Corporate Event- Name Tracking

I was invited to take pictures for a company party with many outside guests (about 400 people at a bar). They would like to tag people in pictures afterwards on facebook, so they asked me to keep track of people's name and company name. Is there a good and efficient way to do it? I will bring someone to help me, but is there a good way to do it?

If I were you, I'd explain how difficult it is to photograph and worry about keeping track of names. Imagine a group of 5 people... you'd lose time even trying to collect 5 business cards.

I seriously hope you're getting paid well for this


What about: you shoot, note the shot number, pass this number to your assistant who takes the names down from left to right and writes them down next to the shot number. Hopefully you can mosey on and set up the next shot while they are doing this.

More efficient way (you're going to have your shoot time cut in half if you have to grab names): you give out cards to everyone inviting them to tag themselves. Not as effective from the business standpoint, but I think any other way is seriously impractical.

Photobooth with signup sheets. They write their names on a piece of paper, you write the photo number after the shot.

Or do it on a tablet if you want to seem more modern.

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #13354317
Not as effective from the business standpoint, but I think any other way is seriously impractical.

Facial recognition software + Big Brother Google?

Seriously... even if the assistant collects the names, shooting an event... I could take a group photo every 20-30 seconds. The assistant couldn't keep up.

Photobooth doesn't work with corporate events... people don't show up at the same time as their "group". It's not like a wedding party where the family arrives and wants to be photographed together.

Thanks guys! We will see how it turns out

Shoot a few frames, get them to all hold their business cards up, shoot a frame of the cards.

When you get back to the computer, you have a few photos, then their names, all in order, no mistakes in spelling.

It also works if everyone is wearing name badges, ask them to take them off, take a pic, hold the name tags out, take another pic.

I have to do "social photos" at work, basically the same thing you are doing, at business events.
I used to take names in a notebook, but this method is quicker, and is easier to read than my writing

If someone doesn't have a name tag/business card, have a notepad, ask them to write their name, and hold it up with everyone else's cards (in order l-r)

We tried the 'take names on a legal pad and try to match to the shot number' method, but was a lot of work and if one was wrong it made several wrong and had to go back and redo it. The next time, I used small paper tablets (the sammer white legal pads) and a Sharpie, explained to them how we wanted accuracy, and asked them to write on the pad exactly how they wanted their name listed with the group photo - some didn't want their last name, only the last initial, some had prefixes or suffixs (ie: Dr., Jr., D.C. etc.) we took a photo with the pads, and a couple without. Once we explained how we are dealing with a large number of people in a short time and our desire at having their photo and name be accurate, they had no problem with the pad idea.
It made it so much easier to keep track of who was who, their names were right, and an added benefit, we could identify most of the people in the candid shots as well. I thought about using small dry-write boards next time, but keep thinking there might be a reflectivity problem from the board surface. Will have to try it sometime I guess.

The easiest way to do this is write the persons name on a 4 by 6 index card and take a photo of it right after you take the regular photo. This is a ton more work, and I let clients know it will severely slow down the amount of photos I can deliver or get extra pay for an assistant.

-Scott

I ask them to write their name down and email to let them know when the pictures are up. It has worked for me so far.

I cant read business cards in certain conditions but that is a great idea.

Why don't they just send the link to the facebook album to everyone who attended and have them tag themselves?