SpotMyPhotos is a photo sharing app that allows photographers to instantly share their photos with clients and guests, which is especially useful for events, weddings and high-volume headshot sessions. It works by letting photographers upload photos to the cloud as they shoot. After the photos are uploaded, the app automatically shares the right photos to the right people, using face recognition.
It’s a powerful way to maximize the impact of your photos, by sharing them instantly—when people are the most excited to receive them. It’s also easy for anyone to find their own photos with face recognition, without having to search through the whole gallery.
That said, SpotMyPhotos has several limitations that make it difficult for some photographers to adopt.
- The mobile app is only available for iOS. If you’re an Android user, you’re out of luck.
- The cost of their subscription can be prohibitively expensive, and they do not offer a free trial to test their app. Hence, you have to make a significant commitment right away, even before seeing how their system works.
We believe that software should be accessible. That’s why we built Honcho as a SpotMyPhotos alternative to address these limitations, so that more photographers can use it to grow their businesses.
- Honcho is available on all platforms—iOS, Android and web. You can access it on any device and work in teams.
- Honcho offers a free plan. You can test out our app and get familiar with the workflow, before you ever need to pay for a plan.
In this article, we show you how to use Honcho as a SpotMyPhotos alternative to elevate your photography business. You can also create a free account and start right away.
Upload Photos Instantly, From Camera to Cloud
Honcho lets you upload photos in real time as you take them, instantly creating an online gallery that’s easy to share with clients and guests.
This is achieved by tethering your camera to your smartphone via the Honcho app (available on iOS and Android), which automatically detects the camera. Once a photo is captured, it’s immediately transferred to the app and uploaded to the cloud.
Once uploaded, these images can be accessed from any device—whether it’s a phone or a laptop—through the mobile or web app.
Honcho uses wired tethering for fast and reliable performance, compatible with any standard data cable. High-resolution images are typically transferred and uploaded in about five seconds.
You can also choose the upload resolution, from full-quality images to compressed versions at 640px on the longest side. Smaller files, like the 640px versions, are uploaded almost instantly.
What makes Honcho unique is that it doesn’t require any extra hardware. Unlike other tethering solutions, like CamRanger, which often need additional gear to extend the connection range, Honcho only needs your camera and phone, offering virtually unlimited range. This lets you move freely throughout a venue without worrying about losing connection.
Upload Post-Processed Photos After the Event
While Honcho allows real-time photo uploads, it also offers the option to upload images after the event. Many photographers choose to do both—sharing photos instantly during the event for immediate access by clients and guests, and then uploading edited, final images afterward as a polished deliverable.
By uploading edited photos to Honcho, clients and guests can use the face recognition feature to easily find their own pictures, streamlining the process of sharing the right photos with the right people.
To upload edited photos, simply drag and drop the files on the Honcho website. The platform can process large batches of images quickly, and with flexible cloud storage plans, you can scale up as needed.
You can also customize the download options, offering both high-resolution and web-size images. Web-size photos are ideal for quick sharing on social media or through messaging platforms.
As a photographer, you’ve likely dealt with the frustration of your photos not reaching the guests.
We understand that our primary responsibility is to the client—whether it’s an event planner or a wedding couple—and it’s ultimately up to them when and how the photos are shared.
However, it’s common for clients to delay sharing photos, or sometimes not share them at all, leading guests to reach out to you directly after the event, hoping to get their images.
We believe that the photos we capture are valuable not only to the client but to everyone who attended the event. These moments are significant for the guests as well, and they deserve access to those memories.
This isn’t about faulting the clients—they often have other priorities, and distributing photos may not be a top concern.
The real challenge lies in the absence of a simple, efficient way to share event photos. That’s where Honcho comes in.
With Honcho, guests can instantly view and download photos from an online gallery. Since images are uploaded in real-time, guests can access them while the event is still fresh in their minds.
While guests appreciate seeing all the event photos, they also want an easy way to find their own. In the past, this meant scrolling through the entire gallery, which could be time-consuming.
Honcho solves this with a smart feature: guests upload a selfie, and the app’s face recognition finds their images and presents them in a personalized gallery. Each guest gets a curated gallery with only the photos they appear in, making the experience effortless and personalized.
One of the main reasons clients are reluctant to share photos with guests is due to privacy concerns. For instance, wedding couples may prefer to keep certain intimate moments private, and event planners often avoid publicly sharing guest photos out of respect for their privacy.
As a result, many photos go undistributed, diminishing their value and impact over time.
Honcho addresses this challenge with advanced privacy controls.
One option is to password-protect the online gallery, limiting access to a specific group. This is ideal for sharing photos with a select audience.
However, password protection can be restrictive if the goal is to share photos with all event attendees.
That’s where Honcho’s more innovative, guest-friendly approach comes in: blurring all the photos in the gallery. Only images identified through facial recognition are unblurred, so each guest can only view the photos they appear in.
This allows you to share the entire gallery with everyone while ensuring each guest can only access their own photos. It’s a unique solution from Honcho that offers both wide photo sharing and privacy protection at the same time.
Play Live Slideshows to Engage the Audience
We believe photography should be more than just capturing moments at a wedding or event—it should be an immersive experience. Every feature we’ve discussed is designed to transform your photography services into something more than just capturing moments.
One of the best ways to create that immersive experience is through live slideshows. There’s something magical about seeing your photos displayed on a big screen. It energizes the crowd, sparks conversations, and enhances the overall atmosphere.
It’s also a fantastic opportunity to showcase your work to a live audience. And when someone in the crowd needs a photographer in the future, who do you think they’ll remember?
Honcho makes setting up a live slideshow effortless. Simply open the gallery, click “More,” and select “Slideshow.” No additional software is needed.
You can also moderate the slideshow from the mobile app or any device. For example, an assistant can moderate it from a laptop, viewing your photos in real-time without manual file transfers. You can decide whether to automatically publish new photos or keep them unpublished until you’re ready, depending on your workflow.
Print On-Site Without Manually Transferring Files
The features we’ve discussed not only enhance your photography services but also create opportunities for upselling, allowing you to charge higher rates and increase your earnings per booking. A popular way to boost revenue is by offering on-site instant prints.
There’s something uniquely special about receiving a physical print, and many clients love the idea of giving personalized keepsakes to their guests. These prints can be meaningful, customized alternatives to traditional party or wedding favors.
Typically, on-site printing can be a hassle, requiring manual file transfers from your camera to a laptop, which can be challenging during a busy event. Honcho simplifies this process by enabling wireless printing from any device, removing the need for manual transfers.
It also offers flexibility in print management. You can print directly from the mobile app, or an assistant can handle printing from a laptop. Since your photos are uploaded to the cloud in real time, your assistant can access and print them instantly, making the process seamless and efficient.
Conclusion
We have to change the way we deliver photos today. The usual approach of sharing the photos days or weeks after an event or wedding is causing so many missed opportunities—to create impact and excitement, to add to the event experience and ultimately, to grow our businesses. Sharing photos instantly during the event creates a far greater impact.
That said, Honcho offers a powerful solution that goes beyond instant photo sharing. With features like face recognition, guests can privately receive their own images. You can also run live slideshows and print photos wirelessly on-site, enhancing the overall event experience.
As photographers, we need to think beyond just documenting events. Events are about creating unforgettable experiences. If we limit ourselves to simply capturing moments, we risk becoming irrelevant—especially in a world where everyone has a high-quality camera at their fingertips.
It’s time to rethink how photography can elevate weddings and events. By providing more value to your clients, you can not only grow your business but also stand out from the competition.
Sign up for a free Honcho account today and discover how it can transform your photography business.
