HUGE undertaking and HUGE QUESTIONS!

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Dacoda Image

Wow! This is fantastic information! So if I may ask what does one charage for this type of process?

I honestly don't know. Nor do I think it would really apply here. K-12 schools have this process rigged for "rebates" and "commissions" (any normal person would call it a kickback).

I was a contract photographer for the studio. Since I'm fairly knowledgable on the IT side, I had some idea of how to make things work.

Here's what I would do in your shoes:

1. Add up all of your capital costs. Assume you're either going to find a manual process to do something similar to what I described, adopt someone else's technique, or make up your own. Plan it out and identify how much it's actually going to cost you in capital costs (ie money you need to lay out NOW to get set up).

2. Add in your time. Once you have some idea of HOW you're going to do this, estimate the time per person, both shooting and post processing (mainly order processing. Definitely charge extra if someone wants touchups). Consider pre-shoot time, set up, tear down, and order processing. Also consider chasing people down. It's going to happen ("We really need Professor Smith's picture in this since it's his last year here." but Prof Smith isn't interested in getting his picture taken.).

Given the volume, something along 5 minutes per person wouldn't be unreasonable. That's roughly 31 working days at 8 hours per day. Estimate this as a COST to you, though, not to the customer. The customer should see your final numbers that include your profit.

3. Add in your production costs. This is based on assumptions: how many people are going to be helping, if any? What type of standard print orders will you give the school, if any? Do customers have the option to buy packages from this?

4. Add in your profit. Whatever margin you feel you need to make this work for you.

Or just guess and hope you make money on the deal. It sounds like a joke but you'd be surprised at how many businesses function that way.

[mort]

Originally Posted by jfrancho

take small carb/water breaks frequently and load up on bananas the day before to prevent muscle cramps.

what ever else you do with this job, keep yourselve in a workable condition.

[kenn]

I use to have the contract for a college in Ga. about 2500 students. We photographed all students during registration. We sold a contact roll of B&W to the university for their yearbook and they furnished home addresses for all students. We mailed a proof to their parents, and received about 45% sale rate. Our average sale was about $18.00. So it was a profitable little venture for us.

[jfrancho]

Originally Posted by mort

what ever else you do with this job, keep yourselve in a workable condition.

Exactly. One more tip: I fish a few bass tournaments. I'm on the Immodium Pro Staff

[edleg]

What to charge depends on the use of the images. If for ID cards and possibly yearbook, then charge a flat fee for the whole thing.... up to you to figure it out. Plan on more than one day of shooting and a few days post time. The post processing time depends on how well you pose & crop in camera, plus getting the white balance right and the lighting correct.

My advice is to look around your area and find a freelance photographer that used to work for Lifetouch... they can teach you to cycle a person through every 15-30 seconds. Yes, it can be done, like someone else said if you have one person posing and one shooting. Back when I worked for LT... another photographer and I could take pics faster working together using one camera setup, then two photogs on two separate rigs could. We could literally pose, zoom, crop and shoot faster than the lights could recylce.

[Mark McCall]

I agree with edleg...Stacey didn't mention what she would be delivering to them, but I'm assuming they need digital files for badges, web, marketing, ect.

And Benji's right about the time. 5 minutes is way too long.

When we shoot pick-a-pack, it's 60 people per hour, including a group shot every 10 people. Easier than you think, if your organized.

Man...what a great problem to have.

[Douglas]

Well, its been a year and a half. Wonder how it went.

[iflynething]

I love when people post here and don't follow up! We want to know how everything went

~Michael~

[CameraTamera]

LOL yeah I just read the whole thing for the first time ... and DANGIT it's like the last few pages were ripped from their binding!

[swampler]

For anyone that gets in this situation (I've shot all the athletes for the local college), don't forget to allow for make up day(s) for students/faculty that don't make their assigned day. Also, depending on their needs, 10 minutes may be longer than needed. In my case, they merely wanted straight on headshots, so I could manage more like 1 minute per person. Light and background set in advance, tape on the floor for their toes. Look ahead, smile (or not in the case of football players), grab a couple of shots (can tell from the LCD if 2nd shot is really needed or not), and bring the next one on.

If you actually have the freedom to do posing, etc, then you would obviously need more time.