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tracking system for "assembly line" type portrait shoot

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Todd Walker

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Sep 13, 2002, 10:40:14 AM9/13/02
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I have been hired by a local church to take portrait type photos at
their annual Pumpkin Patch in the month of October. I will have a setup
where people can come get pictures of their kids, family, etc. I will be
using my Olympus E20 for this purpose. I need a good, efficient way of
tracking which picture belongs to which customer so that when I get the
prints back I can match them up. The best thought that I have come up
with is to have them fill out a short form with name, address, phone,
etc and include a line for a short description of what the person(s) in
the picture are wearing. That way if they do get mixed up, I'll have a
way to figure out what's what. I will have the forms numbered and keep
them in order so that the order on my memory card will be the same order
as the forms. I will then create separate directories on my PC for each
customer and put their pictures in their directory. That way when the
prints come back, I will have another method of matching them up.

Any other thoughts or does anyone have a better way?

Thanks,
Todd

--
________________________
Todd Walker
http://twalker.d2g.com
Olympus E20
Olympus C3020
________________________

Lisa Horton

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Sep 13, 2002, 12:53:56 PM9/13/02
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At an event not long ago, I saw a guy doing something similar. What
he did was have each person or group fill out the form first and bring
it over to the shooting area. He then filled in the "magic number" on
each form, stressing to people that the "magic number" was the only
way to identify which pictures were his. What was this "magic
number"? The number of the first frame he shot of the person/group:)

Lisa

Tom

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Sep 13, 2002, 1:21:21 PM9/13/02
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"Todd Walker" <twalk...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.17ebb5fed...@news-server.jam.rr.com...

> I have been hired by a local church to take portrait type photos at
> their annual Pumpkin Patch in the month of October. I will have a setup
> where people can come get pictures of their kids, family, etc. I will be
> using my Olympus E20 for this purpose. I need a good, efficient way of
> tracking which picture belongs to which customer so that when I get the
> prints back I can match them up.

I do not know what the Oly offers as to frame numbering, but if it is
anything like Nikon's system it would be rediculously simple to just note
the frame number(s) for each group.

> The best thought that I have come up
> with is to have them fill out a short form with name, address, phone,
> etc and include a line for a short description of what the person(s) in
> the picture are wearing.

Having them describe what they are wearing is unprofessional. Get the name,
address, phone, etc. on the form... that is enough. Then do the
following...

>That way if they do get mixed up, I'll have a
> way to figure out what's what. I will have the forms numbered and keep
> them in order so that the order on my memory card will be the same order
> as the forms.

...When the people fill out the 'registration' form to have their picture
done, leave a spot on top of the form for the photographer to fill in the
frame number(s). When the Smith family sits down in front of your camera,
they hand you the form. You fill in the frame numbers and you are done.
Next...


>I will then create separate directories on my PC for each
> customer and put their pictures in their directory. That way when the
> prints come back, I will have another method of matching them up.

Useless complication and it eats up time. Again, track this by frame
numbers. Any pro lab that does your printing can print the frame numbers on
the back of the print. If you are printing these yourself, qImage Pro will
also print the frame numbers with each proof.

Tom


Tumbleweed

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Sep 13, 2002, 2:44:04 PM9/13/02
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"Todd Walker" <twalk...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.17ebb5fed...@news-server.jam.rr.com...

Why not take 2 pictures. 1 with them holding a card with say name & phone in
large capitals, 2nd picture fpr the real photo, with no card. You have
captured other details you need but including the name & phone on a separate
form they fill out whilst waiting.
Keep forms and pictures in order, and use the first picture with card with
details as a check.

--
Tumbleweed

Remove my socks before replying (but no email reply necessary to newsgroups)

Todd Walker

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Sep 13, 2002, 4:09:26 PM9/13/02
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In article <l8pg9.413887$me6.48144@sccrnsc01>,
seas...@removethis.attbi.com says...

>
> "Todd Walker" <twalk...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:MPG.17ebb5fed...@news-server.jam.rr.com...
> > I have been hired by a local church to take portrait type photos at
> > their annual Pumpkin Patch in the month of October. I will have a setup
> > where people can come get pictures of their kids, family, etc. I will be
> > using my Olympus E20 for this purpose. I need a good, efficient way of
> > tracking which picture belongs to which customer so that when I get the
> > prints back I can match them up.
>
> I do not know what the Oly offers as to frame numbering, but if it is
> anything like Nikon's system it would be rediculously simple to just note
> the frame number(s) for each group.

True but I don't use the LCD so it would be cumbersome to look at each
picture on the LCD to note the frame number.



> > The best thought that I have come up
> > with is to have them fill out a short form with name, address, phone,
> > etc and include a line for a short description of what the person(s) in
> > the picture are wearing.
>
> Having them describe what they are wearing is unprofessional. Get the name,
> address, phone, etc. on the form... that is enough. Then do the
> following...

I agree about being unprofessional...I guess I just thought of that
because I hadn't come up with a better idea :-)

> >That way if they do get mixed up, I'll have a
> > way to figure out what's what. I will have the forms numbered and keep
> > them in order so that the order on my memory card will be the same order
> > as the forms.
>
> ...When the people fill out the 'registration' form to have their picture
> done, leave a spot on top of the form for the photographer to fill in the
> frame number(s). When the Smith family sits down in front of your camera,
> they hand you the form. You fill in the frame numbers and you are done.
> Next...
>
>
> >I will then create separate directories on my PC for each
> > customer and put their pictures in their directory. That way when the
> > prints come back, I will have another method of matching them up.
>
> Useless complication and it eats up time. Again, track this by frame
> numbers. Any pro lab that does your printing can print the frame numbers on
> the back of the print. If you are printing these yourself, qImage Pro will
> also print the frame numbers with each proof.

Thanks for your ideas Tom. Very helpful...

Ken Johnson

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Sep 13, 2002, 5:33:37 PM9/13/02
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"Todd Walker" <twalk...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.17ebb5fed...@news-server.jam.rr.com...

[snipped]

Take an extra picture of the child with her name on a slate. If you get a
movie clapperboard, it would look jolly slick.

Ken Johnson


mark_digital©

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Sep 22, 2002, 12:09:39 PM9/22/02
to
Use preprinted envelopes. Bring all your small capacity smartmedia with you and use one
for each order. During a lull download to a laptop and start with fresh smartmedia. I
believe you're intelligent enough to know how to assign the images once they are on the
hard drive.
This is the most professional "appearance" you will get. You'll actually appear to know
what you are doing.

Mark_
*****


"Todd Walker" <twalk...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.17ebb5fed...@news-server.jam.rr.com...

Steven Kan

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Sep 22, 2002, 2:29:44 PM9/22/02
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Todd Walker wrote:
>
> I have been hired by a local church to take portrait type photos at
> their annual Pumpkin Patch in the month of October. I will have a setup
> where people can come get pictures of their kids, family, etc. I will [snip]

Not quite on topic here, but I'll reiterate that, if at all possible,
you should have redundant setups at this event. Two cameras, two
computers, and two printers. Otherwise, you risk having a lot of angry
customers and a _very_ long day.

Good luck!
--
A rich man who hailed from Seattle #```````
Wrote Win95 to do battle, # ```````
But Mac users pity # ```````
The masses not witty # ```````
Enough to know Wintel's for cattle. #. ```````
~ ~ . \_@_/ ```````
^_@ o . V ```````
Steven "Rocket Man" Kan `-' - \_@_ ~ . ######
mailto:ste...@kan.org V \ ~ . ######
http://www.kan.org ~ . #H2O##
Everybody S.H.I.N.E. ~ .#POLO#
Support Heterogeneity In Networked Environments ~ ~ ######

mark_digital©

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Sep 22, 2002, 2:44:35 PM9/22/02
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Reiterate?
*****
"Steven Kan" <ste...@kan.org> wrote in message news:3D8E0C18...@kan.org...

Steven Kan

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Sep 22, 2002, 7:13:56 PM9/22/02
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"mark_digitalŠ" wrote:
>
> Reiterate?
> *****
> "Steven Kan" <ste...@kan.org> wrote in message news:3D8E0C18...@kan.org...
> Todd Walker wrote:
> >
> > I have been hired by a local church to take portrait type photos at
> > their annual Pumpkin Patch in the month of October. I will have a setup
> > where people can come get pictures of their kids, family, etc. I will [snip]
>
> Not quite on topic here, but I'll reiterate that, if at all possible,
> you should have redundant setups at this event. Two cameras, two
> computers, and two printers. Otherwise, you risk having a lot of angry
> customers and a _very_ long day.
>
> Good luck!

IIRC, the original poster also posted about a month ago when he was
considering accepting the job.

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