Incorporated on 20/08/2009, it’s known to have sold memberships to only a relatively small number of photographers. Its principal activity was a pay-site web forum. Several trading names of the same individual are associated with the same address. As of this morning, its website was still saying it’s a PLC.

[The dissolved entity was not related in any way to SISEP, the school and event photographer society of the SWPP.]

by Simon Towler

The first decade of this century saw an extraordinary boom in on-site printing in UK event photography; so much so that the two activities became, for a few years, synonymous. The on-site printing boom may have been enabled by the new technology of digital photography and portable instant photo printers; but it was fuelled by the credit boom. Britain was going out, and Britain was spending money. And one breed of photographer was going to have some of that.

“The gold rush is over, the dust has settled, the present market isn’t difficult to research. On-site printing hasn’t died. It’s just returned, more or less, to its pre-boom state.”

Revellers got used to the idea of stepping onto a photographer’s seamless on a night out, and buying a print. The numbers of these photographers kept growing, and they were raking in cash.

Then came the crunch, and recession. And many of them disappeared.

Or did they? During the boom, no one was able to estimate how many had got into this new kind of event photography, or how big the booming market was. But now the gold rush is over, the dust has settled, the present market isn’t difficult to research.

On-site printing hasn’t died. It’s just returned, more or less, to its pre-boom state. Before the boom, the on-site printers were the equestrian photographers, travelling to horse shows, and the dog agility people. Those people are still doing on-site printing today (and with much better printers). But for others, much has changed.

The Entrepreneurs

During the boom, there were entrepreneurial individuals who established on-site printing companies that grew a lot bigger than others. They either had lucrative ongoing contracts with big nationwide events, or they had more complex business models like franchising, or ‘events-as-corporate-marketing’; or they had superior sales and marketing, that could keep several crews supplied with work.

The photographers who owned those businesses earned individual annual incomes ranging from about £40-60k, right up to six figure sums, on turnovers that in some cases were in the millions. And they’re still around. Most of those people are still in event photography today — though some have survived business failures and, with the exception of a few really very big players, most now trade from home.

The Jobbers

Those entrepreneurs still provide — mostly casual — work, to what we now think of as an events-only photographer: one of the 200 or so jobbing individuals equipped to do on-site printing. They plug into networks for buying subbed jobs, or take second-shooter assignments. They don’t earn a lot of money — it’s not unusual for them to be offered as little as £50 a day, just a top-up on top of a day-job — and they keep a low profile. (The day-job and the need for a low profile may be two of the things that prevent them from trading in their own right.) They’re pretty anonymous, often known only by a trading-name and mobile phone number listed on some basic website.

Today’s Event Photographer

But those guys make up less than a fifth of the photographers who do events. Although the wholly independent, events-only, on-site printers — who earned comfortable livings trading as eventers in the past — mostly withdrew from the market, their place was taken by other social photographers — mostly wedding photographers — who could get event work, but didn’t depend exclusively on it, nor on the on-site printing model.

“Today, most referrals for on-site printing actually come from other photographers.”

Today, most referrals for on-site printing actually come from these other photographers, many of whom choose to hire an on-site printing crew for events that require it, rather than provide the service themselves.

There are about 700 of these businesses active in event photography today. Events are a significant portion of their income, but they typically have at least two other primary revenue streams: wedding and portrait work, and schools and prom photography. They get their own jobs in their own right, and represent roughly three quarters of the market. For all intents and purposes, they ARE the event photography market today.

The Revenue Model

On-site printing was the supreme revenue model in event photography during the boom years: the idea was to sell prints like hotcakes, there and then for cash. Many event photographers even paid for the privilege of attending an event, just to have the opportunity to sell prints on-site.

Hopefully, no one pays for it today. On the contrary, charging to attend has become an important part of the mix. On many jobs, an attendence fee is the main revenue. On-site printing is not regarded as an automatic necessity either. Unless an eventer knows a particular job of old, it can be hard to predict whether most of the per-photo revenue will come from prints on-site, or from web sales afterwards — or indeed if prints will be any substantial component of the revenue at all. The days of the event photographer obsessed with the performance minutiae of their dye sub printers are numbered, if not over. More than one major manufacturer has had to withdraw from the market for these printing machines completely.

The Digital Challenge

It would be untrue to say that event photography has struggled with the digital-sales challenge. The truth is, it has largely failed to struggle with, or even address, that challenge. For customers at an event, an image that can be instantly shared over the mobile phone network onto Facebook and Twitter often has more value than a print — no matter how professionally taken, against whatever novelty background. Event photography lacks technological solutions and revenue models for mobile phone and social network sales. It’s still wrestling with web sales, and experimenting with the blind alley of selling images on disc and USB stick.

Moving Into Proms

One of the most positive and progressive developments in event photography has been the general move into school prom work that has accompanied the growth in the UK of the whole school prom phenomenon. This dove-tails very well with the skill set of today’s event photographer, who frequently does schools work, as well as events, weddings and portraits. They’re the kind of schools photographer who operates locally on a small scale, often doing their own schools printing on — you guessed it — dye-sub printers; and it isn’t difficult for them to add prom photography to this mix. In fact, it’s a natural progression. Local wedding and portrait photographers have the trade qualifications and respectability necessary for schools work, something the more anonymous events-only photographers lack.

Conclusion

So, on-site printing hasn’t died. It has only reverted to it’s pre-boom state. It’s still practiced, as before, by the equestrian and dog agility photographers. And the most successful exponents in other markets haven’t experienced much decline in their business either. Top event photographers will still tell you honestly that, for them, on-site printing is still quite healthy. They’re largely unaware of the difficulties lesser mortals are experiencing. But the supremacy of on-site printing as a revenue model has waned, and event photography has reverted to a more traditional mix of ways of making money. All but the most successful events-only photographers have largely disappeared, their places taken by the wedding and portrait photographers who also do schools and events. For photographers, school proms have become one of the most important categories of event.

They think it’s all over? Well it isn’t quite, yet.

Spotting a disreputable photographer society can be tricky!

With current sensitivities, for schools, prom and event photographers, it has never been more important to choose a reputable photographer society. And — just as importantly — to avoid disreputable ones.

Disreputable societies

A disreputable society is one so lax that it attracts disreputable members — anonymous or black-economy workers seeking a society logo to put on their website and a listing that can make them appear qualified or even CRB checked. Disreputable members infiltrate by exploiting the eagerness of amateurish organizations to accept new members, and the lack of checking they do on applicants’ identity and good standing.

“It’s frankly irresponsible for crank individuals to start rogue groups like this, when the kind of photography involved includes schools and prom work.”

This isn’t the kind of membership a schools and event photographer, or anyone shooting youth sports, can afford to be associated with, and it’s a trap for the unwary. In fact, it’s frankly irresponsible for crank individuals to start rogue groups like this, when the kind of photography involved includes schools and prom work. Groups like this can also become places bigger players use to exploit a supply of cheap assistants and second-shooters; or to sell unprofitable jobs to naieve ‘subs’.

['subs' = (loosely), 'sub-contractors': togs who 'buy' jobs from a bigger photographer who originally got the booking]

Getting sucked in

In fact, the importance of job-trading to the newbie jobbing photographer, and their need to plug-in to job-trading networks, is often what sucks in the unwary. An initial period of free membership may be followed by a charge just to continue to access the group’s Internet forum. Then the newbie finds that more established members require them to upgrade to paid membership before they will trade jobs and other benefits with them. These members, who may not have much more experience themselves, typically market ‘workshops’ and ‘training’ to new joiners.

How do they blag it?

So how do photographers get taken in by this? Well, like so many other frauds on the Internet, these groups are often nothing more than just a good-looking and convincing website. The people who set them up have spent more time teaching themselves web design than learning the camera. They can be backed by unscrupulous or hard-squeezed photographic suppliers, who use them as a sales and marketing tool to identify naieve photographers just starting out, and as a discrete channel through which to sell unbranded, grey market, generic or counterfeit supplies.

Are they legal?

Are they legal? Not really. Groups that lure you into paying to join, by falsely claiming to have substantial membership, are practising a deception and perpetrating a fraud. They’re doing the same when they try to hustle sponsorship. They rarely have more than fifty members at any one time. Many of those haven’t had to pay a fee, because they’re involved as fee-charging ‘trainers’ themselves. You should be able to leave these groups, and ask for your money back, at any time, by asking them to disclose how many paid members they actually had at the time you joined, and telling them you were deceived.

How to avoid them

How do you avoid them? Don’t use pay-sites and stick to the well known societies. By far the largest organization for school, prom and event photographers in the UK is SISEP, the SWPP’s school and event photographer society. At least 75% of UK schools and event photographers belong to it. Larger school photography concerns, particularly those who do their own printing, may want to check out the Professional Schools Photographers’ Association. In the UK this is a small but respectable group under the umbrella of the Photo Marketing Association. And deserving of an honourable mention is Kevin Cheesman’s SchoolPhotoPRO, another small group which some independent schools photographers find suits them. Of course, you may not need to join a specialist schools or event photographer society, in which case membership of the MPA or BIPP may be just as good for you.

So, keep your eyes open, and be careful out there!

—NewPhotoDigest

Patrons at the TG club pose for John Fuller's camera. contact@theglorybox.co.uk

Event photography boomed in the UK in the five years prior to the recession. If you have time on your hands and a little capital, it can still be a good way to earn a living from the camera. Simon Towler explains what you need to get started.

What is it?

Event photography was invented in 1897 by the Lafayette studio. They took portraits of celebrities at fancy dress balls. Today the activity has diversified, but the core work is still to take photos of people dressed up at social or sporting occasions. Wedding and portrait photographers do a lot of event work, but there are many specialists now who do nothing else. Making prints on site and selling them there and then is the commonest business model.

What type of people make good event photographers?

People who will stick at event photography and make a go of it tend to be self-motivated and slightly extrovert. They’re entrepreneurial, hard-working, and good with people. They’re practical, independent, and self-reliant. And they don’t have a strong need for security or routine.

What to expect

Earnings: Most event photographers are self-employed. Established and successful ones trading in their own right might earn around £40K – £60K typically. Six figure earnings are exceptional, but possible. (New entrants to event photography should be aware that success isn’t guaranteed, and you might net just a few thousand pounds profit from your first year’s work — a modest part-time income.)

Lifestyle: The lifestyle of event photographers revolves around getting and doing jobs. If they get good gigs, ones that pay off, they only need a handful of them a month to earn a good living. They’ll spend all their spare days canvassing and prospecting for jobs. They travel continually, visiting prospects and getting to gigs. They work all hours, in all kinds of places, with all kinds of people. They sometimes need to stay overnight away from home, and for events like tournaments might have to camp out for a week or more. The pace of the work is fast, and it’s stressful. It involves co-operating with a crew, and dealing with the public.

Prospects: Event photography is typically a second career, one people get into after the age of forty, and expect to stay in till retirement. Once you have the equipment, know the ropes, and know photographers or organisers who will book you, you’re flying. It’s possible to build a good and sustainable level of work in less than two years. Event photographers who prospect for their own jobs, and build up their own client base, do well. Those who market themselves best are able to get more work than one crew can do. Their businesses grow. The few who have an especial talent for building a more complex business or a franchise network, or who develop new markets, earn the most.

Learning the ropes

You shouldn’t make up your own way of doing event photography from scratch. You’ll become much more successful, much faster, if you learn from the leading people who do it. They have it down to a fine art. You can learn as an assistant, by doing a course with a franchise, or by attending workshops. It’s not just about how to operate, it’s about how to run a gig to make money, the most money possible.

Business models

Your business model is the way you make money out of your events. One business model is to make prints on site and sell them there and then. Another is to shoot on site, sell online. Or you can charge the organiser a fee to attend. Most event photographers combine these models in varying proportions. More sophisticated business models involve mounting promotional photographic events yourself, on behalf of corporate marketing agencies.

Essential kit

Cameras: You’ll need a main cam, a backup, and a handful of batteries. All event photography involves shooting as many subjects as you can in the time available. You usually have to send images to a printer or server as soon as they are taken. Most event photographers recommend professional DSLRs that can produce good looking low resolution JPEGs straight from the camera. This keeps your files small for rapid transmission, and avoids any need for post-production. The body should be rugged, able to take some knocks. Event photographers favour cameras that support tethered shooting, sending images down a cable straight away, and also wireless transmitters. And they like a full range of options for connecting on-camera and studio flash. You don’t need the latest mega resolutions, but for some types of work you may need good low-light performance and fast continuous shooting speeds, just like sports photographers. Don’t spend any more than you need to.

Computer and software: You need a computer to send your images to, for printing or uploading to the web. And you need software to support your workflow and display images to customers. Most event photographers use a laptop, and improvise a workflow using common affordable software.

Printer: You need a fast event printer, a heavy-duty dye sub photo printer that takes six inch roll media. If you’re going to get your jobs from another photographer, get the printer they recommend. Otherwise, get advice from an experienced event photographer. Don’t forget you’ll need some kind of portable tables or stands to put your printers and computers on.

Web site: You’ll lose out if you don’t have an e-commerce web site to sell prints. A proportion of your sales from most events will come through your web site. A number of providers on the web offer sites with e-commerce designed for photographers, or can add e-commerce photo sales to your existing site.

Mounts and business cards: You earn more money from prints sold in mounts. You need mounts with your contact details on, and business cards. Re-prints and web orders depend on it.

Power cables: No length of extension lead is too long, no number of cables enough. And you need plenty of gaffer tape too, to tape them all down and make them trip-safe.

A phone: Your phone is your office. Get a well connected business smart phone with email, web browser and a good organiser. Learn how to use it and sync your calendar and contacts with your partner and home computer.

Transport: You need any reliable car or van that your kit will fit into.

Non-essential kit

Many well known event photographers and franchises use specialist set ups that may include studio lights and backgrounds, generators, sets, costumed models, flight cases, photo kiosks, wireless transmitters, barcode readers, 8in portrait printers, wide format printers, step ladders, custom vans, green screens, masts, special workflow software, etc. You won’t need any of this to begin with. And you’ll never need premises.

Partners and crew

It is possible to do event photography as a one-man band, but for most people the optimum crew size is two. Husband and wife teams are common, and the division of labour is usually between shooting and selling. For most jobs, needing more than two people would eat into your profit or wipe it out completely.

How to break into the business

Once you’ve learned how to operate at an event, you need to get work. If you’ve bought into a franchise, that may come as part of the package. Otherwise, the people you’ve learned from (if you’ve impressed them) may hire you as a second shooter from time to time. If they think you’re good, they may sub-contract jobs to you. As you build your experience and reputation, you can find more photographers to give you work, through networking and by browsing event photography forums on the web. As soon as you feel ready, you also need to look for jobs in your own right, by contacting organisers. If you have no idea how to do this, attend a one-day course with an expert, it will be some of the best money you’ve ever spent.

Finding a niche or specialisation

Probably the most valuable single piece of advice you can get in event photography is to shoot what you know. There are rifle club members who photograph all their club socials, bikers who shoot rallies and motocross, evangelical Christian groups who take the pictures at church picnics, clubbers who shoot night spots, and leather men who photograph fetish nights. An event is anywhere that people or their animals are dressed up for an occasion, something you can capture for them in a unique professional photograph.

Fujifilm ASK2000 - a fast event printer

Which Printer for Event Photography?
by Simon Towler

Event photography has evolved from being just another way to earn some money, into a whole contemporary subculture. Instant photo printing is the technology that has enabled modern event photography. The printers used in eventing today are a class of machine known as “Fast Event Printers”. A fast event printer is a dye-sub unit that takes a roll of media 6″ inches wide and produces its maximum-size print in less than 20 seconds. These machines are about as closely related to the small dye-sub photo printers used at home as main battle tanks are to the mini metro. This month I tested seven of them for NewPhotoDigest, giving some thought to how you might choose between them. This is what I found.

Current models of fast event printer include the Copal DPB6000, Fujifilm ASK2000, ICI ImageData OP1000, Kodak 6850, Mitsubishi CP9800DW, and Sony UP-DR200.

PRINT QUALITY

I’m going to stick my neck out in this review, and suggest that print quality is not an important factor. All of the photo printers on test here are capable of producing photo quality your customers at any event will be perfectly satisfied with. There’s not much to choose between them, and the choices would be personal and highly subjective. A photographer’s eye will clearly see differences, but their customer’s won’t. The Sony UP-DR200 though, does deserve a special mention for its paper-based media and its ability to produce matte prints from the same roll as gloss.

PRINT SPEED

Event photographers are obsessed with speed. They need to make every sale they can in as little time as possible. If you’ve got, for example, 700 people at an event, and just a 90 minute window to offer them prints, then your maximum revenue possibility is to make and sell 700 prints in 90 minutes. Every second counts. The speed of your printers is not the only factor here. Arguably it’s not even the most important factor. But it is something eventers focus on.

All the printers on review here are fast. That’s the class they’re in. It proved very difficult to make speed comparisons between them. However, I did find that the manufacturer rated speeds were reliable, at least as a comparitive measure. In the real world, average times per print are very different when producing multiple different images, and it’s problematic to isolate all the factors in this.

The Sony UP-DR200, though, does take the laurels as the fastest event printer on test, although the ICI Olmec OP1000 and Kodak 6850 weren’t too far behind. If there’s one printer that could be faster, it’s the Mitsubishi CP-9800DW, but it partly makes up for that with its ability to maintain average print speeds over long runs.

MAXIMUM PRINT SIZE

These machines divide into two categories of maximum print size: 6″x8″ inches or 6″x9″ inches. All event photographers in the UK can agree that one of these sizes is the optimum for eventing – but not which one! The Sony and the Kodak are 6″x8″ machines, producing standard 6R photo sizes. These, their users say, are easy to find mounts and frames for. The other printers go up to 6″x9″, which matches the aspect ratio of digital camera images. Event photographers that use these say they can print 6″x9″ images straight away, without having to waste extra seconds editing the crop.

The debate as to which is the better size for events is an irreconcilable schism. Choose your preferred print size before you choose your printer! (6″x9″ users will tell you their printers can do 6″x8″ too. But the 6″x8″ folk say this is a cheat, and uses 9″ inches of ribbon anyway!)

OTHER PRINT SIZES

UK photographers claim they can charge more for 6″ inch prints.

Interestingly, in the States 5″x7″ is a common size for event photos – photographers there offer 6″ inch prints as an up-sell. If you want to sell 5″x7″ in the UK, all these machines will do it (although they may need spacers), except the Kodak 6850, which requires a special irreversible conversion to 5″x7″, and then can’t do 6″x8″ prints.

DRIVER COMPATIBILITY

None of these printers can print by themselves, you need to attach a computer for that. Compatibility needs to be checked. They all ship with drivers for Windows XP, but how about support for Vista and the Apple Mac? (A lot of event photographers use MacBooks, or laptops with Vista.)

All the manufacturers featured here now have their own Vista drivers available for these printers. If they’re not in the box with the printer, your dealer may write them to CD for you, or you can download them from the Web. Mac drivers are also available for all of them, except for the Kodak 6850 and the ICI ImageData Olmec OP1000. (However, the OP1000 is the only one of this current crop to already have a fast direct driver in ExpressDigital Darkroom, the workflow software used by many eventers.)

In summary, if you absolutely have to print from a Mac, avoid the ICI and Kodak machines. If you’re an ExpressDigital user and need to pare every precious second off your print times, consider the ICI Olmec OP1000.

PHYSICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Having dealt with print size and compatibility, we now examined our test machines for another important set of properties: weight, dimensions and ergonomics.

It’s in the nature of event photography that you will have to manhandle your printers around – into the gig and back again. That’s one of the reasons why eventers use as few printers as they can get away with (just one, if possible). It’s also the reason most of them avoid excessively heavy units.

When it comes to weight, fast event printers fall into two broad categories – heavy weights and lighter machines. Heavy weights weigh 25Kg+ unloaded, while the lighter machines weigh significantly less – around 20Kg at most. The market for event printers favours the lighter machines.

Three machines here are heavy-weights: the Copal DPB6000, the physically identical Fujifilm ASK2000, and the Kodak 6850. They all weigh 25Kg. (Kodak do have a lighter machine, the 605, but not in this class.)

Of the lighter machines, the Sony UP-DR200 wins the laurels for lightest of the bunch at 17Kg, while the Mitsubishi CP9800DW is not far behind at 21Kg. The ICI Olmec OP1000 is a 44-pounder, a perfectly manageable 20Kg. If weight is a crucial factor for you, choose one of these three lighter machines. They’re built just as well as their heavier brethren.

If weight is important because you’re going to lift the machine, then ergonomics come into play here too. The dimensions need to be grabbable, and there need to be plenty of grab points built into the housing of the printer. Any assessment of this must be a bit subjective, but having handled them all my personal opinion is that they rank in ergonomics exactly as they do in weight, with the Mitsubishi and Sony being the most carry-friendly, the ICI machine holding the middle ground, and the heavy-weights coming in later.

PRICE, WARRANTY AND SUPPORT

The prices of these machines, the amount of media included with them, and the warranty periods offered for them, vary so much over time as to make comparisons difficult. It’s a constantly moving target. So instead of looking at what you get for your money, let’s consider what backs it up.

Fast event printers are mission-critical equipment – when they’re down, the eventer’s business is interupted, and he’s losing money. So what’s support like in the UK for these machines, if you need a warranty repair, out-of-warranty repair, or just help, assessment and advice?

It’s difficult to assess objectively. In my experience, though, Fujifilm have shown an edge in the levels of backup they provide for their machines. Help is provided by their Photofinishing Help Desk in Bedford, where their own engineers are also based. Bedford has been known to be quite proactive in resolving customer issues with individual ASK 2000s. And this is one of the main things that distinguishes the ASK2000 from the hardware-identical Copal DPB6000. First-line support in the UK for the DPB6000 is provided by the dealer who imports it.

ICI Olmec are also UK based, and have always had the confidence to offer a standard two-year warranty with their OP1000 PrintBox, which is anyway a legendarily reliable machine.

The Kodak support process always moves inexorably toward resolution of any issues with individual printers, but the price of their spare parts can be eye-wateringly prohibitive.

Sony offer a well-thought-out PrimeSupport package, mediated in the UK through dealers and third-party engineers.

Mitsubishi also offer a professional-level warranty with good backup, ultimately from their own engineers(if necessary).

CONCLUSION

The seven printers on test here represent a fair selection of the fast event printers currently available in the UK. They are all excellent machines, well designed, well built, high performance, high quality and great value for money. Each of them has some unique selling point that will make you as an individual choose it rather than any other. Whichever one you choose, you won’t regret it. Happy eventing!