I did 3,000 students with a three other photographers + assistants in two days. It's actually not as bad as you think.
Benji's right: my average time per student was 25 seconds. Quick greeting (while studying face, hair, etc.), sit on the stool please, face this way/that way, sit up straight, tilt your head, big smile, click, check the image, great!, nice job, have a good day! NEXT.
We used tethered dSLRs (Nikons or Fujis but it's not that important) hooked up to laptops. Each laptop was running a studio management app DESIGNED for school shoots. The assistant was really nothing more than a laptop operator/reviewer. Here's how it worked:
Pre-shoot:
1. Database of students and faculty is given to the studio. This includes name, student ID number, classroom (for locating/delivering purposes), and a few other items.
2. Database is imported into
Studio Plus and each laptop gets a copy of the COMPLETE database. This is important to avoid network issues during a shoot.
3. Laptops are configured with packages and barcode readers are installed on laptops.
4. Laptops are tested with tethered cameras.
Shoot:
5. Everything is set up in a special area. Signs are posted directing students to photos.
6. Student walks up to laptop operator and hands his student ID over. ID is scanned and the record is pulled up from the database. Operator confirms name with student. If the student wasn't in there, a new record can be quickly created.
7. Student walks to posing stool and we do our thing. Big smile, big flash, and the magic box captures the image.
8. Image is sent to the computer via the tether.
9. The capture software has an output for the studio application (part of the package). The database "grabs" the image and shows it on the screen. Operator and photographer can check within about 3-5 seconds of shot.
10. Re-take can be done immediately, overwriting first image.
11. Save it and take the next student.
Post-shoot:
12. Take all of the databases from the laptops and combine them on a server. This takes some work but is fairly easy once you get the rhythm. I think some apps have a sync or export/import feature, too.
13. Review all images and packages selected to make sure nothing was missed.
14. Upload info via ROES to the lab of your choice.
15. Wait for delivery of packages.
16. Check through packages to confirm ID matches up to person.
17. Deliver to happy customer.
If one person is doing this, I'd plan on spending about a week on-site. I ran my own station for a while. It's hectic but CAN be done if it's rigged correctly. It's much, much easier with two people.
Incidentally, that 3,000 in two days was FILLED with breaks. And we actually got complaints from some teachers (in jest, I hope) that we were going TOO FAST. They expected to spend the entire hour getting pictures taken when we were done with a 30 kid class in 10 minutes.