Question about photographing an event

[Stormdancing]

It would just be a display table for me. I would imagine in the event area where competitors could come and ammm do something. Look at a porfolio? (which I don't have together yet) LOL I am taking some portraits of a firefighter and his kids in full gear (unrelated to this challenge gig) next weekend. Maybe get one printed large and try to book some individual portrait sessions.

[Arsinut]

There are several online rental places you could rent some glass from. That may be an option if there isn't anywhere around to rent locally.

[Stormdancing]

I've heard good things about http://www.rentglass.com
Only problem is it's hard to get what you want/need, when you need it.
Their prices are great. They now have added Nikon glass.
Would be a good thing to try out a lens before you buy one.

[KABeach]

It is up to you, but for your first event I wouldn't put the effort into a table - unless you have a person to man it full time and plenty to show/sell prospective customers it isn't likely to help you much (or worse, make you look like an understaffed operation).

More import is, how do you plan on sell and distribute your prints? Do you have a website up and running and ready for sales - with galleries and credit card enabled? Do you have your "fulfillment" company lined up and tested (IE. Where are you getting your prints processed)? Have you figured out your total workflow - afterall, you will have thousands of images to process, sort and upload and very little time to do it (most people will look online the evening you shot them - if it takes you 2 days, you will lose a lot of sales). You should also decide on a sorting method - the longer it takes someone to locate their images, the less likely they will look long enough to find them...

Just some things to think about.

Cheers!
Ken

[Stormdancing]

I have my Smugmug Pro account all set up.

http://heartsfire.smugmug.com

I have sold a lot of portrait, wedding and a few dog show sales from it. The site is customizable and allows watermarking and no right click protections. Every print I have ordered has been exceptional. Customer service is great. They handle the ordering, credit card and shipping.

Now my workflow. That's a big sticker in my side. I'll have to know a little more about the event and teams to come up with a good sorting routine for the galleries. I have CS2, but need to figure some actions to process pictures once I get the good from the bad sorted out. I would hope that all I would need in an action would be bump sat just a bit, sharpen and save as jpg. I tried to write an action once. LOL, didn't go to well. That one thing will save me loads of time. It's something I will be burning the midnight oil on in the next week. I'll also look around atncentral and see what is available there.

[KABeach]

Excellent! Sounds like you have the wost of it already figured out!

I appologize, I'd forgotten you already shoot some events, so you already got that stuff up and tested!

I think I've run out big issues to worry about

My only other suggestion is the hardest - don't get nervous - just relax and get the best shots you can - let the cards fall where they may!

Cheers!
Ken

[Rokcet Scientist]

Originally Posted by Stormdancing

It would just be a display table for me.* I would imagine in the event area where competitors could come and ammm do something. Look at a porfolio? (which I don't have together yet)

If that table is indoors and well guarded, I'd select my 100 best shots and have a slideshow of 'm running continuously on a laptop. Every 10th slide could be a decent sort of ad: one of your prize photos with a catch phrase/headline superimposed, and name, phone no., and eMail address. Repeat that same ad slide. Shrink that slide to business card size, have it printed (glossy?), and put a small stack next to the laptop.
You can replenish the little stack everytime you get near during the whole event.

[Stormdancing]

Ken The big issues for me right now are PP and getting them up quickly, and of course, getting good shots! I'll have two bodies and might just put my Tamron 28-70 2.8 on one for portrait type shots and keep the Magic Drain Pipe on the other for the competiton shots. I'll be nervous, but I do know myself and once I get going, it's like a zone.

RS This will be an outdoor venue. While my table would be in the competitors area, I wouldn't want to have a laptop there. I would spend all my time watching it. I've practiced shooting with both eyes open and don't want to have one on my table.
I may just forgo the table display since my cards will be in each competitors goody bag.

You guys are great! I appreciate all your advice and suggestions. I will be shooting some Dog Agility Trials next weekend and I'll give that new lens a workout.

[cyclohexane]

Here's the (constantly fluid) workflow I've been using to get event stuff done quickly (copied from another thread, and modified):

1. Convert the images from RAW using Capture One.* I use Capture One as it browses and batches the quickest/smoothest, but I also use ACR (CS1) and Nikon Capture NX.
2. Output as 16-bit TIFFs; choose a working color space you like.
3. Open TIFF in Adobe Photoshop CS, and convert to LAB Color Mode.
4. If needed, apply color noise reduction detailed here.* Your venue is outdoors, so hopefully you don't need to do that.
5. Apply unsharp mask in the Lightness channel.
6. Convert to sRGB, convert to 8 bit mode, save as JPEG.* I don't know how SmugMug handles files, but I'm assuming they have to be 8-bit sRGB since you said "JPEG"

All of the work done in Photoshop can be recorded as an action so you only have to do one by hand, and then you can just apply what you did as an action in batch process.* Usually, I have my actions broken down into several parts so I can save along the way, TIFF > Print-ready > web display JPEG for sharing, all in one go, but I'm not putting a high volume of images out right now. For something like this, I'd have a "do-it-all" action that does the work for me.

[Stormdancing]

Originally Posted by cyclohexane

Here's the (constantly fluid) workflow I've been using to get event stuff done quickly (copied from another thread, and modified):

1. Convert the images from RAW using Capture One. I use Capture One as it browses and batches the quickest/smoothest, but I also use ACR (CS1) and Nikon Capture NX.

I don't have Capture One, but to have ACR so I'll have to use that.

2. Output as 16-bit TIFFs; choose a working color space you like.

Why don't you just work off a copy of your raw file and then when done save copy as jpg? I've never understood why convert the unedited file to .tiff. Is there some advatage to working with tiff over working directly with your raw file in CS2?

3. Open TIFF in Adobe Photoshop CS, and convert to LAB Color Mode.

Yes this is the sharpening method I have been using with great sucess. (I think - no one has commented on oversharpened this or that.

4. If needed, apply color noise reduction detailed here. Your venue is outdoors, so hopefully you don't need to do that.

Yes hopefully I won't have to crank up the ISO. 20D is pretty good on noise as long as your exposure is good even at 1600

5. Apply unsharp mask in the Lightness channel.

6. Convert to sRGB, convert to 8 bit mode, save as JPEG. I don't know how SmugMug handles files, but I'm assuming they have to be 8-bit sRGB since you said "JPEG"

Yes SM requires jpg or maybe tiff (have to check that) and sRGB

All of the work done in Photoshop can be recorded as an action so you only have to do one by hand, and then you can just apply what you did as an action in batch process. Usually, I have my actions broken down into several parts so I can save along the way, TIFF > Print-ready > web display JPEG for sharing, all in one go, but I'm not putting a high volume of images out right now. For something like this, I'd have a "do-it-all" action that does the work for me.

When I upload to SM I send up full size files. I don't allow viewing of original size and sometimes I don't even allow viewing of large. I've not been making a separate version for web display vs print. I may need to study up on that theory a bit more.

I have another question. Do I need to worry about getting signed releases from these competitors? I will be displaying these on my galleries for sale and they want to make a calendar to sell as a fund raiser also. I could include a postcard in the participant bags. Should I wait and just get releases from the ones we use on the calendar?

On a side note, I received 3 11x14 prints from an engagement session I did and they are beautiful.

[cyclohexane]

There might be a stipulation that in attending an event, you are waiving your rights to privacy and are therefore consenting that any photographs taken of you at the event may be published (this might/should be found on the back of the ticket), but I would check with the event organizers.

[Stormdancing]

Ok!!! It's Here!!! The Firefighters Combat Challenge is this weekend.

The release is taken care of on the entry form. YAY, I don't have to mess with that.

After meeting with the coordinator, I now have another question.
He showed me pictures he has purchased from other events like this.
He said he would like to have these done the same way.
A small border with Location Date etc. Then some of the sponsors graphics.

My question is. He said mostly people purchase 4x6 shots. Ok so I make a 4x6 border and an action to apply it to the 3,000 photos (LOL) I'm going to take. I upload them to my Smugmug account and set the prices. Ok so what happens when someone wants a 5 x 7 or an 8 x 10. The crop factor will mess up the template frame. Do I make and upload copies of each size so that the frames come out right on the cropped pictures?

I hope this makes sense.

[KABeach]

Get out there, and don't forget to have fun!!

I don't use smugmug, but I have looked at it...

My first question is, if you were to put in a border, couldn't the customer crop it out anyway?

Does smugmug have an option just to upload thumbnails and then upload the full resolution images when an order is made?

I use photoreflect, this way I can do a rough edit to upload to photoreflect, then do the final edit only when the image is ordered (saves time on the front side, and allows me to tweak the image on the backside). It also allows me to print at any lab, so I can inspect all prints before sending them to customers - the downside is more time consuming and more labor intensive.

I suppose one solution would be to just run a banner across the top/bottom instead of a full frame, but this too will mess up proportions.

I'm not sure I have much of an answer for you on this...

Cheers,
Ken

[captlen]

I use Smugmug and it gives the purchaser the option of cropping the images.* In Three years I have never had a problem.* When you set your prices limit the sizes that are offered if not your customers will overload with all the sizes and products available.

If you want to see how it works go to http://stingrayimages.smugmug.com/gallery/1384787 and put an image in the cart and see how it works. Just don't complete the order

[Stormdancing]

Well one of my ideas for this event will be to offer things that have never been offered. Through my Smugmug account I can offer coffee mugs, t-shirts, mousepad, postcards and a host of other items. I really want to offer these things as it's not been offered before. It doesn't cost me anything additional to offer them. I want them to load up that shopping cart with all kinds of goodies. (Not just for me, I'm donating a portion of my proceeds to the local firefighters charity and childrens education programs.)

Yes Captlen they can crop the dog doody out of them in Smugmug if they want. You really can't contol that. The coordinators comments were, I have so many pictures from these events but I really like these - the ones with the information, date and place. The others I don't know where they were, they all look the same every time.

They do have the proof option, where you can set X number of days to touch up before printing. You might run in to trouble there on cropping also. What if someone wants 10 4x6 to send to friends and a 11x14 for their wall. How do you edit for that?? I don't think SM has an answer for that one either.

Right now, my thoughts are one gallery with the banner on the photos and offer 4x6. Second gallery, no banner and offer other sizes and gift items.
That sounds complicated though. I've also got to think through how to catorgorize things to make them easier to find. There are about 30 teams with 10 or so members on each team