managing walk-up photos taken on sponsor's property

[william-porter]

My background is in event/wedding photography. I'm used to taking the photos at

the event, getting back to my office to process the photos, providing proofs (or

finished photos) online, and letting the client place orders and pay for them

online. (I've been paid in advance in these situations for my presence and my

work at the event, of course.)

 

But I've just been given a nice opportunity that requires a different approach.

A prestigious area attraction has asked me to spend a few hours on several

weekends taking photos for their guests. My sponsor asks for a percentage of

what I charge and has some other guidelines, all of which seem reasonable and

appropriate to me. And I don't have any questions about the photographic

challenge. What I'm not sure about is how to handle everything else, as I've not

worked like this before.

 

My sponsor will provide me with a table and a couple of chairs, and if I need

it, with electricity. The shooting will be done outside in an attractive

location. So far, so good. My subjects/clients will be walk-ups.

 

What I am not sure about is how to handle the orders - or the rest of the workflow.

 

Obviously, I need some sort of sign-up sheet, where I get people's names and

contact info. And I need to be able to link their name to the photos that I take

of them. I think I'll bring some paper and a magic marker, write their name on

the paper and take one shot with them AND the paper together. I'll probably also

record the starting shot number from the camera.

 

But there's more to it than that. Here are my questions.

 

--------------------

 

1) IMMEDIATE REVIEW or not? I DO NOT intend to provide prints on the spot -

that's just out of the question. But do I need to take a computer so they can

see the photos immediately and place their orders on the spot? Or could I simply

give people a URL that they could come to within 24 hours to review processed

photos and place orders online? I would prefer the latter - but I don't know how

much it would affect my sales. The crowd, by the way, is largely middle-class or

upper-middle-class. Think art museum, not State Fair.

 

 

2) GETTING IMAGES TO THE COMPUTER. If I have a computer with me, how exactly

does the process work? Should I shoot tethered? Never done that but I understand

technically what's involved and I could certainly practice beforehand (the

assignment is a couple weeks off). Or would it be satisfactory to ask subjects

to wait (or come back in 5-10 minutes) so I can copy photos from a card to the

computer for viewing?

 

 

3) HOW DOES THE CLIENT REVIEW? I'm not sure how I handle display on the

computer. I don't usually sit with clients at my computer and go over proofs. Do

I just go through the pictures with them quickly and make a note of the numbers

that they want to order?

 

 

4) FILE FORMATS. I normally shoot DNG, but I'm thinking for this assignment I

should shoot DNG + JPEG, so that I can do a little in-camera processing on the

JPEGs that the clients will review. Does that make sense?

 

 

5) CAN I DO THIS ON MY OWN? I don't have any idea how busy I'll be. I have an

appointment with the events coordinator at the sponsor on Friday and will know

more then, but I doubt if she can tell me for sure how busy I'll be. Must I have

an assistant with me, or can I hope to handle this myself?

 

 

6) PAYMENT. I take credit card payments now from clients via PayPal only; I

don't have a conventional merchant account with a bank. So I'd be in the

position of needing to take cash or checks only, right?

 

--------------------

 

Of course, I'll have brochures and biz cards with me, too!

 

By the way, if it matters, I expect that the shots will be mostly portraits of

children, perhaps some couples, a few family shots.

 

Am I missing anything else here?

 

Thanks in advance. Btw, if there's a thread somewhere that answers these

questions, I'd be delighted just for a link to it. But I searched here and

elsewhere. I could not find anything, but I'm not sure what search terms to use.

 

Will

[alec_myers]

Ideally take a second person, and a dye-sub printer. Print on the spot, take the money, and thank-you.

 

Otherwise, and particularly if you're alone then no, don't bother trying to display on the spot. You won't be able to edit them fast enough / well enough, and if you try, you'll just end up redoing the job again in your office.

 

Don't worry about numbering the shots. Sell people a token/ticket/whatever you call it, let them redeem it against their chose of pictures from the site. Make sure you put up two or three of each person/group/whatever, so they can choose. Nobody's going to buy a picture of anyone else, and you don't really care if they do. As long as you redeem each token for a print, so much the better. If it helps you can note the time on each ticket and file the images online by hourly intervals.

 

Make it clear that paying in advance each print is $10 cash, or whatever, extras can be ordered from the site, but cost more (say $20) and yes, you'll refund the $10 if they don't like any of the pictures at all.

 

At any given point you will either be standing around bored stiff, or snowed down by the weight of people and rushed off your feet. There is no in-between. (This is partly the cussedness of business, and partly because of the sheep effect of people wanting to join in what others are having done.) An assistant will stop you getting bored in the first case and make you less awkward to approach - and help to marshall the queues in the second.

 

If you can find a team of shills to pretend to be customers at the quiet times, it will help to kick things off.

 

You are correct about children - that's your best bet. Unless people are dressed up or you have something special to offer they most likely won't pay for a picture of themselves. That might be a cultural thing though.

 

If things get very quiet, then you can download/edit a few pictures, and if you have a big screen, display them. If you're outdoors then it's not going to be bright enough to make a great display, but it lets others know what they might get. If you try to spend time editing pictures so each customer can see them you'll get stuffed for time.

 

 

Good luck.

[tana_d.]

I would do something along the lines of what Alec just suggested. No way would I let them see and choose the photos on the spot, for several reasons: one, they'll probably order the photo you wished you had thrown out, two, I never show sooc's anyway, three, they will take forever trying to decide what to order and probably a lot of them will ask for a retake, all of which will just take up a lot of time.

 

Why not edit them at home and upload them all to a gallery, and let them just pick and choose whatever they want to order from there? That saves the hassle of collecting payment on the spot, and sorting out who ordered what. If you're worried they may never buy photos, collect a "sitting fee" up front that only covers your time - no prints, and put a time limit on the gallery.

 

Give them all a card with the website and password when they have the photo taken. Give the website and password to the manager/sponsor so he can send it out in a mass email to all the employees, for anyone who's lost their card. For an event like this, you want to keep it as simple and hassle free as possible.

[Spearhead]

Sell small prints at the event, otherwise you won't sell many. Use a 4x6 printer. Put a sticker on the back with information on where to get larger prints. The reason to do this is people will forget about it by the next day unless they have the photo. It's probably not nearly as significant an event as a wedding, so there won't be a lot of ongoing chatter about the event that would drive them to a site. I wouldn't do tokens or anything like that, get a small print in their hands first.<p>Take cash or checks at the event. Your prints won't be selling for an exorbitant amount and people should have money. I've never run into this as an issue.<P>I've never shot tethered, but it's usually because there's enough cables for the lighting and it's not an environment I can control like a studio. I have printed direct from card myself and used a laptop with an assistant running the laptop. Also, don't give anyone a choice, just choose what you think is best. No need to show it to them in advance unless you are concerned about something in the photo.

[twmeyer]

Roll Tana and Jeff's suggestions into your business plan. Tell the Event people they can have 5% or so of the print sales, max <i>after</i> you have recovered your expenses. <p>You are enhancing the experience of people who are visiting their venue. You might legitimately charge a fee for your time, or ask for a guaranteed minimum to cover your expenses and liabilities (gas, ink, paper, possible rain damage or cancellation, bird crap on the laptop keyboard, an assistant, wear and tear on lights and camera, website gallery posting fees etc). <p>They are investing and risking nothing that isn't already covered in their existing business plan, while you have several thousand bucks worth of stuff there and many hours invested on pure speculation. <p>Provide your own table and extension cords and take a small 4x6 printer, like an HP or Epson. The HP300 series can give about 25 prints on battery power. You may be able to work entirely off the grid. <p><b>Do not</b> let the subjects chimp on the laptop (don't even let them see it. In fact, leave it in the car). <p>Use the printer to create instant Point of Purchase samples. Print the best portraits and put them in some little folios or take a few small frames from Target to show prints on your table. Your business cards should have the web address where the images will be posted. Put the stickers Jeff describes on all the prints (or get a stamp made). <p>Post the good images online and don't get too excited awaiting the big bucks rolling in. Work the first one by yourself and don't sweat turning people away if you are busy. Make killer portraits, and don't be afraid to walk away from a bad deal. Break even is the goal for the first day, profit comes on day two or from the new client whose portrait you make that first day with her special friend... t