I normally hang out at the wedding forum, but I think this forum is more suited.
Iīm looking for a windows based software which helps me in selecting images, add a logo to it and print directly.
Iīll be photographing an event, where the prints are handed out to the visitors for free, so I donīt need a software for order processing.
So far Iīve done the events the following way:
1) Shoot tethered into a laptop.
2) The images are displayed in an image viewer
3) The assistant selects one, drops it on a photoshop droplet which adds the logo and prints the image.
My solution is a little bit cumbersome as the image viewer always displays the latest image, so the assistant needs to be quick in selceting an image and dragging it to the droplet. Also Photoshop needs to stay open (though minimized) the whole time.
Hendrik,
You're solution is not a bad one. It seems quick and easy, but it sounds like the timing with the image viewer is the issue.
I'm guessing that the image viewer is for the assistant to review your shots, make sure you've got eyes open and such - then selecting the best one for print.
Would adding a monitor to your laptop be a simple enough solution? This way, you could leave the image viewer open on the second monitor (with the ability to position it for you to see also), but on the laptop screen, you could have an explorer window on the same folder as well as photoshop open.
As long as the image viewer shows the image number, it could easily be remembered, selected and dropped into PS from the laptop screen. With all of your windows open, the process should be more efficient.
I've done something like this before, except that I made my tether folder a hot folder for automatically processing a batch script into ImageMagik (for overlay) then printing and moving the image out of the folder - so I got one print for every photo I took.
I think any other software solution come across will still be a timing issue with your image viewer - unless that it taken out of the workflow, but then your assistant is still needing to view the photos with something ... to select for processing/printing.
If Photoshop is already doing this for you, keep that going... as you know it and it provides flexibility on the fly if needed.
I do it a similar way to you and have no problems.
Pics go to a folder, my son opens a batch in acdsee and selects best one, copies it to a folder, when he's done with the selections, he hits the relevant F key in PS and the images spit out the printer.
We have shot 600 guest events in a night and had no trouble at all staying ahead of the demand.
Last event i did was 300 people and we shot on green screen, added the BG, a logo and the company message and again had no problems keeping up.
I'm not really familliar with droplets, I use actions which I -think- are more or less the same thing only perhaps initiated in a different way.
I also wrote actions for doing mag covers and T&I Packages and all we do is select the image in Acdsee, copy to a folder, hit the function key and PS does all the processing and overlays, for mag covers stops for us to check and adjust the position of the person in the image, hit another key and the thing comes out the printer all on its own.
The T&I packages only require image selection and the one hit of the F key that corresponds to the package ordered.
While they are printing we do the team shot with the names and send them to teh printer. So far we are punching out baseball teams 1 group behind the 15 min it takes up to shoot them.
I think this system works well for us and is straight forward, fast and efficent.
Depending on what you want and how you shoot, I have also just set my events comp up so I shoot an images, it wirelessly goes to the computer, is ajusted, background and logos applied and again comes out the printer with me doing nothing more than hitting the camera button.
With 6 or more printers pooled, the bottle neck is in how fast you can get the people onto the background, look at you and smile and move them off to set up the next shot.
I don't know if you are still looking for a solution. I've done events from a few to more than 30,000 where the prints were instant. The image is captured, immediately viewed by the standing person still in the booth via monitor over tog's head, then printed with a prearranged graphic. If more than 1 copy is needed, it is printed right then. They take the photo with them. The process is the same for green screen.
Setup includes a laptop and a dye-sub printer. The software is Darkroom Software (Express Digital).
Thanks for all the help. I had a long look at printripper. The software worked great (and even would do green screen, which I might need in the future), but didnīt fit my needs as it didnīt have any browsing possibilities. For example if you take three images, thereīs no possibility to choose the best out of these.
Chris, Darkroom was recommended to me by a colleague, but as Iīm just starting with onsite event printing the software is way too big (and unluckily to expensive).
