PhotoShelter Member Perks: PWD’s Post-Production & Printing

Earlier this year we launched PhotoShelter Perks, giving our members exclusive deals on the coolest photo tools. The latest to be added to the pack? 10% off from PWD Labs.

PWD helps busy wedding, event and portrait photographers by offering industry-leading color correction, retouching, and album design services. Their team of professionally trained editors helps photographers quickly deliver quality images to clients; simply send in your RAW images and the PWD editors correct them to your personal color preferences.

Why do we love PWD? Because besides quick turnaround time, PWD goes above and beyond to make sure you’re thrilled with the results: they offer the PWD Style Survey, direct access to your assigned editor, and a genuine interest in your feedback after each and every job. PWD is also part of the our Print Vendor Network, so PhotoShelter members can accept a print or product order via their website and have it fulfilled by the color professionals at PWD.

To get the scoop on why PWD is so popular among photographers, we talked to PhotoShelter member and PWD devotee Chad Pislter. Chad describes himself as a “different, quirky, cool visual storyteller,” specializing in weddings and documenting people and families. We sat down with Chad to get a sense for how he’s using PWD to streamline his workflow and run his photography business better. Here’s what he had to say (Chad also shared photos that have been processed by PWD, included throughout this post):

What made you decide to get help with post-production?

I got pregnant. Well my wife did, so now we have a 2-year-old. I am a work at home dad and free time has become much more of a luxury! We have another on the way and the business is growing steadily. I also have an amazing associate [who photographs with me], so there can be twice as much work on some weekends. Any way to streamline any aspect of my business, while still maintaining our unique look and quality of service, is a necessity just to keep the house clean.

I have been an editorial photographer for 18 years, but in the past 3 years I’ve moved to weddings. Even through these rough years we have seen the business grow by 25%. During our busy season we will have 2-3 shoots a week and a wedding or two every weekend. This doesn’t leave much time for all the other things needed to run a business, like marketing.

I’ve also done the math. It can take me up to 15 hours to edit a wedding and if I multiply that by what an hour of my time is worth, it’s a lot more expensive to do it myself. So with all those plus’s, choosing PWD was a no brainer.

How does PWD fit into your workflow?

Like that perfect piece to an almost finished the puzzle. (It’s not the last piece, because it always seems like there is one more.) After shooting and culling a wedding I’ll send the images to PWD for basic toning and color correction. PWD is typically done with the images in less than a week!

Once I get them back I’ll add some of our beyond basics toning to them, that is unique to us, and then upload the images to PhotoShelter for the client’s proofing gallery. The clients then make their print orders on PhotoShelter and we send them back to PWD for fulfillment using the PhotoShelter Print Vendor Network.

What has your experience been with PWD?

Beyond outstanding! I can’t ask for anything more of them, and even if I did I’m sure they could find a way to accomplish it.

At every step of my business’ evolution, PWD has treated me like I’m their only customer and part of their family. I get responses from their customer support quickly if I have a question. Their quality of work is excellent with every order I place with them, whether it is post-production, albums, prints or other products.

They also watch what I am sending them and if something looks wrong they let me know. I’ve made some mistakes that could have been expensive if they didn’t catch them. They care about quality as much as I do and it shows!

What do you do with the time you would normally spend on post-production?

Did I mention I have a 2-year-old? But other than him, I love to get out and work on training for my next triathlon or go on road trips. The time also gives more chances to spend on marketing and growing my business.

How does the PWD-Photoshelter integration streamline your workflow?

You should have seen the happy dance I did when Photoshelter teamed up with PWD – I was pretty excited! PWD preps the images and get’s them back to me fast. Photoshelter then let’s me organize and upload those images and get them in front of the clients. PWD gets them again to make some gorgeous prints and ships them off to my clients. The most work I have to do is click a button approving the sale and select the lab to send it to.

Learn more about PhotoShelter Perks and get deals from Think Tank Photo, Photo Mechanic, LensProToGo, and more.