If you’re a wedding, event or portrait photographer, high volume photography is an amazing way to diversify your services and bring in extra income. There is plenty of demand for high volume photography, and doing a good job can land you other attractive gigs.
What exactly is high volume photography?
As the name suggests, it’s when you’re expected to take a large number of photos in a short space of time. Hence, there is a focus on consistency and repeatability. Clients are not looking for a creative photographer, they are looking for someone who can get the job done quickly and efficiently.
Here are some examples of high volume photography:
- Corporate headshots for the whole company at their office
- Portraits for families at special events, like Halloween or Christmas
- School portraits for the yearbook or graduation
- Amateur sports or dance photography for schools
- Branded photo opportunity at events, with a backdrop or personality
- Award photography, where recipients receive an award on stage
We’ve covered how to set up a pop-up studio for high volume portraits in a separate article.
Since you’re grinding out a large number of photos, you need to have an efficient workflow in place to handle and distribute the photos. Your clients are not going to distribute the photos for you, because it’s too much work for them. They are hiring you to manage all of that for them.
That means you need a way to shoot, upload and share the right photos with the right people. Ideally, you want to be able to share the photos instantly, to create the greatest impact. This can even be a necessity for certain events like public roadshows, where you might not be able to collect everyone’s contact information to send the photos to them later (sometimes due to privacy reasons). In any case, sharing the photos right away saves you the trouble of doing it after the event.
The perfect high volume photography software can automate all of that for you, so that you can focus on taking photos.
As high volume photographers ourselves, we built Honcho just for this purpose to simplify our lives. With Honcho, you can easily create the following workflow:
- Upload photos from camera to cloud, as you shoot
- Share the right photos with the right people automatically, with AI-powered face recognition
- Add to the overall experience with live slideshows and wireless printing
In this article, we show you how to use Honcho as the perfect software for high volume photography. You can also create a free account and start right away.
In addition, you can join our affiliate program and earn up to USD$88.50 for every new customer that you refer to us. That’s a generous commission!
Upload Photos Instantly, From Camera to Cloud
Honcho lets you upload photos in real-time as you shoot, instantly creating a shareable online gallery that can be opened in the browser, on any device.
This is done by tethering your camera to your smartphone via the Honcho app, which automatically detects your camera. As you capture photos, they’re transferred to the app and uploaded to the cloud.
Honcho uses wired tethering for fast, reliable performance, and it’s compatible with any standard data cable. High-resolution photos are typically transferred and uploaded in about five seconds.
You can also select the upload resolution, from full-quality images to compressed versions at 640px on the long edge. Smaller files, like the 640px versions, upload almost instantly.
What makes Honcho unique is that it doesn’t require additional hardware. Unlike other tethering solutions like CamRanger, which often need extra equipment to extend the connection range, Honcho only requires your camera and phone, giving you virtually unlimited range to move freely around a venue without losing connection.
With Honcho, you can share selected photos with a QR code, or allow attendees to find their own photos in the online gallery with face recognition.
QR Code
In the Honcho app, select the photos you want to share and tap on the Share icon.
Attendees can scan the QR code to view and download only the selected photos.
Face Recognition
Share the link to the online gallery with the attendees, where they can view all of the photos from the event. If privacy is a concern and you don’t want the attendees to view all of the photos, we provide a solution in the next section.
Attendees can tap on the Find Me button and upload a selfie. Honcho automatically finds just the person’s photos and creates a personalized gallery, by matching the photos to the selfie with face recognition.
This is especially convenient if you do not want to generate different QR codes for each person. Just direct everyone to the online gallery, and they can easily find their own photos within seconds.
Blur Photos in the Online Gallery
As mentioned in the previous section, you can distribute your photos with face recognition, by sharing the online gallery with everyone. Attendees can then open the online gallery and find their own photos by uploading a selfie.
However, attendees will be able to see everyone else’s photos in the online gallery, which might be a privacy concern.
Honcho provides a simple and innovative solution: blurring all the photos in the gallery. Only images found through facial recognition are unblurred, allowing each attendee to view only the photos they appear in.
This approach makes it possible to share the entire gallery while preserving privacy, allowing each attendee to access only their own photos.
Play Live Slideshows to Engage the Audience
There are certain types of high volume photography where having a live slideshow can create an immersive and engaging experience, to add to the overall experience of the event. For example, this is amazing for red carpet events with a branded photo opportunity. Displaying photos on a large screen engages the audience, sparks conversations, and enhances the event’s atmosphere.
It’s also an excellent opportunity to showcase your photos in real time. When someone in the crowd needs a photographer for their own event, who do you think they’ll remember?
Honcho makes setting up a live slideshow easy. Just open the online gallery, click “More,” and choose “Slideshow”—no additional software required.
Print Wirelessly
Selling prints can help you generate extra income without much extra work. Prints are especially popular for certain events, like sports photography for schools or family portraits for special occasions. We have users who can generate an additional $1,000 per day, and that adds up to become a significant revenue stream.
Honcho makes it easy to manage on-site printing, and it can be done wirelessly.
Let’s start by getting your printer set up.
First, download and install the CloudPrint app on your laptop—it’s available for free for all Honcho users.
Then, connect your printer to your laptop. In CloudPrint, you can choose your printer and paper size.
Finally, give a name to your printer so that you can easily find it in Honcho.
Click on Connect. Your printer is now online and ready to print wirelessly.
In the Honcho mobile app or website, select the photo to print. Then, tap on the Print icon.
Select the name of your printer and tap on Print. And that’s it, you have successfully printed with Honcho.
Since it works wirelessly, you can print on any device. For example, you can open up Honcho on your phone, and send the prints wirelessly to your printer—which is connected to your laptop.
This gives you flexibility in your workflow. For example, you can have an assistant to manage the printing—accessing Honcho from the same laptop that the printer is connected to. Or you can print the photos yourself from the mobile app.
Conclusion
High volume photography is a great way for you to complement your other photography services and generate extra income. If you’re looking to get into it, you need to work with software to efficiently handle and distribute the large number of photos.
Having the right high volume photography software can save you hours per event, so you can focus on taking photos and creating an amazing experience—which contributes to growing your business. Honcho is the best software for that, because it lets you upload photos as you shoot, and share them instantly with face recognition.
Sign up for a free Honcho account today and discover how it can transform your high volume photography workflow.
In addition, you can join our affiliate program and earn up to USD$88.50 for every new customer that you refer to us. That’s a generous commission!
