A complete guide to a sustainable and effective workflow for photographers and content creators on tour.
Whether you're about to embark on your first tour, or an experienced creative on the road, it will always be true that the most time-consuming and draining part of your day on tour is your editing and workflow. The time spent in front of your computer screen editing, uploading, organizing files, and ensuring safe backups is time spent not shooting or taking care of yourself, and every second on the road is precious. Minimizing that workflow time allows you to deliver to your client quickly and protect your sanity.
The concept of going on tour can be daunting. There's no playbook, onboarding or training, and very few resources to learn. If you are new to the experience, there are so many unknown an unpredictable factors that are impossible for, but if you prepare and stick to a disciplined approach to your work, you'll find it manageable and allow yourself to get the most out of the job as well as impress your clients.
I've been touring as a photographer for ten years; starting in the backseat of a van and shooting in bars, to now photographing artists in stadiums around the world. No matter the level you're at, the basic tenants of your workflow remain constant so having a trusted system in place is a fundamental building block of your success. Understand that it will take some time to streamline your everyday tasks and processes, but the goal here is to give you a solid footing to begin your workflow and answer questions you might be wondering about as you start your career in the industry.
When preparing for a tour, one of the primary questions to your client should be "what are their expectations for this role?" Responsibilities under the 'tour photographer' umbrella can stretch well beyond simply taking daily photos of the show, so it's important to communicate clearly with the client to figure out what they're looking for.
Deliverables on tour can be show photos, behind the scenes or portraits, running the artist's socials, short video recaps, mini tour diaries or documentaries, filming for TikTok, or even just archival filming. There's really no limit to what the job can entail. At the club tour level, you can often also be asked to sell merch or run the artist's meet and greet. Because artists often don't have the budget or space to bring out multiple people, it's important for you to be clear and get as much information in advance as you can.
Often, the client will know they need a tour photographer, but not have specific deliverables in mind — that's totally okay and normal. In these situations you can self-impose your deliverables. For a frame of reference, it's normal to deliver 25+ edited photos per day.
There are two essential categories of software you'll need to get your workflow in order — your editing software and your delivery setup.
The obvious necessity on tour is having the most powerful laptop you can access — every aspect of the process is expedited when using a more powerful machine. The new M1 and M2 Macbook Pros are an excellent choice. You'll also want as much internal storage as your budget allows — 1 TB is a healthy minimum if you can.
In addition to your computer you'll need at least 2 portable hard drives for a safe backup system that's integral to your workflow.
Every photographer is familiar with the industry standard editing software for handling bulk images. This software will be the foundation of your workflow.
Download: Adobe Lightroom →Your main goal with a delivery software should be to providing the clients organized and simple access to your photos. I use Dropbox because of it's intuitive nature and clients are typically familiar with it. It's super easy to stay organized, and for clients to download full resolution photos. My workflow relies on the selective sync, password protection, and folder access structures the service provides.
sign up: dropbox →My top hard drive choice for on-tour archival drives is the Seagate MyPassports — they're at an excellent price point, small and easy form factor, and are reliable.
shop: hard drives →The folder structure you create is the foundation of your whole workflow and system. Setting up your file structure is something that you can easily do in advance and will help you stick to it when you're out on the road, so I suggest setting it all up before tour starts.
Your folders and organization might look different depending on your deliverables and needs, but if you use the same practices for your own needs you'll be set up for success.
There are two main directories you'll create:
Working
Delivery
The Working Directory is where you locally import and organize all of your raw files and keep your Lightroom catalog. You should keep it in a convenient places to access; I keep it in with my 'Pictures' folder.
The long-term goal here is to create a clear system that you can repeatedly access throughout your relationship with client, and always be able to find and deliver your archived work down the line.
The Delivery Folder lives in your Dropbox directory, and syncs changes and new files constantly. You'll export all of your delivery images to this folder and this is where you organize and send out all of your deliverable files and folders.
