Advice needed - offered to help at a charity event (printing photos for families)

Hey all,

I've done some searching and I have yet to find something that really zeroes in on what I'm trying to do here, so I figure this might be the best way to try to get info. Long story short, a friend recently asked a few of her friends for info on if Polaroid was still around and where she could get one. I asked her why, and she mentioned a charity event where kids will get their photos taken with Santa Claus and was looking for a way to do it.

I thought about it for about ten seconds and volunteered to help. I have a decent laptop, a Pixma Pro 9000, and the photo gear in my sig (the gear isn't really the difficult part). I have Lightroom 4 and CS6 as well, but I think I'd only use Lightroom for this. My plan was to set up shop, and print out images four at a time on 8x10 paper (I think I can get four 4x5 with frames on a page consistently).

I guess my questions are about workflow and whether or not I'm doing something really wrong (or if there's an easier way to do it that I'm just not seeing). I had an idea of shooting on a tripod tethered. Then, after each shot, import into LR4, crop for 4x5, and print the four at a time. The pics don't need to be done that moment, but I figure it would be good to use the time well.

Is there a way to do this in Lightroom that I haven't mentioned? I don't have alot of experience with the Print module in LR4 (I usually just print stuff from whichever module I'm currently in, usually Develop).

Thanks in advance for the help!

Lightroom has an "Auto Import" function -- shots that you put into a "watched" directory are automatically imported and displayed.

It's "typically" used with the Lightroom Tethered feature, but since you have Canon bodies with Live View and other "advanced" features, I'd say you would be better served using the EOS Utility and you can just have it save the shots into the LR Watched folder and take it from there.

As far as the Print layout, check out the Print module Template browser -- I don't think it has exactly what you want, you'd need to mess around with things. I'm not an "expert" with the print templates and lying out things, you'd need to ask about specifics, and read the LR Help on printing and layouts!

Your idea of importing and printing form LR will work, but its a user intensive and cumbersome way to do it.


Look at DSLR remote pro, it will do all that you ask in a simpler and more automated work flow.
Essentially your setting up a photobooth, and DSLR remote pro handles all of that, including the printing.