Time to learn a new game.

I've been shooting events for quite some time, I shoot my images using my 5DIII, recording med JPEG to the SD card and large RAW to the CF card. I upload the JPEGS to my SmugMug site as proofs and save the RAW files to a hard drive to be used later.

I've been doing ok, but I have so many event planers asking me if there is any way to print on-site. I know I miss a ton of impulse sales at these events. I've been asked to shoot a huge barrel race in October, it's a Southeastern division final. 3 days with 350 riders a day. So I made the jump.

I just received my DNP DS40 & DS80 dye sub printers along with my Darkroom Core software to go with my ASUS g75v laptop with 16g of RAM & a Samsung 27" monitor.
I'll be printing 5x7 based media prints on the DS40 & 8x10 based media prints on the DS80. I know I have a lot to learn, but I think I'm heading in the right direction. My wife will be handling the printing end of it in the begging.

Hoping I'm going in the right direction. Any advise is appreciated.

Jeff

You definitely got the right equipment for the job! Good luck!

Something in this thread might be of help: Event Photographers....talk to me.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #16090585
Something in this thread might be of help: Event Photographers....talk to me.

Yes thanks, lots of good info in that thread!

Jeff

Note that thread is now 5 years old. Ancient history in today's breakneck speed world?

pyro1 wrote in post #16090398
I've been shooting events for quite some time, ............

Hoping I'm going in the right direction. Any advise is appreciated.

I also shoot events and I have very similar equipment to yourself, the DNP printers are fast efficient machines and are very accurate colourwise straight from the box.

The one thing I would suggest is to not get to hung up on the equipment side of things, look at your workflow as that is king. Speed is often of the essence as being able to close a sale. You will soon come up against the scenario of your clients taking longer to decide what size to have a print than the printer taking to produce it. What I would do is to get one person to help, they can advise/take orders etc whilst you are shooting and your wife printing.

I must admit to wondering why you need RAW files, by all reports the 5D3 is a remarkable camera and the results are perfect 99% of the time. I dont have this camera, instead I have 1D3's, 10mp and I shoot JPEG all the time and can get very good 30x20" prints from the files. Personally I would suggest buying the best glass you can afford and your images will be perfect for your workflow.

I must admit I didnt read the thread linked to, I saw the start date of April 2008 and presumed a lot was out of date.

Also, what is a "barrel race"? I guessed something to do with water until you said 350 riders. So unless its pedalo's I dont know

Barrel racing is an equestrian event. Usually part of a rodeo, but most I shoot are stand alone races. Here are a few shots from several I have shot.

Thanks, Jeff

One shot that I really like.

Know I know where the barrel fits into it all

Some nice shots. I especially like the image two before your example on page 3 of your gallery and also the third of the three directly above it, looks like HDR processing.

For me, the shots where you are on the outside of the turn work better. Where you are on the iside and the barrel is between you and the horse dont do it for me as I find it too distracting. But thats me looking at the images as a photographer, if they sell then they are good event photos.

On site printing will certainly increase sales. A fellow pro follows the rodeo circuit here in SW Florida. He uses three laptops to speed up the client decision making process. His main problem is dust; rodeos take place here in our dry season.

He is also doing green screen horse and rider portraits. The green screen is attached to an outside wall of his tent. The rider poses with the horse, body shot of rider, head and forelegs of horse, and he can then drop in a variety of backgrounds. His initial mistake was too many background choices. That slowed things way down! I think he is down to 4 or 6 now. One background is seasonal, Christmas, and he has a greeting card package.

I never shoot events in raw. It makes the workflow that much faster. Sure, the shots aren't always exactly what I envision, but when I'm shooting 1k frames in a 4 hour period, getting several dozen "90% good" shots instead of a handful of "100% perfect" shots is worth the increased speed of workflow. In many of these cases, you're capturing a moment, not the perfect image. Timing is what makes these photos important, which is why selling that 'moment captured' on the spot is going to be more profitable.

I don't normally do events but I have done a couple of onsite printing events with hired kit and if I was starting out myself I would have gone with one print size and it would be 9 by 6.

Same aspect ratio as the photos your taking so no unnecessary cropping on every single print, one size of strut mount to keep in stock, one size of bag to keep in stock, one size of paper etc. One printer as the main and another as a backup/secondary printer. One price for a single print and a different price for multiples

Keep it as simple as possible.

p.s. that image above is awesome!

+1 for standardizing and loving that image.

9x6 is an ideal size to deliver on site and if they want enlargements let them go order off you website.

As has been said, 1 size of media. one size of mount and one price makes it so much easier.

From a business perspective the cost of doing a 5x7 is not that much different from doing a 10x8 - but you can charge a lot more for the larger size.

Personally I'm thinking about phasing out smaller sizes as I just don;t think that client get the benefit in a 6x4 or 5x7 print. A 6x9 or 10x8 is so much more visually compelling in my eyes.

Thanks for all the info. I've been setting up everything and getting the details worked out with the software. The RAW files will be transferred to a HD in case someone wants a larger print from my website with edits. I'm only offering 5x7 & 8x10 & digital downloads on site. I'll be doing an event this next Friday, it's a smaller barrel run. I hope it's just what I need to work all the bugs out. I'm very impressed with the Darkroom software & the DNP printers.

Thanks again for all the tips.
Jeff

Good thread.

I ran a fully-manned photo booth at a wedding a couple months ago; it was my first one and it went very smoothly. I shot tethered into Lightroom, automatically applied a simple develop preset to the incoming photos, then I used a "watermark" to put the B&G's name and date on each photo as it printed. I still had to click the "print" button for each one. Prints were standard 4x6, not the little 2x6 multi-shot strips that most automated booths make - but the guests seemed to really like them. Didn't make a ton of money (about $100 profit after buying supplies) but for a test-run it was a success. The Pro 9000MKII was a bit slow, but nobody complained.

What's the go-to software these days?

1) For my manned photo booth, what I did was adequate; for higher volume event print sales it wouldn't be enough. Darkroom?

2) Separately, for "fun" photo booths, I'd like to have something that's completely automated; if it'll plug into Lightroom, that's all the better. At our Halloween party last year, I shot and printed right then and there, but it was difficult to host the party and do that at the same time... especially after a few drinks.