Studio Bookings
Overview
If you hire a commercial photography studio rather than shooting on location, Studio Bookings tracks the reservation, the space specifications, and any equipment hired from the studio.
There are two tabs: Studios, where you describe each space you use, and Bookings, where you record each hire of one. Describing a studio is a one-off — the second time you book the same room, you only enter the date and times.
Studio Booking Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Enquiry | Reservation enquired but not confirmed |
| Confirmed | Studio confirmed the booking |
| Active | The hire is happening today |
| Completed | Booking has taken place |
| Cancelled | Booking will not go ahead |
Accessing Studio Bookings
Planning tab → Studios
A booking whose free cancellation is running out says so on its row — “Cancel by 18 Oct”.
Creating a Studio
Everything that stays the same from one hire to the next belongs to the studio.
- Go to the Studios tab and tap New Studio
- Enter:
- Name and Room — the room matters when a venue has more than one space
- Contact — email, phone and website for the studio
- Hourly rate — used to work out what a hire costs
- Space specifications — floor area, ceiling height, cyclorama and infinity floor, natural light, power, backdrops, wifi, changing rooms, make-up stations, kitchen, client area, loading bay, disabled access, occupancy
- Included in the Hire — what every booking of the space comes with at no extra cost
- Available for Hire — what the studio can supply on top of the hire fee, and the price of each item
- Access — access code and parking notes
- Cancellation — whether it can be cancelled, and on what terms
- Tap Save
Listing something under Available for Hire costs nothing. It is a list of what the room can supply — a booking is only charged for what it actually takes.
Creating a Studio Booking
- Go to the Bookings tab and tap +, or Planning → New Studio Booking (⌃U) on a Mac
- Choose the studio. If it is one you have not used before, New Studio from inside the picker and it is selected for this booking straight away
- Enter the date and times
- Check the cost, which is worked out from the studio’s hourly rate, and adjust it if the studio quoted something else
- Tap Save
The rate is a starting point, not a link
A studio’s hourly rate seeds the cost of a new booking and is never written back into one already made. If a studio puts its prices up, last year’s shoot still shows what you actually paid.
Studio Booking Detail Screen
The studio’s name is the title. The header gives the date with its weekday, the times and duration, the status, and the booking reference — “Booking DL-2291”.
The rest is one scrolling page in two sections:
This Hire
- Getting In — on the day of the hire, first: the access code in large type, parking, the loading bay, and a button to call the studio
- Payment — the rate, the costs, and the deposit and balance with whether each is paid
- Cancellation — whether it can still be cancelled for free, and until when
- Actions — moves the hire on: Mark as Confirmed, Mark Deposit Paid, Mark Balance Paid and the rest, whichever come next. Mark as Cancelled asks first, and reminds you that it records the cancellation in Apex Lucis — you still need to cancel with the studio. On a Mac, the same actions are under Planning → Studio Booking
- Hired for This Booking — what this shoot took on top of the hire fee. Tap Add Hired Equipment to tick items from what the studio has available. Only what you tick is added to the booking’s total
- Notes
The Studio
- Getting In — the access code, parking and loading bay
- The studio’s contact, with buttons to call or email
- The space: floor area, ceiling height, backdrops, power, natural light and the rest. These come from the studio, so correcting them there corrects every booking at that space
- Included with the Studio — what the hire fee already covers
- The booking confirmation, if you’ve added one
Deleting a Studio
Swipe a studio or a booking and tap Delete. Apex Lucis asks first.
Deleting a studio does not delete its bookings. They keep their dates, costs and payment records, and still show the studio’s name. What goes is the description of the room — the specifications, the equipment lists and the rate — so booking that space again would mean describing it from scratch.