Photography Session Checklist: What to Review Before You Leave for a Shoot
The easiest time to discover that you do not have a client's address, parking instructions, or the battery you meant to charge is not ten minutes before the session.
A short pre-session checklist gives you a repeatable way to catch missing details while there is still time to fix them. Adapt it to the type of photography you do rather than trying to use one universal checklist for every job.
Review the client and session details
Confirm the client's name, contact information, session time, and location. Review any notes that affect the appointment and make sure you know who you expect to photograph.
If the session was scheduled weeks or months ago, do not assume you still remember the details.
Read the questionnaire responses
If you collected a client questionnaire, read it before the shoot—not for the first time in the parking lot.
Look for names, relationships, priorities, preferences, and logistical information that will help you prepare. Session Savvy keeps questionnaire responses connected to the client workflow so you can return to them when you need them.
Confirm the logistics
Check the address or meeting point, travel time, parking, access instructions, and any location-specific considerations relevant to your session.
For outdoor work, use an appropriate current weather source as part of your own planning and follow your established rescheduling policies when conditions require a change.
Check your equipment
Your exact gear list depends on the job, but build a repeatable equipment check around the things you cannot photograph without. That may include camera bodies, lenses, charged batteries, memory cards, lighting equipment, stands, triggers, or other specialty gear.
Do not let a generic internet checklist convince you to carry equipment you never use. Build yours from your actual sessions.
Review the business side
If your workflow requires an invoice, retainer, payment, or another administrative step before the session, confirm its status according to your policies.
Session Savvy keeps invoicing connected to client records, which can reduce the number of places you need to check before the appointment.
Know what happens after the shoot
Before you leave, it can also help to know what your next workflow step will be. Do files need to be backed up immediately? Do you prepare sneak peeks? Is there a specific delivery process?
The session itself is only one stage of the job.
A simple pre-session checklist
- Client and contact information reviewed
- Time and location confirmed
- Questionnaire and session notes reviewed
- Travel and access planned
- Camera equipment checked
- Batteries charged
- Memory cards ready
- Required payment or invoice status checked
- Post-session workflow understood
Keep the checklist connected to the job
The purpose is not to create more administration. It is to spend a few minutes catching preventable problems before they follow you into a client session.
Session Savvy helps photographers keep client details, calendar events, questionnaires, invoicing, tasks, and session workflows organized so the information you need before a shoot is easier to find.
Create a Session Savvy account and build a more dependable photography workflow.