Pixieset is a popular client gallery for photographers and its value is in the presentation of the photos. It helps photographers deliver their photos in a professional looking online gallery, which can be easily accessed in the browser without any app download. Clients can view and download the photos in different sizes, that the photographer can control.
This is in contrast to file sharing services like Dropbox and Google Drive, which do not offer galleries that are as aesthetically pleasing, or control over download sizes.
We believe that Pixieset and similar services are great for what they are designed for—delivering photos to clients after the shoot.
However, we also believe that there’s a much better way to deliver photos, especially for events, weddings and high-volume headshots.
There are a couple of limitations to how we deliver photos today:
- It’s too slow. People are the most excited to receive their photos while the event or wedding is happening, not days or weeks after it’s over. By delivering your photos slowly, you miss the most important time window.
- It’s too much work for guests to find their own photos, because they have to scroll through the whole gallery to pick them out. It’s also too much work for photographers or clients to send only the right photos to each guest.
As photographers ourselves, we felt strongly that there has to be a better way to deliver photos. Hence, we built Honcho as an alternative to Pixieset, to address these two limitations.
- Honcho helps you deliver the photos instantly, during the shoot. This is done by uploading photos from camera to cloud (by tethering the camera to your phone), while you shoot.
- Honcho helps you share the right photos with the right people, with AI-powered face recognition. Your guests can easily find their own photos by uploading a selfie. Honcho then matches the right photos with the selfie and delivers them in a personal gallery for each guest.
In this article, we describe how you can use Honcho to elevate your photography service and why we think it’s the best Pixieset alternative. You can also sign up for a free account and get started immediately.
Upload Photos Instantly, From Camera to Cloud
Honcho lets you upload photos while you shoot. The uploaded photos can be viewed instantly in an online gallery, which you can share with clients and guests.
It’s done by tethering your camera to your smartphone, with the Honcho app installed—the app automatically detects your camera. As you shoot, the photos are transferred to the app, which uploads them to the cloud.
Once the photos are uploaded, they can be accessed from anywhere, on any device. For example, they can be accessed on another phone or laptop, in the mobile app or web app that runs in the browser.
Honcho supports wired tethering because of its speed and reliability, and it works with any data cable. The photos are transferred and uploaded very quickly, usually within 5 seconds for high resolution photos.
You can choose the photo size to upload, from original resolution to photos that are compressed to 640px on the long edge. Obviously, smaller photos are uploaded even faster—at 640px, the uploads are almost instantaneous.
The great thing about Honcho is that it works without any additional equipment. Many tethering solutions (such as the CamRanger) require investment in hardware, usually to extend the range of the connection. Honcho just needs your camera and phone, and it essentially has unlimited range. This gives you the freedom to roam around the venue, without worrying about the connection.
As a photographer, I’m sure you agree that it’s frustrating when your photos are not distributed to the guests.
Yes, we all understand that we’re hired by the client, whether it’s an event planner or wedding couple. They have the final say in how the photos are shared with everyone else.
That said, we’ve all encountered clients who do not share the photos or don’t do so in a timely manner. It’s why we often get guests coming up to us or emailing us for their photos after the event.
We believe our photos have value not just to the clients, but to everyone else at the event. We capture moments that are important and meaningful to the guests, and they deserve to have the photos as a record of these moments.
This is not to put the blame on the clients. They are often incredibly busy and have too much on their plate, so distributing the photos becomes an afterthought.
The real problem is that there isn’t an easy and effective way to distribute the photos. Until now, that is.
With Honcho, guests can view and download all of the photos in the online gallery. Since you’re uploading the photos while you shoot, it means that guests can view them in real-time. This makes a huge difference to their experience, because they are getting their photos when they are the most excited about them.
While guests often enjoy seeing all of the photos from an event, they also want to find their own photos. This used to be a time consuming process, because they had to scroll through the gallery to find the photos.
Honcho simplifies the process to a single step—uploading a selfie. It finds the right photos by matching them to the selfie with face recognition, and delivers them in a personal gallery. Every guest will get a gallery that’s personalised for them, with just their own photos.
One of the main reasons why clients don’t distribute the photos to guests is because of concerns about privacy. For instance, wedding couples do not want all of their most intimate moments to be seen by everyone. Event planners are concerned about sharing all of the guests’ photos publicly, out of respect for their privacy.
The unfortunate end result is that no one gets their photos, and they lose their value over time.
Honcho solves this problem by giving you better controls over privacy.
The first option is to set a password for the online gallery, so that only certain people can access it. This is an option that many services (like Pixieset and its alternatives) provide, and it can be useful if you only intend to share the photos within an exclusive group.
However, we believe that this approach has severe limitations. Again, we’re interested in distributing the photos to all of the guests, not just to a select group.
Honcho offers a simple and elegant solution, by letting you blur all of the photos in the online gallery. Only photos that are found with face recognition are unblurred, which means you can only see your own photos and no one else’s.
This allows you to share the photos publicly with everyone, make sure that every guest will get their own photos, while protecting everyone’s privacy—all at the same time. It’s a unique solution that’s only possible with Honcho.
Play Live Slideshows to Engage the Audience
We strongly believe that photography can be more than just documenting an event or wedding. It can be an experience in itself. All of the features we’ve talked about so far help to contribute to the overall experience of your photography service, elevating it above just documenting an event.
Live slideshows are another tool to help you create a compelling experience. There’s something magical about showing beautiful photos on a large screen, because people love seeing photos of themselves. It raises the energy in a room and gets conversations going.
It’s also win-win for you, because you get to showcase your photos to an engaged audience. Guess who they will think of if they need a photographer too?
Honcho makes it super simple to start a live slideshow. Just open the online gallery in any browser, click on the More button, and select Slideshow. There’s no need to install any software, it just works.
You can moderate the photos in the mobile app, or on any other device. For instance, you can hire an assistant to moderate the photos from a laptop, and they can see your photos in real-time without you having to manually transfer any files. Depending on how you prefer to work, you can set the default status of new photos to published or unpublished.
Print On-Site Without Manually Transferring Files
All of the features we’ve covered help you to upsell your photography, so that you can charge higher rates and earn more per booking. Offering instant prints on-site is another option that our clients love, and help us to bring in more revenue.
There’s something special about holding a physical print in your hands, and many of our clients want to provide keepsakes to their guests. They are a great replacement for party or wedding favours, and are personally meaningful for every guest.
Traditionally, printing on-site requires you to manually transfer files from your camera to your laptop, which is a hassle in the middle of a busy event. Honcho greatly simplifies the process and allows you to print wirelessly from any device, without having to manually transfer files.
It gives you the flexibility to work with different arrangements. You can print the photos yourself in the mobile app, or you can hire an assistant to print from a laptop. Since your photos are uploaded to the cloud in real-time, your assistant can view and print them in real-time.
Conclusion
There are many missed opportunities with the way we deliver our photos today. While Pixieset (and other similar services) are great for delivering your photos after the event, we believe it’s much better to instantly share your photos during the event.
Honcho is the best Pixieset alternative that helps you do that and more. You can share the right photos with the right people with face recognition, while protecting everyone’s privacy. You can play live slideshows and print on-site, wirelessly.
We need to take a broader view of what we’re bringing to the table as photographers. Events are all about creating memorable experiences. If we continue with the mindset that we’re just there to record an event, we’re in danger of becoming obsolete—after all, everyone has an amazing camera in their pocket now.
Hence, we need to think about how photography can add to the overall experience of the event or wedding. When you bring more value to your clients, you grow your business and bring more success for yourself.
Take the first step by signing up for a free account with Honcho, and see for yourself how it can transform your photography business.
