Open a session and let clients book online
Set up a session, share one link, and let clients pick their own time. Each time they take becomes a booking, and the deposit invoice goes out by email.
4 things to set up · about 13 minutes all up
Skip to the setup ↓Ongoing or a dated day, then one link: the 33-second overview.
What this does
A session is anything you’re willing to be booked for. It covers two things photographers usually run in separate tools: an ongoing offer clients can book at any open time, and a dated day split into short times people pick for themselves.
Both work the same way. You set the hours once and share a link on your own domain. Every spot someone takes becomes a real booking, with a client record, a checklist and a deposit invoice (not a spreadsheet row you reconcile on Sunday night). Two people can’t book the same time, because the calendar refuses the overlap.
Each task below ends with a check. By the end you’ll have seen your booking page the way a client sees it and watched a spot turn into a booking.
Set it up
Step 1 of 4 · 4 min
Create a session
A session with its hours set, and a grid that shows you its bookable times before anyone else sees them.
- In Tellisto, go to Sessions → New session. The first real decision is When can clients book?, and there are two answers. Ongoing means clients book any time you're open, week after week, the way a headshot or a family sitting works. On specific dates means one day (or a handful) split into short back-to-back times that clients pick for themselves, the way a spring mini day works. Start a session
- If you picked specific dates, set the day and the hours you'll work it. Add another date for a multi-day set, or switch to a date range when every day runs the same hours. Then slot length, the gap between slots, and an optional break with a name on it, so the hour you need to eat isn't bookable and nobody has to be told why.
- If you picked ongoing, choose where its hours come from: your general availability, the weekly schedule you already keep, or its own weekly hours just for this session. Setup and packdown time either side, a minimum notice, and how far ahead people can book are all here too. Clients only ever see the shoot time; your calendar blocks the full span.
- Now test it. Hit Create session and you land on the session's own page, where a grid preview shows the actual times this produces. If the slots aren't what you pictured, the numbers to change are right underneath.
Step 2 of 4 · 5 min
Make it yours
A session page in your studio's branding, with the price, the deposit and how bookings are confirmed all set.
- On the session's page, work down the Edit section. Give it a title and a client-facing blurb, pick an accent, and upload a session image for the top of the page (PNG, JPG or WebP, under 5 MB). Open your sessions
- Under Showcase photos, pick up to four frames from your own galleries to show people what they're actually booking. Filter by gallery, click to pick, and the order you pick them is the order they show. They appear on the desktop version of the public page.
- Set the price and the deposit: a flat amount, or a percent of the price. Booking holds the spot straight away, and the deposit invoice follows by email in your branding. The booking counts from the moment they submit, whether or not the money has cleared yet.
- If there are things you always end up asking by email, build a form once and attach it here under Intake form. Then choose when the client fills it in: while booking, before they pay, on the confirmation screen straight after, or emailed later with a reminder a set number of days out. Their answers are saved on the booking and on the client, so they're in front of you when you prepare for the shoot.
- Under Booking behaviour, choose Confirm instantly or I approve each booking. Instant suits a mini day you want to fill itself. Approval suits work you want a look at first. On a dated session you can also cap total bookings, so spots stop selling at the number you can actually shoot even if times remain.
- Now test it. If you already sell this shoot as a package, don't retype it. Start another session and pick Copy the offer from a package at the top: the price, deposit and inclusions arrive filled in. It's a copy, so adjusting them on the session never touches your catalogue.
Step 4 of 4 · 2 min
When it fills
A full session that takes waitlist names instead of turning people away, so a cancellation has someone ready to take the spot.
- In the session's Edit section, tick Offer a waitlist when this session is full. Once every time is taken, people can leave their name and when they'd like to come, instead of closing the tab. Open your sessions
- Sessions → Waitlist shows who's waiting and the window each of them asked for. Create booking beside a name starts a booking already carrying their details, so if you find them a time by hand you're not retyping anything.
- When someone cancels, Tellisto matches the freed time against the queue, oldest first, and drafts a release email carrying a booking link. It waits on the waitlist page for you to read it and press send. It only sends on its own if you've deliberately turned that on.
- Now test it. Cancel one of your own test bookings on a session that has someone waiting, then open Sessions → Waitlist. The draft is sitting there with the wording it would send. Read it, then send it or leave it.