Black Tie print onsite

[Robert_Smith]

What do members feel is the most benificial to them, printing onsite or posting onto the web when doing blak tie events

Rob

[Will_Mass]

Hi Robert,

Is this a spec job, or are you being paid to shoot?

[Tony_Whaling]

we occasionaly do black tie. Asuming its a spec job. Print on site. Its much easier than sports events. If they have the shot taken in the studio set up they are going to buy. The images are all together so no searching through different classes and quick decisions. Internet sales are so low its hardly worth putting them on the net.

tony

[Robert_Smith]

This is a Spec Job Will, Also is it realy worth the effort to assemble a mobile studio onsite. I know that is the way to do it but I wonder. Sorry it has take me so long to answer you (extremely bad manners)


Rob

[Tony_Whaling]

I have only ever done a couple of these events but in my experiance it is worth building the on site studio. Its realy down to numbers though and I dont have the experiance to be specific with you there.
tony

[DougAxford]

I haven't done any Black Tie, but my experience from Proms might help. If you are printing on-site, give people the option of paying to have photos mailed home or picking up at the end of the night. Some will not want to carry your photos around with them. With either option, it also gives you the ability to handle other customers faster and print some orders when you're not as busy.

We did a swim meet (way different) and offered free shipping. All except one person took the free shipping offer and it saved us a lot of work on-site and the shipping cost was offset by printing through our lab rather than higher cost dye-sub.

As long as you have the abiity to print some orders and most importantly, SHOW some orders on display, you'll be fine.

DougA

[Duncan_Harris]

I personally find online visits/purchases afterwards very poor for black tie events (compared to sport events) therefore always do onsite sales/printing. Even when we do small award ceremonies when photographer is on their own we will print onsite. We offer to hold prints for collection at end of evening but prefer they take them back to the table as this encourages others to come up.

I prefer to have a mobile studio, but if there is a good background in the right place then we will use that instead of or as well as. We like to shoot tethered and then direct them straight to the sales station to maximise sales. We also have viewing stations for people to view candid shots and to politely move customers who can't make up their minds so they don't create a bottleneck.