HUGE undertaking and HUGE QUESTIONS!

[Dacoda Image]

I recieved a call today from the local University requesting a price quote to have me come in and shoot all the students on campus + faculty and staff... they gave a rough estimate of 3000 people. (can I breath yet?) My question is... GOOD LORD... what does one chargee for something like that?? Ok... at a minimum one is going to take 2 shots per person to attempt to avoid blinks... so even that is 6000 shots... of course that is assuming that everyone actually is photographed... but they are looking for a quote for that number.

When I have shot for them before I have charged an hourly amount... and I charge high for our area at $50.00 an hour. ( I know some of you are saying oh you are way low, while some of you are saying wow I wish I could charge that much... darn demographics!) But thinking that way... good grief that could be over whelming in itself! Well for example... 3000 people at say 10 minutes per person... signing them in placing them and snapping 2 shots... that is 500 hours! To take that a step further... that is 62 1/2 ~ 8 hour days! So at an hourly rate that would be $3125.00 but shooting constantly a person every 10 minutes for 62 1/2 days?

[Dacoda Image]

So... please tell me that at this late hour and the thought of this has got my computations totally outta wack!

[Rense]

checked your calculations: they are right .
Maybe another way of thinking would be: the job has to be done in a reasonable time, say 5 working days of 6 hours.
That means you need to process 3000/(5*6) = 100 students per hour.
Assuming 5 minutes per student working time you can process 60/5 =12 students.
to get the job done you need 100/12 = 9 assistants.

[mcbit]

Originally Posted by Dacoda Image

I recieved a call today from the local University requesting a price quote to have me come in and shoot all the students on campus + faculty and staff... they gave a rough estimate of 3000 people. (can I breath yet?) My question is... GOOD LORD... what does one chargee for something like that?? Ok... at a minimum one is going to take 2 shots per person to attempt to avoid blinks... so even that is 6000 shots... of course that is assuming that everyone actually is photographed... but they are looking for a quote for that number.

When I have shot for them before I have charged an hourly amount... and I charge high for our area at $50.00 an hour. ( I know some of you are saying oh you are way low, while some of you are saying wow I wish I could charge that much... darn demographics!) But thinking that way... good grief that could be over whelming in itself! Well for example... 3000 people at say 10 minutes per person... signing them in placing them and snapping 2 shots... that is 500 hours! To take that a step further... that is 62 1/2 ~ 8 hour days! So at an hourly rate that would be $3125.00 but shooting constantly a person every 10 minutes for 62 1/2 days?

Originally Posted by Rense

checked your calculations: they are right .
Maybe another way of thinking would be: the job has to be done in a reasonable time, say 5 working days of 6 hours.
That means you need to process 3000/(5*6) = 100 students per hour.
Assuming 5 minutes per student working time you can process 60/5 =12 students.
to get the job done you need 100/12 = 9 assistants.

Am I missing something here

A quick mental calculation $50 x 500 hrs = $25,000.00
... and $400 (8hr/day) x 62.5 days = $25,000.00

Where did $3125.00 come from.

[Rense]

you're right. Didn't check the paycheck only the amount of work.

[joshman]

so where do you live? and could you foot the bill for me to come from australia and give you a hand?


i'd like to get in on that

[Benji]

I'm not good at math, but I am good at how much time it takes to photograph a person. Five minutes is WAAAAAAAY too long unless you are going to offer each one a cuppa coffee. It shouldn't take any more than 30 to 45 seconds from the time they sit down, are posed and captured. You will need someone to man the camera only, another to assist in the posing, several to assist them in filling out the forms, another to ACCURATELY record the image number after the capture and several more to give the above a restroom break now and then.

Benji

[mcbit]

Originally Posted by Benji

I'm not good at math, but I am good at how much time it takes to photograph a person. Five minutes is WAAAAAAAY too long unless you are going to offer each one a cuppa coffee. It shouldn't take any more than 30 to 45 seconds from the time they sit down, are posed and captured. You will need someone to man the camera only, another to assist in the posing, several to assist them in filling out the forms, another to ACCURATELY record the image number after the capture and several more to give the above a restroom break now and then.

Benji

And you just knocked his earnings down from $25,000 t0 $1,875 for photographing 3000 people!

Have a heart!

[jfrancho]

I did 120 portraits in about 3 hours. You need at least two assistants, and you'll need to keep meticulous records. Preparation is key - I practiced the process with family members to find the gaps, so on game day everything went smoothly. I'll give you some hints: get a list of subjects, sort then alphabetically; print their names on 24up stickers, as each arrives, pull their sticker and place it on a new form where the image IDs are captured, both on the sticker and next to the sticker; shoot tethered to a laptop so you can verify the images; take small carb/water breaks frequently and load up on bananas the day before to prevent muscle cramps.

[evoryware]

Originally Posted by Benji

I'm not good at math, but I am good at how much time it takes to photograph a person. Five minutes is WAAAAAAAY too long unless you are going to offer each one a cuppa coffee. It shouldn't take any more than 30 to 45 seconds from the time they sit down, are posed and captured. You will need someone to man the camera only, another to assist in the posing, several to assist them in filling out the forms, another to ACCURATELY record the image number after the capture and several more to give the above a restroom break now and then.

Benji

I've done that for kids sports leagues where it was 10 minutes max per team for up to a 24 person team. It should be a lot easier with University students not to mention half of them may not even show up. The slowest part is the paper work and them asking questions about it so definitely have assistants to help with that.

[KellyL]

Stacey....never done anything like this but call me if you want to know what I have done with 100 folks...on the record keeping that is. And besides, we haven't chatted for awhile.

[jfrancho]

Kelly, unless its a proprietary process that you've developed, why not post it here? I'd understand though if you don't want to give it away. I'd like to hear it, since I do a few corporate shoots during the holidays, and though my process is pretty well set, its still evergreen. PM me if necessary. Thanks buddy

[KellyL]

No....it isn't a big deal...it is just making sure that a name and an image number are recorded together. Stacey and I have had many phone chats and I enjoy talking to her about the business. Since I have relatively little experience in much of anything I just wanted to share with her my personal experience. I also get tired of typing when I am in a rush and I am trying to get 8 jobs processed today so I can do something other than sit at the computer all weekend long because I know next week, once again, I'll be sitting designing two wedding albums.

[jfrancho]

I'll be doing the same - two portrait orders and a wedding. Keep it fun Kelly!

[KellyL]

I'm trying...pant..pant..pant....don't want to lose my edge. But here I go...straying off topic.

[brian.austin]

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.

[Rense]

hint: you can always open a new topic

[jfrancho]

Originally Posted by Rense

hint: you can always open a new topic

Huh?

[Rense]

because of:

Originally Posted by KellyL

I'm trying...pant..pant..pant....don't want to lose my edge. But here I go...straying off topic.

[Dacoda Image]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

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.

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