[MRRiley]

I've got the possible opportunity to shoot event portraits at an upcoming convention (upwards of 400-600 attendees) during their "formal" night. The photos would be similar to your typical "prom formal" photo... simple couples or singles using a basic 2-3 light setup against a theme background... I've done these in the past but it has been a long time and technology has changed a lot. My thought is to print them on site using my Epson R2880 and to have them ready to pick up that night (up to a certain cutoff time) or the next morning.

I also want to keep these simple and want to just offer straight 8X10s (on 8.5X11 glossy photo paper) on site. Other sizes would be available on order after the convention.

My question is... What to charge for the basic 8X10 ??? I was thinking $20 since I will be delivering them onsite (vs shipping them). Does anyone have recent experience with this type of shoot?

[opfor]

It's an old story, but I met a guy about 15 years ago that did this in Germany. His rule of thumb was to clear 20 per pic after he computed his costs.
His reasoning was that even when everyone was co-operating and moving/paying quickly, he was doing 40 to 50 per hour max (this included an assistant to take payment and organize the line). He said most of his "events" windows were 2 to 3 hours and on a good evening he was looking at 50 to 100 pics.
You can do the math...:-) What's your time worth?
Hope this helps.

[SpecialK]

I've got the possible opportunity to shoot event portraits at an upcoming convention (upwards of 400-600 attendees) during their "formal" night. The photos would be similar to your typical "prom formal" photo... simple couples or singles using a basic 2-3 light setup against a theme background... I've done these in the past but it has been a long time and technology has changed a lot. My thought is to print them on site using my Epson R2880 and to have them ready to pick up that night (up to a certain cutoff time) or the next morning.

I also want to keep these simple and want to just offer straight 8X10s (on 8.5X11 glossy photo paper) on site. Other sizes would be available on order after the convention.

My question is... What to charge for the basic 8X10 ??? I was thinking $20 since I will be delivering them onsite (vs shipping them). Does anyone have recent experience with this type of shoot?

That sounds a bit cheap. $39.00 popped into my head (if they are professional people), but maybe $29 is better :-).

[blackcloudbrew]

Ran into one of these deals last winter at my wife's xmas party. The photographer had a similar set up with a tethered camera / laptop set up. I think $20 was the going rate for one photo and it seemed to be the right price. He had the option to purchase more or larger prints for more but the basic photo was the deal that most people I saw choosing. The guy's assistant helped get names and they had a quick form to fill out prior to the shoot. All images were mailed out a few days after the party. Simple.

[mel]

Dang Mike. That many people by yourself? I'd charge more than $20 because that is going to be a huge amount of work to shoot AND process/print in the same night.

[cwood]

There should be no processing involved in this type of photography if you do your lighting right. Occasionally you will get a client who asks specifically for a known flaw (zit or something) in which case I would add a few bucks to the fee but ~$20 is about the going rate most places for this type of work and it should make a nice little return on investment.

Shoot tethered for immediate preview and printing.

Dang Mike. That many people by yourself? I'd charge more than $20 because that is going to be a huge amount of work to shoot AND process/print in the same night.