One of the best parts about PhotoUp is the fact that we are able to help photographers grow their businesses, no matter what part of the world they live in. PhotoUp is fortunate enough to work with clients throughout the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. Working with clients who are accustom to different cultures, values, and time zones does have its challenges, yet we find ways to accommodate all of our clients and continue to grow the PhotoUp community.
We recently caught up with one of our longest standing clients, Kayle Barton of Kayle Barton Photography based out of New South Whales, Australia. Kayle has been a member of the PhotoUp community for over one year and has seen the company change and grow with his business throughout this time. We wanted to have a conversation with Kayle to discuss his experience with PhotoUp thus far and find out what made him choose and stick with PhotoUp as his company’s real estate photo editing service of choice.
Q: How/when did you first find PhotoUp?
A: I found you guys at the end of 2013. I had been “Googling” to try to find “photo retouchers” and “real estate photo editors”, anything that could help me out with my business. I stumbled across PhotoUp after constant Google searches. I read your “About Us” section and saw that you had just opened up about 5 or 6 months beforehand. On there, it mentioned that you guys had a combination of real estate background and photography background and there wasn’t anyone else in the market that had hit [real estate photography editing] on the head.
Q: What made you start looking for a real estate photo editing service or photo retouching service?
A: I’ve been shooting real estate for 10 years now, and most of that time I have been editing the photos myself. I just thought it was so time consuming and that sitting in front of the computer for hours was one of the more boring parts of the job. Sometimes I would have to rush to get jobs done and I wasn’t getting exactly what I was hoping to out of the photos.
I basically wanted to get more workflow happening because I’m only making money when I am out shooting. When I’m sitting behind a desk editing, I’m not really making money. I had to find a better way of getting my photos edited because I couldn’t keep doing it myself.
I knew other companies around had photo editors, whether they were locally based or overseas. I thought there’s got to be somebody out there that I can find and that I can be happy with. I tried some other services based out of India but the communication was difficult and the quality coming back from them was very average.
Q: Can you tell us about your experience when you first started working with PhotoUp?
A: What I found was, it was really easy to communicate with you guys via email. There was no drama. Everything was laid out nicely and it was very simple and easy to follow step-by-step instructions in order to set up my account. I sent you some example images and explained to you guys what I liked and then started uploading practice images every day. I was able to give feedback on all of the processed images of what I liked about the photos and what wasn’t quite right.
It was pretty much like how it was all laid out from the get go when you guys has explained that the more feedback you can put into it, the better the results will come out and the quicker it will be. I just had to pump the information into you guys and then you use that information to pump the quality back out. It was exactly like that. You could see an improvement with the team every single photo set I uploaded.
Even thought I don’t personally know the guys that edit my photos, you just have that trust where you can send them a bunch of photos and say, “Here are my photos. I want them to look great with the colors nice and bright” and you just know they are going to come back looking amazing! And they do, every time.
Q: What piece of advice would you give photographers thinking about using PhotoUp as their real estate photo editing service?
A: Don’t hesitate or procrastinate. Don’t wait and think that it might not work. Just jump in and do it. The sooner you do it, the quicker you will see results. Get [PhotoUp] your photos, send them through, and give them all the information they need. Give them your notes, your photos, your creative thoughts, whatever you need and send it to them. Don’t do it tomorrow, do it today.
Q: What are some of the before and after numbers since you started using PhotoUp?
A: Since using you guys, I’ve taken on three new clients and possibly bringing on one more here soon, which is fantastic! In the last week I had someone see my photos on my client’s website and they asked, “Who does your photos? They look amazing!” They were using someone else’s services and now I’ve brought them over as my client.
Also, in terms of numbers, your services have enabled me to grow my business so quickly that this financial year, which has only been 4 and a half or 5 months, I’ve invoiced the same amount that I invoiced all of last year. So, in about 4 and a half or 5 months, I’ve already invoiced my entire last year’s revenues. That’s amazing!
Basically, if business keeps on going the way it’s going, I’m on track to more than double what I did last year.
Q: What have you been able to do with the time that you are now saving by using PhotoUp as your real estate photography retouching service?
A: The free time that I have now has enabled me to spend more time with friends and family, which is something that I really do value. Also, with the spare time that I now have, I can invest that time back to try to get on top of other business aspects and help grow my business. Before [using PhotoUp], I never had time to satisfy the needs of that part of the business.
So, [PhotoUp] has helped me to grow exponentially where I can direct my time into different aspects of the business OR I can take the night off and go see a movie with friends instead of sitting in front of the computer and having to stress about getting photos delivered. So,[PhotoUp] has given me more of a lifestyle as well.
Q: What do you love about PhotoUp?
A: I love that its consistent, impeccable quality. Every single time the quality is better than 100%.
The turnaround time is incredibly fast, its just ridiculous. And, how simple it is to use.
I love how I can upload the photos and trust that they are going to come back looking perfect the first time, every time, every day of the week.
PhotoUp has been a complete game-changer for my business!
