Advice needed..........please - DPChallenge Forums

09/12/2004 05:03:06 AM · #1

Spent part of the day taking pics at a dog agility event

1st things...I need more memory and business cards with at least my gallery address, though I should set up a proppa web site. I've said that peops can use the pics but if they're published I would appreciate being credited for them.If they want a printable pic they will need to contact me.

Not sure how much to charge, should I print the pic here and post or just send it on a disc. Do I need to do anything else to get the pics ready for printing.

thanks for any advice
sue

ps........I had fun!!

edited cos I forgot the site for the rest of the pics here...............then I remembered you probably don't need it cos that's where the pics I put the thumbnails in are d'uh!!

Message edited by author 2004-09-12 05:05:18.

09/12/2004 05:43:47 AM · #2

Like you, myself and a couple of friends set up taking shots of local events and have ended up selling shots. We went into it very un-business-like, because we weren't doing it to make money. Looking back, maybe we could have been more business-like at the start, but we gained a lot of trust, respect and customer loyalty.

Good move saying they need to get prints from you. The pics are fairly large on the site and also pretty good jpeg quality, so they'd be reasonably sharp for printing themselves (people will do this). If you want to make sales (and people really won't mind paying), I'd make them smaller and/or add a copyright.

As for charges - check out other event photographers in your area. We sell our shots VERY cheaply, which at the time was fine, but as we travel further and it takes more effort, the prices seem fairly low. Of course, it's much harder to increase your prices than lower them, so we're basically stuck either increasing prices and upsetting customers, or leaving them low.

For our post-processing, we just levels the shots, crop them to the right ratio, and save them as jpeg quality 11. That's normally good enough to send off for printing.

What we first offered is a semi-automated process, which although not technologically advanced, worked, and is easy to set up. As all pics have unique numbers anyway, we created an order form for the customer to fill in and post to us along with a cheque (or check, in the US :-) ). This meant we could host the pics on a site without a shopping basket, etc, and our non-techy customers could (mostly!) easily use the system.

There are sites out there for event photographers that offer a full order systems, so all you have to do is upload your pics, but you obviously only get some of the profits, not all.

As for what final product(s) you should offer. I'd say, one way or another, prints available for mail order in various sizes.

Oh - one final tip - when you're out shooting - don't fill a 3x2 frame, because you won't be able to crop it to 10x8. :-)

If you've got any more questions feel free to ask or PM me.

The forum in my sig might be of interest to you too.

09/12/2004 06:10:20 AM · #3

Thanks for that Paul.....this is very much the first tentative step for me, in the past have just taken pics and given the developed photos to the club. This yr I've got the digi camera so thought it was time to do things differently and put them online.

What size would you recommend for putting on the site? Still haven't quite worked out how to put a copyright on the pics. Will also need to work out the details of the printing as I don't have a printer here at home. LOL.....talk about a step out into the unknown!

ratio for 5x7 is .....or do I just put that into the crop ratio and what dpi would you enter? Sorry bout all the questions.......all I went out to do today was take some photos. Ran out of memory before I found anything for the mirrors/smoke challenges.........with both cameras!

sue

09/12/2004 06:35:34 AM · #4

I think 640px is fine if you're happy allowing them to use it for a desktop, maybe a small print, etc. We also use 640px, but we have a copyright message, which makes it a little more difficult to use.

I've seen other sites use pretty tiny shots - 300-400 px. I guess they're just protecting their business, going back to me saying we're not the most business-like operation. :-)

I'll probably get lynched for saying this, but I never ever worry about DPI. Out of a 300D the picture is pretty high res for 10" x 8" prints. I just set Photoshop's select marque on 7 x 5 and then make a selection that's nearly as big as the original shot. This means I get the best resolution I possibly can, but also don't have to concern myself about sticking to strict DPI value.

For printing my (very efficient, I might add) colleague sends them off to an online consumer photo printers, and the shots get sent directly to the customers. This works quite well as we're only shipping them once, and it's very easy to do. You have to make sure the printer's invoice isn't in the package though, otherwise they'll have your base price!

You do go through a lot of flash shooting an event, unfortunately. Those portable image disks are quite handy, for a couple of hundred dollars. I've got a 20GB X-Drive II, which I use. A fellow shooter had an issue recently where the USB socket came off his drive, so he couldn't download the shots from an event (!). Now we both carry enough flash for an entire event (about 3 GB), and I also backup to my X-Drive too.

Obviously you don't desperately need that much, but it sounds like little more would help. :-) I can recommend //www.mydigitaldiscount.com for flash.

Message edited by author 2004-09-12 06:38:21.

09/12/2004 06:47:32 AM · #5

thanks again....will check out the online printers here in nz, would certainly be easier. Border on the prints or no?

09/12/2004 06:49:45 AM · #6

We sell them without, as we've found borders, mats, etc, a bit of a grey area of what people want. We just sell them without borders or mats.

Tamron SP AF 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di LD Aspherical IF for Nikon

09/12/2004 06:55:53 AM · #7

just checked out one of the online printers here ....$2 + $2.50 p&p, wonder what the quality is like. Have found that varies here, some get the colours really wrong!

Node

Nikon D300

09/12/2004 08:12:39 AM · #8

Originally posted by suemack:

just checked out one of the online printers here ....$2 + $2.50 p&p, wonder what the quality is like. Have found that varies here, some get the colours really wrong!

Hi Sue

We have a professional that follows the main agility events here, she takes the photos inthe am and has them available in the pm to view and order or on a multi day event it could be the following day.

She charges $5 au and sends the photos to you or has them printed and ready for you the following day.

BTW I love dog agility but my girl is starting to feel the pinch at 9 years old.

Bob

09/13/2004 05:26:56 AM · #9

Really have to get my act together and fast......just got an email to ask how much for a print!!!! The message only went out to the clubs today.

Rang one of the local copyshops today and they will print 9 5x7 pics for $5 .....but if there's just the one pic. The online one is too expensive at $2 + $2.50 postage. One of the other people who takes agility photos charges $10 for a 5x7 so that gives me something to work on.

Once I've printed the photo, I guess I just pack in cardboard and post it out.......do you ask for money first or hope they pay?

sue