Mass ordering school photos

Luie

I've never done this through SM so bare with me.

If I go to a school of 1000 kids and lets say 500 order prints form me. I have the kid's information as I shoot and it's all in order. When I get back 500 packages how would I keep up with who is who? Is There any way to have each package named for each kid?

The way I do it now is the kid gives me a card with their information on it. We scan the card into a laptop. When the photo is taken; that information is attached to the image. That information is not attached to the image when it's sent to SM so when I get it back I have no idea who they are.

Any ideas or suggestions?

jfriend

You can have the filename (or one of several other things) printed on the back of a print automatically. Assuming you can connect the filename to a person, you could figure out which images go to which person that way.

SteveM

Hi Luie,

JFriend's suggestion is a great one, and the one I personally use. Whether you're using a serial number or name, include it in the filename and have it backprinted on the photos. Any system you decide to use needs to be able to be cross referenced against the backprinting on the photo. This is especially true if you're placing one order that will contain photos of several hundred kids.

I hope this helps!

Hinson

Hi Luie; I've done a good bit of volume photography (schools and preschools) and my method was similar to yours. When the kid came to the camera, the assistant would take their card, make sure it had their information and then print the image(s) number on the card. As mentioned above, image numbers were automatically back-printed by my lab. When prints came back, they were normally in order and it was an easy task to match up kids and photos. To me this would be much easier than adding the name to each file name. I must mention though, that I was a one man operation and the bulk of my shoots numbered less than 200.

If you're doing schools with 1000 kids, you really should consider labs that specialize in volume photography. There are labs out there that have software that allows you to scan a barcode card and when you get the prints back, they are packaged individually and the kids name is on the outside of each package.

Just a thought.