School Prom Pics - But how?!

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emyllis

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So then, I've been "offered" to take prom pics for our school next week - nothing too stressful in that so far...

My plans are as follows:
a) A large white sheet over a board for an even background
b) 2 lights pointing at the background for shadowless photos
c) Flashgun pointing at kids,
d) Using either 50 mm 1.4 or 18-55 2.8 lens (I think the second will give flex)
e) Practice!

- Do I need a reflector to boost the light?

My real qn is:

If I get the pics, what's the easiest system to upload pics to a website which allows parents to buy the pictures without the hassle of me printing the pics out etc, and delivering them, which has happened before?

What I really want is a password protected area where I upload pics, parents log in, choose the size, pay and it gets sent home without me being involved.

All profits will go back to the school, so I'm not going to make a killing, don't worry about that!

Look forward to any thoughts you have on this

Thanks
 
Something like a Photobox pro gallery would be an easy option, not the best but it's free and simple for parents to use.
 
That was my initial idea johnsy, I've only ever dabbled with it, but I thought it seems like an easy solution. That was 2 years ago, so I figured i'd see if cutting edge technology has moved on at all since I last inspected :)
 
Photoshelter is probably a more professional looking way of doing it, and you can choose who does the printing, but obviously it comes at a cost.
 
So then!
Next questions are as follows:

I've got a background, 2 lights to add a light from both sides, flash gun, tripod...

What else do I need?

My plans are to do something like a f/5 with 1/200 with flash - or am I completely off in terms of a decent portrait?
 
Depending on your chosen focal length, f/5 might be a little bit too shallow DoF to accomodate larger groups (ie, standing 2 or 3 people 'deep')

What camera/lens are you going to go with?
 
I was thinking of a d7000 with either the nikon 17-55 2.8 or the 18-200 VR one.

Any insight would be super appreciated :)
 
This week - I am unsure if I'm allowed to share the results - due to their age (GCSE pupils)... Should be a fun challenge though - our pupils spend a lot of time getting ready and it's a huge event for them - hope to capture the moment for them well!
 
When you say 2 lihts on the background are you talking 2 flash lights or something else?
 
2 powerful normal lights, pointed at a cloth background - so 2 desk lights...
 
So then, a slight query with photobox:
Procedure:
Shot in raw - edited in Lightroom, exported as jpeg, views fine on my laptop screen (Hasn't been calibrated to white settings but looks like it should do).
When it's exported (max of 3 meg jpeg) and uploaded into photobox, the quality of the pictures becomes noticably grainy, despite the fact that it's being imported as a high resolution, and should be authentic to the original jpeg.

Is this a common problem, and if anyone here has met this how can this be resolved?
I'll try to upload a picture/screenshot to show you what I mean in a minute, but it's annoying - mainly as the sample images I used in trying this have worked fine... Very annoying.

Please help!
 
I have tried both ways :(

See if this can work for pics.

Scrap that, I'm goign to sleep on it, to see if I can work out what's going wrong here :(

Really annoying.
 
It displays a small preview image which is not great quality. You can go through your album, click on an image to view its details and also view the original which should be the same as you uploaded.
 
That's what I thought... However, I'll put together a few screen shots that show you what my issue is, very annoying :(

It'll take 15 mins or so, so be patient. I "folded" last night as i couldn't get it working right, and what was on paper a simple operation turned out to be positively tricky and frustrating.
 
Just found this thread and from what I have just read it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen to me.

Am I correct in that you used two desk lamps to light the background and a flash on camera to light the foreground, if so, what ISO were you on, what aperture did you use and what shutter speed? What flashgun did you use?

I cannot believe someone on here didn't give you some better advice as regards to this shoot. I really hope that your pictures have come out better than I suspect they would from the information previously given.

If you used slow sync flash you are going to have some colour balance issues and tungsten and flash do not mix well, if not then the camera flash would be lighting the whole scene and I expect you have some very underexposed images.
 
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Edbray, they've come out fine! As it turns out, I didn't use the rig, and was outside most of the evening, taking pics with my flash providing BBL... Again, am going to get some pics re photobox image quality for help, ideally in 10 mins...
 
Sorry, I've got a free now so can try to sort this out...
TTL not BBL.
I used my flash to provide TTL and it worked well!
 
Steps:

1 – Raw photo
http://flic.kr/p/9YwrBE

2) converted to 4 meg jpeg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61444402@N00/5890517744/


At this stage, look at the suit in the bottom left, then see how the conversion process to photobox makes a mess of it at stage 3...

3) uploaded to photobox
Preview image
http://flic.kr/p/9YtwRe


4) when zoomed in image
http://flic.kr/p/9YtwT8

I've used this image as there are no faces, and it's not a brilliant pic, so no comments on the layout etc - it's just an example of the problem I've got...
 
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Sorry but have to say (no insults intended) here's someone else trying to do event photography without the right kit, workflow, etc.etc......
I would have suggested teaming up with an established event photographer for this job. A school prom is a 'one off' - bit like a wedding - and has to be done right 1st time.
 
Not at all rainhill! I am doing it for a favour to our school as we have a unique place in the community and not much money... I did it last year as a practice and I'm keen to improve and learn. It's done to help pupils out as they really can't afford the price of photos, as we're in a bottom 10% of the UK in terms of unemployment etc.
 
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Also rainhill, the pics look great to be honest. It's just the image quality on the website where students can buy them (starting from a low low price!) where the quality issue rears its ugly head.

Kit is fine, used it before for other events and no problem just this one! Sadly, like many schools, we can't really afford "full time pros" so often use the skills on the staff which is me. Thanks for taking the time to reply though David, if you're able to share with me how your workflow goes/flows to give me a helping hand, I would be only too keen to learn - I have a malleable mind.

Thanks again
 
emyllis said:
Also rainhill, the pics look great to be honest. It's just the image quality on the website where students can buy them (starting from a low low price!) where the quality issue rears its ugly head.

Kit is fine, used it before for other events and no problem just this one! Sadly, like many schools, we can't really afford "full time pros" so often use the skills on the staff which is me. Thanks for taking the time to reply though David, if you're able to share with me how your workflow goes/flows to give me a helping hand, I would be only too keen to learn - I have a malleable mind.

Thanks again
Click to expand...

As I said - no insult intended and nice to see you have taken it that way.
Basically for a job like this we have backdrop with 3-4 studio lights, camera shoots wireless to laptop, 2nd laptop running as server to 3 viewing stations which are wyse thin clients all using 'event view' software, 2 x dye sub printers running 9x6 and 6x4 media. That's the basics but along with all this goes the 'details' like photo mounts, bags, business flyers etc.etc. Also use photocart on website for 'after event' sales. If you want a free one then jalbum chameleon ain't bad.
Hope this helps and as I said - this is just a quick run through.
 
Golly! That's certainly a lot of kit - and your results show that! I am guessing (without going into exact figures) you're looking at at least 10k of equipment.
We're coming from very different financial perspectives - and I guess the end results are worth every penny. Have a great day, and enjoy your prom photos.
 
emyllis said:
Golly! That's certainly a lot of kit - and your results show that! I am guessing (without going into exact figures) you're looking at at least 10k of equipment.
We're coming from very different financial perspectives - and I guess the end results are worth every penny. Have a great day, and enjoy your prom photos.
Click to expand...

AND that doesn't include the gazebo £350 for outdoor events, generator, trailer to put all the tables and chairs etc in. Spare camera body and other back-ups... The list goes on.......!
Doing events properly is not as easy as some may think. Yes - you can just do orders off the web but that will significantly cut down on your income. etc. etc.
BTW - would recommend Graham Taylor's courses on starting out in events.
 
A 4Mb file seems a little small for that resolution. Are you exporting from Lightroom as Jpeg, colour space sRGB, quality to 100%

Then don't use the quick uploaded to Photobox, you must use the high quality upload, not the fast upload.

I do this all the time without issue.

Photobox Pro Gallery (for prints etc) and Jalbum (pay for images using paypal) also work great as they can be integrated as part of your webspace using iframes.
 
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I assumed (and you know the danger of assumptions - it makes an ASS out of U and ME) that 4 meg would be ample as it's only going to be printed at upto A5 size (half A4)...
Will check my settings, I think I had the same settings as you recommend Byker28i, if it's good enough for you, it's good enough for me!

Finally, I've made my first (of hopefully many) sale today, very pleased! Jalbum sounds like it could well be a better option, will research this.

Thanks :)
 
Point to note on Lightroom exports is to use sRGB not adobe colour space.

The jAlbum works well for selling images. It's easy to set a price range, link to a paypal account, using a couple of the skins. I like to use Turtle which is a little simpler.
You can get upto 30mb of space free on jAlbum, which is ok if you use small images to create the gallery. Larger space isn't too much. Users can then click, pay via paypal and you get an email from paypal telling you what's been bought. It's then upto you how you process it, whether you email the image off or produce a print etc.

The photobox pro gallery works for print and other products, they just take 10% but it's really easy to set up payment plans etc. Obviously you don't have any chance of checking the final product as it's sent straight to the customer.
 
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