Your calendar, session types and availability
Put shoots, extra shoots and meetings on one calendar, and control when clients can book.
The calendar shows a day, a week or a month. Everything that takes up your time goes on it, not just paid shoots — a calendar missing your Tuesday consult will happily let a client book over it.
Three kinds of entry
| Kind | Use it for | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Main Shoot | The shoot a job exists for | A client — pick an existing one or type a new name and email |
| Extra Shoot | A second shoot on work already booked | An existing job to attach to |
| Appointment | Consults, meetings, anything that isn't a shoot | Nothing — a client is optional |
Only a Main Shoot moves a job forward — booking one takes a lead to Booked and sets the job's shoot date. An Extra Shoot deliberately leaves the job's stage and date alone, so adding a second day to a wedding can't quietly rewrite the first.
An Appointment with no client attached sends no confirmation email — there's nobody to send it to. That's the one to use for your own scouting trips and edit days.
Session types
A session type is a shoot you sell repeatedly — its duration, price, colour on the calendar, and the buffer you need afterwards. Set them up once and booking gets faster, because the duration and price come with the choice.
Buffer time is the setting most people skip and then wish they hadn't. It's what stops a client booking a newborn session that starts four minutes after your last one ends, on the other side of town.
When clients can book you
- Working hours — the hours you'll take bookings, per weekday. A day with no hours is a day nobody can book.
- Blocked dates — one-off closures: a holiday, a wedding you're second-shooting, your own birthday.
These drive your public booking page, where a client picks a slot themselves. Slots you've already filled disappear automatically — the calendar is the source of truth, so you don't maintain availability twice.
Keeping it in step with your own calendar
- Google Calendar sync — your personal events block booking slots, so a dentist appointment in your own calendar can't be booked over. Syncs hourly, or on demand.
- Calendar subscription (iCal) — a private link that puts your LumiHQ bookings into Google, Apple or Outlook Calendar. Read-only, and updates on its own.
The two do opposite jobs and most people want both: the sync stops clients booking over your life, the subscription puts your shoots in front of you where you already look.