Candid at Rush Week
– Alabama Style
by Jack Counts, Jr.
ZAP Photography was
one of the last CCS customers to make the conversion from
shooting film to digital at their University of Alabama
campus. With the development of the new CCS CORE
software and digital proof sheets ZAP was willing to make
the move.
ZAP made this conversion during the most difficult time
of the year (Rush Week). Keith Zemnes (Office Manager/Head
Photographer) and Candice West (Production Manger/Assistant
Head Photographer) were charged with the task of preparing
eighteen camera setups and retraining the photographers
on how to shoot digitally.
Now for the results:
Last year ZAP shot 123 rolls (4,551images) during rush
week and 68 rolls (2,516 images) on Bid Day for a total
of 191 rolls (7,067) images.
This year ZAP shot the equivalent of 175 rolls (6,475
images) during rush week, 89 rolls (3,320 images) on bid
day plus another 18 rolls (664 images) at bid night parties
for a total of 282 rolls (10,449 images).
This represents a 39% increase in
candids shot.
Obviously the greek market is not dead. How was this accomplished?
As Candice said …. “A great effort was made
by everyone, considering the extreme heat and humidity
that we worked around all week. It was not any one person
that made it work, but a combination of team players”.
In fact the heat advisories were issued by the weather
service during rush week in Tuscaloosa as the heat index
soared to a record 110 degrees on bid day.
Keith and Candice led the team by insisting on high standards
and setting daily goals. Candice continually updated a
spreadsheet tracking the results for each sorority house
and p hotographer. A sign was posted and updated listing
the photographer and sorority house with the most images.
More importantly Keith and Candice personally reviewed
EVERY image on a daily basis in order to give immediate
feedback to the photographers. When necessary they
had the photographers come to the office so the images
could be critiqued together. As the saying goes: “Expect
what you inspect”.
Quality of the images is still the priority over quantity.
However their results show you can have both. With
the move to digital ZAP’s old posted saying of “Every
Frame Counts” (EFC) will now have to be updated
to “Every Image Counts” (EIC)
Grad
and Greek Meetings To Be Held in Atlanta in October
 |
CCS will be hosting two “Best Practices” Sales
and Marketing Meetings this fall on October 11 and 12
in Atlanta.
Grad Best Practices Sales & Marketing Meeting:
•
Tues. Oct 11th 10a – 4p
Greek/Campus Best Practices Sales & Marketing Meeting:
• Wed. Oct 12th 10a – 4p
We are in the process of reserving a hotel and will provide
you with hotel name, location, room rate and reservation
information in the next newsletter (Sept 8th), as well
as a registration form to send back to CCS to indicate
your attendance at the meeting(s).
Grad
Now that you know the when and where of the Grad Sales
and Marketing Retreat, you need to know the WHY.
Why not learn how to dramatically improve your sales average?
You will leave the meeting with several proven methods
for increasing your sales. We will provide
you with detailed marketing and implementation plans for
selling retouching, collecting and marketing with emails,
double and triple shooting, order form design, and fast
proofing with CORE. You won't want to miss this
valuable opportunity to learn from other photographers’
successes.
Brad Hurley
Grad Specialist Ext. 317
Greek
Did you just not get your fill at summer seminar or maybe
you couldn’t make it? No worries. Attend
the Sales & Marketing Best Practices Greek Meeting
in Atlanta, GA on October 12th. All are invited.
If you’ve been in the Greek business for years or
are simply curious and want to find out about this opportunity,
I invite you to attend.
The focus of this seminar is to provide you with
tools and instructions on how to raise your sales average
per party, how to shoot more events and overall increase
your Party Pics® business. I am excited to cover
these topics in more detail than was presented
at the seminar here in Oklahoma. I would also like
to give you the chance to email me with what you would
like to hear covered. I can’t promise I’ll
get to everyone’s requests but if a topic is mentioned
multiple times I’ll do my best to present a solution
or more information for you at this seminar.
I am excited to see some new faces who weren’t at
the previous seminar so please register soon. If
you have any questions or comments please call or email
me.
Jaime McKissick
Greek Specialist Ext.383
Multiple
Pose Shooting for Football Individual Shots
by
Brian Speers
 |
Looking to do something different with your individual football
shots this Fall? Tired of the old tried-and-true poses
that you’ve been doing for years; the same ones that
your clients may be tiring of? Well, maybe it’s
time to change all of that!
On August 5, Candid Color Systems’ retail company, Candid
Color Photography (CCP) photographed—as they do every
year— the 100 members of the University of Oklahoma
football team, both individually and in squads by offensive
or defensive position.
In past years the same standard two poses (see below) were
used for the individual shots: a full-length kneeling pose
(pose # 1) and then, with the player in the same position,
zooming in to get a closer portrait without changing the actual
pose (pose # 2). In both shots the stadium four-story
press box provided a great background for these very traditional
poses.
Pose # 1
Pose # 2
This year, however, things changed! With the success
that many CCS customers had experienced shooting double and
triple shots at graduations the decision was made to create
extra poses to see if the buying patterns would reflect anything
close to those of grads when photographed multiple times.
Since multiple pose commencements were introduced several
years ago, many CCS customers have experienced higher revenues
and higher order averages from events where graduates ordered
from multiple poses, frequently purchasing photographs from
each of the poses.
But, being on a strictly controlled schedule provided to us
by the OU Sports Information department—on Media Day—we
had to create new poses that were time efficient and easy
for the players to execute. Originally, the thought
was to do posed “action” shots but that was rejected
in favor of the poses that were eventually selected.
For the OU football shoot two poses were added. A
dramatic, full-length pose taken from a ground-level angle
was added (pose # 3), as well as a zoomed-in pose that Kim
Kelly of CCP had first seen in ESPN Magazine last year, which
isolates the player with a “monogrammed” OU football
(pose # 4). The additional two poses added about 20
seconds per player to the shoot with all four poses taking
about 45-60 seconds from start to finish.
Pose # 3
Pose # 4
Just like grads, two addresses and two email addresses
were requested of each player. The order forms with
each player’s proofs were then mailed to the players’
families and also to the players. Additionally, emails
with embedded photos of each player were also sent to the
two email addresses. With the deadline for orders approaching
and just 16% of the players placing orders so far, here is
how the orders are breaking down:
• 27% ordered from 1 pose
• 36% ordered from 2 poses
• 18% ordered from 3 poses
• 18% ordered from 4 poses
Additionally, of the orders placed so far:
• 29% were from the full-length kneeling pose
• 25% were from the “portrait” kneeling
pose
• 25% were from the football pose
• 21% were from the full-length standing pose
Though these numbers are preliminary and inconclusive, at
best, it definitely shows that there is a market for additional
poses, especially with nearly 50% of the prints ordered coming
from the two added poses. Currently, even with the limited
response CCP is averaging $95 per order, which is an increase
of $40 per order over last year! As more orders are
placed I’ll report back with more statistics emanating
from this annual event.
The Shoot
While the football players were posed entirely in shade, the
press box façade—facing East—receives the
strong, early morning sunlight; especially at 7:30 AM when
this event begins! In order to get the exposure
on the player to match the lighting of the press box background
supplementary studio lighting was used to balance out the
exposure. Metering of this light is critical to the
success and the professional appearance of these photographs.
Each of the two photographers had identical lighting setups
with two (2)-3200 White Lightning studio lights. The
main light, which was aimed directly at the subject at a height
of 5 feet, was inside a 4-foot by 2-foot softbox approximately
8 feet from the subject. The other light was mounted
atop a wind-resistant, heavy duty, 15 foot light stand with
a 20 inch white reflector. This light was pitched upward
and aimed over the head of the subject. This was done
to illuminate and to throw as much light as possible on the
grass beyond the subject preventing a black void between the
player and the stadium seats behind him. In order
to get the proper angle to include the press box, each photographer
was required to shoot from a prone position with a hand-held
camera.
Shooting with Nikon D70 cameras rated at 200 ISO, the light
illuminating the press box was metered and the main light
set to balance with that reading. As the sun gets brighter
you must adjust your shutter speed higher to maintain the
balanced lighting between the subject and the background while
maintaining the lens f/stop at the previously metered setting.
For instance, if the light measuring on the press box background
was 1/250 at f/8 at ISO 200, you would set your softbox light
to produce 1/250 at f/8.5, slightly underexposing the background
so your subject stands out. The other light which is
throwing light across the field is set at full power and remains
that way for the entire shoot. But you must be careful
that this light does not feather light onto your subject.
If the light is not set high enough, especially for the standing
full-length pose, you will get extra light on the subject’s
body and it could jeopardize the look of your final image.
If you are shooting speculative sport events, I would take
at least three or four different poses to give your clients
options to purchase their favorite pose. With any luck,
they’ll like all the poses and order from each!
New
Styles and 4x8 Size for Greeting Cards
by Cami
Sheaffer
As of 9/30, you will no longer be able to order the old 4x7
greeting cards. All greeting cards (holiday, solid color
and birth announcements) will be 4x8 in size instead of the
existing 4x7. This is a more industry standard size
and allows for more caption area. The styles of the
birth announcements will change slightly and the styles of
solid color greeting cards will not change.
Starting 9/2, you will have the ability to edit all of your
existing packages that contain greeting cards to include and/or
edit with the new sizes, prices and styles.
On 9/30, we will convert all existing greeting
card packages to the new 4x8 size. We will do this in
the following way:
• If the card has one of the styles we are
keeping this will be automatically be converted to the same
style in the 4x8 size.
• If the card has a style that we did not keep, it will
automatically be remapped to the Lined With Color style in
the 4x8 size.
Please review your packages with holiday greeting cards –
If they
Click to enlarge |
contain
styles other than Gold Border, Lined with Color, Snowflake,
Snowman,or intage, you must edit them to your preferred
new style by 9/30 or they will automatically become the Lined
With Color Style.
The New Holiday Greeting Cards
Ø 4x8 in size
Ø $5.52 per 12 cards
Ø $9.20 per 20 cards
5 Old Styles Proved to be Popular!
We are bringing back 5 styles that were the most popular selling
greeting cards. They will be printed in 4x8 instead
of 4x7.
Ø Gold Border
Ø Lined with Color
Ø Snowflake
Ø Snowman
Ø Vintage
Click to enlarge |
10 New Styles Expected to be Successful!
Ø Peace
Ø Red Textured
Ø Red Swirl
Ø Candy Cane
Ø Bows
Ø Icy Blue
Ø Festive
Ø Light Bulbs
Ø Lights
Ø Ornaments
If you need sample images of any greeting cards please email
Cami
Sheaffer.
Making Party Pics Successful
Today
by
Darwin
Drake
 |
Party Pics has been the starting point for many successful
CCS customers. It continues to be a profitable market
for all customers who follow the proven best practices.
Providing this service and offering this product has helped
many CCS customers secure contracts with fraternities and
sororities.
Candid photographs taken at parties have helped establish
companies in the high school and middle schools markets.
Yet given the value of this product, we continue to see
a decline in the number of parties photographed and the
number of images taken per event. Why is this?
Many “reasons” are being given
today for why these events are not photographed at all or
to their full potential:
• The colleges / schools/
Greek organizations have changed their policies.
• The people have their own
cameras.
• I don’t make enough
money.
If you want to be successful in the Party Pic market, then
follow these proven rules:
·
Find employees with personality first and teach them photography
second.
Photographers should MAKE the event, not just merely attend
and take photos of those who ask or pass by them.
They should be the entertainment, creating interest and
excitement so attendees WANT to have photos taken –
and many of them.
·
Know the event
What time it does starts and how long does it last?
How many people will be in attendance?
·
Prepare for the event
How many photographers to send? Based on the length
of party, set a goal of at least 2 images per photographer
per minute of the party. Photographers should be the
first person to arrive at the event and the last to leave.
Photographers should “squeeze” every last photo
out of the event
·
If polices change, you change.
If your customers ride a bus to the party you need to be
on the bus.
·
If your customers bring a camera to the party then you need
to take better photographs than they do.
·
Practice and grade yourself and your photographers on the
basics. These include Angle, Distance, Timing, Focus and
Exposure.
·
Pay your photographers based on number of faces in the frames
and number of exposures taken per hour.
·
Speed in service is a must if you are going to be profitable.
The formula for success is to follow all
the rules. There are no short cuts.
If you have any questions about how to start
or build your Party Pic business, I would be happy to help
you develop an action plan for you and your company.
Darwin
Drake , CCS Party
Pic Specialist.
New
Product News
Many new products have become available recently in several
new markets. Below is a listing of these new products
and/or size and the market where they have been added.
Remember, all new product requests can be made through your
rep or by contacting Dana Hill at danah@candid.com.
New Sizes in QP2 - QuicPics Market
As an alternative to using CORE for groups, several new groups
prints sizes have been added to the QuicPics market of QP2.
These new sizes are 8x12 group and 10x18 group. 8x10
group will be added in the next few days. The pricing
for these products is the same as the current sliding scale
pricing for these sizes in CORE (below).
| Size |
1-10 |
11-25 |
26+ |
| 8x10 |
$2.87 each |
$2.07 each |
$1.78 each |
| 8x12 |
$3.60 each |
$2.60 each |
$2.24 each |
| 10x18 |
$6.05 each |
$4.39 each |
$3.80 each |
New Sizes in QP2 – Sports Market
10x18 has been added to the Sport Market in QP2. The
price is $6.23.
New Sizes in QP2 – PPS Market
Three new print sizes are now available in the PPS Market
in QP2. These are 5x10 ($2.65), 12x12 ($5.74) and
12x24 ($11.48).
New Greek Borders in QP2 QuicPics and CORE-Groups
If there are specific sorority styles you would like added
to the new party pic and group borders that were announced
at the OKC workshops, please contact Dana Hill. We
introduced 20 different sorority specific border styles,
which we knew was the comprehensive list and several customer
shave made us aware or “missing” borders.
These will be included in the Sept CORE release.
Changes
in Slide-In Plaque Pricing, Availability & Shipping
Pricing: Effective 9/1/05,
there will be an increase in the pricing of the Slide-In
Plaques as follows:
8x10 Slide-In Plaque
(Sports - Player Plaque, Coach’s Plaque and Sponsor
Plaque)
Was
$6.25
Now $8.95
9x12 Slide-In Plaque
(Sports - Team Plaque)
Was
$6.50
Now $11.54
The plaques were first introduced as “beta”
products in the Sports market 15 months ago. With the analysis
of the production, labor and shipping costs associated with
these products over the past two sports seasons, a price
increase was necessary to continue to offer them at CCS.
Availability: This same style of Slide-In
Plaque with the same pricing will also be available in the
Grad and Race Markets. The 8x10 Slide-In Plaque will
be available 11/15/05 in the Grad Market. We are working
on “generic” designs as well as customizable
options for this product.
We anticipate the availability of the 9x12 in the Grad market
and both the 8x10 and 9x12 in the Race market by Jan ’06.
| MARKETS |
8x10 Slide-In, $8.95 |
9x12 Slide- In, $11.54 |
| Sports |
Available now
(Player Plaque,
Coach’s Plaque and Sponsor Plaque) |
Available Now
(Team Plaque) |
| Grad |
Available 11/15/05 |
To Be Announced |
| Race |
To Be Announced
|
To Be Announced |
Shipping:
Plaque orders that are manifested will not experience any
change in shipping fee.
Those plaque orders being shipped back in your lab box will
be assessed an additional fee as of 9/1/05. For the
8x10 plaque - If your box ships DHL Ground, you will assessed
a fee of $.94/plaque. If it ships DHL Express, you
will be charged $3.37/plaque. For the 9x12 plaque
- If your box ships DHL Ground, you will be charged a fee
of $1.12/plaque. If it ships DHL Express, you will
be charged $3.96/plaque. Up until this increase, CCS
has subsidized these plaque shipping fees, which you may
now choose to factor into the retail price of your plaque
to your end customer.
We are continually looking for more cost effective plaques
and will pass on those savings to you on we find suitable
substitute
Updated
Canon 20D Bid Day Group QuicGuide Available on Candidnet
by Steve
Foisy
A new version of CORE is now available!
by
Denise Mangiante
 |
CORE v2.26.1 is now available on the updates tab
in CORE. Please be sure to backup your data before attempting
to update your CORE system. If you need assistance with upgrading
your CORE version, please contact Customer Support at 1-800-750-0494.
Some of the features and benefits of CORE version 2.26.1 are
as follows:
Added retouching to the to-do list on the Event List and Event
Overview.
· Each order
now has a source field that indicates from where the order
originated. The source is displayed in the list of Incomplete
Orders, Transaction History, and on the order summary.
· On the
Events tab, the GRUP Balance Sheet now has a "Mark All
as Paid" button. If clicked, a credit will be issued
to every person on the list who has a balance in an amount
to offset the balance.
· The title
length for the GRUP market has been increased to 40 characters.
· CORE now
tracks when changes that would impact titles are made to an
offer. The events that use the offer are flagged on
the Event list and a method has been added to enable, disable,
or refresh QPPlus events in bulk.
· Added ability
to export tally list to CSV file.
· Previously,
there was no minimum on the number of orders required in a
batch. Now at least five orders are required.
The user can transmit individually in any quantity.
· After cropping,
when the user is returned to the image list, the page defaults
to where they were before the last crop. Previously,
the page always returned to the top requiring the user to
scroll to where they left off.
· Changes
to user interface of cropping and retouching interface includes:
1) Image stays centered when changing
the zoom level (previously it zoomed from top left corner).
2) Added shortcut keys.
3) Added help menu.
4) Retouching now supports dragging
the image (like cropping has done in the past). Previously,
the user had to use scroll bars to move the image.
· GRUP events
can now be imported from a spreadsheet in the same way that
GRAD events have been imported in the past. Only CORE
Offers can be used with imported GRUP events -- QP2 packages
are not supported.
· A shadow
table has been added so that when a package or offer is deleted,
the package name and price are still available for reporting.
· Implemented
retouching approvals for the GRUP market. This included
changes to COREAgent and the addition of a "Manage Retouching"
menu on the Events tab and COREAgent Queue.
· While the
full image is loading for cropping, a "Please Wait"
message is displayed. Previously, no message was displayed
leading users on slow connections to think the program was
stuck.
· The credit
card expiration year range has been expanded to 15 years.
· Added DHL
Ground and DHL Express carriers, previously only post office
and return in box were the only options for shipping.
QEMS Enhancements
QEMS has a new
enhancement coming within the next week. The new feature is
called “e-mail prompting”, and will allow you
to better manage and collect e-mail addresses from customers
visiting your QEMS retail website.
The new feature works in combination with your current e-mail
database for each group, as well as checking for new customers
that visit your website. If you currently have password protected
groups, this new feature will begin after a password is entered
for the group. When a customer visits your website, and goes
to their group, they will be prompted for their e-mail address.
If the e-mail address already exists within that group’s
list, then the customer will be admitted to the list of events.
If the customer’s e-mail is not in the group’s
list, then the user will be prompted to enter their e-mail
address before they are admitted to the list of events. This
process will add the user’s e-mail address into the
group’s list as a guest member, and will enable them
for future notifications when new events are posted to the
group’s site. There will also be an optional feature
to verify that the e-mail address entered is valid.
The e-mail prompting feature is completely optional, and can
be set at the group level. It is highly advisable to use this
feature to help collect e-mail addresses from unknown users
visiting your website. This step should help increase your
sales because more people will receive the e-mail notifications
that your events are online.
Lab
Service Times for the week of August 14th - August 20th
by
Joni Brown
| Market |
0-24
Hours |
25-48
Hours |
49-72
Hours |
73-96
Hours |
97-120
Hours |
121-144
Hours |
| Grads |
80% |
10% |
8% |
1% |
1% |
0 |
| Group |
42% |
33% |
10% |
14% |
1% |
0 |
| Pre-Sold |
95% |
1% |
3% |
1% |
0 |
0 |
| Party
Pics |
85% |
15% |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Races |
71% |
26% |
3% |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Sports |
76% |
17% |
4% |
2% |
1% |
0 |
| Weddings/PPS |
11% |
34% |
11% |
13% |
27% |
2% |
Developments
Newsletter
