What to do???

[2WheelPhoto]

Shoot RAW + JPEG and set the camera up "right", so that the images coming off the card look decent. Most any Nikon made since 2007 can do that--easily. Set the camera up right, for printing direct output.

Have you seen the output off of the small EPSON portable printers that print right off of a memory card onto pre-cut paper? The pictures look damned good. Dye sub is much more costly, but prints out faster. You could own four of these small EPSON inkjet printers for a little over $400, including the paper to print 800 or so 4x6 prints.

^^^^^^^That sure beats turning work down!

And your competitor that does bring printing gear may have the work from this customer till the end of time.

 

[leeroix]

Frankly, I see "win" in this. You print the local JPG files and keep your customer happy. You also stamp your coordinates on the back (you do have a stamp, no?) so that those who want "better" images can contact you for followup, and presumably more print sales of a better kind. RAW+Jpg is normal for this kind of thing. Just remember to put the frame number on the back so you know which one it came from. It the paper bleeds though the stamp ink, get preprinted labels, or print a bunch on a laser printer.

Thats a good idea too!

 

[kathyt]

This is probably a dumb idea but, what the hell. I recently saw a photographer who set up a projector to his laptop and was able to project photos of the wedding and after party while at the banquet facility. I know it's not printing but, maybe the event guy is just looking for an instant type of thing for people to be able to see themselves. You could then offer to print all or selected photos at a later time. I don't know if this would be tasteful enough for your event but, it's a thought.

In either case, good luck!

This is a good idea. I have the same problem every year when I shoot dance festivals. The dance studio owner wants me to sell the images after the show. Yeah right. I normal shoot about 1000 images from one performance and it takes time just to upload to my computer, let alone do a few edits. This type of thing is reserved for big box studios that spit out pictures with the same lighting setup. I want to be able to sift through my work, and make it look its best. This takes time. I simply told her I was unable to do something like that, because I did not have enough time after the show to accommodate. I did do a slideshow during intermission of the dress rehearsal that was a huge hit. They saw a glimpse of my work, and knew the quality of images they could expect with their purchase. Win, win. I still am shooting for this studio twice a year.

 

[dutcheagle]

Our photo-group does stuff like this on a regular basis, we show up with 6 people and have 2 boots, 4 photographers and 2 printer/computer operators. In this way we can do about 200 prints in 4 hours. So take that in halve if you are with 2 people, you shooting and someone else printing/editing (crop and fix major problems) it can be done. It is a quick sell and not a lot of after event work but new business if your marketing is right.
We use several memory cards, WIFI is too slow for this. Have a IN bin and a OUT bin on the table to rotate the cards. I don't see this kind of thing to be a one person task.

 

[leeroix]

Hmmmm... an associate of mine, (who will also be there) handles all the lights, and special effects. He also has a projector...

 

[pgriz]

Hmmmm... an associate of mine, (who will also be there) handles all the lights, and special effects. He also has a projector...

Why not ask for a corner where you can put up a poster board with "SOOC" shots, and what they look like after editing? You know, before/after. The projector will show the shots as they come in, and like moths to a flame, you'll have a queue forming. And if they want to look good (the point being driven home by your little display), well that where the editing part comes in. And since it's super-hard and time-consuming, you'll have to get that to them later.

 

[bratkinson]

One of the things I've been learning about photography and producing results is "time is of the essence". Yeah, that one, found in almost every contract ever written, from what I've seen.

In any 'event' situation, people want to see the pictures yesterday, if not sooner. Even waiting a week loses a good portion of potential customers. Being able to see the results now, or 10 minutes from now is what they want to see. Everyone wants instant gratification these days. In years gone by, Polaroid made a fortune selling 'instant print' (1 minute) cameras and film. Even by photography 'standards' of 1953, Polaroid pictures were less than great. But they got 'em right now! Sixty years later, we should be able to do better.

To that end, I'm guessing the participants and attenders of the 'event' (bride and groom excepted, maybe others) would be satisfied with something not far from SOOC. I'm in the middle of processing through the pictures of a 5 day event at church and need to put together CDs of the pix as well as a presentation, 7 days after it happened. So I don't have time to make the pictures as 'perfect' as I would like to. So, after paring them down to about 25% 'keepers', I'm cranking them through Lightroom with little more than WB adjustment and cropping to fix less-than-horizontal shots. The end results are far better than what any cell phone, point-n-shoots or lower end DSLRs could produce, so I'm sure they will ALL be delighted! In short, it's not my best results, but it is better than absolute SOOC.

 

[Vautrin]

Any product (in this case: photos) have a target market.

Most people who are interested in paying $20 for something a photographer took just as they were coming to an event aren't interested in your best work.

Why not? It's not your target market.

It's the same reason you probably don't own a ferrari.

If you really wanted to, and ferrari were to condescend to allow you to, you could own one.

But probably it's not so important, and Ferrari doesn't view you as such an important customer.

My point is such a thing as a photo booth is by definition not of your best work where you adjust sliders, burn, and dodge until it's beautiful.

It's about getting an OK picture in 30 seconds you can sell for $20

Maybe you can indeed do a GREAT picture, or an AWESOME picture in 15 minutes of photoshopping.

Doesn't matter, that's not the target market, and not what you're paid for.

 

[amolitor]

If you could arrange to get a distinctive "look" for the printed on-site photos, maybe apply some instagram style pseudo-polaroid look, or similar, you avoid polluting your own brand as much. There's a distinct "oh yeah, those are leeroix's on-site prints" versus "oh yeah, those are leeroix's real work"

It doesn't have to look BAD, just distinctly different.

 

[leeroix]

^good points

 

[jacoba]

I agree with a lot of the ideas here. There are some very good ones.

I just have a couple of suggestions for you. If you are worried about tweaking your photos, then I would compromise with the promoter. I would explain that in order for this to be viable, you'd have to set up a "booth," per se. Maybe just have like a vinyl backdrop that has the venue name, or the event name/sponsors printed on it. Then you could set it up and take photos of people in that spot. This would allow you to use presets in lightroom that match all of the photos since the settings should remain the same. If you have an eye-fi card, you could set up a router and a laptop and your lighting assistant could quickly edit the photos for you. If it's like a 4 hour event, then start doing the photo shoots about an hour, or two in to the event and then you can spend the last couple of hours printing the photos so that they will be ready when people leave. Or, you could even print each one on the fly as they download to the laptop.

I would also explain to the promoter that photos of the actual event will need to be later edited and processed on your end for the website, or wherever you post them. This way, you are compromising by taking his idea and still making it work, but you are not actually sacrificing your moral dilemma of photographic integrity. The onus would be on the people who posed for the photos. If they don't look good, it wasn't you, or your camera's fault. I would also discuss with the promoter that you will be definitely taking a cut. Either a lump sum for this extra work, or a certain percentage of each photograph that is sold. Or, since you are the one doing all of the work, I would attempt to take 100% of the profits; he is already getting his wish of having the photos printed.

If you want to be generous, you could give him a small percentage, and possibly donate some proceeds to whatever event this is.

Gotta spend money to make money.

That's just my two cents.