Shoott believes in having a rigorous vetting process for the photographers on our platform. In fact, we need to because we’ve built a business around “pay only for the photos you want” so two elements are at play:

• Shoott needs our photographers to produce photos that people want to pay for and 

• Shoott doesn’t make money unless our photographers make money 

These elements create a nice system of accountability for our hiring process that helps ensure quality of service and product.

Step 1: Photographer Applications

To start, photographers apply to be part of the Shoott platform. We have specific requirements for equipment (both camera bodies and lenses) and we ask to see their photography portfolio. We first make sure their cameras can produce images of sufficient quality so if clients want to print photos, they’re able to do so at a large scale without compromising image quality. Then we review each and every portfolio to see if their work reflects the level of technical and artistic skills needed to generate the “look and feel” of the photos we share on our website and social media.

Step 2: A Video Interview

If the portfolio looks in line with the level of work you can see displayed on shoott.com and on Instagram @shoottphotos, we’ll invite the candidates for a video interview.

Over the video interview, we’re seeing if the photographer is friendly and personable and if they’d be the type of service provider that would give a client a great experience. We’ve found that having a great experience is at least 50% of what comprises client satisfaction so this part is important to us since we understand clients often don’t know how to pose and can feel self-conscious, so we want photographers who are good with people.

Step 3: Test Shoot

If they pass the video interview, we invite them to do a 10 minute test shoot to see how they work under time constraints. Our sessions are 30 minutes long which requires photographers to work quickly to provide a lot of variety during that time, so we conduct the 10 minute test shoot to mimic the conditions. We make sure to provide them with sample galleries so they have a point of reference visually and we see what they can produce.

Step 4: Background Check + On-boarding

Once their test shoots come in, we decide whether the candidate moves on to the next step – we have them go through a background check and if they pass with flying colors, then they’re on-boarded onto the Shoott platform, where we share tips from other photographers and our lessons learned over the past 6 years, we show them what tools they can use, where to find info, and to make sure they know what to expect from the sessions.

Step 5: Working on the Shoott platform 

As photographers work with Shoott, we share their session stats and client feedback with them so they can continue to grow. Photographers have the opportunity to be showcased as “Top Photographers” on the Shoott.com site so when clients are booking, they can peruse their portfolio and ratings to select sessions based off of photographers and their work.

Have more questions about what it’s like to work as a Shoott photographer? Check out our page for prospective photographers.