Set up CoreHue for portrait sessions

Portrait work is higher volume and faster moving than weddings. Families, headshots, seniors and couples often just want to pick a time and get booked. CoreHue lets them do that on their own, and it still feels personal and on-brand.

Here is how to set it up.

How portraits usually flow

Portraits suit direct booking. A client picks a session, chooses a time, signs, pays, and is confirmed, all without waiting on you. Then you collect a few details and deliver. The less back-and-forth, the better.

Set it up

1. Create a direct-booking service. In Bookings → Services, click New service, name it, and choose Direct booking. On its Price & duration tab, set Price per slot and pick a Duration from the menu. See Direct booking.
2. Set tight availability. The service uses your Shared weekly availability from Bookings → Settings → Availability unless you say otherwise. That is where you set the days and hours you work, plus a Booking gap between sessions so you are not running straight from one to the next. If portraits need different hours from everything else, open the service's Availability & location tab and switch on Use this service's own schedule. Clients only ever see real openings. See Availability and Per-service availability.
3. Take payment at booking. The Booking flow tab lays the client's journey out as numbered steps. Open step 4, Payment, switch on Collect payment, and set Payment at booking to Full payment or Deposit. A service that collects payment holds the client's slot for 30 minutes while they book. After that they have the time set in Expire unpaid bookings after to pay, which starts at 24 hours. Miss it and the slot reopens. See Pricing and deposits.
4. Attach your contract. Step 3 of the same tab is Contract. A contract on a booking service is signed as part of booking, and your saved signature goes on the moment the client signs, so nothing waits on you at midnight. Save a signature under Settings → Business first. A service with a contract on it will not publish without one. See Your saved signature.
5. Offer your extras as add-ons. More time, a second outfit, extra edited images. Add-ons sit at the bottom of the Price & duration tab. Each has an Add-on name and a Price per unit. Switch on Let clients choose quantity and the client gets a plus-and-minus stepper, with an optional Maximum per booking. See Add-ons.
6. Connect your calendar. Link Google Calendar so busy times disappear from your page and new sessions land on it by themselves.
7. Collect a few details. Step 2 of Booking flow is Questionnaire, asked as part of booking: outfit plans, who is in the photos, any must-have shots. Step 5, Follow-up questionnaires, sends one on its own schedule instead, either Before service or After service, with a number of days. See Questionnaires.
8. Publish and share. Publish the service, then turn on Public booking page under Bookings → Settings → Booking page. It starts off, and while it is off every service link stops working. Then share the link. See Your booking page.
9. Deliver the gallery. Share a branded gallery, check the download sizes suit what you are handing over, and let clients star their favourites into a collection.

A few tips

• Send the download PIN with the gallery link. Every new gallery gets a four-digit PIN, switched on. A client who does not have it will tell you downloads are broken. The gallery send screen has a Download PIN switch under Include in email that puts it in the message for you.
• Save your portrait questionnaire as a template so every booking reuses it.
• Share your booking link in your Instagram bio so clients can book without messaging you first.
• Core allows five published services. Only published ones count, so drafts, unpublished and archived services are free. You can build next season's offering without unpublishing this one. Pro has no limit.

Next step

See how a client moves through CoreHue, or set up the basics in your first 30 minutes.

Questions about setting up for portraits? Email us at hello@corehue.co.