How to Build An Ondemand Photography App

Just like we have Swiggy for Food, Uber for on-call taxis, Urbanclap for your house repair, and other servicing needs, then why can’t we have an on-demand photography app? 

This venture can better be termed as Uberization of Photography or uber for photography. 

The evolving economy is disrupting how the traditional industries operate by transforming the existing services and making them more convenient and available.  

With apps like Snappr, Pinpic, and Snapsquad in the marketplace, the photography industry has also ventured into the on-demand app development setup.

Why launch an On-demand Photography App?

If there is one thing that we are always short of, is time. 

We want to get our job done, our demands met as quickly 

as possible with minimal fuss and effort. This nature of ours has paved the way for the on-demand apps to flourish as of late. 

Photography is one such area, where this on-demand concept completely makes sense. 

Suppose, you are hosting a grand party to celebrate your promotion or a get together in the last minute, or a major corporate event to introduce a potential client. Surely you will need these cherishable moments to be captured with perfection. Then there are professional photographers and beginners to this field who are looking for corporate events, parties, and family gatherings to put their skills to good use and gain a reliable source of income. 

Hang on, here is a great trick. Why not simply combine these two aforementioned needs?

While planning any event, people can use the on-demand photography app to book suitable photographers from the comfort of their homes. For hiring a photographer, or to get hired, a photographer can create a profile in the app to get paid on an above-average doing what they love to do. 

Some companies such as Snappr, Photoshesh, Pinpic, and Scoopshoot are already doing it. They are setting themselves as middle-men between the potential clients and photographers and have turned this into a very successful concept. 

 The Struggle is Real

There are many enthusiasts and passionate photographers who want to make it big in the industry, but not everyone, makes it big or meets with the same amount of success.  When Snappr was found in Australia, most of the photographers were either found to be underpaid or worse underemployed. 

In the United States, for example, the number of professional photographers decreased by 18% between the stretch of 2008 and 2016. The wages also dropped down by 6% during that same stretch of time. What remains is that Photography can only survive as premium services. 
Well, because lenses are a costly investment. Cameras and lights are a costly investment. Learning the trade requires dedication and a lot of time, also money if you decide to learn at an elite photography institute. 

But there is another much bigger factor that is at play, photographers spend far more time running the business than doing the actual work, i.e. shooting photos.  Based on what professional photographer Benjamin Von Wong said, a lot of time is spent in connecting and organizing with the individuals and getting his content, his portfolio out there rather creating the content itself. 

Because once you a photographer gets the work, the whole shooting process surprisingly takes up as little time as possible….all the other steps to get there is what takes forever!

40% of the time - spent on Emails

20% of the time - spent on Social Media

15% of the time - Spent on Networking

14% of the time - spent on Blogging

1% of the time - spent on Shooting

5% of the time - spent on Editing

5% of the time - spent on Phone Calls

2% of the time - spent on Billing

3% of the time - spent on Finance Management

94% of his hourly wage is not spent on his work of shooting and editing, but for marketing and a little bit of management. These are some of the mandatory expenses that most of the photographers are faced with. Hence, it should come as no surprise that the average booking fee for a wedding photographer stands to $2,600 in the United States and nearly $4,000 AUD in Australia and equally equivalent in India. 

But most of the consumers do not have that kind of money, hence the demand remains all-time low. It's not that the photographers are overcharging, but the exorbitant expenses of running this kind of business necessitate the fee that most of the people are not able to afford. 

The process of researching and ultimately finding the perfect photographer is cumbersome for the consumers as well. The consumers have to screen through dozens, hundreds if not thousands of photographers to find the one that fits all of their needs. 

It is not guaranteed that the client will like the first photographer that they meet even if that photographer is the most established player in the market. 

Also, not all established photographers are great image-makers, it's just that they are slick networkers. In that case, they have to go through the whole process of searching for photographers and exchanging tons of emails and calls again until their eyeballs fall out! 

The next thing you know they might toss the idea of finding a professional photographer and surrender their cheap DSLR onto the hands of a relative or an intern and be at peace with it. 

How on-demand photography apps like Snappr solves these issues

• By offering an intuitive and easy platform for the customers to comfortably search and book a photographer at affordable flat rates be it for a few days or a few hours.
• By providing a direct and sincere pipeline of work to the photographers so that they do not need to spend any of their time on networking, marketing, negotiation, billing, and more. 

With direct supply work, photographers from now on will not require to spend any of their time and effort to do behind the scenes labor work. The on-demand photography app will take all of these through its various features.

Let’s create an on-demand photography app!

Now that you know that there are ample reasons and objectives behind creating this app, there are certain factors to go through before jumpstarting on the process of on-demand photography app development:

• Shoot of Varied Types

Since photography needs vary from person to person, event to event your app should provide consumers with a variety of options to choose from. This will grow the customer base by catering to their varied needs. Some might require a photographer only for a few hours, others might him for a day, the users should have the option to choose for whatever kind of service they want to.

• Clear Categorization

Not all photographers have specialization and proficiency to cover all types of events. A wedding photographer will not look forward to covering an outdoor excursion. It is very rare for a certain photographer to be proficient in all projects.  This is why an on-demand photography app should have clear categorization that can help the customers to search for a particular photographer based on their requirements. Some of the categories you can include are;

1. Birthday Parties
2. Corporate Events
3. Wedding
4. Portrait
5. Excursion/Travel
6. Fashion

• Recommendations from the Absolute Best Photographers

Tying up and getting advertised by the absolute best professionals in the business, will amp up the profile and visibility of your app to the larger customer base.

• Linking the Social Media Accounts of Photographers

If the Flickr and Instagram accounts of the photographers can be linked to their profiles it will do a world of good to the consumers. Presenting their best work on Social Media is how photographers can influence and gain customers nowadays. Users will also be able to judge and decide with ease on the choice of a particular photographer if he or she is fit for their job or not by looking at their work. This will also serve to be a good marketing asset for your app.

• Comprehensive Reviewing System

The on-demand photography app should definitely have an all-inclusive reviewing option in place. Both the customers and photographers should be able to comment and rate each other, with the reviews of a photographer being all visible. This will help to maintain the overall standard and enhance the user experience of the app by providing transparency to both the parties involved. Constructive criticism always helps, as these will also provide tips to photographers on ways to improve their skills.

• Automatic Mode

Convenience should be a key factor in the business model of creating your app, not just on the consumer side but also on the photographer side. If a particular photographer is unavailable, the app should employ a matching system that will automatically connect the user to the next on-demand photographer that matches the user’s requirements. This approach will save valuable time for both customers and photographers. On-demand photography apps such as Snappr, Perfocal, Pinpic have this feature.

• Competitive Pricing

You have integrated all of the latest features, hired all of the best photographers into your platform. But what use is all of these if you charge higher than the photo studios or the average freelancer? A competitive and attractive pricing feature should be given paramount importance. It will help to sustain your app. Surely people will understand if you charge a bit higher for the doorstep service, but there should be a set limit on the pricing. Quality services, the trust of loyal customers, and attractive pricing are essential to help you sustain in this competitive world.

Now you know all about the major factors that you determine the making of your app. How to actually create one? Let’s get into it in detail.

How to Develop an Ondemand photography App?

Firstly you need to decide on the features to be incorporated in the app.It is the features that will portray the utilization of your app and set it apart from others in the marketplace.

Structure of the On-Demand App consists of the following Units:

Customers’ App – It’s actually the version of the app that the user can see after downloading the app from the store. In this scenario, the users are the customers and photographers, and their user version will mainly include all of the features related to the customers and photographers.

Admin panel – It’s a platform of an on-demand app where you can manage the users, create, track orders and requests, create reports, access analytics, manage prices and commissions and maintain the smooth functioning of the app.

Core Features for the User App Version:

• Smooth sign-up interface & process

The on-demand photographer app of customers should come with a seamless sign-up process so that the users can easily sign-up, fill up the required details, including the verification process. 

• Select Location

This feature will allow users to choose their location so that they know about the listed photographers in that area.

• Listed photographers at one Place

The customer's app should allow the users to surf through all of the listed photographers of a particular location. Users should also be able to read through their relevant information such as cost per shoot, previous clients, total experience and work portfolio all in one place, while going through the profile of the listed photographers.

• Book with just a click

The booking process should be equally smooth where customers should be able to book the relevant photographer with only a click, after going through their profiles.

• Search option 

The Uber for photography app to find on-demand photographers should offer relevant search filters to all the customers, letting them search photographers based on expertise, category, ratings and experience. There should also be an accompanying Automatic matching option. In case a customer finds a particular photographer to be unavailable, or a photographer declines a scheduled shoot, the app should automatically connect the user to the next available photographer with the same set of skills and experience.

• All bookings

All bookings feature lets the users, that is the customers and photographers to check all of their bookings, be it past, canceled and active along with the relevant details for any future references. 

• Proposals & Quotes

With this feature, customers will receive proposals and quotes in real-time, which they can compare side by side and select the best one of the lot. Customers can compare reviews & ratings, costs, portfolio & total experience to make the most fitting choice. 

• Packages

The photographers should offer at least 4 to 5  package types to the customers, describing the cost per shoot and remuneration details. The lowest-priced or most economical package should be mentioned on the top so that the customer can choose based on their budget without any hassle.

• Secure Payment gateway 

There should be a safe and secure mode of a payment gateway so that the customers can easily make payments from the app. Customers will choose one appropriate option from the multiple payment options provided. 

• Add to favorites

Integration of an ‘add to favorites’ component into the on-demand photographer app will allow the customers to add all of their favorite photographers to their favorite list. They can keep that list in handy to hire them for any requirement in the future.

• Self-Help Option

Customers have a specific set of requirements based on which they hire a particular photographer. This feature in the app will allow them to perform a custom inspection as per their needs. An online bot should be available to help out customers 24/7, to solve any issue they might be facing with the app, regarding bookings or the registration process. 

• In-app chat 

Customers with queries related to availability of photographers, their cost and remuneration per shoot, or any other concern can get it cleared by directly communicating with photographers through an inbuilt in-app chat feature. 

• Rate Your Experience

Customers and photographers should be allowed to review and rate their experience at the end of every shoot on the app.

• Alerts and push notifications

Through this feature both customers and photographers will get real-time notifications and updates regarding their bookings, confirmation or cancellation, and other important updates related to the app.

• Manage Your Earnings

This feature is particularly for the photographers to check and monitor their amount of earnings, so that they can withdraw it anytime that they require.

Features of the Admin Panel version of the App should include the following:

• Manages All Customers and Photographers

Admin Panel will let the admin manage all of the photographers and customers on one platform. Depending upon the given criteria, the admin can accept or reject any registration request of the photographers. Admin can manage the customers by going through their profile, budget, and requirements and even help both the old and new photographers and customers to manage their information.

• Create Bookings

This feature will allow the admin to create bookings manually for multiple dates. Users can only do single day booking from the app but through the panel platform, the admin will be able to generate multiple bookings. In fact, he or she can view all of the bookings of all of the users whether it is canceled, expired, completed, active, or even disputed.

• Reports

Through the panel, the admin will create reports on the total number of photographers, customers, earning, deals on a monthly, yearly, and quarterly basis.

• Manage Commission Rates

This feature will allow the admin to define the commission rates of each photographer, which can be edited if required in the future.

• Block any User

The admin is responsible to maintain the quality and standard of the app. Through this feature, he can block any customer or photographer who is creating a problem for others in the app and can manage all of the blocked users. If required he can unblock any user as well..

• Edit Photography Categories

This feature allows the admin to edit, add or remove any photography categories as per the requirement.

• Generate Promo Codes

This feature is for the admin to generate promo codes during the wedding season, festival or any kind of special event, for the customers, so that they can get a discount on their bookings. After generating it, the admin can notify the users only of a particular region or all the users about the promo codes and discounts. 

To enter into the development phase, you need to affiliate with the professionals. Contacting the prospective professionals, telling them about the project, and convincing them to join the project is perhaps the most crucial step of the development process, without which starting on the project will be useless.

After this comes the matching algorithm. Now, what is a matching algorithm you may ask? Matching Algorithms are codes created by developers to match you with a suitable photographer, based on your search filters, or requirements. You could use manual or automatic matching depending on the resources. It will be better to start with a small location to know about the viability and working of the matching algorithm. After you are convinced, expand, and tweak the matching algorithm based on your needs.

Also, you will require three types of apps - one for the photographers, one for the customers and one for the Admin Panel aka the app Manager. A fine-tuned and sturdy UX and UI and solid servers that can handle the massive data of the photographers and customers is a must. 

The other basic technologies comprise of the following:

Back-end

• Frameworks: Symfony, Phalcon
• Programming languages: NodeJS, Go, PHP
• Caching system: Memcached, Redis
• DBMS: MySQL
• NoSQL DB: MongoDB, RethinkDB
• Queue server: German

Front-end

• Markup Languages: CSS3/HTML5
• Programming languages: JavaScript, TypeScript
• Preprocessors: SaSS
• Frameworks: Vue.JS, EmberJS, Angular

For Android

• Kotlin programming languages, Java
• Room databases, realm

For iOS

• Realm database
• Swift programming language

Let's do the Cost estimation!

Now that you have decided and finalized on the design and list of the features to be integrated into the app, the one and only thing that you are concerned is:

How much will it cost me to develop an Ondemand Photography App?

If you have a good budget, then it would be way smarter to look for an experienced and professional ondemand photography app development company. You will end up with a great product that will justify the budget spent. 

Of course, the cost estimation for any ondemand photo app depends on certain basic factors. 

• The technologies that will be used
• The number of essential & additional features, the complexity of the design
• The platform or platforms that the app is being created for, iOS, Android
• The technical complexities and possible difficulties that you will face while developing the app
• The development process that you will go for, Agile or Waterfall

Overseeing these factors you might decide to build a simple, less complex app, but will that cost less?

To know more about these factors in detail that can give you a fair idea on the complete cost estimation of ondemand photography app development, please go through our blog, 

How Much Does An APP DEVELOPMENT COSTS? LET’S ESTIMATE!

Ready to Create Your Own Uber for Photography App?

We have reached the end of this blog and by this time, we are hoping that you are already foreseeing your final product, or have an awesome idea for an uber for photography. Similar to developing any other app, it will be a laborious process, but with a proficient team of developers by your side,  we at Innofied are dedicated to delivering only the best to you.

Have an idea in mind, or want to create an app just like Snappr or Pinpic? Go ahead to get a quote. Let's start creating your on-demand photography app!