Coming out of the studio - event photography pitfalls

[Rjeffie]

Help! I'm coming out........of the studio.
I am now getting a number of requests to go to schools and other events and shoot. Most understand that on site printing is out of the question with 100+ individual kids shots.

I need advise in a hurry in terms of what is the best setup for shooting, say 100 children, individually. I have been shooting primarily with an Olympus E-20 and feel that now is the time to go to a Digital SLR with firewire capability or at least usb 2.0 AND configure a desktop that I can take to the venue for rapid downloading, viewing, image selection, etc.
I plan on printing on Pictorico Film with my Epson using the Durabrite inks......does that make the most cost effective sense? I simply do not see any way to shoot and print on site but if you have experience in that area, I would GREATLY appreciate hearing from you.
thanks,
jeff marsh

[Trevor Ash]

Hello, welcome to the forums. I feel kind of bad that no one has been able to offer help yet

Questions like yours have been answered in the past so you may be able to pull up the search tool on the old forums found here:

http://www.photographyreview.com/Discussionscrx.aspx

As I recall, the biggest problems to overcome were having the prints printed quickly enough to keep everyone happy and your work flowing along. So while cost is always an issue you still have the speed problem as well.

Good luck and sorry I couldn't help!!!

[Sebastian]

Jeff,

Printing on site is not a big deal at all. A fast printer and a regular USB printer are more than enough. Especially in a school setting, it would be really easy, just shoot early in the morning, have them pick up pics at the end of the day. You don't need USB 2.0 or firewire, nor do you need lightning fast printers. However, rethink the use of ink jets, people don't like paying for prints that they can get at home. Get a nice dye-sub, it'll be faster and look nicer to them.

Last night we had a customer come up and drill us for a fewminutes just to make sure we were NOT using ink jet, we had to make him watch the printer work to make him feel satisfied. Ink jets can last for a long, long time, but people don't generally know the steps required, and when their own home prints fade they assume that every ink jet is the same...

Anyway, here's what we use:

D100 tethered to a PC laptop (USB 1.1, more than quick enough)
Qimage for printing
Olympus P-400, about 2 minutes for an 8x10
Sony 4x6 printer, although we decided not to use it anymore, not enough sales to carry the thing around with us...

On average, about five minutes from taken picture to finished print...

[Rjeffie]

Sebastian - thanks very much. I dont know about Qimage, where do I find out more? Do you figure about $1.65/print for the paper and ink? Which paper have you found has the best acceptance and quality? Not many are going to want the 4 x 6, I'm sure. We anticipate printing 3 sheets per child if they pick the full package deal and we are lead to believe that most parents do. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[Sebastian]

For my Olympus P-400 I'm running about $1.80 per page. WIth dye-subs, you can not pick paper and inks, the paper and ribbon are mated to each other, you have no choice in the matter. THe prints are beautiful, glossy or matte. Although matte isn't really, it's slightly textured. Also, each ribbon is only good for a set amount of prints, whether you print on the whole page or not. The printers laminate the pages after the colors are put down on paper, so you can't use less ribbon by printing less.

In the end, this is nice because you only have to worry about one type of paper and ribbon, and the price is very easy to figure out.

Qimage: http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

[Rjeffie]

The P-440 will do pure 8 x 10's, if you didnt have the P-400 would you get the 440?
Is the Olympus Matte closer to a lustre finish or "semi-gloss". I think the public expects a lustre finish on these type of images. Seems like the main competition in my area is the Kodak system shooters and they all use the lustre stock.
Qimage looks pretty cool also. I think i need to be able to put image A and B up on the same screen and allow the parent to decide on the spot, whether I print right then or not. Will Qimage do that?
Thanks for your help. And where are you located? Grew up in Arlington Heights...
jeff marsh

For my Olympus P-400 I'm running about $1.80 per page. WIth dye-subs, you can not pick paper and inks, the paper and ribbon are mated to each other, you have no choice in the matter. THe prints are beautiful, glossy or matte. Although matte isn't really, it's slightly textured. Also, each ribbon is only good for a set amount of prints, whether you print on the whole page or not. The printers laminate the pages after the colors are put down on paper, so you can't use less ribbon by printing less.

In the end, this is nice because you only have to worry about one type of paper and ribbon, and the price is very easy to figure out.

Qimage: http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

[Sebastian]

Jeff,

If I was buying my first printer today, I would buy the P-440. The odd size of the P-400 makes it kind of a pain to find frames and folders that will fit, the majority of frames fit, but soem don't, you just have to be careful. I am currently working with Western Photo Supplies to see which of their products are compatible with the prints from the P-400. I know for a fact that their Alaskan line of frame/folders takes a P-400 print without trimming, and frames the image perfectly.

If I was buying a backup printer, I would get the P-400 again, to make it easier to print to multiple printers without having to worry about drivers, etc. Refurbs can be had for 300 bucks or less.

The matte is a kind of semi-gloss, slightly textured.

Qimage can not bring up two images next to each other, but it does wonders for printing and arranging different sizes on the page. We use Nikon View o flip from one image to another to let them choose. I gotta wanr you though, minimize the choices. They will take as long as they want to pick, so the less they have to pick from, the better. We take 2-3 shots for portraits and let them pick. Do the same for sizes, make packages of the most comon sizes and let them pick from three or four packages. If you let them mix and match to their heart's content, you'll be there all night and the other customers will walk off.

Any browser software will let them easily pick the shots, either by dispaying them side by side or flipping form one to the next like we do.

I grew up in Roselle, right South of Schaumburg, and now live in Warrenville.

Hope it all works out for you. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Rjeffie]

which software is the easiest to use to pop up image a and b for a decision? Sawy, but I
m not a software guru........
thanks,
jeff

[Sebastian]

which software is the easiest to use to pop up image a and b for a decision? Sawy, but I
m not a software guru........
thanks,
jeff

Jeff,

Sorry, missed this post earlier.

Try ACDSee. I will try to find others, but that's all I can come up with off the top of my head right now.