Photography studio capacity planning, without the spreadsheet
Work out how many shoots you can truly edit each week, protect your turnaround times, and let your editing time schedule itself around your calendar.
Free CRM tier · paid plans from £12/mo · 0% commission on sales
Photography capacity planning means matching the work you take on to the editing hours you actually have, so galleries go out on time and you avoid a backlog. You count your weekly editing hours, estimate the hours each shoot type needs, then only book what fits. Done well, it protects both your turnaround times and your evenings.
Why photographers overbook without meaning to
Bookings feel free when you say yes to them, because the editing bill arrives weeks later. A wedding shot in June is a shoot day in June and twenty editing hours in July, and most diaries only show the shoot. So you book a full Saturday season, then discover in July that the editing for all of it lands in the same fortnight.
Capacity planning fixes the timing gap by making the editing hours visible the moment you take the booking, not when they fall due. Once you can see the real load building on future weeks, you can space bookings out, quote an honest delivery date, and say a calm no to the week that is already full.
How to plan your capacity in four steps
- 1Count your real editing hours
Not your working hours. Take out shoots and everyday admin, and the time real life needs. Most solo photographers have fewer usable editing hours a week than they think, often fifteen to twenty five.
- 2Estimate hours per shoot type
A wedding might be twenty hours of culling and editing, a family session three. Use your own recent jobs, not an average from a forum.
- 3Spread the load, not just the shoots
Plot each job's editing hours across the weeks before its deadline, so you can see which weeks are already full before you accept another booking into them.
- 4Book to the free weeks
When an enquiry comes in, check the weeks its editing would land in. If they are clear, take it. If they are full, offer a later date or a longer turnaround up front.
Three ways photographers manage capacity
| lemon.gallery | A spreadsheet | Guessing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shows future editing load, not just shoots | ✓ | If you build it | ✗ |
| Updates itself as you book | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Pulls in your Google Calendar commitments | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Warns when a week is overbooked | ✓ | Manual | ✗ |
| Schedules editing time for you | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Cost | Free / £12 | Free / your time | Free / your weekends |
A spreadsheet works if you keep it fed, which most photographers stop doing by March. Guessing works until a busy season, then it does not. The value of building capacity into the tool you already book in is that the numbers stay current without you maintaining them.
Production heat and the Organise calendar
Every booking and job spreads its editing hours across the weeks before its deadline, so your calendar shades busier as real work stacks up. Overbooked weeks show clearly before you accept more into them.
Time you have marked busy in Google Calendar counts against the same daily capacity, so the plan reflects meetings, second shoots and life, not just lemon.gallery jobs.
Set your working hours and lunch, then let the Organise feature drop colour-coded editing blocks into your free time on a separate calendar, worked out around your commitments. Your real diary is never touched.
Because the load is visible, you can promise a delivery date you can actually hit, then protect it by capping what you book into that window.
Plan capacity where you already book
Capacity planning only sticks when the numbers update themselves. lemon.gallery shows your real editing load as you book, folds in your Google Calendar, and can schedule your editing time for you. Start on the free CRM tier and add galleries and sales from £12 a month with no commission.
Start freeBook what you can deliver, not what fits the diary
See your real editing load, protect your turnaround times, and let your editing time schedule itself.
Create your free accountFrequently asked questions
How many shoots can I realistically edit in a week?
It depends on your usable editing hours and how long each shoot type takes you. Count the editing hours you genuinely have free in a week, then divide by your real hours per job. Most solo photographers have fewer usable hours than expected once shoots and everyday admin are removed.
What is production heat?
Production heat is a view that spreads each job's editing hours across the weeks before its deadline, so a day or week shades busier as real work stacks up. It shows the editing load your diary hides, so you can see an overbooked week before you accept more into it.
Will scheduling editing time block my real bookings?
No. lemon.gallery writes auto-scheduled editing blocks to a separate Organise calendar and marks them as free, so they never reduce the availability clients can book. Your booking calendar is left completely untouched.
Do I need a paid plan to plan my capacity?
The CRM, bookings and calendar are on the free tier, so basic planning costs nothing. Paid plans from £12 a month add client galleries and print and digital sales with no commission, plus more capacity tools as you grow.