On-site printing - how much to charge

[zunimoon]

Hi there,

I need your opinions/advice. This is a first for me, so I'm turning to my fellow Canon brothers n' sisters to help me out as you ALWAYS do!

I have a bride wanting a photo booth during cocktail hour w/on-site printing to give to her guests. She may or may not want little cardboard frames, so since this is undecided, we'll just leave that part out. Prints will be either 4x6 or 5x7. Is there a standard size for this kind of photo-taking?

I have NO idea how much to charge her. I have to rent a backdrop and lights, get my assistant to shoot for these two hours and where in the world do I get the printer? Do places rent that or do I have to go an buy it. Printers are cheap, so I don't mind purchasing one, but can you recommend one that's suitable for this that uses ink efficiently?

HELP!!:lol: Any guidance here would be much appreciated!

[tim]

That's a hard call. Can you rent a photo booth setup? If not i'd charge for backdrop rental, light rental, photographer time, processing time, and prints. Prints would be regular prices, plus the cost of the frames. Once she sees the price she may reconsider.

[form]

I once administered a photo booth; it used a powershot s2 IS I believe, had a specific application that gave people a countdown and 2-3 different shots, and automatically printed 4 tiny duplicates onto the printer paper. It was convenient for just about everyone involved, but I wished I had a dolly to carry the equipment because it was extremely heavy.

I don't know how much the photo booth service charged, but it was enough to justify paying me $30/hour to set it up, monitor it, replace cartridges, etc.

[tim]

I wished I had a dolly

You poor bugger ;)

[form]

Don't be a cdifoto.

[zunimoon]

perhaps "photo booth" was the wrong term, but more of an area with a table, backdrop and printer to print either 4x6 or 5x7's.

[DD974]

....and where in the world do I get the printer?

Did you ever end up buying a printer for on-site printing? If so, what'd you get and how did it go?

[Jammet]

Look at the new Kodak inkjet printers, a friend at work just got one and he likes it quite a bit. It is just amature photography he is printing but the ink is about 1/2 the normal cost from HP for the same stuff, he gets more prints (5-10) than he did with his HP and they look just as good. The printer was fairly expensive (200$ for his) but it worked for his needs and if i remember right it has a card reader or at least a usb slot for camera hookup. I know his is network capable at the very least, hook it up to a wireless network and you can put the printer far off out of the way so nobody bumps it and messes with the ink while it dries.

[DD974]

After using inkjet for several years and not satisfied with the fading over time I decided to make the move to dye-sub, even though I use Mpix for my lab choice for all other jobs, I wanted something for on-site.....so I bought a Sony SnapLab for under a Grand...a bit pricey but think it'll pay for itself at my first event...it can be used as both a printer and kiosk station with all the card slots. This particular model can print 5x7, 4x6 and 3.5x5 but only one roll at those widths can be printed at one time. The quality is excellent and in the 5x7 roll, which is only now available in glossy, I should get around 172 photos, but templates can be made or use the ones preinstalled to print 2-3.5 by 5 of 4-2.5 by 3.5 wallets per sheet. The printer is only 24lbs. so very transportable, no PC needed to use it. Borders can also be created & applied from a separate CF card slot to the kiosk or added in PS and printed directly to the printer. Two rolls Paper/2-Print ribbon kits run around $240 (344 prints)....minus the printer cost it makes 5x7s for 70 cents....Just my 2cents.

[dital]

Has anyone else got any experience with using a SnapLab? I'm considering buy one of these tomorrow and would be interested... I plan to connect to a Mac.

Many Thanks.

[DD974]

Haven't used mine in a job situation yet, but after tests it produces beautiful 5x7s, albeit on glossy paper...I prefer matte but rolls in that finish aren't available yet.

[dital]

Okay many thanks for letting me know.