Help Needed: Event Photography

[whitestone]

My business has always functioned solely on portrait photography, but this year has been really slow in my area. Incedently I have also been approached about twice as many times than usual about doing some banquets and other events. I accepted one yesterday for doing something kind of like prom portraits for a senior high school banquet at a local church. My question is about pricing. They want packages and I have never done packages. Can you guys give me some cool package ideas and some sample price set ups? You know 1 8x10 x amount 5x7's and a keychain for ???? And where do you guys order your folio things from (the little paperboard frames you put photos in) Thanks for the help.

-David D. Pemberton

[DaveG]

My business has always functioned solely on portrait photography, but this year has been really slow in my area. Incedently I have also been approached about twice as many times than usual about doing some banquets and other events. I accepted one yesterday for doing something kind of like prom portraits for a senior high school banquet at a local church. My question is about pricing. They want packages and I have never done packages. Can you guys give me some cool package ideas and some sample price set ups? You know 1 8x10 x amount 5x7's and a keychain for ???? And where do you guys order your folio things from (the little paperboard frames you put photos in) Thanks for the help.

-David D. Pemberton

You had better think about a lot of other things before you start to think about prices for prom shots.

The first is infrastructure. Are you doing the prints there? If so how many assistants do you think you will need to man the printer, take names and so forth while you shoot? If you will be delivering the prints later, who too? Do you need to mail them out? Have you figured out your costs for this?

Do any of the students at the school know that you'll be there? If there has been no advertising then they may well not be prepared to buy anything from you.

Proms are good ways to make money but I'd only do them if I could produce dye-sub prints on site. Not only does that eliminate any delivery problems it will also increase my sales when Karen sees the prints that Susan just got. But I'd never shoot a prom without being able to go into the school and advertise. I'd want the kids to know that I'm going to be there, kind of what my product looked like, the price and what kind of payment (cash? VISA?) that I'd take.

Jostens and other school photography businesses have the reputation - usually deserved - for taking mediocre pictures. But what they have nailed down is how to get the money from the kids, keep the paper work straight, and then deliver the correct product to that kid. Prom type photography can look like cash cow but figure out all this stuff first or it could be a disaster.

[whitestone]

I said it was only kind of like prom prictures. It's a church banquet and the kids, more importantly the parents, all know through the church program and other announcement material that a photographer will be there, in fact, the reason I need the price info is because they are going to hand it out to every family a week or two before the banquet. I was planning on having one assistant to take orders while I shoot and review pictures with the couple at my laptop next to the camera. There will be no shipping costs, I will be able to put everything in alphabetical order in paper envelopes and drop it off to the church. Do you think I will need more than one assistant? I think I will be doing about a hundred shots in the span of two hours. If you guys have any sample order forms I could look at just to reference as well, that would be a huge help. Thanks for the quick reply David.

-David Pemberton

[DaveG]

Getting sales in this context is going to be very important so have maybe a 20 minute slot for each family. This could also be a strength insofar as you could use a "booking form" sign-up sheet so that people could place their names at times that are convenient to them. Have a printed sheet with times in 20 minute increments: 10:00, 10:20, 10:40 ... and so forth. Next to that have a space for the family name and then a space for their phone number.

I'd REALLY try to get the phone number so I could call them the day before the shoot as a reminder. If they attempted to cancel I could suggest another open time as an attempt to salvage the shoot. Some will cancel and that's the way it goes, but this will still prevent any number of no shows.

With less than this 20 minute time slot, I just don't think that you'll have time to shoot and then review the shots on the computer. If there's a lineup people will get disgusted and leave. My wife's church had a guy in to do family photos. This was more than five years ago and he had a very primitive digital setup. That shooter used a setup like this although he had his wife review the shots with the parents in another room from a tethered laptop.

If you can't get this much time per family then you will have a very difficult time selling packages. For simple "one print" shoots, I make all the editing decisions myself. Editing is just a fancy way of saying "picking" so I'd pick one quick!

[tim]

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=81761

[carl1645]

100 shots in a 2hr time scale isn't giving you much time so although Daves suggestion of getting everyone to write down their details is a good one, i can't say I agree with the 20 minute per family statement.

If, and I assume you are, shooting with digital, shoot tethered to a large screen, if you haven't got one try using your TV. Plug into the video out on your camera. You've got approx 1 minute with each subject. Take a shot, have the screen positioned so your subject can see it, do they want it? "Yes", get your assistant make a note of the image reference number and get the next subject on, repeat this. Once they've had their picture taken get them to fill in the form with there details again handed to them by an assistant, with the image no. on. You could always add a tag using the camera to the image, for printing. Once you have shot 20 or so images, change your card, your assistant can start printing while you carry on. This way you should be able to get through 100 shots pretty quickly and smoothly. You are going to need assistants though.

If you are prnting at a later date then you may be able to cut down on the number of assistants, but you may cut down on the number of sales unless you take a deposit once they've agreed to purchase.

Good luck, Carl

[DaveG]

100 shots in a 2hr time scale isn't giving you much time so although Daves suggestion of getting everyone to write down their details is a good one, i can't say I agree with the 20 minute per family statement.

If, and I assume you are, shooting with digital, shoot tethered to a large screen, if you haven't got one try using your TV. Plug into the video out on your camera. You've got approx 1 minute with each subject. Take a shot, have the screen positioned so your subject can see it, do they want it? "Yes", get your assistant make a note of the image reference number and get the next subject on, repeat this. Once they've had their picture taken get them to fill in the form with there details again handed to them by an assistant, with the image no. on. You could always add a tag using the camera to the image, for printing. Once you have shot 20 or so images, change your card, your assistant can start printing while you carry on. This way you should be able to get through 100 shots pretty quickly and smoothly. You are going to need assistants though.

If you are prnting at a later date then you may be able to cut down on the number of assistants, but you may cut down on the number of sales unless you take a deposit once they've agreed to purchase.

Good luck, Carl
The 20 minutes is both shooting and selling time. Could I shoot faster than this? Sure, if I took two or three shots and/or handed the clients on to someone else.

From what I've inferred he wants to up-sell these clients - in a good way, with superior product - so he'll need the extra time and the extra effort. Otherwise he should just figure out a one shot price.

[carl1645]

The 20 minutes is both shooting and selling time. Could I shoot faster than this? Sure, if I took two or three shots and/or handed the clients on to someone else.

From what I've inferred he wants to up-sell these clients - in a good way, with superior product - so he'll need the extra time and the extra effort. Otherwise he should just figure out a one shot price.

I appreciate where you're coming from Dave and I too would be looking for a quality product, but he has already said he only has 2 hrs to get a 100 shots. You've got to make the best of the time you have available, the 20 minutes overall time is not an option from the info which has been posted.