Event setup suggestions

98olds

Hello,
I will be photographing a Christmas party in a few weeks.
I will be taking photos of each family with santa. Each family will be leaving with a 4x6 print of their photo.

I will be bringing my macbook pro, and My HP Photosmart c4780 Photo Printer.

The printer is a wireless printer, but also has camera card readers in it.

Would you suggest just taking the card out of the camera and printing straight from card, or throw it in mac and then print wirelessly from the mac to the printer?

This is the first time I have photographed the event that I am doing onsite printing.

basically I am just looking for suggestions on how to set this up.

Thanks

Nikolai

I'd say first of all - you need an assistant.
I did quite a few events with kids, as long as you not only shoot but also do anything else (have a table/booth, need to take client info, etc) - assistant is an absolute must.
Talk to the organizers for a volunteer if you do it for free of rent a locall college/HS kid for a $20/hr or so if you get paid.

Once you got that covered, I would do the following routine:

1. have several cards (not necessarily large, 1-2Gb each would be plenty)
2. start working with a family
3. get a card from the pool, format it
4. shoot the family
5. pass the card to the assistant
6. assistant imports the card to the laptop, so your images are safe
7. assistants returns the card to the pool
8. assistant (maybe with a small help from you) chooses and sends the image to the printer

HTH

jbakerphoto

I agree with what Nik said and would like to add....
-Don't use the wireless feature on the printer. It will SLOW your assistant down. (and then you get mad at your assistant for not keeping up...)
- Might want to consider shooting tethered to you laptop.

Nikolai

jbakerphoto wrote: »

Might want to consider shooting tethered to you laptop.

Since the OP is a Nikon guy and that feature (tethered shooting), I hear, cost a bundle I didn't offer that. But if I were to shoot this, I would totally went tethered (you can either go wireless-tethered with a few gizmoes - I did it, it works nice at short distances and a clear line of sight), thus streamlining the whole thing:

Photog:

1. Shoot a family
2. Repeat step 1

Assistant:

1. Collect family info, prep a folder
2. Get the pictures in the "receiving" folder, move them to family folder
3. Select, touchup and print the picture
4. Repeat step 1

No need for card swapping/formatting, no waiting for anybody... Everybody's happy!

Glort

What basis are you doing this on?
Are you being paid by the organisers to supply the print, is it charitable, a work for profit job?

If appropriate, I'd be up selling. Why let them walk away with just a lousy 6x4 when you can offer them a whole range of pics and what better occasion to sell from than Christmas?
I'd look at doing A4 prints, a package of prints you can put on a single sheet and automate in PS, you could offer a mag cover or borders, a copy of the image on CD.....
It's a great marketing opportunity, I say work it for all it's worth!

You CAN do it all onsite if you have an assistant and that would be the way to get the impulse buy.

I was thinking of setting something up at the local Christmas Carols. I was going to use my pop up marquees, have a background and some Christmas decos, sit the family/ kids in there, fire away and print packages there and then. No big diff to what I do on event work.

As it turns out I'm booked up every weekend they are on anywhere near me but I might give it a fly next year.