SmartStudio Wedding Photographer review

You may have noticed the flood of apps that is pouring into the App Store everyday, and Apple’s own gatekeeping process nonwithstanding, the sight of junky apps released for a quick buck has become regrettably familiar. As a result, it became really easy for me to associate the word “apps” with “amusing but pointless things you can do with an iPhone.” But trying out SmartStudio: Wedding Photographer Studio Manager really reminded me that one of the greatest things about the development of PDA, smartphone, iPhone technology was the ability to manage your busy schedule in the palm of your hand. This is the sort of productivity that has shaped us into the technology-centric society that we are today, because it’s just so good at what it does that we can’t imagine a time that we did without it.

The team over at Gorilla Group, LLC identified a need for event photographers to be able to first, efficiently organize the innumerable details that go into each client’s event, and secondly, to be able to refer to them quickly. With SmartStudio, event photographers will have all the information they need for an event, organized in a clean, easy to navigate format. SmartStudio sorts events by clientele under 4 categories; upcoming weddings, prospective clients, post-production and completed projects. Photographers can set their customized packages to a client and it covers the total package pricing down to billing plans. Adding client and event details, like names, location, date, even client avatars are also part of the app’s many functions. Other functions include designating your crew, the event itinerary, notes, idea list, and a shot list, which you can check off as you complete the shots you need throughout the day.

I didn’t find any bugs when I was testing the app out, save for an annoying typo on the main menu (“perspective clients” should be “prospective clients”), but Gorilla Group is aware of it and has assured me that it will be fixed in the next update.

As of this release, SmartStudio is a stand-alone software for the iPhone. Considering the importance of the information SmartStudio is handling, it stands to reason that users will want and need copies/backups on their computers. Those with a larger client base may find inputting information into the app too much work for its purpose. I think developing an import/export ability or an accompanying computer software that could sync the information from the computer to the app could really add a lot to what the app is trying to do.

All in all, SmartStudio is a very complete, very solid organizational app. If you’re a photographer and you find yourself needing a better, more efficient way to organize and refer to information on your events, I’d definitely recommend looking into SmartStudio.

Here is a video demo of the SmartStudio Wedding Photographer app on the iPhone

AppSafari review of SmartStudio Wedding Photographer was written by Aucoeur Ngo on January 11th, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Calendar, Contacts, Productivity. Page viewed 6197 times, 1 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.