Making the next step to onsite printing

[mark1616]

Hi All,

 

I'm looking at upping my game from shooting events and waiting for people to

order online to onsite printing.

 

I currently have no idea on how to go about this or exactly what I need. The

basics I'm sure are essential are PC or Laptop, dye sub printer, software to

display photos etc. Can you advise me on specs, models for this and other

things that I'm sure I've not considered as yet but need to take into account

if I really am going to make this fly?!

 

Here is my site with the sort of thing I'm producing at the moment

www.photographysmith.co.uk

 

Thanks for your help,

 

Mark

[zackojones]

Hi Mark:

 

I took a look at your web site -- great stuff! How do you currently handle print orders? Do you do the printing or have a lab do it?

 

As far as on site printing goes some things to consider include:

 

- Power. You have to have electricity to run the computer and printer. Is a power source near by and can you tap into it?

 

- Someone to deal with customers. If you're doing it are you missing photo opportunities?

[mark1616]

Thanks I'm still learning (aren't we all) but getting there slowly.

 

As for printing I use a lab who send the photos direct to the clients so that cuts another part out of the loop which is great.

 

I realised power after posting and some places are pretty remote so will need to look at generation or something.... then we get onto balanced power and the like so laptops are probably easier in that respect.

 

Yes an assistant will be essential as I don't want to miss a moments shooting.

 

Is this something you currently do yourself?

 

For those who are, what printers are good to start with I'm thinking 8x6 (or similar) is the best size to offer, I'm not looking to cut corners but also I can't afford the best off of the bat.

 

Thanks again,

 

Mark

[leopoldstotch]

An ideal basic setup for on-site printing would be 2 laptops (One for printing/downloading, one for customer viewing), and an inkjet printer (Dye-sub isn't the best idea) if you have a power source. 5x7's and 8x10's are the two most commonly requested sizes by customers in my experience. For photo displaying software, look into ACDSee. Good luck!

[mark1616]

What's up with Dye-sub, I was under the impression (possibly incorrectly) that it was the way to go for good results at a good speed? Also if going for an inkjet what are the best options to look at for quality, longevity and cost of printing?

 

Thanks!

[leopoldstotch]

Dye sub printers are much slower than inkjet printers, and usually only print 4x6 pictures. For the price of a dye-sub printer, you can get a much faster injet which will print up to 8x10. As for recommendations, look at something like a Canon ip4300 or an epson printer.

[milton-chris]

I have been researching this, and looked at the Canon Pixma Pro 9000 and it has incredible print speed - 8x10 at 50 seconds on highest quality. I tested it at my local store, and think that is the machine I will get to use alongsidea cheaper Canon dye-sub for the 4x6.

 

I didn't find any dye-sub machines for 8x10 at what I thought was a reasonable price.

 

HTH

[zackojones]

Mark: To follow up to your question. I am just now getting into sports photography so I have a LOT to learn :). I have been asked by a few parents if they could buy prints so I am going to talk with the Athletic Director for the school that I shoot the pictures for and see if he will allow me to sell prints through a web site like EventPictures. I would rather spend my time taking pictures than worrying about printing, etc. Since I don't have an assistant and printer to use on site, etc selling online would work best for me.

[andyjonesphotography]

Leopold

 

My Dye Subs are older models but still fast enough. Olympus P440 takes 70 seconds for an 8x10 and my P11 takes 30 seconds for a 4x6. The latest Sony and Shinko dye subs take only 7 seconds for a 5x7 and around 20 seconds for 8x10s.

 

IMO and many others dye subs are the way to go for on site printing.

 

Andy

[mark newcombe www.mcnphoto]

Mark,

 

The ONLY way to go is with dyesubs forget inkjets take a look at most every event photog around doing onsite stuff including santa picts you will only see dyesubs anyone saying otherwise is just wrong.

 

I use p440 and copals they are so much faster and better than inkjets its not funny.

 

Just google event photography and you'll see I'm right. Budget is what makes initial setups prohibitive to a lot of start ups, a couple of pc's and printers is a minimum all the way through to onsite file servers and touch screens viewing stations, my advice is to steer away from inkies on site they are way to slow.

 

Sorry Leopold but you are way off the mark offering inkjets as advice for event photography no one i know uses them.

 

Look at what Copal, mits and sony are offering in there high volume dyesub ranges you won't pick these up at the local computer store because they are special event printers, check out thier sites ideal printer is something like this

 

http://www.copalprinter.com/products.php

 

Regards

Mark

[mark1616]

Thanks Andy and Mark for adding to this, I've found a couple of places that supply and support these so will investigate more with them to work out per print costs in the long run.

 

Mark, Andy had also emailed my and suggested you were one of the most knowledgeable on this subject so really glad you answered.

 

What is the best way to go for software driving this? Also what do you do about power if it really is in the field, I've looked at generators but not really sure what I'm looking at.

 

I'm not making a move in the near future but working out my budget and business plan as well as making more contacts to ensure that the opportunity exists as I like to think it does.

 

If you have any other advice that springs to mind I would love to hear it.

 

Thanks again,

 

Mark

[mark newcombe www.mcnphoto]

Hi Mark,

 

I use yamaha gensets, the trick is to find a pure sign wave model they are always heaps more expensive but don't spike your com gear, mains power is always beter but the gens work well. I can't stress how important the pure sign is in protecting your gear these are not the type of gens you buy at home depot they are usually bigger and pretty quiet to run, take a look at yamaha and onan marine gensets and you should be in the ball park.

 

As far as software goes take your pick, I know of guys using acdsee and that type of stuff mine is custom built and works well now but it did take a while to debug and was worthwile doing, i'm sure you could buy smething similar off the self in the usa. Maybe I'll license mine one day.

 

I'm getting heaps of questions regarding how I set things up at the moment so I'm thinking of putting together a web vid of course we can't give away all the tricks but it'll help you out maybe.

 

We are now working on mobile studio setups for sports using greenscreens and pretty special software I should have the first one up and going in the next few weeks so i'll post some stuff when its ready.

 

The biggest thing when setting out in my opinion is knowing what you want to achieve and this means doing your maths, get your business plan sorted out and spec out a budget, I know that sounds basic but you'd be surprised how many don't do it and sipmly fall short when they go to an event. So kudos to you for thinking things through first I'm happy to help just post a question here or email me.

 

 

Cheers

 

Mark

[mark1616]

Very good info and plenty to look into to make sure that everything is viable. I find it really hard not to jump in both feet straight away but I want to make this work properly so I know it is best to go into this phase with my eyes open.

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

[ron_laxton]

I new it was just a matter of time before Mr. Newcombe responded about the dye sub snub. He knows what he's talking about. I won't do an on site print until I get one.

[craig_shearman1]

If you have money to do this as a proper business investment there are printers built just for this purpose. But if you're doing it on the cheap, have you considered the little Epson 4x6 printers that seel for anywhere from about $80-$150? They print a 4x6 in about a minute, and you can even put the card straight into the printer. I think they would be a good, cheap option for someone just getting into Santa photos or the like. May not be as well suited for action shots from sports events if that's what you're doing. As for power, consider a car battery and an AC inverter. The inverter is the same thing you can buy to plug in your AC-only computer equipment in the car. Cheap way to get power in a remote area.

[mark newcombe www.mcnphoto]

Just make sure you can start the car at the end of the day. I looked into that in a big way and found some car batteries called calcium cell (I think) they last forever if you put a bank of them with an isolater to leave the vehicle battery alone, from memory they were pretty pricey but will work and they are silent and won't spike your gear. Invertors are cheap and good too.

 

Snubb Ron lol. Those little ones (printers) are ok, better than inkies (snubb snubb snubb)and nice and cheap. Print prices are a little more but were talking cents here so if you only want to offer 6x4's to start with it'll be a cheaper decent set up.

[mark1616]

Thanks again guys for the additional info.

[valdez_brown]

<p>Okay, let me chime in on this. First before I address your questions Mark Smith, Leopold Stotch...... what the HELL are you smoking?? Inkjets are terrible idea for EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY??? Inkjets, good quality yes, but are WAYYYY too slow, Mark if you go with this idea, you'll be out of business in no time. Dye Subs are the ONLY WAY TO GO. PERIOD. Now, back to your question mark. You don't need a inkjet, please don't buy a inkjet. You don't need a computer, laptop. And you most definitely do not need to be listening to anybody elses advice. Your question is about equipment, I will address equipment. After you done your research, only you can determine which equipment you need to purchase, and exactly how you want to execute your business model. If you plan to print on site, these are the printers you want to roll with: (they are dye subs, by the way) Hiti p510si, Hiti p510k mini kiosk, Sony Snaplab 10upcl or Sony new Snaplab 15upcl. That's it. Dont look at anything else. You will only get a headache researching all of the different equipment. These printers range from $1200-$1300. If you pay more for any of these printers, you paid too much. You have to research the printers yourself and decide what's best for you. I personally like the wireless hiti p510si, because i can tether the transmitter to my camera, and it will send the image over to my printer wireless via pictbridge, and I do not have to pull the sd card out. I wouldn't buy a inkjet, but for the sake of peace n mind, if you want, you can buy a cheap inkjet, and test it out yourself, and imagine yourself using a inkjet, that takes a little over a minute to print a 4x6, and almost 2 mins to print a 5x7 or 6x9, and ask yourself, do you really want a printer that slow operating with a long line of people waiting, or do you want a printer that prints out good enough quality images in 12-17 secs per print while people are in line waiting? It's your call. If you buy a cheap inkjet printer, you get what you pay for. Make the investment, get one of the printer mentioned above, and don't consider anything else. Mitsubishi printers cost too much, fujifilm needs computers, and the same for kodak. Hiti or Sony, can't go wrong with either or.</p>