Convention Photography

[laawaaris]

I have received an inquiry from a large company to take photos at their company Convention. The company is part of INC 500 (http://www.incconferenceregistration...e-Sign-Up.aspx) so I imagine they are interested in listening to different options.

I have not done anything like this before, but have a call setup with the company to discuss their needs.

I would like to hear from anyone who has knowledge of this about some of the following:
* How might the company use photographs from the convention (internal
website, newspapers, board meeting (displays) )
* What type of photography service would be most appealing at the
convention itself? (Group Photos, Action Shots, Detail Shots, etc)
* What type of products would be most interesting as part of a deliverable
(large "collage" display for board meeting, Disk of all Photos, ordering
website or online viewing, printed photos, or an album of photos)

I'd appreciate any input - thanks!

[toverman]

We could make guesses at your questions, but the only real answers will come from the company, especially for what they plan to use the images for and how they'd like them. From a coverage standpoint, my take (another guess) would be that you should give an entire sense of the event ... people, details, action ... and then if they want certain groups in formal shots do that, too. Kind of like a wedding.

[adirty1]

When I was working for a guy that did nothing but conventions we would shoot chromes with about a total of 4 or 5 photographers. we photographed everything. every evening we would drop off film at the lab and have it back in the morning if not sooner. Edit the images of the day then shoot the end of the show with polaroid chrome so we could put those images in the final multi media slide show. I only did this twice it was an amazing amount of work to get a show synced to music using 4 projectors. I am sure they do this all digitally now.

It's a huge undertaking. You really need to talk with the company to find out just what they want.

Back in the 90's every large company wanted full coverage of the convention. you shot mostly candids of the meetings and workshops plus all the evening meetins. Happy Hours and such. From what I remember the guy would sell images to the company if they wanted to use them for annual reports and such but normally when he left he took everything and that was end of it. we would shoot formals for the big dinner only if the company asked and those where shot on negative film. We then had packages printed and mailed to everyone. Everything was paid up front and included in the price.

I would love to see how this business has changed since digital took over. Digital of film it's still a ton of work. But the price was pretty high. Again that was back in the early 90's and companies didnt think twice about spending.

[CaptainTom]

Once you've talked to the company and found out what they are expecting, you can put together a proposal based on the total number of hours needed. this includes extra photographers if needed (highly recommended if it's a big convention) expendable costs (batteries, etc.) and post processing time and effort ( if you shoot and edit on the fly you can keep this time down ).
It's likely that they will want printable images and also web sized files. This can be done easily with programs readily available.
Give them a package price and don't feel bad if the number seems high. Remember that you never price your services according to how much YOU can afford, but how much the CLIENT can afford. NOt advicating gouging, just that you need to make a bunch of money because this is not any easy gig.