toptrainer wrote:
I am shooting a Polo event on Wednesday and I want to instantly give people their photos. I want to have them #hashtag the event before I give them the photo but I have not a clue how. HELP Please!
By "give" do you mean "free"? If so, all I can say is good luck with that! (Folks offering freebies have to a large extent ruined photography as a profession.)
If they can afford to play polo, they can afford to
purchase a few photos!
But maybe that's your intention....
Not sure how you can "instantly" give them their photos. Maybe use a Polaroid camera?
Aside from that, the most instant way to provide a print is the dye-sub process mentioned. That's very limited on sizes... inexpensive dye sub printers only make small prints. Dye sub printers able to make larger cost a lot! And if you want to offer choice of sizes, you need a printer for each size offered.
To speed up printing or offer high quality digital, you'd need to do wireless file transfer from your camera. High speed and high reliability with significant range... about $300 for the cheapest I know of that works well (up to about 100 feet, if memory serves): Camranger. Canon and Nikon wireless file transfer modules typically cost at least double that, but claim greater range too. Those are only available for specific models, though. Camranger works with many DSLRs, not sure about other types of cameras. To do wireless file transfer ou'll also need a computer setup, wireless router and Internet link to be able to upload the images somewhere online. Alternatively, if your camera has built in wireless you might be able shoot small, low resolution JPEGs to pass off to their phone or other device they have with them.
You'll need someone helping by sorting and editing images, perhaps doing some fast post-processing, and dealing with customers. They'll need to be skilled and that won't come cheap (unless it's a friend or family you con into it). Otherwise, if you find a way to make it all work but DON'T have someone helping, you'll spend your day dealing with customers and fulfilling orders, instead of taking photos.
I've been shooting equestrian events for many years (though polo isn't one of them). We used to offer prints on location at large events... but that's labor intensive, the cost is too high, quality and selection of products are limited, and it's certainly not "instant". We had to set up viewing stations where people could peruse the images being taken and place orders (at first someone had to take the orders... later we had a more automated process and "digital shopping cart". At best, it was usually an hour or two after the image was taken before orders could be fulfilled. Nothing very "instant" about the.
And it didn't seem to increase sales much, if at all. Any increase was more than offset by all the added costs providing on-site printing (we weren't providing digital files).
Now I just shoot RAW, quicly edit the photos myself after the event and upload select "proof quality" images online over 2 or 3 days following an event. Folks visit my online galleries and make their purchases there. Once an order is placed for an image, I go back to it and fully finish it for the purpose selected (I'm able to offer choice of over 100 products and sizes online). I
do give away small "Facebook" quality (max of 700 pixels on the long side), heavily watermarked images. Free for the taking... But the watermark is an ad driving their friends and families to my galleries. Everything else I offer costs money... which I keep reasonably (IMO) priced.