I am going to share some of my favorite resources as a photographer and most that I use on a daily basis! Here are 10 apps + softwares for photographers that are key to your business!

The Best Softwares for Photographers

Oh the things I wish I would have known when I was first starting my business…. I can’t go back and change that, but I can share my experience and knowledge with you! Because starting a business is no joke, and it is very easy to get overwhelmed in the beginning, so I am here to help!! 

1. Honeybook

Honeybook is hands down my lifesaver when it comes to managing my business and CRM (client relationship management) and my biggest program recommendation. When I started using Honeybook in 2017, my business completely changed! 

It is where I create + send invoices to all my clients, schedule client phone calls, create customized workflows, customized emails, questionnaires, contact forms, bookkeeping, keep my notes for each project, create + send gift cards, keep track of my calendar so I never double book anything, etc. I could go on all day! 

I used to do all of this myself manually by mailing contracts, cashing checks, using excel spreadsheets, old school calendar…. NO THANK YOU!! 

Honeybook has saved me endless amounts of time and energy, and essentially brought me more income with the time I’ve saved. And I have a special discount just for you, 50% off for your first year of Honeybook!! You will not regret it! 

2. Quickbooks

Quickbooks Online is where I create + send all of my invoices. You just link up your bank accounts and it keeps track of it all for you. It is easier for me to keep track of all of my income + expenses to send over to my accountant come tax time. It also allows me to categorize each expense/income for tax purposes to make it simpler as well. Another great bonus is it allows you to keep track of your mileage as well which comes in handy for taxes as a tax deduction.

Each quarter Quickbooks tells you what you will owe in taxes so you know what to send into the IRS and helps make sure you don’t miss any payments. Again, I used to manually do all of this myself in an excel spreadsheet, and the thought of doing this manually again makes me want to vom!

The reason I also love sending invoices through Quickbooks is the super low transaction fees which ultimately saves me more than $2k each year on just transaction fees that would have been lost money. So worth it to me!

With my code you will get 50% off for 3 months AND a $50 VISA gift card when you sign up HERE. 

3. PASS Plus

PASS plus is the online photo gallery program I use to deliver all of my clients beautiful images. I love that I have unlimited space so I don’t have to worry about deleting their albums at a certain time. My photos also upload so dang fast and it is SO user friendly for my clients. 

Another awesome benefit is that they can order photos, prints, albums, etc right from their gallery without you even lifting a finger and you get paid for it! You can set your own prices for things and it is just so nice. The photos also stay on there for 10 years and unlimited storage… AMAZING. 

I used to send CD’s or send photos through dropbox.. PLEASE DON’T DO THIS. If you are using anything other than a photo delivery program, now is the time to make the switch! 

Using a photo delivery program is a beautiful way to categorize and organize your photos in a chronological order to provide the best experience for your clients, and I am always blown away seeing other photographer’s galleries. 

Want to try out PASS Plus? You can get one month free to test it out HERE.

4. Tailwind

Tailwind is the program I use to schedule my pins for Pinterest; it is a scheduling tool that works hand in hand with Pinterest to automatically pin at the times your audience is on to optimize your engagement, reach, and website traffic. 

Tailwind has been HUGE for my business marketing. Pinterest is where I get a lot of my inquiries from because people have found me through my pins – how cool is that?! This has made it a game changer in booking more of my destination/travel work because you can market yourself anywhere on Pinterest!

If you want to read more about my Pinterest tips you can read more HERE. And if you want to try Tailwind out, get started with a FREE account. They allow up to 100 pins for free to try out!

5. JPEG Mini

JPEG Mini is an awesome program that helps size down your images to save space on both your hard drive and your online photo galleries. Resizing your images down is SO important when it comes to website optimization and load time, so not only will this be great for you but it will be easier for your clients viewing pleasures as well!

6. Hanging Branch

You know I am all about that Client Experience, so finding a good company you love is important! I finally found a company that offers super good products at a very reasonable price, and they deliver quickly too! Hanging branch offers USB’s, photo boxes, and folio boxes which they can customize with your logo or client’s names. If I do the photo boxes, I then order prints on Miller’s Lab which are amazing quality and arrive very fast as well.

Use the code: RACHELT10 to receive 10% off your first order with Hanging Branch.

7. Canva

Canva is where I create all of my marketing content, graphics, etc. I get so many compliments on how consistent my branding is, and I owe a lot of that to Canva since I have all of my branding in Canva already and can always stay consistent! 

I love that I can keep everything onbrand and can create just about anything of any size. Canva also offers a mobile app so you can create and download on the go too, which if you’re like me, is a must!! You can earn Canva credit by using this link HERE.

8. Plann

Curating and scheduling my Instagram is so easy with Plann. It’s an app you can use on either your phone or desktop to plan out and curate your Instagram feed. Planning your instagram grid can be overwhelming, but Plann makes it so fun and easy! 

Some of my favorite features are being able to write out the caption ahead of time, seeing what hashtags are doing well, check out your insights, and you can also plan and schedule both your posts and your stories which is awesome too! Try it out for free HERE.

9. Smarthash

Smarthash is a program for managing your hashtag performance to see and know which hashtags are performing the best and will help you continue to grow your platform. This helps tremendously when you are using some of the same hashtags over and over to see if they are even driving any traffic to your page and helping you grow. This is something I use just about daily and is such a great tool for social media!

10. Hishhash

Another program I always use for my hashtags which shuffles them up each time so that way each time I post my hashtags on my posts they are not in the ame order which has been told to cause shadowbanning or causing the hashtag not to work for your post. Either way it is nice to have them mixed up so I am not posting the same ones in the same order every single time! 

Download the HishHash app on iPhone to start using it now!

Final Thoughts

These softwares for photographers and resources are meant to give you back time so you can focus on what you love doing, and also help you run a successful and professional business. Whether you are just starting out in photography or have been doing it awhile and looking to try new programs, these are some of my favorite! Now get out there and crush it, friend!

If you know of any other efficient business programs/tools that you don’t see listed, let me know in the comments below!