How to set up online booking for photographers

The back-and-forth of booking a shoot eats your time quietly: trading dates over email, repeating your prices, chasing deposits. A booking page does that work for you, so clients can reach out or book on their own while you shoot. Here is how to set one up.

The problem with booking over email

Every new inquiry by email means the same routine: check your calendar, send some dates, answer the same questions, wait for a reply, and hope the date is still free by the time they decide. Multiply that by every inquiry and it eats hours you could spend behind the camera.

Inquire first, or book instantly?

Online booking is not one-size-fits-all. Each service you create is one of three modes, chosen when you make it and fixed afterwards:

• Inquiry, for weddings and custom shoots, where you want to talk before committing. Clients send their details, and you decide what to send next. See Inquiry services.
• Direct booking, for portraits, headshots and repeatable sessions. Clients pick a time, sign, pay and walk away with a confirmation. See Direct booking.
• Mini sessions, for holiday minis and pop-up days, where you publish short slots on specific dates and clients grab one fast. See Mini sessions.

Most photographers run a mix, with different services set up different ways. All of them appear on the same public booking page.

Collect a deposit to lock the date

A date is not really booked until money changes hands. Taking a deposit, or full payment, when a client books filters out no-shows and protects your calendar.

Switch on Collect payment in step 4 Payment of the service's Booking flow tab and the payment happens inside the booking, not afterwards. The slot is held while they pay, and released if they never do, so an unfinished booking does not sit on your Saturday morning. See Pricing and deposits.

Connect your calendar so you never double-book

The fastest way to lose trust is to book two clients at once. Connect your calendar and the times you are already busy disappear from your booking page. New bookings show up on your calendar without you lifting a finger.

How to set up booking in CoreHue

1. Create your services. In Bookings → Services, press Add service, name it and pick its mode. Then fill in its tabs: the price, the length, where it happens, and what you collect before it is confirmed. See Services.
2. Set your availability. Bookings → Settings → Availability holds your Shared weekly availability, your booking gap and any dates you are away. A service can also run its own schedule instead. Clients only ever see times that actually work. See Availability.
3. Connect your calendar. Bookings → Settings → Integrations connects Google Calendar. Once you choose a calendar, Avoid Google Calendar conflicts is on, so busy times are blocked and new bookings appear on that calendar. See Google Calendar.
4. Publish each service. Publish at the top of the editor checks the service over first. Anything still missing is listed as a row naming the tab it lives on, and you can click straight to it. Core allows five published services at once, counted beside Add service as "3 of 5 published". Pro has no limit.
5. Turn on your booking page. It starts switched off. Bookings → Settings → Booking Page has the Public booking page switch, along with your headline, welcome message and referral sources. Nobody can see anything until that is on. See Your booking page.
6. Share the link. Your page lives at yourname.corehue.co/services, and each service has its own address underneath it. Put it in your Instagram bio, your email signature and your website.

Next step

Start by setting up your first service in Services, or read the Bookings overview to see how it all fits together.

Need a hand getting set up? Email us at hello@corehue.co.