Bookings for photographers, done properly.
Mini-session days sold as one-seat slots at fixed times, with a deposit up front and a window that protects the day.
A photographer sells a fixed slot of their day. A family mini-session is twenty minutes, a headshot slot is thirty, and an autumn mini-session day is a row of twelve slots that sells out in a weekend. Each slot has one seat, and two families can never take the same time. A no-show costs the whole slot, so a deposit is taken at booking and the balance on delivery. A canceled slot needs to reach the next family on the list rather than sit empty in the calendar. account42 opens a whole day of slots at once and fills the gaps.
A week at Rowan & Field Photography.
This is the booking widget, not a picture of it. Take a seat and watch the count move and the confirmation text arrive.
Every session carries its own price, seat count and rules, so a course, a drop-in and a free session sit in the same timetable.
Book a session
This week
Tue 10:00 am
Family mini-session
20 min · $150 · deposit $50
4 seats leftThu 11:00 am
Headshot slot
30 min · $220 · deposit $60
1 seat leftSat 9:00 am
Autumn mini-session day
20 min slots · $150 · deposit $50
FullSun 2:00 pm
Portfolio review
45 min · free
9 seats left
How a studio uses account42.
- Set up the schedule
- Describe the mini-session day as a pattern: twenty-minute slots from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturday, each with one seat and a $50 deposit as the price. Headshot slots run on Thursday mornings in thirty-minute steps. A portfolio review is a free session with six places that you open once a month.
- Take bookings and payments
- Clients book from your website and pay the deposit there. The deposit is charged straight to your own Stripe or PayPal account, and the slot is confirmed when it clears. The balance is taken when the gallery is delivered, and the confirmation carries the time, the address and whatever you put in the description.
- Handle changes and waitlists
- A client who reschedules inside your window moves to another slot, and the freed one goes to the waitlist with a time-limited offer. A late cancellation keeps the deposit as you set. When the light is wrong for an outdoor day, cancel it and every family is told at once.
The parts that are hard to get right.
A mini-session day is a row of one-seat slots
Each twenty-minute slot is its own session with a single place.
Under the hood
Capacity is a number on the session, so a one-seat slot needs no separate product, and two families cannot take the same time.
A no-show costs the whole slot
Take a deposit at booking and set what happens if they cancel late.
Under the hood
The deposit is a direct charge on your connected account, captured before the slot is confirmed rather than after.
A cancelled slot should not stay empty
When someone cancels, the next person on the list is offered the time.
Under the hood
Promotion fires on the cancellation with a time-limited offer, so the slot is filled without you watching for it.
Works where you are : your currency, timezone and language, on your own Stripe or PayPal account.
Questions people ask about booking for photographers
- Can I take a deposit and the balance later?
- Yes. Price the session as the deposit and take the balance on delivery, or charge in full at booking.
- Can I open a whole day of slots at once?
- Yes. Describe the day as a recurring pattern and it generates each slot with its own single seat.
- Can clients reschedule?
- Yes. Your cancellation window decides how late a change is allowed, and the freed slot is offered to the waitlist.
- Can I run a mini-session day in a different location each month?
- Yes. Each day is its own run of slots with its own address in the details. The orchard in October and the beach in June sit in one calendar without a second setup.
- How do I take the balance after the shoot?
- Price the slot as the deposit and take the balance when the gallery is delivered, on your own Stripe or PayPal account. account42 takes no cut of either payment.
- Can I cap how many slots one family can book?
- No cap is needed: a slot has one seat, so a family takes one time. If they want two, they book two slots, and each is its own booking against the day so the count stays right.
Related
- SalonsAppointment-length slots per stylist, a deposit taken at booking, and a cancellation window that keeps a no-show from costing the chair.
- RetreatsMulti-day retreats sold as one purchase, with a place count set by beds, a deposit up front, and a cancellation window that means something.
- Charters and toursFixed departures with a hard seat count, deposits taken ahead, private charters sold as one, and weather cancellations refunded in one step.
Every feature above is on every plan. See what account42 does and how it works, from install to the first booking.
Take bookings for your studio this week.
Fourteen days free. No card, no call, no implementation project.