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All-In Wedding Photography
The business podcast for wedding photographers who want to build a booking system that works.
If you're tired of feeling stuck and alone in your business, this podcast is for you.
Join wedding photographer Alex Stead with co-host Ren as they break down funnels, marketing, pricing, and business strategies together in a way that actually makes sense.
New episodes every Thursday - hit subscribe so you never miss one!
All-In Wedding Photography
Every Photographer’s Worst NIGHTMARE (And How to Avoid It)
You’ve heard the horror stories.
Hard drive crashes. Memory cards lost. Robbed at a gas station.
(Okay, that one might be specific to me.)
In this episode, we’re walking you through the exact photo backup system we use in our wedding photography business—because nothing makes your stomach drop like the thought of losing someone’s wedding photos.
Whether you’re just starting out or years into your business, this episode breaks down how to create a system that protects your work, gives you peace of mind, and helps you sleep at night (even if you fall in the ocean).
We’re covering:
• What to do before the wedding even starts
• How to remove human error from your workflow
• Our full post-wedding photo backup process
• Why we track every card, drive, and deadline in our GSD (Get Sh*t Done) spreadsheet
• The free software we swear by
• Why outsourcing post-processing tasks doesn’t take away from your creativity—it protects it
Want the full backup system we use?
You can grab the exact tools and workflow we talk about in this episode—including our GSD spreadsheet, our checklist, and step-by-step videos—in our mini-course for just $7.
Get the system here → https://alexsteadphotography.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1182110/?action=signup
Because panicking at 3am wondering if you backed up that wedding?
That’s out.
Having a system that actually has your back?
That’s in.
can we start with a little bit of a horror story, horror, horror, horror story. Imagine you just got married and your photographer has been a little bit MIA. You haven't got a teaser, or if you did, it was like only a couple of photos and it was like kind of random. And then you message them a few times in the next few weeks and you haven't heard from them. Maybe you post your local bridal group and finally you get a hold of them and they say I'm so sorry, my hard drive corrupted, I lost all your photos. Those couple that you got are the only ones that we have.
Speaker 1:I had this recurring nightmare that I've had at least once a week for 15 years, at least once a week for 15 years. A memory card fails, a hard drive fails, human error Something tragic happens. You're in a car accident or your house catches fire. You're on your way home from a wedding and you stop at a gas station and your car gets broken into and robbed, or your house catches fire. You're on your way home from a wedding and you stop at a gas station and your car gets broken into and robbed. I'm shooting a wedding and I fall in the ocean. I put the memory card in my pocket and then I put the pocket in the wash when you're starting out because you don't know any better, like you don't know what you don't know, right. So this is not a like shaming photographers who don't know. This is like if that story made you like, then this episode is for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come back.
Speaker 1:Don't quit, Come back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If that was like oh my God, that's my worst nightmare.
Speaker 2:Or it's happened.
Speaker 1:Or it's happened to you hey.
Speaker 2:No judgment, Not a shame game.
Speaker 1:Absolutely not. But there is absolutely a way to remove human error, and our motto always I don't have problems, I got systems, I got systems. I got systems Because as long as you have a system that you follow, human error doesn't get to be a part of it, because there's checks and balances at every single step that removes the, the ability for me to make mistakes, or at least like, eliminates it as much as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I make a mistake, it's not the, it's not the only thing standing. Actually, my system allows me to make mistakes, if anything else, because there's so many checks and balances.
Speaker 2:We've had points of failure. We've had situations where something happens to a card, something happens to a hard drive. Most often something isn't logged correctly and that puts you into a frenzy. It's all fine and dandy if you've got everything backed up perfectly, double backed up. If you don't know where it is, it's all fine and dandy If you've got everything backed up perfectly, double backed up. If you don't know where it is, it doesn't really matter. But a lot of the time it's set up. So if one point, if one point fails, you still don't lose or have ruined the photos. What are points of failure that you're worrying about? You said human error, there's got to be more. Are points of failure that you're worrying about? You said human error, there's got to be more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so usually it's like a memory card fails, a hard drive fails, something tragic happens, like you're in a car accident or your house catches fire and the photos are only in that place, or maybe like you're on your way home from a wedding. One of my biggest fears this is so random is like you're on your way home from a wedding and you stop at a gas station and your car gets broken into and robbed while you're paying for gas, which is such a random fear, but it's like kept me up at night well, I think it's a.
Speaker 2:It's a typical point in your day where you are leaving your car unlocked. Where yeah you otherwise? Or?
Speaker 1:you're like walking from the venue to your car and you get mobbed. I don't know like there's like situations, flash mobbed you get flash mobbed. They're doing thriller you have no choice but to join. The memory cards fly out of your gutter. A rat takes it, puts it in its nest I have this recurring nightmare that I've had at least once a week for 15 years, that I'm shooting a wedding and I fall in the ocean, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just. I'm just cause the cards are in the camera and you're always around the ocean. Yeah, that's my, it's always there. You've actually just listed so many more fears of losing photos than I knew as the person who like takes care of.
Speaker 1:I've had a lot, lot okay.
Speaker 2:so I have an anxiety disorder and I'm a wedding photographer you have, I think realistically, if you fell in the ocean and you lost, like up to that point of the day's photos, at least it was witnessed as a genuine act of god, accident yeah, also, memory cards are more, um, waterproof than you'd think.
Speaker 1:You want to tell them how we know that. Yeah, I so again, systems. This was not like a memory card from a wedding that hadn't been backed up or anything. I was out taking like some some landscape photos and I put the memory card in my pocket and then I put the pocket in the wash.
Speaker 2:The pocket in the pants in the wash. All right, and was it okay? Yeah, it was totally fine, so they're, they're, they're.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm not going to suggest that you wash your memory cards after every wedding or anything but but like puddles and stuff Rain. Yeah, like your gear is meant to be Used Water resistant in general. Okay, we have systems so that photos don't get lost. We try to remove human error.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the gsd yeah so gsd does not stand for german shepherd dog, but it stands for get shit done, and it is a spreadsheet that I made. Ren has perfected. I don't have problems. I have spreadsheets, yeah, and turned into like a really really cool, very useful spreadsheet. It's part of the club. You can also purchase this like a standalone, so the GSD keeps us on task. The GSD is where we keep track of literally everything we have, like the date, the couple's name, payment information, what stage of backup it's in, which memory cards we use to shoot the wedding, which hard drives we use to back it up, because all those things are recoverable, so every memory card is labeled and every hard drive is labeled.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I took a silver sharpie to the back of all the uh sds. So the memory cards, yeah, and I just labeled them like 1 through 16 or whatever it is. Yeah, and the hard drives I type like I rename them when we get them, I give them a name and they all follow. They all follow in order and that's all tracked. So we know on the GSD, we know when the shoot happened, how long the shoot was, the couple's name. If there was video, there's something that highlights it, because it's not typical for there to be video. So it can be a point of human failure if you're not looking in the Because they go in different folders.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the MP4 folder in the SDs are easy to overlook because you're not checking them usually and then you have it, so it auto prompts calling deadlines and editing deadlines. Yeah, so that's something you can do in Spreadsheet, if you. You can just buy our Spreadsheet yeah maybe because.
Speaker 1:So, we're in the show notes I'm going to actually offer. This is the first time I've ever offered this for seven bucks. You can buy the whole system, so it's the GSD, the checklist, as well as the few videos on my backup systems and the products that you can purchase. That's great, I think $7 is a decent price for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as much as I would love to explain to you how to the spreadsheet like, honestly it would overwhelm me to share. So I can imagine it would overwhelm you to hear Just let me do, just let me write the formulas and the and if you love that stuff, then you'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but either way, we track it all and we keep track of it all the time. It's not a thing that like lives in a dusty corner. This is like pinned Home page Home page. I check my GSD probably twice a day in the summer. This is like it dictates my workday.
Speaker 2:I do something, I log it.
Speaker 1:I do something, I log it. I'm always logging it. It's really good too, Cause it's also like it helps you stay on top of things. So every day I get up and I look at like what's the next delivery deadline, and I just work on that.
Speaker 2:And it's a great spreadsheet because it's telling you and I love that. It just tells you what to do next?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I know you can set those up in like different CRMs.
Speaker 2:People really like Notion.
Speaker 1:Monday we're just spreadsheet people. It's like it doesn't really matter, it's free, you can share it easily. I already know I don't think it matters which system you're using, as long as you have a system.
Speaker 2:Okay, so the three S's of making delivery times as fast as possible, I don't know. You tell me Systems, softwares and support. Sweet, I like that, thanks. So we talked about systems at length, you've got it. What about softwares?
Speaker 1:So we talked about spreadsheets and options. Yes, that you can use that, aren't spreadsheets. If you're against spreadsheets, you have to use Lightroom apparently, I've been told.
Speaker 1:Lightroom is like the, where I do the bulk of my behind the scenes work on my computer. It's really affordable. It's a great program. I don't know photographers who are like. I think Capture One is an alternative. I would say like 99% of photographers are using Lightroom. All right, what else are you using? I am using PickTime for delivery. Okay, it's good, I like that. My clients can just buy prints right from the store and it pays for my subscription.
Speaker 1:I use Imogen AI, so writing calls in Lightroom, but I pull the pictures into Imogen. It's really good for, like, straightening photos and smoothing skin. So I play, I press, go on those two things and I just apply my preset. Okay, and then I go in after and I hand edit beyond that, but like, the fact that straightening horizons has become something that ai can do has saved me so like probably like two hours per wedding. Wow, right, because straightening horizons was what I was spending most of my time not, but not really, but was. Well, it's taking me about two hours per wedding to straighten horizons. So what else do we use? Right?
Speaker 2:Well, you skipped over the one that I probably rely on the most, which is parachute.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, parachute is such a cool little tool, phenomenal tool, yeah. So actually a friend of mine who works in the film industry put me onto this. She works DIT. So DIT stands for digital image technician. I think so. So on a film set, the DIT is the person who takes the memory cards from the cinematographers and backs them up and does the first pass before the editors get them.
Speaker 2:Otherwise, like being a post processor is a kind of terminology used. Dit just gave me some, you know some insight to that.
Speaker 1:It's also quickly known as dork in a tent, because often on a film set it's someone who sits in a tent on a computer all day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:While everyone else is like out doing outdoor things.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'll tell you how I use parachute, because you, uh you should use it. I, it's free. You can like give a donation. I do every now and then yeah, it's like a buy me a beer sort of yes yeah, uh, so you take your memory cards and because alex double shoots per camera and the setting that means I, I, I always um shoot to two cards.
Speaker 1:yeah, and I shoot the same on two cards. I shoot raw on both memory cards on my camera.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so every camera she's using is already being saved to two cards. Yeah, one of those cards I back up to two hard drives. That card I format using parachute and then it goes into the rotation. And what does parachute do? Ren, parachute formats the card. So I think you can do it on your camera, you can format it right. But when I do it with parachute it's kind of a false formatting. So if between formatting it on parachute and until it's plugged into your slot in your camera and then the formatting is finalized, it'll prompt you because it's gone through this process Until that point, it is both ready to go and you can recover the photos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what Parachute does is it checks every hard drive that's plugged into your computer Mm-hmm, and it cross-references the memory card to your hard drive and make sure that you didn't miss anything and make sure that everything on the card got backed up, because even though when you're backing it up, you're doing it with your eyes, you're checking to make sure the beginning, the middle and the end are there. If one photo or if a set of photos got overlooked, it didn't get transferred over, it was corrupted in the photo taking process, anything like that Parachute's going to send you an alert, not to format the card. Yet Before I used Parachute, I was already doing all these checks and balances, but it was completely dependent on, like, my diligence.
Speaker 1:It's like a little background check that you literally just like it's your final check before you call this fully backed up and then I put that card back into rotation.
Speaker 2:The reason is you can only have so many memory cards on hand. Even as a like, even as a high volume photographer, with all the gear in the world, it gets messy to have too many cards.
Speaker 1:I've heard of photographers who will buy new cards. But like that's also a risk and expensive. Well, like you don't want to be using a card for the first time, every time, every time, because that's that's also a risk and expensive. Well, like you don't want to be using a card for the first time, every time, every time, because that's more of a risk, I find. Because then, like what if the card fails? It's brand new Versus like I think a brand new card is almost more likely to fail. Like I want to know that I've shot on my card and I've put it in my computer to know that, like it works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, inked over and everything. So that card gets put back into the rotation and until it is used again it can be recovered. And because I've logged that this card was used in for who? If every other piece of the system fails, we can go dig that out until you've shot on it again. A lot of things would have to happen.
Speaker 1:It typically goes like the bottom of the barrel, so we're shooting on the card that got used the longest ago.
Speaker 2:The second card, the one from slot two, that gets labeled and stored until the full delivery, yes and then put into rotation. This might be a higher level of diligence than you need to work with just yet. But the reason that I do it this way and the reason that I'm not saving the photo that went in the computer and everything, is because when I think about the, the opportunities for corruption when it is put in the dongle and put through the parachute software, are the are the opportunities that I fear corruption of those photos. Once it's been taken out of the camera, that is an, that's like an untouched card. I feel that's the safest one to keep until delivery. I don't even check to make sure anything's on there Because, again, once it goes into the dongle, if anything does happen to corrupt the cards, then when you take it out and you go to put it in a second time for some reason, you get an error message.
Speaker 2:We don't want that. So second card goes stored, first card goes back into rotation, everything gets logged and parachute is integral to all of that. So that is the parachute system and how it is used, do you think?
Speaker 1:photographers should have a dit. Uh, I think they're hard to come by. I think so too. So I did my own dit for obviously many years, partly because of the anxiety that I have. I don't always trust myself because I trust another person well your brain is mush by the end of the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I love having somebody else who I know is like really really tech savvy and really really organized and very like on top of things in general. I feel really good knowing that they're handling my files with this system that I'm always like privy to. So I think if you have somebody in your life who is really tech savvy, who wants to be part of this, it also frees up a lot of time for people to take on more work. So like because I have you doing my DIT, I'm able to take on like many more hours of work a week, which pays for you plus much more more. So it's a service that pays for itself, I find, because it frees up so much time to do other things.
Speaker 2:I don't think you're going to find people advertising to do this job.
Speaker 2:No, I think that you do have you're training in like a friend or family member or acquaintance yeah, unless you're finding one who's professionally advertising their services and has done this before, they're only going to be as good as your system already is. Yeah, so you still need to know it all yourself and have it honed in sure they can come along and like give it a little bit, a little, a little push. It would be really, really awesome if DIT was a role that wedding photographers could find.
Speaker 1:To me it's the most valuable thing to to like hire out because I still get to do all the creative. It doesn't take anything away from my clients. I'm still the creative I'll say force behind the shooting and the editing. You're handling all the tech.
Speaker 2:You know that kind of leads into. Well, this is more support, except I'm telling you as support what we do, software, so uh support can backup, log, call format cards, enter, charge batteries, prep cameras. This can all be hired out without compromising your artistic value.
Speaker 1:Uh, at the very least you can train in a color and pay them per hour of shooting to call yeah, culling was the first thing I ever hired out and it still, to this day, is the best money I've ever spent.
Speaker 2:I think that if you can get somebody to do the IT, it's not required that they share a house with you. Oh yeah no, I do think proximity matters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they should at least be close enough, because you're going to be trading off.
Speaker 2:You're trading off a lot of like physical equipment. And so, even if you share, like an office space, or they're able to like drop things in your mailbox and go.
Speaker 1:I think if you have like a virtual person doing this, you need to have like your own personal server. So you're still doing your own backups, like you're doing that right, because you're backing up to the server.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've seen you have somebody who was doing this outside of the house. For a while the handoffs became tedious. That's not worse than all the work that they're doing for you. It's just something to be mindful of. That's the backup process.
Speaker 1:Just a reminder. We do have a little $7 module. If you'd like to purchase it, it's in the show notes. It includes our GSD some videos on the whole backup system from start to finish. It's $7. I think it's well worth it.
Speaker 2:Awesome, that was DIT Post-processing. Okay, bye, all you.