On site printing

hoghead · March 28, 2011

Hey guys, I'm doing my first on site printing event this weekend and was wondering if anyone had any tips or suggestions. I'm printing mainly 11 X 14's and maybe a few 8 X 10's. The event is a bike festival and I'll be set up with a backdrop photographing custom bikes and models and hopefully selling some prints. I normally do this and just sell from my website but wanted to try on site printing to increase sales, hopefully. The printer and pc will be set up in my van with a canopy along side to display prints. I'm using an Epson R1900 printer. Any ideas?

Glort · March 28, 2011

I think the idea has potential and would seem to be a different technique to event work.
I'd be very interested to hear how it works out for you.

It's a little hard to answer your question without knowing a bit more about what your actualy doing. I take it you are offering to shoot the exhibitors bikes with models on the backdrop and produce a print onsite?
I'm not sure if your targeting the bike owners or the public as well.

I don't think there is much to the onsite printing itself. I have been doing it 2 years for Equine and a variety of other sports and don't find it to be any hassel at all. You obviously have your printer sorted and know what your doing with it so I can't suggest much to do with that as its a pretty straight forward process.

What I would suggest for the exercise over all is to work on your marketing. I would look at getting some flyers printed up, they don't need to be anything special, just to let people know you are there, and give them out to the exhibitors if they are your target market.
i'd also write a blurb on what your doing and give that to the event announcers to promote you.

I'd be pitching it as the opportunity to get a magazine type picture of your own bike right at the show.
In saying that, the thought comes to mind of offering Faux " Magazine cover" type prints. These sell well for me and I just have a couple of designs templated up in a PSD file and we change the name of the event, rider and horse to suit and spit it out. Can do one in about 60 sec and they work well and are something most people don't know how to do themselves.

The thing that dose concern me from your description is where you say you will be displaying the prints. If I have it wrong and you will be offering the prints for sale as art prints to the public rather than to the bike owners specificaly then this sounds fine but if it is the other way around, sounds like it could get expensive for you.

I would try to get some poster size prints made before the show like 20x30 min and maybe bigger so the shots really stood out to bring people to your stand. You probably have some 11x14 prints so I'd put them up as samples but the actual pics you do onsite you should be able to sell directly to the owners unless your wanting to try and sell to the public as well.

If that is the case, instead of prints, i'd be looking at using a slide show on a 42" plasma Tv or similar in order to limit your printing costs but still show your work.

If you are looking at doing a lot of prints, you may find it worthwhile to look at a continous ink system for your printer. This will reduce your ink costs hugely and if your doing volume prints, will pay for itself in no time. I bought one about 18 months back and it was definately one of the smarter moves I have made. The thing has been no trouble and paid for itself so many times over it's not funny. If you can get a good deal on bulk papaer like I also sourced, you can produce prints so cheap the cost just isn't a concern and you could afford to wallpaper your marquee with prints which will increase you chances of sales if you are doing them to sell to the public.

Do you do onsite printing for your Showjumping events?
I do a lot of equine like that and the onsite printing combined with showing the images on viewstations may also be a worthwhile market for you.
I really like your SJ pics, very well done.

Anyway, i'd be real interested to see some pics of your set up and what you are doing specifically and how it goes for you.
Good luck with it.

hoghead · March 28, 2011

Glort wrote: »

I think the idea has potential and would seem to be a different technique to event work.
I'd be very interested to hear how it works out for you.

It's a little hard to answer your question without knowing a bit more about what your actualy doing. I take it you are offering to shoot the exhibitors bikes with models on the backdrop and produce a print onsite?
I'm not sure if your targeting the bike owners or the public as well.

I don't think there is much to the onsite printing itself. I have been doing it 2 years for Equine and a variety of other sports and don't find it to be any hassel at all. You obviously have your printer sorted and know what your doing with it so I can't suggest much to do with that as its a pretty straight forward process.

What I would suggest for the exercise over all is to work on your marketing. I would look at getting some flyers printed up, they don't need to be anything special, just to let people know you are there, and give them out to the exhibitors if they are your target market.
i'd also write a blurb on what your doing and give that to the event announcers to promote you.

I'd be pitching it as the opportunity to get a magazine type picture of your own bike right at the show.
In saying that, the thought comes to mind of offering Faux " Magazine cover" type prints. These sell well for me and I just have a couple of designs templated up in a PSD file and we change the name of the event, rider and horse to suit and spit it out. Can do one in about 60 sec and they work well and are something most people don't know how to do themselves.

The thing that dose concern me from your description is where you say you will be displaying the prints. If I have it wrong and you will be offering the prints for sale as art prints to the public rather than to the bike owners specificaly then this sounds fine but if it is the other way around, sounds like it could get expensive for you.

I would try to get some poster size prints made before the show like 20x30 min and maybe bigger so the shots really stood out to bring people to your stand. You probably have some 11x14 prints so I'd put them up as samples but the actual pics you do onsite you should be able to sell directly to the owners unless your wanting to try and sell to the public as well.

If that is the case, instead of prints, i'd be looking at using a slide show on a 42" plasma Tv or similar in order to limit your printing costs but still show your work.

If you are looking at doing a lot of prints, you may find it worthwhile to look at a continous ink system for your printer. This will reduce your ink costs hugely and if your doing volume prints, will pay for itself in no time. I bought one about 18 months back and it was definately one of the smarter moves I have made. The thing has been no trouble and paid for itself so many times over it's not funny. If you can get a good deal on bulk papaer like I also sourced, you can produce prints so cheap the cost just isn't a concern and you could afford to wallpaper your marquee with prints which will increase you chances of sales if you are doing them to sell to the public.

Do you do onsite printing for your Showjumping events?
I do a lot of equine like that and the onsite printing combined with showing the images on viewstations may also be a worthwhile market for you.
I really like your SJ pics, very well done.

Anyway, i'd be real interested to see some pics of your set up and what you are doing specifically and how it goes for you.
Good luck with it.

Yes, my target is the bike owners, not the general public but I will have a custom bike there if someone wants a photo. I will have a canopy set up along side my van to display prints of other bikes I have shot, mostly 11 X 14's matted. I do have poster sized signs telling what I do along with a 10ft. banner. The prints on display are not for sale, just for display although I would sell them if the price was right. I also have a supplier for bulk ink to cut cost. This is the first event that I have tried onsite printing so I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the input.

Glort · March 28, 2011

From the sounds of it, you are doing everything I could suggest.

Look forward to hearing how it goes.

hoghead · March 28, 2011

Glort wrote: »

From the sounds of it, you are doing everything I could suggest.

Look forward to hearing how it goes.

Yea, I've been doing bike and car shows since the seventies, just never tried the printing on site part!

angevin1 · March 28, 2011

hoghead wrote: »

Yea, I've been doing bike and car shows since the seventies, just never tried the printing on site part!

Awesome! Please do post back to let us know how it went!

I worked a few Bike Shows up your way when I was in college about ten years back, selling leather and such.

hoghead · March 28, 2011

angevin1 wrote: »

Awesome! Please do post back to let us know how it went!

I worked a few Bike Shows up your way when I was in college about ten years back, selling leather and such.

Hey Tom, even if i don't make any money it's going to be a blast. I've got five models coming to pose on the bikes so I know I'm gonna get some good photos if nothing else! Selling some prints would be nice too!

angevin1 · March 29, 2011

hoghead wrote: »

Hey Tom, even if i don't make any money it's going to be a blast. I've got five models coming to pose on the bikes so I know I'm gonna get some good photos if nothing else! Selling some prints would be nice too!

I've wanted to do a shoot like that for awhile, so you'll be in heaven I'm sure! Bet those sales pick up too!

ColoradoSkier · March 29, 2011

hoghead wrote: »

Hey Tom, even if i don't make any money it's going to be a blast. I've got five models coming to pose on the bikes so I know I'm gonna get some good photos if nothing else! Selling some prints would be nice too!

Not sure if you'd need a model release for the bikes, but you could also think about taking the best images and making a calendar and selling that for 2012. Maybe send a copy to whomever has a bike in it as a thank you. Just an "add on" thought.

hoghead · March 29, 2011

ColoradoSkier wrote: »

Not sure if you'd need a model release for the bikes, but you could also think about taking the best images and making a calendar and selling that for 2012. Maybe send a copy to whomever has a bike in it as a thank you. Just an "add on" thought.

Thanks for the suggestion, that sounds like a great idea. I'll keep that in mind while I'm shooting!

Glort · April 4, 2011

So how did it go??

hoghead · April 6, 2011

Ok, update on weekend event. Saturday was a complete wash out, 30 mph wind, rain, sleet, hail and a tiny bit of sun. Not good for a bike event. Sunday was a completely different story, sunny and almost 70. Overall Sunday was a good day, sold some prints and had lots of fun. I need to rethink my workflow before I do it again. The problem was that we would get very busy all at once and then do nothing for an hour. I think next time when I get a line of people I will take all the photos and then do all the ptinting together instead of trying to do both for each person before going to the next. It was a whole new experience with having to have the photo print ready within a few minutes of the shot. I'm use to coming home and spending a couple of evenings after work getting the photos ready to upload on my site, this was a whole new ballgame. The printer did work fine and produced beautiful prints.

Glort · April 7, 2011

What was the feedback and comments from the clients and how many paying bikes & babes did you end up shooting.
Are you looking to try this business model again at future shows?

Weather can definately be an event killer. Been there, done that to teh point that if the weather isn't good now I just stay at home.

Batching the printing would be a good idea. the thing is to priotise selling not delivery. It's easy to get caught up in that and think people will be put off by not getting the pics instantly but experience from everyone I have read or talked to is different.

Funny you say about the difference in printing at home and on site.
I normally do on site and we can whip the prints out in no time. The couple of times I have printed at home and posted the shots, it seems to take infinately longer to get them done and there is always a stuff up with paper going in crooked or some other silly thing we just don't seem to get when we do onsite and are under pressure!

I also find that packing 30 envelopes and getting the materials to send them in etc then addressing them all takes more time than I would have thought. Much easier to just put the print in a sleeve and envelope and hand it over there and then.

hoghead · April 7, 2011

The feedback was good. Everyone thought the prints looked great. I only did about about a dozen shots as the show was only from 12-4 on Sunday after the Saturday washout. The problem was that they all came at 2:00pm, after the judging was over for the bike show. It was only my wife and I and she was doing the selling and I was photographing and printing. I always shoot in raw so that took more time when it came to printing. I learned a lot this first time out and will definitely do it again, just have to make a few changes. I had envelopes and tubes for the prints as the tubes were good for the folks on bikes, which they all were. I was offering 4 X 6's, 8 x 10's and 11 X 14 and all I sold was the 11 X 14's.

On site printing

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