I have been asked to bid on coverage of a company picnic for 1000 people and provide 1 to 2 4x6 prints for anyone who has a ticket.
What is a good way for maybe hundreds of people to view and order prints and what printer is good for this. I will be provided a tent to work in.
I think I will need 2 photographers and maybe 3 to 4 support people for updating images as they come in, printing, organizing orders.
Any input would be greatly appreciated as I have never done a project like this.
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I've never done anything remotely close to this, but the thought that immediately comes to mind is "how will people find the photos they are interested in?" I would try to figure out what types of photos I am going to be taking, and then a means of organizing photos in such a way people will find them. Company picnic. What types of activities? Any games? (organize by the game, or teams) Any speeches? (organize by presenter) Etc.
At the risk of getting flamed by inkjet fans out there, I will stongly suggest that you look into dye-sublimation printers. Aside from the fact that dye-sub is beautiful, durable, and reliable medium, inkjet prints are NOT photographs and you cannot sell them as "photos", only as "prints".
This is not only a semantic argument, inkjet prints have the ink sitting on top of the paper, and you can see varying densities in relections. They are also easily scratched and scuffed.
So, if you're going about choosing a dye-sub printer (or any printer for that matter), just remember the old hotrod saying..."speed is just a question of money, how fast do you want to go?" Print-quality among most of the dye-sub printers brands that I have owned were consistently high...Sony, Kodak, HiTouch, Mitsubishi...and are difficult to distinguish between them. However, speed and reliability varied widely.
HiTouch makes a good 'entry level' machine -- fairly inexpensivea and reliable, but be prepared to wait 1-3 minutes per print. You can get models which need no computer attached to print.
I use Kodak printers now and wait only about 10 sec for a 4x6, but the printer is 7 times more expensive...you get what you pay for usually.
I've had the most trouble with Sony gear and I now avoid it completely.
I'm with Bill on this one. How are people going to get their photos?
I would get paid upfront on this. Set a price for 1500-2000 4x6's, charge the client and the photos are free to the guests. DO NOT DO THIS ON SPEC!!
If you are going to print onsite, a couple of dye-subs are what you're going to need, unless you can run to the local costco to get them printed. Make sure you arrange it with them ahead of time so they set time aside for your prints [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] See if you can rent a Kodak ML-500(?). Blazing fast and pretty decent output. I think they're like $15k though [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]
Closest thing I could think of as far as organization of photos would be to have binders of the various activities/events.
Also, I don't think the photography is going to be the tough part here, it's the 3-4 people you're going to need to print, run to the lab if you're doing that, sort the photos and stuff into binders. Sounds like a logistical nitemare.
I just had a discussion that was borderline what you are asking. 4000 kids each needing to have a shot done and a "baseball" card printed and ready by the end of the day. When the numbers get THAT big the cost of doing anything 'same day' goes trough the roof. You are never going to be able to crank out 2000 or 1500 4x6's in the course of day without one [censored] of a printing setup i.e. the ML500's that someone has already mentioned or look at the 6800. The fact that the printers will knock out 4x6's in 11 seconds and the fact that you won't have to tie someone up cutting prints will shave hours off the process. Even then you need to consider that each image needs to be sent to the printer and once you have a hundred jobs spooled you start begging for trouble. Just from a hardware standpoint promising 1000 to 2000 prints in the time frame of a company picnic would have me nervous.
As far as cataloging your images so that participants can find images don't even consider printing thumbnails. Assuming that you only shoot 3000 frames at 16 thumbnails per page that equals 188 pages. Even if you only shoot one image of each person (1000 people) that's still 63 pages of thumbnails plus you can't only have one copy can you? The only way to get that many images in front of your customers would be to have viewing stations up.
There are several event shooters here that can and might guide you on software/hardware combo's to get this done, and it CAN be done, but if you don't already have the core components, I'd worry.
What you've been asked is easily possible, just takes a lot of pre-planning once you get the bid. KEEP IT SIMPLE!!
Unless you already have the equipment, your best bet is to shoot this, transfer to camera card or CD, then have someone shuttling back & forth to a local Costco, Sams or whatever. The cost will be far cheaper and as long as you make arrangements ahead, you should be able to get prints within minutes. Do the math yourself, employees, rentals, power, hassle - make sense???
Next, are you being asked to show them images to select from? If not, why not pick the best expression yourself and get rid of all the hassle of viewing stations or proofs?? Better yet, take 2 of each person/couple/group and give them both/all. Even faster and cheaper than editing. They're likely not going to buy extras anyway. I'd opt for archiving everything on a CD/DVD and sell that to the company for a pre-arranged price. The few extras you are likely to sell is more trouble than it's worth from my experience. This is a one-shot deal. After the picnic nobody will care.
Almost every time this sort of thing comes up, people see big bucks dancing in their eyes. Get your money up front, get a fair price and call it a day. Keep organization to a minimal. Cruise ships simply post the photos on a big board and people browse through and find their own. Set boards up in times/groups/divisions/department/etc. whatever makes sense to them - not you.
Lastly, don't spend forever on the bid, you may not even get it. I hate to sound neg., but that's reality. good luck.
I have to agree, unless you have lots of experience, setting up and daisy chaining several printers to output a thousand images in a very short space of time, this could turn into a logistical nightmare. The Sam's Club/Costo option may on the surface appear a little ungainly, but it sound to me like the most cost effective solution.
And again I will echo what everyone else has said about speculating on this type of event, don't do it. Brass up front is the only way to go.
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