Need advice on proofs for a large group..

[bc4393]

I've been photographing a local rec sport. Both individuals and in groups. There is still plenty of practices to take pictures and I already have about 200 shots. I am going to have too large a number to financially be able to print up even small thumbnails of each for people to choose which pictures they want to purchase in a larger size. How would you go about doing this? This isn't a business for me yet but it will pay for some new lenses for me and help fund an unexpected baby on the way, so I don't have a website set up for this specifically. Otherwise I'd just give them the pictures and feel good about making their day. Any idea how I can have them proof the pictures? I don't think 30 people gathered around a table looking at my laptop at a couple hundred pictures would be efficient and I think it would turn people off to even spending 4 bucks because they didn't want to stand around and wait. I don't mind offering the variety to them but I just need a way for them to preview. I figure once i get a way for them to scan through they can just email me the file names they want printed. They have to be small and/or protected if they are on the computer to keep them from copying the images out. Ideas? Thanks in advance

[amonline]

Here's something Ive started doing thats inexpensive, efficient, fast and yields great results. If you have Adobe Acrobat and can create a PDF, use the "contact sheet" function in DPP to print out pages with all your proofs in one quick pass. The feature allows you to layout the pages the way you like, including sizing the images as you desire.

It's just an idea for a booklet form... I have recently started to do this for product shoots and the clients seem to like it. They can cut them up if they choose.

[DaveG]

I've been photographing a local rec sport. Both individuals and in groups. There is still plenty of practices to take pictures and I already have about 200 shots. I am going to have too large a number to financially be able to print up even small thumbnails of each for people to choose which pictures they want to purchase in a larger size. How would you go about doing this? This isn't a business for me yet but it will pay for some new lenses for me and help fund an unexpected baby on the way, so I don't have a website set up for this specifically. Otherwise I'd just give them the pictures and feel good about making their day. Any idea how I can have them proof the pictures? I don't think 30 people gathered around a table looking at my laptop at a couple hundred pictures would be efficient and I think it would turn people off to even spending 4 bucks because they didn't want to stand around and wait. I don't mind offering the variety to them but I just need a way for them to preview. I figure once i get a way for them to scan through they can just email me the file names they want printed. They have to be small and/or protected if they are on the computer to keep them from copying the images out. Ideas? Thanks in advance


I'd post them on one of those picture sites. You'll have to look into the details but it would allow the subject's and their families to check out the shots and either order on-line or at least have the file number. It would cost you very little (or nothing) and there's no way that the clients could steal your work.

When I shoot "event" assignments I want to know that I'll be paid before I shoot. I had a bubble gum chewing girl phone me a day or two before her prom and started to ask about my "coverage". I told her that I'd have a $1200 fee guarantee and that any sales that I made would reduce that fee. Of course she gulped and I never heard from her again. Now there's money to be made shooting proms, but not without a plan. Did the kids know that I'll be there, so that they'd bring money? What kind of delivery system can I employ? With 48 hours all I'd be doing is providing a service without much chance of making $.

My plan when I shoot teams is to insist that everything is paid on the day of the shoot, but then the team/league organizer holds the money until delivery. This insures that I don't have to chase money for weeks, and it also indicates that I'm not a crook, in a line of photography where there ARE lots of crooks.

I won't shoot on spec, since the idea is to make money. And getting the infrastructure RIGHT before I press a shutter button is critical.