Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Houston Ng on November 16, 2011 at 8:58am

Sounds great, George!

 

May I ask how proficient you are with some quick retouching in Lightroom and handling prints?

 

Where I am coming from is that I hope to group people into working teams of three, so all three members can rotate their roles if they wish, photographer, assistant and retoucher. Guess the role of photographer is quite obvious but the other two are just as important. My idea of the roles of these two positions...

Assistant 

Show the family where to go; Keep the kids entertained/under controlled; Assist on posing the families; make sure the lights and equipment are working

Retoucher

Retouch 1-2 pictures on the spot and print the pics in A4 size so that families can take a couple prints home first

 

Team-wise

As mentioned before,

2x portrait stations (3 members each)

1x passport station (2 members)

Flow control/props keeper (3 members)

Make-up team (2 artist + 2 assistant)

 

Please comment.

Will post more detail later

(so far the community center has confirmed 10 families, they believe they can easily get 40)

Permalink Reply by george.choww on November 16, 2011 at 9:28am

Unfortunately, I have very little experience with retouching and handling prints. 

I feel that i can be made more useful as an assistant as i am enthusiastic and enjoy helping people. I also dont mind helping out with the posing and lighting of subjects. 

Id like the opportunity to be a photographer in any of the stations. And in terms of props, i could bring a perfectly harmless poodle in on the day if you wish.

Permalink Reply by Raf Sanchez on November 16, 2011 at 6:55pm

Houston

 

Thanks so much for your hard work in looking at projects and in the ideas for:

1) NAAC in Tung Chung 

2) SvHK Happy Grannies

3) LoveUAll in Tsuen Wan  

 

SCOPE?

All of these projects sound like very interesting proposals but there is 1 issue I see so far - each organization has different requests about what they would like to have done (e.g. passport photos) and some of these requests risk us having to provide a "service" that we are potentially not set up to handle.

Just to illustrate this point - there are only 3-4 of us using this forum and there were only 4 responses in total to my survey on when we should meet to discuss the project.

 

OUR OFFER

I think that rather than try and meet each organization's demands we should offer a consistent message from each location that is offering to do a shoot...i.e. we will come with 1 backdrop, 1 photographer, 1 retoucher/assistant and do a single portrait per person or family group. Any more than this and we risk not delivering properly. It might help to show each organization the introductory video - http://youtu.be/-60fyF6KvHk

 

OUR IMPACT

Rather than have 1 location tieing up all of our resources (which would definitely happen if we needed to take 2-3 types of shots for each person) I think it would be better and we would make a greater impact if, for example, Houston could manage the NAAC shoot, perhaps I can take SVhK and if Adam is available then we would have a third location/shoot. What do you think?

 

SPONSORS/PARTNERS

Whilst I can provide my own lights/equipment/backdrop and I can bring my assistant I would definitely need support with printing...I can put something together for Canon if Houston has the contacts to discuss this with at Canon?

 

best

Raf

 

Permalink Reply by Adam Kingston on November 16, 2011 at 6:12pm

Hi All,

Can you tell me how many photographers is available cause 40 families is a lot of people and if every family want portrait family, passport photo and another portrait for each member not sure if we have enough time and people to do it [I'll ask my Girlfriend maybe she can help with something].

 

Another thing is that we have to know exactly what are requirements for passport photos are [size, look of the person and so on].

 

Im good with Lightroom so can help with that but another thing is if we gonna have time to retouch and print all of them or maybe is better if we do this later at home and send them [that's what we did before] what do you think ?


My travel plans are: Im arriving in HK on 8 December and will stay there till 15 when I have flight to Singapore and other places. Coming back to London from HK on 6 January 2012.

 

Anyone know where I can get CF 8GB memory card in HK [probably lot places but this is my first time there] and if they are cheaper than in London ? Just need to buy few ;]

 

Adam

 

ps. and my website works again ;] http://photos.tretos.net

Permalink Reply by george.choww on November 16, 2011 at 8:08pm

By the looks of it, we still need makeup artists. I will scout around school to see if there are any willing students to do the job.

In terms of flow, a rough idea could be like:

Enter subjects to room> assistants greet them, tell them what is going to happen (help portrait, we are going to take photos of them, print their photos either on the spot or get it mailed to them. > bring the ladies to get makeup. > ask them about the poses they want, give them exemplar photos of good portraits so that they can imitate the poses (I can create a little montage of potential poses and good portraits) > take their photo > ask for their feedback

A good idea for the family portraits is for them to bring something in that truly represents their family or has meaning to them, just to spice the portrait up.

Also, we can probably get some social workers in that are very close with the elderly/single parents and they can take photos with the family/elder IF they allow them in the photo. The social workers can double as assistants for us. 

 

Permalink Reply by Houston Ng on November 16, 2011 at 10:20pm

Hi Guys,

 

Just to recap the current status so far

Projects 

NAAC - confirm to provide us with 40 families; If that's too much, please let me know and I will tell them to invite less, maybe 30? 

Happy Grannies - they don't have enough time to prepare an event for that day. Have some ideas cooking relating to elders in Chinese opera makeup (very early stage, 1Q2012)

LoveUall - Will organize an elderly photo event in 1Q2012 (we just need to show up and shoot); I can try pushing them to Dec10 if we have enough shooting power

 

Manpower

Photographer - (Assuming everybody is going) Raf, Adam, George, me and another friend of mine. That should be enough for the day. 

Makeup - Two makeup artists confirmed

Helpers - I've rounded up about 5 extra hands

 

Workflow 

George has illustrated a pretty good flow and some props will keep the whole atmosphere quite upbeat. What's worrying me the most is that since these families are mostly new immigrants, their idea of a good portrait maybe a little different than ours..... Also, each station needs at least 1 Chinese speaker as well

Yes. Their social worker will be around to help

 

Prints

My initial thinking is that we can print 1-2 4R pictures for them to take home that day (doesn't have to be perfect). Then we will deliver a more comprehensive package a week or two later. If that's too much work, we can skip the same day printing part, no problem.

 

Canon

After some initial discussion, they will offer us with a couple printer on loan, and a (not free) package of paper and ink.... I suggest keeping their contacts for a later event after getting some track record....

 

Houston

Permalink Reply by george.choww on November 17, 2011 at 1:12am

I speak fluent cantonese so i can cover that. 

Permalink Reply by Adam Kingston on November 17, 2011 at 2:25pm

1 Project:

I think we should do one site and good instead of three as we not going to have enough people

 

2. Scope

40 families, well depend what they expect from us, as you said we are not offering any service, just take photos and print them to make them happy, not taking passport photos as for that as I said there are some requirements and not sure if we can meet them ?

I think it’s a good idea to show them what HP is, using the video link.

 

3. Language

I and my Girlfriend speak English and Polish not Cantonese so might be a problem.

 

 

4. Prints

If I can retouch them and print on site that’s great but I think we not going to have time for this

I'll be backing home on 7 January and then when I will start retouching / printing photos to be send.

 

 

If there is only 3 photographers available we cannot Take photos, retouch them, prints at the same time for 40 families.

 

So i think it’s better if we stay in one site and do it properly.

 

Permalink Reply by Houston Ng on November 21, 2011 at 6:07am

1. Agree

2. I've rechecked with the social worker at that site again. It seems like based on her experience, the turn out rate is definitely not going to be 100%, only 90% at best. On the passport photo part, it's actually a request from the social worker because, for the good'o practical folks of HK, it's a more attractive proposition (they've never seems a good family portrait).  I will try getting another photographer just to do passport.

3. Not to worry about language, George can be on your team and work together. Right, George?

4. I can handle all the retouching and printing after the event, kinda want to send the prints back to the family as Christmas presents

 

Yeah, so why not scrap the idea of printing on the spot then. 

 

Permalink Reply by Raf Sanchez on November 21, 2011 at 9:28am

Houston & others on this list - I'm really sorry but I've just been booked for an assignment in Singapore over the Help Weekend so I am not going to be able to help out in the end...I will post another message on this forum if the situation changes.

 

apologies

Raf

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Chan on November 21, 2011 at 7:03pm

Hey guys,

 

I am joining but I am super busy today, will come back tomorrow.

I am an organizer of the photography meet up group in Hong Kong. In case, I can post an event to have more photographers to help.

 

Speak soon.

 

Jenny

Permalink Reply by Wailly Lai on November 25, 2011 at 6:57am

Hi all,

 

Sorry for getting back here so late (considered that I was one of the first to ask whether we can get something going like ages ago...)

 

It would be great if I can still join up. I was just reading up all the posts, and some questions/concerns:

 

I'd suggest to do it on one location, with no more than 2 stations to do portrait. i don't recommend that we pick up the passport shoot task. You will have to handle the shoot and the crop sizes of pictures for different legal sizes and dimension requirements, whether to use the blue/pink/white backdrop, which none of us are familiar with. You will need to provide in package of dozen/half-dozen of the same pictures, cropped and ready. And I can almost see the complication of the chance that we might crop them in wrong sizes - refused for their legal usage, and should they come after us weeks afterward - you get the ugly picture... :( I'd like to keep it as clean and simple as possible - we shoot the photos, we decide on print sizes (whatever paper size we can come up with), print them, leave with them a pleasant memory. Done and over with. Everyone is happy.

 

I worked for a family portrait studio, and I estimate we will need about 15-20mins. per session per family to do a proper shoot. That is with one kid that behave nicely. Prepare the session to be a bit longer with i.e., 2 kids, 2 adults. With elderly, it also needs a bit more time. This should give you approx. of how many families we can handle in one day.

 

I can do basic retouching fast - given that we have proper lighting shoot on the subject. And what about printing? How do we cover the cost of consumable (i.e., printer, papers, ink cartridges) Any chance that we can get sponsor?

 

Equipment wise, I'm a strobist, but I guess I can ask my ex-boss to lend us some studio lights with soft boxes. We have to decide what lighting setup we go for. I can provide my MBP, DSLR, basic lens, strobes, umbrellas, PWs, etc.

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