Portrait Equip. Setup for Santa Pics

[itmservnet]

Instead of depending on others to take pictures when I portray Santa Claus, I wanted to get a feel for what equipment, lighting, camera, printing equipment, etc., I would need to do it myself. I've been taking pictures for quit a while. My early equipment was 35MM BW and Color Slides. I have been using a HP digital camera for the past few years. I fully expect to have to purchase all new equipment to take the pictures of the little tykes. The market is quite lucrative.

I just need to know the most productive equipment for the task.

Thanks,
Randy
[email protected]

 

[Rob]

What aspects of photograping the kids do you consider "productive"?

If you mean the best camera for the job, it'd probably be an SLR with a wide, fixed aperture zoom. You'd probably want a set of studio photographic lights and a backdrop. If you're selling them on the spot, then an entry-level dye-sub printer and a laptop would help.

Rob

 

[itmservnet]

The equipment I'm looking for would be portable and easy to set up. I thought about the dye-sub printer/laptop combination, since I would be providing prints on the spot to the parents. Should I use continuous lighting or slave flash. The continuous would probably be easier to set up for each shoot.
As for camera, does anyone have a suggestion? I've been looking at PictBridge enabled digitals. Mostly Olympus. What would anyone else suggesst and why?

Thanks!
Randy