School Photographers? Need advice

Montec

Greetings,

I am looking to ask some questions to any school photographers who would like to share some information. Particularly in regard to the administration software schools use and how you provide images that are compatible with that software.

Any input would be appreciated.
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ian408

Is your question in regard to the software used to produce ID cards?

If so, you'll need to know whose software it is and then find out from the mfg
what their requirements are. Of the two badging systems I have worked with,
neither has been simple to import images into. Keep in mind you will need to
ID the photos as well--don't forget to ask if there's a standard way to do that
in the software.

Montec

ian408 wrote:

Is your question in regard to the software used to produce ID cards?

If so, you'll need to know whose software it is and then find out from the mfg
what their requirements are. Of the two badging systems I have worked with,
neither has been simple to import images into. Keep in mind you will need to
ID the photos as well--don't forget to ask if there's a standard way to do that
in the software.

Thanks for the info. I should have explained a little clearer. I am looking for advice from anyone who has taken the schools csv files and matched the photos to the student ID numbers on photo day. What is the procedure?

Do the students have an ID number that you need to match the images to or do you create a database from the images you take for them according to their requirements and give it to them?

I am assuming that the schools have students lists that they give to the photographer, just not certain how to go about matching up the students as they come in to that list.

ziggy53

What Ian suggested is correct. You need more information from the school on the data structure, ideally with a several record examples already coded.

Since you mention CSV (Comma Seperated Value) file types, those are simple text files and each field entry is seperated by a comma.

If the school is reluctant to give the student's ID number, and there are several reasons why that number might be confidential, you might need to set up your own structure and serialize the image names accordingly.

Your own data structure (field names) might include:

Record number
Date of image capture
School name
Student last name
Student first name
Student MI
Student name tiebreaker (unique identifier field to use for students with identical names, could be a homeroom number, DOB, parent's name, etc.)
Image filename
Thumbnail filename (if required)


... something like that.

Jane B.

ziggy53 wrote:

What Ian suggested is correct. You need more information from the school on the data structure, ideally with a several record examples already coded.

Since you mention CSV (Comma Seperated Value) file types, those are simple text files and each field entry is seperated by a comma.

If the school is reluctant to give the student's ID number, and there are several reasons why that number might be confidential, you might need to set up your own structure and serialize the image names accordingly.

Your own data structure (field names) might include:

Record number
Date of image capture
School name
Student last name
Student first name
Student MI
Student name tiebreaker (unique identifier field to use for students with identical names, could be a homeroom number, DOB, parent's name, etc.)
Image filename
Thumbnail filename (if required)


... something like that.

Ziggy has suggested something that I have faught with my entire life — the assumption that everyone is known by their first name! I was named after my mother but known by my middle name to avoid to many people going by the same name. I keep running into forms that do not provide for writing out the middle name. Over the years I have gotten to know more and more people in the same situtation; in fact, it seems to be getting more common.

Jane

ian408

Out of curiosity, how many students must you photograph? If the number is
small, writing on a list will work just fine. If it's a large number, you need
to make sure you get that into your work flow for the day (you don't want to
make a mistake in this phase).

If you'll get a list of students you are going to photograph; you could,
knowing your camera's image naming scheme, assign each student a
number that corresponds to their photograph. You may need a range for
each student if you are taking multiple shots.

Have your assistant write the image number(s) on the sheet given to you
by the school. For example;

• Last,First,Middle,Goes By,Student Number,Image
• Doe,John,James,Jimmy,499E2715,499E2715.CR2
• Doe,Jessica,,,49E2716,499E2716.CR2

and so on. Be sure that each record has the correct number of fields in it.
Whether or not they are populated (as in the second example). This will
avoid any confusion later on. It may be easier if you received an electronic
copy of the list and used a spreadsheet tool to edit the list.

Be sure to note the students who are absent or whose picture you have not
taken as this will be important for the make-up day.

Montec

Thanks for the reply and info.

When I do pre-schools I do it just how you described with an assistant.

I am currently writing a business plan for a school photography venture as I want to branch out to larger schools with 500+ students. I have looked at other school photographers websites (Lifetouch etc.) and see that they provide intregrate the images into the school's administration software. I need to know how to do this for the business plan.

As schools use a myriad of different programs for thier administration needs I suppose I would have to contact each software vendor and ask the specifications.

I also use Millers for processing the images and they will accept the csv files to produce ID cards etc.

I am abit in the dark on how it all works...looking for info.