Workflow for charity ball photos?

[john_seymour]

I plan to take pictures at a charity ball of people in their

best ?frocks? and sell them on the night.

 

I have:

 

20D + 24-70L + 420EX + XP laptop

 

I expect to acquire (borrow or have bought):

 

- Tripod

- Backdrop

- Some misc extra lights (?)

- Canon ?Selphy? dye-sub printer (does ~6x4?s in about 80secs)

- A helper

 

The idea is

 

- Build a makeshift photo area (?studio? would be too strong a

term)

- Check white balance, exposure etc (prob. use manual mode)

ahead of time best I can so prints don?t need to be tweaked. May use

up to ISO 400 or 800, as it noise won?t be seen at 6x4 (or larger,

later) and I should be able to get fast enough shutter speed at

F5.6+ to use flash for better fill effect.

- Tether camera and printer to PC with USB cables.

- Use EOS capture (see below)

 

Then:

 

- I take a couple of pictures of each person/group

- While I line up the next photo?s, helper shows pictures on

the PC, and buyer chosses which one they want printed

- We sell print in a simple card frame

 

Questions are:

 

- Does this sound workable?

- Is EOS Capture a good idea for this?

- Is it better just to browse CF card in the camera (via WIA

drivers) and use Windows default viewer to review and then print?

Can I do this and expect to take more pictures at the same time?

 

J

[damian_tinsley]

Sounds emminently workable. The voice of no experience speaking here, you have to appreciate! I have only one suggestion - if the poses are basically the same, and the 'choice' is only the distinction between whether or not someone's eyes are shut (as an example), don't let the subjects choose. Get your helper to choose if they are halfway competent. Then just show the subjects the best shot.

[citizensmith]

I have a friend who does something very similar. He has a bank of 3 computers, networked to his central PC (all on a rolling cart) and people just look at the photos, write down the numbers of those they like, and fill out a form. He generally prints later and provides 8x10s.

 

The twist with his set up is that he also has a large selection of backdrops available from his personal photography library. The clients also get to pick a backdrop and they are the photoshoped in. Given a plain background this is quick to do and reasonably effective. It can look cheesy but it is very popular.

 

For onsite printing I use an Epson Picturemate. The quality is marginally behind the Canon Dye Sub printers but it still quickly produces decent, smudge proof prints. Its also about half the cost of the Canon printers to use (29cents a print vs around 55 for the Canons). I tend to chose photos myself and stick the flashcard in the printer if I have to, or a laptop if I have time/space/helper.

 

You can't really use the Capture utility as you'll be getting in the way of whomever is on your computer. Better to have a few flash cards and just swap them back and forth regularly.

[rick_helmke]

The trick is to keep it simple. You are putting too much tech into a relatively simple situation. IF it were me.....

 

A single background. Two studio strobes, monolights or whatever. A single camera on a tripod, maybe three flash cards. Don't bother with monitors and so on. Just get a printer like the Canon i475D, something that makes good prints quickly. Use a decent laptop with a card reader, every two or three groups pull the card, download to the computer and print everything. Make 4x6 or 5x7's, put them all on display in a conspicous place. It is cheap to do and you will sell more if the customer can pick them up right now than if he or she has to pick something and come back later. Less complicated as well. There will be some prints leftover but if you price them correctly you'll make out like a bandit and the throwaways will be insignificant cost wise. Get a nice print holder of some kind with the event name and date already printed on it and they will sell like gangbusters. This even more true if there is a cash or open bar involved.

 

Don't bother with a dye sub printer. Get an inexpensive ink jet unit. Good quality and low cost for the printer and per print. This type of event is easy money. The trick is to keep everything simple. You will need at least one helper running the computer and making prints. You need to bring some money to make change, take checks and don't worry about credit cards. It is boring stuff but this is where the money is. Good luck.

 

Rick H.

[john_seymour]

Thanks. The dye-sub is inexpensive ~80UKP in the UK. Print packs are 25UKP for 108 prints. So the prints should be cheap enough. The idea of the USB connection was to keep things simple? It appears the Canon software will just allow every image I take to just appear on the laptop. No messing with swapping cards all the time, and with the camera on a tripod the cable can hopefull be routed ok. I'm now thinking my helper selects the print. So I take a couple of shots and helper just chooses the one that looks best (no shut eyes?) and presses 'print' - that's it. Photo's while you wait? Only at, say, a 5 min/photo (all in, take, pay, print, mount) I'm only going to get through about 40 in the eve max. And how much can I charge for a 6x4?...

[citizensmith]

If you think you'll get 40 purchases then figure out what you'd like to make in an evening and divide by 40. I think 3 to 6 quid a print would be reasonable depending on the cost of your frames.

 

You may also want to print out some blank forms that folks can fill out who would like a nice 8x10 mailed to them later. I know it wasn't something you mentioned, but printing out some forms will cost you very little, and that way you stand a chance to make some extra money from the evening. A nice 8x10 could go for 8 to 12 quid so could really help profits.

[john_seymour]

Yes, I was thinking of using the web for after-event sales, though this may be too restrictive. Fotopic.net do a nice service for ?5/month when I can hike their prices to anything I like & I get 90% of the difference. It would take the hassle factor away...

 

J