website takes you from amateur to professional very quickly. I love Squarespace because it's so easy to use, the template designs are all lovely, and I think that it's just a really clever system! It integrates everything I could ever need. That being said, if Squarespace doesn't appeal/work for you, use any other website building software.
Adobe Lightroom:* When I was at Uni, I was taught to use Adobe Bridge. However when I left uni, and embarked on the world of wedding photography, everyone in that industry was using Lightroom. I gave it a go, and honestly I'd never go back! Lightroom is absolutely fab, and I can actually get the bulk of all of my editing done in Lightroom*. Sometimes, I don't even need to open up Photoshop to edit a fashion image at all! I'm going to do some more video tutorials on Lightroom soon, but if you don't already use it, I would recommend giving it a go. You can get a free 30 day trial here!
Adobe Photoshop:* This one is probably quite obvious, but I do think that as a fashion photographer knowing and using Photoshop is quite essential. If you're totally new to Photoshop*, I'll be creating video tutorials for you soon, but in the mean time, here are a few places that I recommend getting started to learn: PHLEARN, Jessica Kobeissi, Anita Sadowska.
Quickbooks: Who'da thought that I'd become a bit of a personal finance nerd. I'm not the best yet, but I've learnt A LOT in the last 12 months about personal finance, managing my money and my income. Quickbooks has a lot to do with me feeling more saavy about my money. I use Quickbooks to do my bookkeeping, send my invoices, track my mileage, and it even predicts how much tax I will have to pay/if I have any tax to expect. I do have accountants, so I don't file my tax return myself, however if you wanted to do it yourself, you can even file your tax return straight from Quickbooks. It's genius, I love it, and it's so affordable that I think anyone should give it a go.
Backblaze: A few months ago I invested in a Cloud back up system. I had a nightmare one night that I woke up to all of my hard drives randomly melting, and I lost all of my work. As a result, I now back up my images to three hard drives always, but I also use Backblaze! This was one of the highest rated cloud backup systems that I found, and also wasn't too expensive. I've used it only a handful of times to get ahold of files, and it was always when I was abroad without one of my hard drives but needed access to files. It's super handy for that reason, and I love it.
Canva:Canva is such a great little tool, especially for those of us who are "graphic designly challenged" like me! I'm a terrible graphic designer, so being able to open up Canva, which is basically a massive database of templates to use, is brilliant. There is a paid for version, but I don't use that. I stick to all of Canva's free bits, and it works perfectly for everything I need. I tend to use Canva for: making Pinterest banners, making website banners, media kits, pretty PDF displays... basically anything where I need to combine my images with design!
Trello: Trello is another free programme that I use every day. Trello is essentially a "Pinterest for note taking." That's what I like to call it anyway! You make boards for different topics, and within those boards you can have different "cards" where you jot down ideas, notes, to do's... anything at all. I have various different boards for different things, but I mainly use it for keeping all of my ideas in once place. I have a "To Do" board where I list "Ongoing Projects" and "Future Projects." I also have another board where I jot down all of my photoshoot ideas, another for content ideas, another for life goals. You name it, the list could go on and on. I keep the Trello app on my smartphone, which means that whenever I'm out and about and get an idea, I can open up my board, jot it down, and next time I log into Trello on my laptop, it's right there, ready for me to find.
Signable:Signable is a contract sending website which I've started to use recently, and I do quite like. It's super easy to use, and you can upload your contact and add text boxes to it yourself to make it super easy for your clients to fill out your contract quickly and easily.
Dropbox: I have been using Dropbox for YEARS. Far too long to even remember when I first signed up. I pay for 2TB of storage, and it's the main way that I choose to deliver my images to my clients. Honestly I don't think its any better than WeTransfer, but it's simply what I've used and loved for so many years that I'm happy to stick with it for now.
There you go! Those are all the softwares that I use within my fashion photography business on a regular basis. I love them all, and I find them all super useful. I hope that they help you, but if you have any questions about any of them, feel free to send me an email and I'll help however I can :)
