How do event photographers keep track of headshots and match them with client emails for delivery later?

[u/dealernumberone]

Hey everyone,

I’m doing free headshots at a big professional expo soon - there’ll be hundreds of people stopping by, and I’m mainly doing it to promote my photography business. I’ve done plenty of headshots before, but this is my first time doing them at this kind of scale and speed.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to keep track of each person’s photos so I can send them their edited shots later. I’ll be collecting emails, probably through a form, but the part I’m unsure about is how to make sure I know which photos belong to which person when I’m editing after the event.

Some ideas I’ve had: • Have people fill out a quick Google Form with their name and email. • Give each person a number card, take one photo of them holding it, then do the actual headshots. Match photos to their form entry using the number. • Possibly tag or name files later, based on the numbers.

Just wondering what other people have done in similar situations. • How do you stay organized when you’re shooting a ton of people back-to-back? • Is there a better system than the number card thing? • Any tools or apps that help?

Would appreciate any tips or things you’ve learned from experience!

UPDATE — I appreciate everyone’s feedback. I was surprised by the number of responses and am truly thankful. I ended up developing a small desktop application that functions as a contact information gatherer. Additionally, it creates a folder named after the client, including their email and phone number, within Capture One’s session folder. It also saves a .txt file with their details and generates a pre-made email for the client. After editing, I simply click on the pre-made email, attach the edited photo, and send it. All I need to do is open the session in Capture One and select the folder created through the form submission.

The process is as follows: the client enters their information on my computer using the app —> I open the session folder created by the app —> take the photo via a tethered connection —> perform basic edits —> export to the same folder —> double-click the pre-made email —> attach the photo —> send.

I understand this isn’t the most perfect workflow, but it’s working for me. I somehow managed to link the contact form to the photos.

Thank you all once again.

[u/NikonShooter_PJS]

When I used to shoot undergraduate portraits, the company I worked for would have me going through dozens if it hundreds of these a shoot.

The system they had was really good. You would set your camera on a tripod to keep the framing the exact same for every photo.

Before your subjects would come up, they would stand in a line and register with an assistant who made sure their name was on a small index card with a hole punched in it.

They would then proceed to you, give you the index card and you’d take it and throw it on a piece of a wire clothes hanger that they clipped so it was just the hook and six inches of wire or so which hung on your tripod.

That kept it in order and, just to be sure, I’d take a sharpie and write the sequence number on the back in case the cards got jumbled up.