How To Make Your Photography Business Run Smoothly with John Branch IV

[00:00:00] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: John, so great to see you again and to talk with you again. I'm really looking forward to, to this conversation. so welcome, welcome to the show. [00:00:22] John Branch IV: Thanks for having me. [00:00:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. so it's been a while since, since we've seen each other. It's. [00:00:28] John Branch IV: It's been, has it been a full year at this point? It's been a while. [00:00:32] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: No, I guess not. 'cause the last time I saw you was what? WPPI. So we're getting there. We're getting there. But, yeah, but still, it's all good. It's all good. Always happy to, always happy to see your smiling face. So, let's, let's dive right into this. the first question I ask every guest is, [00:00:50] What is one thing that you do for the photographic process that has saved you time? --- [00:00:50] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: what is one thing you do for the photographic process behind the camera? [00:00:56] That saves you time. [00:00:58] John Branch IV: Oh my goodness. I think [00:01:00] something I've gotten into recently is really visualizing what specific photos I want to get throughout a wedding day specifically. and this is part of my whole mentality of having a very set way that I approach my weddings in this way. I don't become stressed. [00:01:24] Because I have like this foundation of like, I know I'm always gonna do this and then if things change, you know, a days late or the things that we'll typically having on a wedding day, if that happens, I'm not as stressed because I already alleviated the majority of the stress 'cause I have such a set like approach. [00:01:41] and this is one thing and I feel like a lot of photographers deal with it, I personally still deal with it myself, is when you get done with the wedding day and you feel like you didn't take enough photos. Even though we, we all know we just took like 3000 photos, but for whatever reason, you come home and you're like, did I do this? [00:01:57] Did I, did I get enough? But [00:02:00] per your question, having these set, like if I don't get, you know, solos of the couple, if I don't get clearly like the first cl, there's certain shots that if I have all of those, I feel like I've gotten enough. So even if I might feel like I didn't get enough, I can like tell myself like, okay, you're, you're good. [00:02:18] You got this, that, and the other. And it's, and it's okay. So that's one of the main things I kind of do. [00:02:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I, I, I often define when somebody says to me, what's the difference between a.a novice and a professional photographer. I, my go-to answer, which I, I felt this way for years is, and, and this is probably when it, when it, I started, I started thinking this way when it clicked for me personally. [00:02:43] to me, what defines a professional photographer of any genre of photography is that when a problem, when a stressor occurs, whatever it might be, nobody knows, but you. When you can just keep going and not make it known that, oh, shoot, [00:03:00] my camera is completely dead and now I need to, you know, like nobody knows. [00:03:04] Nobody knows. and I think that that goes, goes back to what you just said, where, you know, you've got it so ingrained of how the wedding day goes from your side of things. That if something comes up that the The parents want something or you know, oh no, the, the, the cake is ruined. Whatever it might be, you know, that, that your personal stresses are gone, so you could help deal with whatever is going on. [00:03:35] Or if it's, if it's something in your, on your own side where there's a failure, like, oh no, I forgot to charge this one battery and that was my last battery, whatever it might be, you're good to go. Right? [00:03:47] John Branch IV: I always love the, like photographer keywords or something like that where you're like, oh yeah. Let me just take one of those again, just, just in case, you know, we're really like, your camera stalled and you're like, oh God. [00:03:58] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah, [00:03:58] John Branch IV: Like I'm just gonna take one more, [00:04:00] just one second. [00:04:01] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah. I, I, so, so I do a lot of proposal photos [00:04:05] John Branch IV: Mm. [00:04:06] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: the, the buffer filling up is the, is the, [00:04:09] John Branch IV: my God. [00:04:10] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: it, it's, that is the most stressful, but that, that's why it's like you gotta have two bodies on you. For proposals, [00:04:18] John Branch IV: Oh my [00:04:19] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: that, you know, you can't replicate naturally, again, you gotta have that second body, or you gotta have the, the, the, the, higher end, bigger camera. [00:04:29] John Branch IV: Unfortunately, that has the much, you know, twice as large buffer, which I don't want to have to carry. So, my worst story for a proposal, just to, just to rant for a bit. Is, it was early on in my career and my camera wasn't really good with lower light focusing, and the couple wanted to do the proposal at like eight at night. So it was like the very edge of darkness. And, you know, groom gets down on his knee and the camera is just like, and [00:05:00] I'm like, no, I missed the whole actual proposal. [00:05:05] Luckily the couple was okay with it, but [00:05:07] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.so I, my, my current go-to, for my camera bodies for proposals now, and I get a lot that are like sunset, right? andmy go-to now is the main body is the Z seven two, just 'cause I want that higher resolution. And then the second body I have is the Nikon zf. But when the sun goes down, the ZF is the rockstar. [00:05:30] It can handle that so much better than, than the Z seven two. Not only focus, but just low light in general. so I totally feel your pain. Even modern day. It's, it's a, it's a struggle. So when people think, oh, it's just a proposal. No, no. There's, it's stressful. It's [00:05:45] John Branch IV: Yeah. [00:05:46] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so, all right, let's talk business for a bit. [00:05:49] You've got your hand in multiple businesses, and. Of course one of them being your, your wedding photography, one of them being speaking and [00:06:00] educating, one of them being your YouTube channel. I mean, you're, you're, you're doing a lot and it's fantastic. I love watching everything you got going on. [00:06:07] What is one thing that you do for the business that saves you time or money? --- [00:06:07] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: what is one thing you do in your business that has saves you time or money? [00:06:13] John Branch IV: My goodness, right now the biggest focus for me is automations overall, which both saves time and money. and that's in actually every place. Funny. Funny enough, I'm actually not the best in the world. I'm, I'm not a very good at systems guy, which is why automations help me so much more. 'cause I'm, I'm just the worst. [00:06:34] Like, I forget things, things take too long. But if I have automated systems in the background, at least that's like keeping it moving for me. Yeah. It automation's everywhere. [00:06:45] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so. What is one thing, like on the business side that that's automated? is it like CRM stuff or is it, nurturing stuff after the fact? After, after a wedding or, anything. Like what, what is one thing that, that you've got in [00:07:00] place in those automations? [00:07:02] John Branch IV: Oh my goodness. One thing, there's too many to name. I think nurturing in itself is kind of one of the biggest parts like. So I use HoneyBook for my CRM and my email automations help me a lot, not only for my couples but for myself. 'cause there'll be certain times with certain emails will go out that remind me of a thing that I need to go ahead and do. [00:07:27] So if it's like an email that goes out that's like, Hey, let's start planning your engagement session, then I'm like, okay, great. I know I need to go ahead and plan the engagement session with this couple. versus booking the couple and then like forgetting about it or something. So that's big for me. [00:07:42] And that goes all the way up until the wedding and after the wedding as well. And that, that's kind of like the first part. I'm just gonna, that's like the first part. The second big animation for me is the editing side of stuff. So using something like [00:07:57] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: we'll get, yeah, we'll get to the, we'll get to that. [00:07:59] John Branch IV: and [00:08:00] then after that is, something like pick time and how they have their marketing automations. [00:08:05] Because I'm really bad at sending out marketing type stuff as well. [00:08:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. They're, they're by the way, just 'cause you brought up pick time, their new AI features for like the, the wedding guests to find their photos or the vendor stuff. That is just brilliant. I love that. I love it.now you brought up editing. Okay. We're, we're gonna get to Imagen down the road, but I'm curious, let's, even if it's now, but without Imagen or pre Imagen, [00:08:34] What is one thing that you do for editing that has saved you time? --- [00:08:34] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: what is one thing you do for editing that saves you time? [00:08:38] John Branch IV: mm Well ear, early on developed my own, like preset. that helped me with saving time. I. Another. So another thing I do it, it saves time, but on the same end it kind of doesn't. 'cause it takes a little bit to set up, I talk about [00:09:00] this all the time. I like to break my wedding day down into like sections of the day, see like getting ready and ceremony and so on and so forth. [00:09:08] And I put those in like smart folders in Lightroom and I edit from those folders. And the reason I do that, it's more so for my own mental health is like. If I sit down for two hours and say I get done with two or three sections, it becomes like a small win for me rather than feeling like I have, you know, 1500 photos to edit and being like, oh, so many photos. [00:09:34] Like I can sit down and go, I finished three sections today, great job. And then go on with the rest of my life and then come back and finish more. So it, it takes a little extra time to set up, but it saves me overall time, I feel like, 'cause it, it makes me more motivated, not looking at. [00:09:48] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. [00:09:49] John Branch IV: A whole bunch of photos. [00:09:51] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Do you ever wish that, that there was a. Even more granular control in smart collections in Lightroom. Like there's a, you could get [00:10:00] pretty, pretty fine tuned with like your, your ands and o's for, for, for smart collections, but I feel at times there could be [00:10:09] John Branch IV: Yeah, it's [00:10:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: even more granular, right? [00:10:12] John Branch IV: It's very like straightforward. [00:10:14] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:10:15] So like, for example, Let's say you're, you're editing with Imagen, right? And, you don't have Imagen's CRO turned on, but you, you have Imagen doing everything else for you. And like you can have a smart collection, hypothetically, if there was this like really granular control that said, edited but not cropped, and now it's showing you only your photos from this, you know, day that. [00:10:38] Have not been cropped yet, because then you can go through and be like, okay, I need to crop this. I don't need to crop this. Right. So, I dunno, just like thinking outside the box, like I feel like there's a, a lot of potential there that Adobe could, you know, help with. [00:10:52] John Branch IV: yeah. No, I agree. 'cause it's very straight. It's just kinda like, is it this, is it that is it This is it that great. Yay. Smart. It's, it's not that smart.[00:11:00] [00:11:01] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: It's smarter than a regular collection, [00:11:03] John Branch IV: Yeah. [00:11:05] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: It's not super smart. Yeah. Lot, lot of potential there. okay, so you've, you've photographed a wedding. you've, you know, you've been working on it, you've been editing it.now it's, it's like wedding's done.you're going through the photos. [00:11:24] What is one thing that you do after a session that has increased business? --- [00:11:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: What is one thing you do after a session, after a wedding? Now that increases business. [00:11:31] John Branch IV: Mm. That would definitely be the pick time sides of things I was talking about earlier with the marketing. One thing I also gotta get better at, so it's like three stages. So I usually blog the wedding. that's helping out with the SEO on my website, so I'm usually titling the blog with like. The name of the venue and stuff like that. [00:11:52] sending photos out to the vendors is one thing I always try to do. It's much nicer when you get those planners who like will make you a list of [00:12:00] like, here's all the vendors. So then I can just quickly, 'cause when I don't get that, it's the worst. 'cause you're like, who was I even working with? And you gotta go find them. [00:12:08] so sending stuff to the vendors and then something I need to get better at is trying to make video content or like reels. what I need to start doing more of is getting my second photographer or someone to just take some short clips of me at the wedding that I could then repurpose with the reel. [00:12:28] And then, you know, you're talking to those simple reels where it's like showing me in a video, maybe two video clips and then photos and that's it. Like that's one thing I want to start doing more of. Like if I'm in a perfect world, those are the three things I would be doing. Blog posting, sending to vendors, making a couple of reels, [00:12:48] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: There's a, we had a, yeah, there in a previous episode we had Angela, she on, [00:12:53] John Branch IV: Oh yeah. [00:12:55] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: templates code, talking about this exact thing. And really all it does, all, all it really [00:13:00] does is come down to having your second shooter or an assistant. Use their phone and just, it doesn't have to be super high quality from a, from a mirrorless, it can literally just be, you know, the good part, the good camera on your phone that, that, they get these, this, this BTS content of you that you can then use social templates go to just quickly you out a reel with minimal effort. [00:13:25] Right. yeah, it's a, it's definitely a, a, a good area to work on for sure. When going back to the pick time thing and, and sharing the gallery, with your clients, with the vendors, are you, for the client side, are you doing a gallery reveal session? Like a a, a zoom call or a Google meet call or something like that? [00:13:44] Or are you just sending off the, the gallery? [00:13:47] John Branch IV: I usually just send it. But I would like to do something a little bit more fun.'cause yeah, a reveal would be awesome. 'cause usually I do, you know, like my preview beforehand, just like 10 to [00:14:00] 20 ish photos. And then, yeah, I'm normally just emailing them. I'm like, here's your thing. a Zoom call would be awesome though. [00:14:06] That's actually a great idea. [00:14:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And are you using pick times'? built in features where it's like. Your gallery's about to expire, here's an extra discount before the gallery expires. Nice. And how did that, how does that work out? [00:14:20] John Branch IV: that stuff on that stuff. That's, that's, again, those are things that I would probably never do on my own. 'cause if I didn't have the automation, I just wouldn't. and I can remember when I first started using Picton and I was like, this is so awesome. And I usually, I turn on like the early bird, which is like, you'll get a discount upfront. [00:14:38] If you go ahead and buy something and then I turn on the, your gallery's expiring and I turn on the anniversary gift card and stuff like that. Yeah. And it's, it's always great 'cause it just goes out and it'll go out to everyone in it too. So the thing to do is to get your couples to invite more people to the gallery. [00:14:55] What actually, what I'm thinking about trying to do now more often, so [00:15:00] HoneyBook and Pick Time partnered up and they have an integration now. And so when you get your new HoneyBook.workspace, it automatically makes the pick time gallery, which means that gallery already has a link. What I should start doing is making like a QR code or something that I can like, share around at the wedding. [00:15:21] Be like, oh, do you want your reception photos? And they can just sign up in there, leave their email. 'cause then now. [00:15:28] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Just make a, make a beautiful sign that you just put on a table. At every wedding that they can say to find yourself from this wedding. You know, here's a QR code. [00:15:38] John Branch IV: Exactly. These are all, see you're, this is a, let's help John on his workflow session. [00:15:46] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That's [00:15:47] John Branch IV: 'cause he knows what to do. He just doesn't do it. [00:15:51] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You know, it's, it. So, we're about to, we're about to lighten up with, with my favorite part of, of the episode. But then once we're done with this, what next part? My bi my next question is [00:16:00] probably gonna. Be an eyeopener for you. It typically is when people start really thinking about the, the question. [00:16:05] But let's go to the light one. this is my favorite part because I'm about to ask you a question that I have no idea what it's gonna be 'cause you're picking the question. So pick a color. Any color. [00:16:18] John Branch IV: orange. Is that orange? Yeah. Yellow. [00:16:21] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, it's, yeah. So here's, here's a funny thing. in the past few episodes, I feel like I picked the same question multiple times. [00:16:29] I am horrible at shuffling decks. So I actually bought an automatic card shuffler, and I've been using it. So these are shuffled legit by machine. Okay? I'm gonna thumb through this. You tell me when to stop. [00:16:45] John Branch IV: Stop. [00:16:46] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Okay. My next question to you, which you just picked by the way, is Oh man, this is totally on topic. That's so funny. Name something on your to-do list [00:17:00] that never gets done. [00:17:02] John Branch IV: Oh my God. [00:17:05] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That's totally on topic. That's so funny. [00:17:08] John Branch IV: Everything. I, no, I don't what most of my worst to-dos. It's like the, I call them the, the lower hanging fruit type of things where like, you could go ahead and just do it, but you have other things that are more important. It's like small stuff like cleaning up my desk and stuff. Like right now it looks nice and clean, but there's like a corner in front of me where I just pushed everything outta the, you know, like [00:17:36] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: you and I. [00:17:37] John Branch IV: over you. [00:17:38] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You and I are so similar in so many ways. I think I've said this pre in the past when, you know, whenever we're together, but I've got the same corner. [00:17:48] John Branch IV: Like, oh, time to film [00:17:50] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, [00:17:50] John Branch IV: pair. It looks good. Hey, hello. [00:17:52] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So funny. It's [00:17:54] John Branch IV: Yeah, that's usually, and what's funny is that like it's also too, it's not super messy. So like [00:18:00] my room is clean, I just need to pick up the stuff. So when I finally do it, you're like, wow. And that lasts for half a day and it's back to where it is again. [00:18:08] So. [00:18:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yep. Yep. Aye, yi. Yeah. so I had two. you can't, I don't think you can see it from your point of, from your, from what you're seeing right now in, in Frame, but, or maybe you can up here on this shelf, I have a bunch of Lego cameras in Lego, foliage that I've put together and stuff. And, For two of the, two of the flower piece, sets. [00:18:32] Were in boxes in my corner for a while. I'm like, last week, the kids were home from school. 'cause like school just started Thursday and Friday last [00:18:41] John Branch IV: Mm-Hmm. [00:18:42] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And I'm like, you know what? I, I, I need like a breather. So I, I, I put together both sets. It's, you know, like you get into that meditation mode of just build Legos and I cleared off my desk and now, and then I found a, an orchid. I bought it. And so now [00:19:00] I have another box of Lego here to put together, never ends. okay, this is where you're gonna dig deep here. and you're gonna start thinking of things that you're never really thought of like this before, and it might unlock some. Areas where you might feel like you're missing some spots. [00:19:23] I want you to look at your photography business now. Let's, let's skip the, the, the rest for now. Just focus on the photography and if you can look at your photography business from a 30,000 foot view down, [00:19:34] Can you share an outlined breakdown of your workflow from lead to delivery? --- [00:19:34] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: if you can share an outline, breakdown of your workflow from lead to delivery. [00:19:41] John Branch IV: Oh my goodness. I guess everything starts on my website and then once they go through everything and fill out the form, they're moved into HoneyBook.from there I have automations that will automatically send out like a first touch email. [00:20:00] It's kinda like, Hey, this is what's happening next. Schedule a meeting with me. [00:20:04] They schedule a meeting, then we meet on Zoom. We usually chat about everything and then at that point I send over like the full proposal. They like the proposal, they sign it, and then an automatic email goes out after signing that's like, yay, we're working together. Here's what the next steps look like. [00:20:24] Boom, boom, boom, boom. Great. If they have an engagement session, like a week or so later, that email comes out. Yay. Time to plan your engagement. And again, that lets me know. Great. Let me plan the engagement with them. That also sends out a link to my website that's like engagement tips, and that page has like pictures of like, you can dress like this and don't do this, and so on and so forth. [00:20:48] Do that engagement session, HoneyBook pick time, makes that, that you have your engagement session there, and then do that, edit those photos. That's Imagen real quick, [00:21:00] boom, boom, boom, engagement session. Great. Then a little bit after that, we have an email that goes out that's like, fill out this form so I can know more about your day, and I can write a timeline. [00:21:11] I think photographers should always write their timelines. It's huge. they give me information from that. I write a timeline. They share the timeline with the planner. If there's any like huge differences, we like fix those up and everything. Another email goes out that's like, Hey, I need a shot list. [00:21:28] Shot list is less of, tell me exactly what photos you want and more of like, tell me what's most important and things that I won't know, like we're changing our shoes later in the day. Or my grandmother signed this very special part of my dress. Like I, I wouldn't know that. so that's what I want on the shot list and also the family list. [00:21:51] Very, very detailed. Like every person together for that. If they give me that, great. We meet one more time before the [00:22:00] wedding, wedding day, previews editing.I still cull by hand, so I cull everything real quick, run it through, Imagen edit it delivered, and then another email goes out. They're like, yay. [00:22:15] at that point I start building the album, so I'm like, Hey, pick 35 of your favorite photos. We'll put them in the album. Take that into smart albums. Here goes more automation 'cause smart albums has like an auto build. So I just take the photos they chose and go boop and it, the whole thing is done. [00:22:31] Send it to them. How's it look? Yeah, we like it. Great. Print it out with Red Tree albums, get it shipped off. I shipped directly to my couples. I don't have to get it first. 'cause Red Tree albums is awesome. And at that point we're at the end. There's like a last like great, we did everything email and then there's also like a happy anniversary email that's part of the automation and. [00:22:53] At that point we go back to what we were talking about. Then I try and blog some stuff. I post on Instagram. [00:23:00] I don't do reels yet, but I need to do more.and then I back everything up again 'cause it was already backed up first. Like the raws were backed up and now I back up the JPEGs. 'cause I keep those the longest. [00:23:12] The raws eventually get deleted at some point 'cause they're huge and that, and that's the workflow. From start to finish with my couples in the photography side. [00:23:23] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: About how long is it typically for you, for. From, from the day that the, from the day of the wedding to, deliver the gallery, deliver the, you know, have the album designed and shipped. Like, what's the timeframe typically [00:23:37] John Branch IV: Oh goodness. couples are generally booking about a year in advanced ish.So you have that year and then I quote four to eight weeks for photos. It normally takes like four, eight is like safety zone for me. I don't, I don't like getting past four weeks. I need a better album process 'cause some of my couples take forever with the album. [00:23:59] But [00:24:00] generally with the perfect couple, the album's getting done. Maybe a month or two after the photos are delivered. So yeah, let's say one month, so two months added, so yeah, like a year and two or three months. [00:24:18] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Have you considered doing outsourced album sales, which would include the design and it's basically like. Doing an in-person album sales call, except you're outsourcing it to a company who's, that's their job. Have you [00:24:37] John Branch IV: know, I never thought about that, but I just heard someone talking about that and I was like, Hmm. [00:24:42] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. [00:24:43] John Branch IV: Because I feel like a lot of my couples are missing out on albums even, and I'm like, I include it in my package. And some couples will literally just not do it. And I'll have to be like, Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. [00:24:55] And they just don't, and I'm like, okay. Well I guess I'll hear from you at [00:25:00] some point. Like you're supposed to have an album. [00:25:03] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Right. So like, so, so doing proposals, I don't need to sell albums, but if I was doing weddings to the point where I needed to sell albums, I am not a sales person, right? So I, I don't, I don't feel comfortable even doing a, a, an an IPS.meeting with, for, specifically, for, for albums design and stuff. [00:25:26] but a company like that would actually do the sales and potentially get, you know, increase your, your profits, your revenue for, for the, for the job too. So,yeah, there's a handful of them. There's probably a tons, but there's a handful that, you know, I, I, I know work within the US so it might be something to. To consider, which, which again would like get hands off on it in a way. But, from what I, from what I've heard, they work so well within your brand, that [00:26:00] it's, it's like having them as an employee without having them as an employee. [00:26:03] John Branch IV: Nice. [00:26:03] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, let's talk AI for a minute [00:26:07] John Branch IV: Mm-Hmm. [00:26:08] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You're using ai, for sure. [00:26:10] In your editing, are you using like Photoshop to do some AI removals and things like that at this point? [00:26:17] John Branch IV: not Photoshop, but, I've been using EVO recently, for some removal type stuff. And I mean, Lightroom also has the AI removal and it's like. 70% as good as Photoshop. So like, Photoshop removals is, if it's like drastic. So I, I do use it. It's just like minimal. [00:26:39] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Minimal. [00:26:40] What does the future of AI in photography look like to you? --- [00:26:40] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So what does the future of AI and photography look like to you? [00:26:45] John Branch IV: Mm. Hopefully it's mainly, it's mainly assistance. 'cause I've, I've recently played around with things like midjourney and, and whatever other ones that generate stuff. [00:26:57] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. [00:26:57] John Branch IV: It's kind of ridiculous how good it looks, [00:27:00] but I just, I would hope, especially for weddings, that it never gets to a point where consumers are like, oh, well we can just take a couple of photos on our phone and then we'll run some other through AI and we can get those like shots that you would wanna put on the wall. [00:27:18] But it's like, but it's not even real, you know? so mainly assistant type ai and that's. Even what you're seeing with my whole workflow is like Imagens doing all the editing for me, and then I go back and retouch if needed in Lightroom or Photoshop if I need to remove anything from the background. [00:27:36] And then what I actually do so I don't sharpen or add grain to my photos in Lightroom. So when I export, I bring 'em into Voto. And Voto is adding sharpening and grain on the JPEG stage, which for some reason I feel like looks better than doing it inside of Lightroom. It also, is doing like retouching stuff and so I'll let it [00:28:00] do that, and that's kind of my process. [00:28:01] It's pretty much heavy AI at this point. [00:28:04] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yeah. Plus there's ai. Throughout your, the, the non, editing side. You've got AI in there between pick time, HoneyBook even has some ai, et cetera, et cetera. So, yeah, I, I, I, I hope that, AI as an assistant continues to, to, to grow and not so much the replacement and the generative end. Right. so I, I agree. [00:28:29] you. Still selling your, your Lightroom presets or have, are those discontinued? Or, or [00:28:36] John Branch IV: I am. Yeah. [00:28:38] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: you still [00:28:38] John Branch IV: still still selling them. They're out there. People find them sometimes. [00:28:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, so, so John has his, for everybody listening, John has his Lightroom presets. They are available for sale. he will get me the link so I can make sure that I include that in the show notes. but, If you don't know listeners, John's editing style is also within the Imagen App [00:29:00] as a talent AI profile. [00:29:01] Anybody can use Imagen to edit their photos and have the photos edited like John, and. It really is, amazing to see, you know, all the Imageners in the Imagen Community sharing photos, you know, all the time. and, and you know, when they share one that with John's profile, it's very obvious when it's John's profile 'cause it's a very unique style. [00:29:24] Right. so my question to you, John, is [00:29:28] How did Imagen impact your life? --- [00:29:28] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: how did Imagen impact your life? [00:29:31] John Branch IV: Oh my goodness. I mean it just. The amount of time it saves is kind of ridiculous. again, for all the listeners, if you all don't know, I have five kids and we homeschool, so home life is busy and whatever time I can save myself to just go hang out with them is like super helpful, especially being self-employed. [00:29:51] Because the hard thing you learn when you go self-employed, you think, I'm gonna quit my nine to five so I could set my own hours. It's like, well, you could set your own [00:30:00] hours for 24 hours because. There's no paid time off. You know, like you go on vacation, you still have to work or it doesn't get done. So being able to, and I, I don't mind that part. [00:30:11] I, I kind of like it of being self-employed, but being able to go, oh, cool, let me go have breakfast at with everyone and make myself a, a matcha. I stopped drinking coffee, make myself a matcha and hang out in the morning and just, you know, the day after the wedding and just go here. Imagen, do the thing. [00:30:30] Even though it finishes in like five minutes, which is always so impressive, I can just go take an hour or something and come back and be like, great. Here it is halfway done for me already. I mean more than half more like 90% and just recheck it and export and boom. Good to go. [00:30:50] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And we, you know, we mentioned, you know, beginning of this conversation, like you've got multiple parts of your business, so you're, not only are you getting more time [00:31:00] back with the family, but. It's potentially giving you more time on those other aspects. You can make another YouTube video because you're not focused on, you know, slaying away at the computer editing this. [00:31:10] Now you get to slay away at YouTube videos. [00:31:12] John Branch IV: Yeah. You know, you know what's cool though, talking about ai. so I found the tool called Gling. That, basically is like the Imagen of video editing. So I can take my talking head video like this and it'll just go through and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. There mistakes gone, everything. And it's already the jump cuts I would normally do and it's just, it's so cool. [00:31:34] Assistive AI is like so awesome. [00:31:37] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.so speaking of that, I was, I was gonna throw in one more question. I'm gonna do it now. you did just answer this and I'm, I'm wondering if there's additional, so I use Descript to this podcast, which is also an AI tool and also has that same feature where it can do auto edits. Multiple multi-cam edits, basically. [00:31:56] so beyond gling, GLING, I think was the name of it. Right. beyond that are [00:32:00] using any other AI tools for your, for your video work, for your, YouTube channel. [00:32:05] John Branch IV: Sometimes I use Opus clip, but I have feelings about it. It doesn't totally, I don't know if I'm doing it wrong. So basically it can take your longer form videos and then try to create shorts from it, and it'll automatically just like re cropp it and find sections that it thinks is good. And be like, here's a short for you that you can put on YouTube or as a reel or something. [00:32:29] that's because, and it'll, it'll do all the text and stuff and it'll add emojis and things. That's pretty much it. So far [00:32:37] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Okay, cool. And what's your, what's your main editing, app of choice for, for your video? For your video work? [00:32:43] John Branch IV: it's mainly final cut because I was an Apple employee, so I had it for free. I keep eyeing da Vinci. Everyone keeps talking about Da Vinci, and I always see it come up and I'm always like, Hmm, but I've just had final cut for so long at this point. It's just, it works. I can use it. It's [00:33:00] fine. [00:33:00] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah. I have, I have DS script that I use pretty much daily for, for personally and for Imagen. I bought final cut many years ago, so I'm right there with you. I, before Dscr, I was a hundred percent final cut. [00:33:13] John Branch IV: Yep. [00:33:13] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, da Vinci is nice. I do like the fact that if I wanted to get the AI tools in Da Vinci, I could just pay for it once and get done. [00:33:23] but but yeah, it's, it is a very fast video editor. I personally didn't find it than Final Cut, but I'm also not a heavy video editor, so maybe when you get like, you know, gigs and gigs of video footage to. Throw in, maybe there's a difference between, but yeah, and it's very different, right? [00:33:46] I mean, premier is its own beast, right? [00:33:49] John Branch IV: Oh my [00:33:49] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Final Cut is sort of simpler, in my opinion than than Premier. I think Da Vinci is somewhere in between the two as far as complexity. [00:33:56] John Branch IV: Yeah, I think so. Premier always felt like Photoshop video [00:34:00] editing, it was just like too much. Photoshop has a lot going on too. And Da Vinci like, yeah, it's definitely a middle ground. I just had a hard time 'cause I tried like, you know, it's free. I was like, let me try it out. And I was just like, it's not my final cut. [00:34:18] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I, I think it's one of those things where you gotta like, okay, here's a video I need to make, but I need a full day to just learn the thing and, you know, no, no distractions. And, and then maybe, maybe, so, This has been fantastic, John. I'm so glad we are able to do this. This is the last episode of season three as well, so that's, incredible. [00:34:40] So thank you for helping me to, wrap up this season. and we're gonna be back for season four in February.so that's really exciting. And, in the meantime, where can listeners learn more about you, connect with you and of course, see your incredible photography and your vi your YouTube content. [00:34:59] John Branch IV: Oh yeah, so you [00:35:00] could find me everywhere online as JB IV photography. Dot com or on Instagram or YouTube. That's my username everywhere. [00:35:11] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: J biv. [00:35:12] John Branch IV: J biv. [00:35:15] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so I, I, again, so thank you so much for, for, for hopping in, for chatting with me, sharing your, your, your insights and your workflows with all the listeners. And I know there's gonna be a lot of good stuff here for everybody to take away, and I'll be sure to get everything linked in the, in the show notes for all listeners who are looking for all the info. [00:35:34] and yeah, thank you again, John. [00:35:36] John Branch IV: Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah. [00:35:39] ​ [00:36:00]