Workflows - Photography Podcast

[00:00:00] Allie Siarto: Instead of just like click, click, click, click, click, click, click taking thousands of photos. I'm very intentional about the photos that I take.

[00:00:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Welcome to Workflows presented by ImagenAI workflows is a podcast about saving you time and money in your photography business. Hear from people just like you put down that camera for little connect the headphones and get to work with.

[00:00:27] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Allie Siarto is an award winning photographer with a focus on visual brand story. She runs the photo field notes, podcast, sharing photo, business, and marketing advice for photographers. Allie's background is in advertising and public relations. She teaches as an adjunct instructor and co-leads a study abroad program in Rome through Michigan state university's advertising and PR.

[00:00:53] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Allie's photography work has been published in pop sugar country, living apartment therapy. How's the knot. And so many other incredible publications outside of photography. Allie spend as much time as possible exploring lake Michigan by sailboat with her family and helping to run her local arts commission to bring art into public spaces.

[00:01:16] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And without further ado, let's get right to my conversation with Allie. Hello, Allie. It's a. Been what, like two weeks since we talked last. Yup. Yup. So this episode is going live on May 1st. This is episode seven of our podcast. So first thank you for joining me and being really guest number six, cause we didn't have a guest for episode, one of the workflow's podcast.

[00:01:44] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Really nice to have you on very excited to have this discussion. So you can share all of your, your goodies with the, with the listeners. It's a very exciting,

[00:01:53] Allie Siarto: yeah, it's good to see you for, I think like the third time we've chatted in recent history. So this is fun

[00:01:59] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: for sure. For sure. So let's dive into the first question that I have for you.

[00:02:03] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And it's the same question I ask every guest. And that is what is one thing that you do for the photographic process? That has saved you time, the things behind the camera or lighting, things like that. What is one thing you do for the photographic process that saves you?

[00:02:18] Allie Siarto: Okay. Yeah. So I think the number, one thing that I do and that I tell my associates to do that.

[00:02:25] Allie Siarto: Everything easier is to just slow down and get the images right in camera. And so a lot of that is communicating with your clients. I remember when I first started, I thought that I had to be magical and fast because sometimes they thought like, oh, you're going from inside, outside when I was shooting.

[00:02:45] Allie Siarto: Full on weddings. As my full-time focus, oh, you're going from inside to outside, like get this quick shot and you know, you can do that. You can have two cameras or you can make some quick changes, but it's not immediate. And so it's all about communicating with people and taking the time and talking the whole way through, even if it feels kind of ridiculous.

[00:03:05] Allie Siarto: So for example, let's say that I'm photographing family photos, because that's one that you can really make a lot of mistakes in when you're at a wedding or even. Family photos like a big group photo. So what I used to do was be like, oh my gosh, hair on fire. We have to get through this. It's okay. If things aren't perfect, I'll fix it later.

[00:03:24] Allie Siarto: And that's the worst thing you can say. And so now, I talk all the way through, I say, okay, well, you know, first of all, let me get my expo discs so that I can, well, this is before that starts, but before anything, let me get my expo disc. I'm just setting my white balance. That means your skin tone is going to look perfect.

[00:03:43] Allie Siarto: And so they know what I'm doing. And. They're not feeling, I'm not feeling the rush. If I need to change a lens I changed my lens and I say, Hey, I'm changing my lens because this portrait lens is going to look so much better and you're going to look great in it. And so I had. Associates photographing weddings for me, I realized that a lot of photographers, family photos, for instance, instead of zooming with their feet where they back up, they just assume what their lens.

[00:04:10] Allie Siarto: And then they get these really wide angle photos. Maybe they're not cropped quite how you want, so then you have to crop them later. And so I take the time and I communicate the whole way through. I'm going to back up now because I really love this lens. Same way. I'm communicating, I'm over communicating with them so that I'm getting the shot where I hopefully won't really have to crop it.

[00:04:32] Allie Siarto: I won't really have to do anything. And then when people would come to me and be like, oh, I got something on my shirt, but you can just Photoshop that. I'm like, let's get that off your shirt or let's get your hair right. Or let's get you in the right place and take enough photos where your eyes are open.

[00:04:46] Allie Siarto: And I get the. But the other thing that goes with that and slowing down is that instead of just like click, click, click, click, click, click, click taking thousands of photos. I'm very intentional about the photos that I take. And so I, I really try not to overshoot because every single photo that I take is not more time I have to spend in calling.

[00:05:08] Allie Siarto: And so I want to like wait for the moment. And then obviously if something's in motion, I'll take more, but I'm not, I'm not overshooting. So those are my big things. Communicate. Slow down, get it right in camera and don't take too many photos.

[00:05:23] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. You know, I, and I completely completely agree with you, especially about, I mean, all of it, but the, the communication is so crucial for, you know, especially for the, for the slowing down part, but, but your clients will appreciate it.

[00:05:38] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: The fact that you're, you're over, over communicating every aspect that, you know, like. Their interest. They hired you that are interested in what you're doing. Not just, they don't want you there just to take the pictures and walk and walk away. They want you to get them involved in the process as much as possible

[00:05:54] Allie Siarto: silence makes people nervous.

[00:05:56] Allie Siarto: And so that's why I think some people feel really rushed. And I don't know if this was just me, but I feel like a lot of photographers feel like they need to rush through it. And it is so true. If you're quiet, they're going to be. Am I doing this right. What's going on? And so all you have to say is if you just have to come up with something to say, even if it's just the same, oh, you're doing great.

[00:06:16] Allie Siarto: Or hang on just a quick second. I have to make a quick change in my settings. It's like, you don't have to do anything. I'll let you know when I'm ready. Just let them know what's going on because they will get nervous if you don't. And it just makes, yeah, it makes everything run more smoothly.

[00:06:31] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: It's also a good opportunity to, to, to get your clients to.

[00:06:36] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Laughing naturally, because you could, you could say, I'm going to switch this lens for this purpose, whatever, whatever. And then right when you're done, you can say, okay, now the whistle wog is ready to launch. They're like something, really something that makes absolutely no sense. It makes no sense, but it's going to get them to start laughing.

[00:06:53] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And now your lens, you know, you've switched your lens. You've said something really ridiculous. They're laughing and you're ready to get that, that natural lash photo.

[00:07:02] Allie Siarto: Yeah. Yeah, because the worst thing you can do is like, get them in a pose or whatever, however you shoot and then like, Ben, switch your lens and not tell them, or like switch your settings.

[00:07:10] Allie Siarto: And then. Still holding it awkwardly. So yeah, that's all. That's my

[00:07:16] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: deal. Yeah. If anybody wants to use the word with a log, please, please go. So now that you've talked about the photographic process, what is one thing you do for your business that has saved you time or money?

[00:07:28] Allie Siarto: I automate absolutely everything I can in my business.

[00:07:32] Allie Siarto: And I have I've gone through different periods of outsourcing. I've typically been kind of I have associates who actually do the outsourcing for the taking photos, but when it comes to in the business, I tend to do a lot of it. Cause I've got, I have so many systems now that I'm very fast at everything and I actually really love everything behind the scenes.

[00:07:53] Allie Siarto: And so you know, if you enjoy it and I love. If you love it, it's, I'm okay with the lifestyle that I've built around it. But I feel like I basically have an assistant built in, I use 17 hats for my my workflows and I feel like it's like having a personal assistant. Absolutely. Everything is as automated as can be.

[00:08:14] Allie Siarto: I use booking calendars where people can just book right online. So it's kind of the philosophy of this is for portraits. Not for everything. Not everything can be booked directly online. Sometimes they do have to talk to me first. What kind of session and the price point, but for like a basic session, they can just book it online, a basic headshot.

[00:08:31] Allie Siarto: They can book it on a booking calendar and then it runs through an automatic workflow where they get everything they need. And it's very low touch for me. And so I would say I'm, I'm a little bit more of a high volume photographer in that regard. But if you look at like what I make per hour, it works out really well that way.

[00:08:47] Allie Siarto: And I also use Calendly for booking meetings. So for the clients that are hiring. I when the next step is not to just book automatically, but to talk to me, they get a Calendly link so that they can just go. You know, I used to, so I'll say this, the worst thing you can do in that regard is just say like, is to not give them the next call to action, to not give them the next step.

[00:09:10] Allie Siarto: If the next step is to talk to you, just be like, let me know what you think. No, you give them the next step. And if the next step is to talk to you, if you don't use something like calendar, You would give them three times to choose from, well, that's kind of a pain cause you have to come up with three times.

[00:09:24] Allie Siarto: So it's so much easier if you have your entire calendar sinked and then they just go and they pick a time. And so I think that's like a must have for every small business owner these days.

[00:09:35] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, I agree. I completely agree. I use it for so I use a tiny Cal for my photography business and I use the cow.

[00:09:45] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Looking for the podcast. For example, there are a button. Yeah. Yeah. There's tons of them out there telling they're

[00:09:50] Allie Siarto: very affordable. It's like having a personal assistant. It saves you so much time. So those are like, and I learned that early on that if you don't tell them that next step, that the next step is to book a meeting.

[00:10:01] Allie Siarto: If you leave it to them, they'll just write you back and be like, okay, now what? So just make it really easy to guide them through that.

[00:10:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: For sure. For sure. Great. So, so what is now one thing you do for the editing process that has saved you time? And, and I I'm asking this because your somebody who not only is photo photographing clients, but you've also educated people on editing workflows, you know, that you do this through your photo field notes.

[00:10:28] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And so what you have to say about that.

[00:10:33] Allie Siarto: Yeah. Okay. So, you know, I can't just do one because obviously ImagenAI is a part of that workflow that saved me a ton of time, especially in weddings. But I, the, the two tools that probably saved me the most time are photo mechanic, which I'm sure everybody now knows about, or if you don't use it, like, it's just such a great tool for if you do your own calling and then.

[00:10:55] Allie Siarto: ImagenAI is great. I mean, I use that now where I used to either I'd get into the busy season. I'd either do my own full on editing. I would hire outsourcers, but it would be like, it wouldn't, I would be too picky, but this one, now I just upload it and I get my images back. I may make it like a few small tweaks and I'm good to go.

[00:11:15] Allie Siarto: So that's been, it's like saved my sanity on and especially on

[00:11:20] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: the busy season. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. So it's it is funny because there's a lot of there's a lot of different things that you could do in the editing process to, to speed things up. Obviously ImagenAI's want. I have seen a lot of people talking about a photo mechanic.

[00:11:37] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I've never used photo mechanic, even though it's existed for so long. I've historically I've always just used Lightroom or a bridge actually pre okay.

[00:11:47] Allie Siarto: So I used to use bridge. Yeah. I used to use bridge, but it loads the image fully. And so it would just take that little, like that one extra second for it to load.

[00:11:56] Allie Siarto: So photo mechanic doesn't load the full image. So it's instant. And if. Going through a ton of images that saves you a ton of time. Like it's, it's not the most crisp, perfectly clear image. So occasionally you might not be able to tell if it's a perfectly clear image looking at it in that format. But overall you can like if you have to save to, to go back and Lightroom and call those two later, that's still going to save you a ton of time over going through them in light room, like where they all load individually and you wait for them to load.

[00:12:27] Allie Siarto: So I've found it's made my. Like now in Lightroom I'm like load load more quickly. But also because in order to use ImagenAI you obviously have to have already edited a number of photos. The other thing is just like, oh, oh, I have another good one. Sorry. Okay. So first, you know, using a good preset, that's going to.

[00:12:47] Allie Siarto: Really make your style easy. So I use Mastin labs presets. I use the Fuji preset for actually everything. And then the other thing I use, I'm going to hold this up. I know this isn't on video, but for you, Scott, you can share it.

[00:12:59] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: This will be on YouTube. This will be okay.

[00:13:01] Allie Siarto: It's on YouTube. So I, this used to be called pallet pallet gear, and now it's called it has a new name and I'll have to remember what it is and tell you.

[00:13:10] Allie Siarto: So it's, if you are listening to this, you can't see it. It's a series of knobs that plugs into your computer and you can associate the knobs with different Lightroom or really any program with different Settings on Lightroom, for example. And so what I do, it also saves ergonomically. It saves my wrist.

[00:13:28] Allie Siarto: So when I'm making little tweaks, I have really, I only use mainly these three different tourney knobs kind of looks like I'm like a DJ, like doing my thing. And so they're turning ops where I adjust exposure. I just temperature and I adjust tint. Those are the main things I'm adjusting quickly here.

[00:13:47] Allie Siarto: And you can set how sensitive it is. And then I have buttons that I can click. And honestly, you could use keyboard shortcuts, but it's just fun to have a big button where I'll do like a lens correction or something like that. So you can set it to anything. Those are the three things that I use the most.

[00:14:01] Allie Siarto: And so I. Tool has saved me a bazillion hours in my life. And I used to like manually drag all those things. And I know again, there are shortcuts and you can do it how you want it. You should, at the very least be setting up keyboard shortcuts for that. I just love the, the manual feel of like twisting the knob and it makes the exposure go up.

[00:14:22] Allie Siarto: So for me, that's been, it makes editing more fun. It's more ergonomic and it's way faster.

[00:14:29] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yeah. We've so in the, in a episode, I think it was episode three. Sam heard shares shared that he uses like a little mini controller to do the same thing. You know, there's other ways there's there's loop deck.

[00:14:42] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: There's so many there's tour box. There's so many different hardware devices. You know, or designed, or even just can be used for, for that purpose. I, I definitely agree. I use loop the loop, deck myself smaller,

[00:14:56] Allie Siarto: but yeah, and you could, I mean, it's just makes it fun. You could truly just use keyboard shortcuts, but like you something, because it's going to be a lot faster

[00:15:05] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: even.

[00:15:05] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So I've got this Logitech mouse. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 buttons that I can program on this mouse without moving my hands to be shortcuts, to do whatever I want in life. I don't do that for Lightroom, but, but

[00:15:20] Allie Siarto: when you can program it to your own desire, you know, like we each have our own workflow. And so whatever you're using the most, if you can program something to make that a shortcut, please do it.

[00:15:31] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. On this note, a little bit of a call to action for everybody listening, go into the ImagenAI community. Share if you're using a piece of hardware to speed up your editing workflow or your calling walk workflow for that matter share what you're using with the Imagener community. So others can, can learn from you.

[00:15:51] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, okay. All right. So my next question for you is what is one thing you do after a set. That, that has increased your business,

[00:16:05] Allie Siarto: asking for reviews every time. So whenever I deliver photos, I ask for reviews, I just kind of put it in a little PS and I word it in a specific way where I say, if you felt your experience was worthy of five stars, I would love a review of review goes a long way or something like that.

[00:16:22] Allie Siarto: And I link to the specific places. So it's one click for them to leave those. But I also say, you know, if you have feedback for me, I would love to hear it. And what that does is hypothetically, if they were going to leave a bad review for me, instead of leaving a bad review, they would just reply. So I'm basically, I'm asking for that feedback because a lot of times.

[00:16:44] Allie Siarto: If customers are unhappy, for some reason, they want to express it. And so if the business owner is willing to listen and make changes and, and here you, you know, people usually, I don't think want to be malicious or leave bad reviews. They just want their problem solved. And so people are very willing when you make it easy for them to click the click, the review, leave a nice review.

[00:17:05] Allie Siarto: And so when I do that, you know, are five star reviews. So I get a lot of great. Reviews that way. And that same email. When I deliver the images, I give them options for how they can credit me and also in their print release, how they. And I do say, you know, you've purchased these images. You do not have to credit me, but it goes a long way for me as a small business.

[00:17:25] Allie Siarto: And so I say, if you want to, here are the places that you can credit me on Instagram, on Facebook. And so again, it's just quick and easy, and then that tends to make them credit me more often. And then it's fun to see the images, see the reactions and there people are finding out who's taking their.

[00:17:45] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Right.

[00:17:45] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: In my, in my post-session workflow automation, I have, I have a similar email to you. I have another one that goes out like a week later that says it talks more about like referrals, you know, like basically the whole referral package, where if you refer somebody you're getting X credit for, for your next session, like that kind of thing.

[00:18:04] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So that kind of ties into your crediting, you know, Right. So, yeah,

[00:18:10] Allie Siarto: just make it obvious. One other thing that I've started to do, because this I think is maybe worth pointing out because for a long time I was afraid to do this. And sometimes I admit I still don't is asking this as specifically when I'm in the studio doing branding photography, I'll ask people if they seem like they'll be into it.

[00:18:27] Allie Siarto: Can I set up my camera on the ledge and just put it in super speed motion to get some behind the scenes footage. And then I have some really fun footage that shows me at work and I can put together. And Instagram real splicing that with real behind the scenes with some of the images. And so it does, it goes a long way for marketing.

[00:18:44] Allie Siarto: So in all these cases, it's like not being afraid to ask because for a long time, I was afraid to ask for all of these things. And I think you'll be surprised that your clients are very willing to do all of these things. And the worst thing that can happen is they say, no thanks.

[00:18:58] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. In, in fact, like, so behind the scenes, Can do behind the seeds.

[00:19:04] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Footage can do, can really help, you know, increase business dramatically. And if you do get approval from your clients to film behind the scenes it might actually be worth, you know, if, if you want, instead of just setting it up on a, on a ledge, on a tripod, whatever is actually hiring an assistant, just to film that for your session.

[00:19:26] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You get one or two sessions from that behind the scenes footage you've paid for your assistant multiple times. Right? So somebody stopping for uh, for people to consider, if they, you know are in a position where they can hire it might be worth considering.

[00:19:42] Allie Siarto: Yeah. And for my other sessions I do a lot of senior grad college grads, which has sort of its own little niche in in my area because I live by Michigan state university.

[00:19:54] Allie Siarto: And so a lot of times I'll have them bring a helper. Anyway, if they have their dog or they have their clothes or whatever, it's just really nice to have a helper. And so I think this spring, I'm going to start asking them to take my camera and take my phone and just take some behind the scenes.

[00:20:11] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That's a nice, nice idea.

[00:20:12] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, would you ever consider offering if there was any pushback to have asking one of your client's friends to do it would you consider giving a discount if they yeah, and

[00:20:27] Allie Siarto: incentive, I would probably do a print credit, like I would give you a small print credit. And that also has.

[00:20:34] Allie Siarto: That prince in my, in my grad sessions are important. And so, yeah, I would probably, I might do that, like offer them if you do this for me and get some great footage, I'm going to repay you with a nice print credit at the end of this.

[00:20:47] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. You had a great idea. I love it. I love it. Okay. So, so now is the point of the episode where I am going to ask you to look down at your business from a 30,000 foot view and share an outline breakdown of your workflow from lead to deliver.

[00:21:04] Allie Siarto: Okay, now it's different for different sessions. So let me tell you my main focus now, now in we're recording in 2022 is branding for most of the year. And then in the spring, basically there's like a, a four week period where I do like a million. Grad photos for seniors at Michigan state. So I'll look at, I'll look at the grad photos, because I think that probably relates to a lot of photographers who are doing like any kind of photo session.

[00:21:35] Allie Siarto: So to start this, let me say I don't do in-person sales, but I do sell a lot of. Through my process and I am a little bit higher volume to a point where I feel like I'm serving my clients really well, but I'm also able to make a good hourly rate. So that's the, that's the intro. So the first thing that I do that I really just started doing in the last year, that's been excellent for my lifestyle is I set up a booking calendar.

[00:22:04] Allie Siarto: And so I used to make them fill out the contact form, go back and forth compared to the. Find a day books and a contract is very handy. And then I realized in the process of like booking a massage or booking like a workout class, like you love, people love that. The ease of just going see unavailability clicking on it.

[00:22:26] Allie Siarto: And you're good. And so at the beginning of the year, I went through 17 hats is what I use for my booking calendar. It's all included in there. And I looked at the time of the sunset for like every week of the year. I looked at how many sessions I wanted to book to meet my goals. And then also like to cut myself off to have balance in my life and I scheduled session availability.

[00:22:49] Allie Siarto: And so it's already prescheduled through the year, what I want to fill in and they can just, so it's set based on the sunset and then I stack them. So like the full length. 60 or 90 minutes, they get to generally choose their location. It's a little bit more hands-on and then I do add some, I call them mini sessions.

[00:23:07] Allie Siarto: They're actually 30 minutes. So they're not that many, but they're many compared to my normal, they don't get to choose their location. So it's just right before the longer session. So it's kind of like a quick, easy add on where I can make it. That's $400. I can make an extra $400. I'm already there.

[00:23:23] Allie Siarto: It's quick and easy. So those are all prescheduled. So they go on be. They automatically get a contract. They get automatically get the details to add on to that, because in the spring I do so many Michigan state seniors. I actually say in the booking calendar that I'm only shooting on campus for like four weeks.

[00:23:40] Allie Siarto: So that makes that easy in the rest of the year. What I was doing with families, I'm not. As much with that, like I'm still serving some existing clients, but I'm not really photographing families anymore. I did have a location guide that would automatically go out where they could choose their location based on my recommendations and sample images.

[00:23:57] Allie Siarto: But basically they get the contract, they sign it. The one step I do have to take is I have to sign it and then it automatically sends them a prep guide. So I've put together these prep guides that. How to walk through their home and take pictures of their walls to send to me, to figure out based on like where they want art in their home, what kind of style they have, what kind of clothes they should wear, what location they should have.

[00:24:20] Allie Siarto: It shows them how to style photos into their home. It gives them inspiration. It shows them products. I show them hair and makeup recommendations. Like my favorite people. It's all there for them. I also have. Style and select like as much as I can automate to make it very full service and very helpful, but it's all done automatically.

[00:24:38] Allie Siarto: So style and select, they can take a quiz with their style, their colors, their people, and then it automatically shows them outfit ideas. So they're pretty much like all doing this on their own. They can email me if they have questions, but for the most part, it's like fully automated. And then they get the reminder email before the session.

[00:24:56] Allie Siarto: So then at the session I have him come a few minutes early. I can show them what the prints look like in person, since I don't do in person sales, like this is a mounted print, this is a fine art print. And then we do the session and then I tell them that I will let them know when the images are almost ready.

[00:25:12] Allie Siarto: And when they're almost ready, they'll pick a date to see the images for the first. And so that, you know, I get them kind of pumped up because I say instead of just sending them to you while you're at work, and then one of you will look at the images depending on like, if it's like a couple or family or whoever then you'll look at the images at work and then you don't see them together.

[00:25:32] Allie Siarto: You're going gonna, you're going to pick a date. It's going to be a date night. Or if it's like a senior, like get with your family and you're going to get to see them all together. So they get excited for that. So they pick their date. I send the images, I do a picks pick salute.com slideshow. So they get to see it as a slideshow.

[00:25:49] Allie Siarto: First to music, it's more engaging. I'm like pop some popcorn. And once they see the images on a slide show, then they get access to their gallery and then they can also order prints from there. So then they order their prints. I follow up to make sure they do get retouching with their. So I don't do retouching or minimal retouching offered with regular sessions, but if they order prints, they get retouching.

[00:26:16] Allie Siarto: So I follow up on that and and get that to them and I put time limits on it so that they can't take forever to make those decisions. And then they get prints in hand. And so, you know, I might have in the busy season, I might have like three sessions a day. So the amount of time that I'm putting in is Sometimes like less than in person sales, but actually hour for hour, because I'm doing three sessions instead of one, I'm able to make a good amount, again, a good hourly rate on that, and I'm still give them the digitals.

[00:26:49] Allie Siarto: And for me, because senior grads absolutely want, they want those images for Instagram. They want those images to share with their friends like digital images. The end product that they want in that case, they do buy prints too. But for me, it's important to give them that. So I do offer the digitals.

[00:27:07] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I I really, really liked the, the the part where your images are nearly ready.

[00:27:14] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Like that must boost their, their There FOMO, you know, like I want them now. I want them know, you know, like that, even if it's a week ahead, that must a, the anticipation must be built up so much and their system. Yeah. And

[00:27:30] Allie Siarto: usually it's like, when I, by the time I email them that the images are nearly ready, they're actually ready.

[00:27:35] Allie Siarto: So I make sure that they're ready, but I want them to pick that date and I've, I've done it in the past for even. At, or before the session, I'll say, pick your date within like two weeks from now, you can get them. So they just pick their date right away. But I don't know, I get them done pretty quickly.

[00:27:51] Allie Siarto: And so I like to get them to them soon. So is life, but the funny thing about picking your date is that I've actually what surprised me was I had some. Who would actually wait a whole extra week to see their images just so they could be together. If one person was on a business trip or out of town and they truly wanted to see them together, they would actually wait that much longer when they could have lied to me and gotten them the next day.

[00:28:16] Allie Siarto: But I think that shows just how important it is for them to actually see them to be together, to see them for the first

[00:28:21] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: time. It makes me wonder actually A company like, like pig solu who has smart slides which by the way is my also my favorite slideshow creation tool for photographers. If there's a missed opportunity or maybe they're working on it already, where it integration with apple share, play where you know, families can literally watch the same thing in real time together while on a FaceTime call or whatever.

[00:28:47] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: There's no lack right there. See it the same exact time. If one person pauses, it is pause for everybody, you know, that whole, the whole thing. Yeah.

[00:28:55] Allie Siarto: Because they do sometimes do virtual, like viewing parties. Like I, you know, I give them, I do say, you know, send me other email addresses if people can't be with you just to make sure that they're getting to see them.

[00:29:05] Allie Siarto: But yeah, I think that'd be fine.

[00:29:07] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, it would be, it would be cool. So as somebody who uses AI right now in, in, in your photography business, what does the future of AI and photography look like?

[00:29:20] Allie Siarto: For me, I, when I think about it, I think about the things that I'm still too nervous to let go of. And it's not even necessarily that it's the future, like these technologies exist.

[00:29:28] Allie Siarto: So maybe it's making them to a point where I'm comfortable or I just need to explore them further. One is like calling and I, again, I know that exists. I just haven't explored it fully. Automatically call. And the other thing is retouching, which again exists, but those are the two things that I'm still doing manually.

[00:29:46] Allie Siarto: And I'm, I'm looking into some technologies that are making that easier, but it's, it's that fully like being able to let go and know that when you get it back, you might only have to make small tweaks or you're going to be confident with what you get. So that's when I feel like AI has really. Made it for me is when I'm like, yeah, I'm going to use it and I'm not going to worry about.

[00:30:11] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. Yeah. I definitely think as far as editing goes, retouching is, is it's going to make its way in to a regular workflows for sure. All in all in due time, I think.

[00:30:25] Allie Siarto: Yeah, it's coming. There are some that are, that I'm again, looking up that looked like they have potential.

[00:30:30] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Awesome. As a user of ImagenAI I have to ask how did ImagenAI's impact.

[00:30:41] Allie Siarto: Okay. So it found me last fall when I was in the midst of probably the busiest fall of my life, because here in Michigan, we have fall colors and everybody wants their holiday cards. And that is the time when everybody does their photos. I was still doing quite a few weddings because we had. Filling in gaps leftover from the year before when the pandemic made a lot of weddings postponed.

[00:31:04] Allie Siarto: And so I was kind of in this desperate situation, also having associates, like I think I had like seven or eight weddings to edit in a month plus 35 sessions. And so I had found an editor. Who was charging and I don't know, like 33 or 35 cents an image. And I think I still had a hard time letting go with an editor and then somebody in a local Facebook group was like, Hey, check this out and showed a before and after.

[00:31:29] Allie Siarto: And I think that was what was so impactful was that everybody was like, that looks good. So they were showing ImagenAI. And it was just so easy to get started because, you know, you had like no risk. You can try it for free. I had plenty of galleries to upload because you have to upload, what is it?

[00:31:47] Allie Siarto: 5,000 images a lot. I had a lot to show and a mix from inside, outside. And so I uploaded it waited my few days and yeah. I was just blown away at how well they came, how great they looked, the images when they came back that I was able to eat, you know? And I always tell people like outsource before you need it.

[00:32:08] Allie Siarto: Like hire an editor before you get into the busy season, because it's too hard to get someone to have the match, your style when you're already in the heart of it. Well, in this case, it was so easy. I was straight up in the heart of the busy season and getting my style matched was really easy because it was based on my.

[00:32:25] Allie Siarto: So I didn't have to like train someone over time, you know, it does take, what does it take? It took like three days to get the profile back, but I didn't have to train someone and go back and forth. It just really looked great from the get-go. And so that was like how I got through my busy season. I was completely caught up on editing.

[00:32:42] Allie Siarto: I had friends who would still be editing like a month beyond me. And I would be like, why? Like, I was like little evangelists, like, why are you not using this? Because I was just done so much faster than them. And so. It's just, it's really fun to go back and see. Cause I would kind of like dread getting images back from a human editor and I mean, maybe this is terrible to say, but like I felt like I had to go back and make quite a few little tweaks.

[00:33:07] Allie Siarto: I couldn't let go. And with this one, truly like, you know, I'll have to make like little tiny tweaks here and there just for specifics, but truly for the most part, I'm like, good, good, good, good, good to go. It looks good. Looks good. And and then like the images that I, cause I. I will edit a preview. And so I might have like 50 or a hundred.

[00:33:26] Allie Siarto: Mm. That I'll just do I do that? Yeah. Cause a couple images that I'll do as a preview just ahead of time. And sometimes I'll look at my edits and then I'll look at the ImagenAI edits and I'm like, oh, I like theirs. It's better. So I'll like get to mine. It's just been, it's been incredibly helpful.

[00:33:43] Allie Siarto: And I think that you can see that wave of excitement through our local photography groups as people, especially when people share those before and afters and can see just how good it looks and how consistent it looks.

[00:33:56] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Well, I definitely we all add a mention. I appreciate your your Advocacy without us asking regarding the, the, the human outsourced editor.

[00:34:06] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, I mean, we've heard that a lot. And so it's not something new that, you know, that I haven't heard before, but I think part of the thing is so human outsource editors are good, but humans make mistakes. First of all. And second of all, there's also emotion attached to it still as a, as an outsource team.

[00:34:26] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Outsource editor, there's still emotion there. So one of the things that's a, I guess, an advantage of AI doing it is it's doing it based on data and science, right? So it's it, it's the human element is completely removed and it just literally looking at what you've done and it's replicating it. So I think that's why in, in many cases, just accuracy, consistency.

[00:34:52] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You know, better overall and on that front. So yeah. Yeah. So so we're, we're at the end here. I'm wondering where where can listeners learn more about you? Where can they connect with you? And of course see your incredible photography.

[00:35:11] Allie Siarto: I'm in two main places. One is photo field notes.com or at photo field notes.

[00:35:16] Allie Siarto: That's the podcast for photographers. I do have a shop there where I sell those workflows and like templates for those guides that automate everything. Like every email I write to make it really easy. And then my actual business is alliesiarto.com. So it's A L L I E S I A R T O.com at AllieSiarto . And that's where you can see now.

[00:35:38] Allie Siarto: If you go to it today, you'll see highlighted mostly the branding work. Cause that's what I'm doing now with those four weeks of seniors in there. So those are the two main places where I'm hanging out.

[00:35:49] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. Well, thank you Allie, for for hopping on and sharing your, your your insights, your workflows.

[00:35:57] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I really appreciate it and I'm sure that all the listeners will, will walk away with a whole bunch of cool ideas. To to hopefully implement their business. Thanks Scott. Thank you so much, Allie, for that incredible conversation about your photography workflows. Now, for everybody listening, you are invited to be a part of the bigger conversation.

[00:36:21] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Join the ImagenAI community today, by going to imagine-ai.com/community. And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, you've been listening to workflows presented by ImagenAI. To see the show notes and everything referenced in this episode, please go to imagine-ai.com/podcast.