The Developments Newsletter: December 5th, 2006

Editor's Note:
Now formatted for easy reading on PDAs and cell phones.

December 5th, 2006

Speculation Photography for Sports

Most of the Sports photographed in the U.S. today are sold on a pre-pay basis where pre-pay envelopes are passed out by coaches to players or parents, and then those who are interested in having their picture taken write their order on the pre-pay envelope and enclose payment. The envelope is handed in at the time the photographer takes the picture. Typically, only one picture is taken of each player who is placing an order, so those who forget, or can't afford pictures, are not photographed. This system has been in use for at least forty years and is almost universal among youth leagues, and is the most prevalent system among middle schools and high schools.

The system is not well-liked by coaches because of the need for them to distribute the envelopes in advance. It is also not well liked by parents because they must place an order, without being able to view proofs, and hope that the pictures are good. They have no choice of poses. Photographers generally like the system because the sales are good and because they receive their money in advance.

However, because almost every photographer in the country can offer this program, price competition is stiff and profit margins thin. This results in most sports photographers making a small profit when they are fortunate enough to book the league. It also makes it difficult to retain business for a long period of time.

Now, contrast this system with Candid Color Systems exclusive Speculation System. In many ways this system resembles the CCS graduation marketing program and utilizes a new CCS CORE software that is similar to the Grad software with which many of you are familiar.

This system was “made in heaven” for coaches! Since coaches are the gatekeepers who make the decision about who photographs teams at most Middle Schools and High Schools, this system is tailor made for those markets. It has also been utilized for Youth Sports and has been appealing to league boards and coaches who make the decision about who shoots those leagues.

Why do coaches like this system?
• They are not responsible for passing out envelopes or reminding kids to bring money.
• The shooting typically goes faster because of the absence of collecting envelopes and money.
• The prints can be mailed directly to the players’ homes, eliminating the need for the coach to pass out prints.

Why do players and kids like the system better?
• Because they get to have several poses taken, buddy shots, and even posed action shots so that they have a number of choices.

Why do photographers like this system?
• Because it is easy to sell, easy to shoot, and usually results in as good or better sales than the pre-pay system.

• Customer satisfaction is usually higher because of the choices; because the players and parents view the proofs before purchasing; because the parents can decide what they want to purchase in the privacy of their own home; and because the prints can be mailed directly from the lab to the end customer (making a profit on shipping and handling to boot).

How to Market the Speculation Program

First, take samples to the shoot and display them properly. This will get the players and coaches fired up about your pictures. Be sure to make check lists that include what to take to the shoot, such as samples, password cards, and name/e-mail/mail sequence cards.

Next, collect e-mail addresses and fresh home addresses for each player photographed. If the player does not furnish an e-mail, ask them if they have one. An administrative assistant will be necessary to do this at larger shoots. Keep these address cards in the same sequence as you shoot the players to facilitate identification.

Post a web address and password at the school at the time of the photography session to allow players who do not have e-mail addresses to view the proofs. Also, pass out password cards to each player with this information. This is essential, since many players may not have e-mail addresses or may not remember their parent’s e-mail address.

Have the event set up in CORE BEFORE you go to the shoot to expedite identification, posting and printing proofs. Be sure to offer a group picture both on the web and on the proof sheet. Post the proofs with the offers at the earliest possible time after the shoot, preferably the same day but not later than noon the next day. Also, send out hard proofs to each player, setting a deadline date of ten to fourteen days. A longer period for the deadline will result in worse sales. Set the same deadline online, as on the proofs.

Plan an e-mail campaign and send out a minimum of two or three reminders to all of the players for whom you have e-mails, at well spaced intervals. In that e-mail, provide ordering options such as going to the website, mailing back the proof to your office, or phoning in an order. Make it as convenient as possible for the customer to order by providing multiple ordering channels.

Fill orders promptly. Don't wait to batch them after the deadline date. This will spur further orders from those who have not yet ordered.

Finally, make a check list for the marketing and create a time line with assignments for who is doing what. Failure to do this could result in an omission or delay that could cost a big percentage of potential sales.

What is the Opportunity?

Let's just look at Basketball since that is a sport that is common and is occurring now. There are often several teams such as 7th grade, 8th grade, Freshman, Jr. Varsity, and Varsity for both boys and girls. CCP shot about 100 players at a rural High School two weeks ago and shot about 4 shots of each player in various poses, plus buddy shots, simulated action shots and group shots. . We will keep you posted on how we do but we have since booked the middle school and Freshman boys and girls. This is a huge opportunity when you consider how many sports teams exist at one school.

We believe that Speculation Sports has huge potential that is virtually untapped. We believe that it is extremely easy to book compared to Prepaid Sports and that our window of opportunity will be closed if our customers do not take advantage of it NOW. You, together with our exclusive software programs that support Speculation Sports, our rapid turnaround, and a never-ending supply of the latest sports products, are the perfect ingredients to field a winning team that will deliver incredible results to your bottom line. For help or questions, please call Brian Speers at 800-336-4550, Ext. 251, or Dan Hays at Ext. 227.

Create a fun experience at the shoot and make the pictures the best they can be.

At recent basketball shoots, CCP has taken a sound system and played music from an ESPN CD to get everyone fired up. We have illuminated the pictures with two soft boxes, one aimed at the player and one aimed at the backstop and goal behind the player to provide background illumination. We have used Nikon D70 cameras. We have shot simulated action shots as well as posed shots of each player. We have shot buddy shots. We have taken several group shots and shots of all the classes. We have tried to make the shoot entertaining and fast moving. We have had a gallery of students, teachers and board members flock to our basketball shoot as it is a real happening.

Over the past five or six years CCS has been fervently preaching the Sports gospel from many pulpits, and to any customer that is willing to lend an ear. Over that same period CCS has made great strides in the revamping of the Sports market with better software, new and exciting products, and an unusually fast turnaround.

Because of these advancements we have seen a number of new customers come onboard from other labs, and we've also experienced incredible growth in the sports arena from several CCS customers who went from zero to hero in sports and, in some cases, have made the sports market the main focus of their business.

With the increased participation in the Youth Sports market, and the unique systems that CCS offers for sports workflow there now exists a very fertile environment for strong sales and THE quickest way to grow your business.

Due to these factors and the unlimited creative elements of digital shooting and post-production, CCS will soon be offering a totally new line of products. The working name for this sports line of products is Level Two. What separates our Level Two products from our traditional offerings is choice, creative graphics, multi-image products, and SIZZLE! The products now being conceived, created, and tested far surpass anything we've ever offered in the past, and we feel it will give you the extra oomph you may need to get signatures on dotted lines.

These new products look especially great when the player is shot in a simulated action pose. Though these products will cost more than our traditional sports products, but they are truly unique and will set your business apart from others, as well as provide you with new ammunition for your marketing campaigns. Upon first glance they look like something out of a Nike ad. We believe these products will result in a higher sales average and higher customer satisfaction.

To catch a peek of what we are talking about click here and view these great looking products, when you land on that page click the thumbnails to enlarge the image. After viewing them give us some feedback. We'd love to know what you thinking.

Sales and Marketing tests will be executed over the next three months and results of those tests will be shared at the Winter seminar.

Room rates for this Floridian adventure are $169 per night; a reasonable rate considering we’ll be in Miami Beach at the height of the winter season. The deadline to reserve a room at the Eden Roc is January 25th.

Candid Color Systems customers and associates will gather to hear the latest sales and marketing success stories; discover what CCS has rising on the horizon relating to technology and equipment; and absorb the culture that is exclusively Miami Beach. An agenda will be out soon. We look forward to a great turnout and a lot of FUN!

Effective Monday 12/4, if you offer Black and White and/or Sepia on your prints the retail website will render (create in software) the image, either B/W or Sepia, for the customer to view. Rendering occurs on the following three pages; product selection, customization and in the shopping cart. If you have any questions please contact Customer Support.

Another year has flown by and with it many advances in digital photography. I still get weekly calls from many of you looking for the latest information on cameras, strobes and memory. Here are my updated picks for this year and a few predictions on the camera market.

The trend towards cameras with higher and higher megapixel ratings continues. With it, prices are dropping on these higher megapixel cameras. You can now buy a refurbished 6MP Nikon D50 body for $420 from ecost.com. The 10MP Canon 400D-XTi can be purchased with lens for about $800. A new 6MP Nikon D40 that has just been released and is available for about $600. Dropping prices for higher megapixel cameras means that more of our end customers will be purchasing very capable cameras. If you are still shooting with the Kodak 4800 or Canon G series cameras, you may even hear comments from these people that their camera is bigger than yours. Perception is everything. If the end customer feels that they have a camera better than yours, what is their perception of your images and prints? Of course, shooting with a large strobe can help fend off negative perceptions, but it is time to start moving your point and shoot cameras to backup camera rolls and move into the updated age of digital SLR cameras.

We have been converting all of our Party Pic rigs over to Nikon D70 cameras with Nikon SB800 dedicated strobes. These new rigs can be used with the camera on Program Mode and the strobe on TTL BL. The only change we ever make is to the ISO (200 or 400). No more changes to shutter speeds and apertures are needed based on nighttime, shade, overcast backlit sun, full sun conditions. The photographer can now concentrate on image quantity and content. Training is a breeze with this system and overall image quality and consistency has improved. Look for an article on this system in an upcoming newsletter.

A few new reasonably priced cameras were released this year that could fulfill the roll as an all- purpose camera. The 10MP Nikon D200 Body-$1450, Nikon D80 Body-$918, Canon XTi Body-$661 are all 10MP cameras. They can be used for Party Pics, grads, sports, some action sports and slower races, bid day groups, medium sized senior groups, high end portraits and more. The Nikon D80 and the D50 (for Party Pics) uses SD Memory cards instead of Compact Flash. This trend to SD Memory will continue to grow as new cameras are released. Choose your cameras carefully and take into consideration that you may have to reinvest in new memory types and work with mixed formats. You don’t want to show up to an event with the wrong memory type!

As always, the digital camera market will continue to evolve. We will follow it closely and continue to report trends with our recommendations.

Here are links to many of the sites that I visit each week researching the latest and greatest digital cameras, batteries, memory cards, strobes, etc. and where to purchase these items. In addition to the links, I have listed some of my top picks.

Camera/Equipment Reviews & Education
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/index.asp
http://www.cnet.com/
http://www.shootsmarter.com/

Best All Purpose High End Camera
Nikon D2X Body - $4200 – 12MP, 1/250 Flash Sync, Compact Flash Memory Type
Canon 5D Body - $2500 – 12MP, 1/200 Flash Sync, Compact Flash Memory Type

Best All Purpose Digital SLR’s
Nikon D200 Body $1450 – 10MP, 1/250 Flash Sync, Compact Flash Memory Type – My Favorite
Nikon D80 Body $918 – 10MP, 1/200 Flash Sync, SD Memory Type
Canon 20D Body $900 – 8MP, 1/250 Flash Sync, Compact Flash Memory Type
Canon 30D Body –$1140 8MP, 1/250 Flash Sync, Compact Flash Memory Type
Canon Rebel XT Body$496 – 8MP, 1/200 Flash Sync, Compact Flash Memory Type
Canon Rebel XTi $661 Body – 10MP, 1/200 Flash Sync, Compact Flash Memory Type

Best Party Pics/Grad/League Sports Cameras
$616 Nikon D70s Body – 6MP, 1/500 Flash Sync, Compact Flash Memory Type
$483 Nikon D50 Body – 6MP, 1/500 Sync Speed, SD Memory Type
$600 Nikon D40 Body & 18-55 Lens– Not Tested Yet – 6MP, 1/500! Sync Speed, SD Memory
$496 Canon Rebel XT Body – 8MP, 1/200 Flash Sync, Compact Flash Memory Type
$661 Canon Rebel XTi Body – 10MP, 1/200 Flash Sync, Compact Flash Memory Type

Best Personal Point & Shoot Cameras
$317 Canon A640 – 10MP
$309 Canon A710 – 6MP
$504 Canon G7 – 10MP

Best High Speed & Low Cost Cards
Lexar 1GB 80X-133X Speed Cards - $50-$60
Kingston Tech 1GB -133X Speed Cards - $44
Lexar 1GB – Basic Card-16X Speed - $13! at http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/index.jsp
Assorted SD Cards – Basic Card-16X Speed - $15-$40

Check it out: it looks to be good for parties - most sports - graduations - cost $599 with lens!

Preparation for Winter Grads
by Evie Sibert

Winter grad season is right around the corner, so here is a checklist to make sure that you are implementing every strategy to have a profitable grad season. Following these guidelines will help increase your graduation sales and make your workflow run more smoothly.

Shoot Multiple Shots- By shooting several poses—handshake, Flag shot, etc.—the graduate has a variety of pictures from which to choose. This frequently leads the customer to purchase more than one pose, which can increase your average sale per graduate.

Collect emails-Collect primary and secondary email addresses for each graduate. This is crucial in order to send embedded email proofs. By sending emails you are guiding your customers to order via the Internet which cuts down on office labor and decreases print delivery time.

Rapidly Posting Images-It is essential that all proofs are posted by the time promised in your contract. Getting your email proofs out within 24 hours not only impresses your customers, but sales take off in a much quicker timetable. If you are also mailing paper proofs it’s important to get them out into the mail within 24-48 hours.

Shoot Party Pics®-Before and after the commencement ceremony photograph friends and family. Remember to distribute password cards so your customers can be directed online for further sales.

Upselling Options-Offering retouching, pearlized paper and the ability to crop photos can also add to your revenue stream. Frequently, customers will spend the extra money to have the best product possible.

New Products in Grad Market-CCS has added several new and exciting products to the Grad market for the upcoming winter grad season. We are now offering a coffee mug, magnet and mouse pad. By offering products that aren’t easily produced creates a higher demand.

Offer Mounting Services - Mounting is now available in the Grad market in both QP2 and CORE. You can now command a higher price add-on enhancement for a more finished product.

Making the time to follow these guidelines will help your winter grad season not only run more smoothly but it can put more money in your pocket. These proven practices can help you stay on top of your game in an ever increasing market.

*The lab pricing for the new products is as follows :
Photo Coffee Mug (14818)-$8.66
Magnet (13286)-(non-bordered, 2.6”x3.6)$1.25
Mousepad(13911)-”) - $9.27

As many of you know, QEMS is an email marketing tool. You import email addresses and it notifies the customer via email when the event is online or is about to expire. Here are a few email features in QEMS that you may not know about:

Collecting Email Addresses
How are you collecting emails? Did you know that QEMS can collect email addresses for you? By simply choosing to require an email log in prompt on the organization tab, it will allow you to add email addresses to a particular group. You can choose to validate the email so that customers don’t put a bogus email in the field.

Admin Screen:
Require Email Login Prompt: Forces customers to enter their email address before viewing the list of events (NOTE: Will automatically add customer as a guest of the organization if they are not currently a member, guest or leader).
     Update this setting on all children.
     Require Email Validation: Sends a link to the provided email address to allow user to verify their email address.
      Update this setting on all children.

Additionally there is another option to collect email addresses from people who order from QP2. Simply click the auto add customers option on the edit organization section:
Auto Add Customers QEMS will automatically add a customer to this organization when they order from an event hosted by this organization.
Update this setting on all children.

Managing Emails
Under the reports tab, there is an Email Report. This report displays each set of emails sent

out from an event. It shows how many emails were sent and how many recipients clicked the link on that email. This report is useful to see if your emails are actually being read.

On the set up tab of the QEMS admin, there is a section called bouncebacks. This screen displays any email addresses that immediately fail (i.e. no @ sign, no dot com, invalid server name). Many of these emails can be easily fixed without contacting the customer.

This will be a series of Instructions in the following newsletters. If you have questions on how to take a specific photograph please forward them to me and I will research and provide feedback in the upcoming newsletters

Photographer training-Back to the basics.
Freestyle photography and creativity come after you understand what’s going on with your camera!

Teach the three principals that govern your photograph.
1) ASA/ISO – Sensitivity to light. With increased sensitivity you give up a tight grain and increase the noise. 80 being low, 1600 at the high end.

2) F-stop/Aperture – The Pupil in the lens that controls the amount of light and the sharpness in which the concentration of light exposes. This controls depth of field, amount of focus from a little F-2.8 to everything in focus F-22. At F-22 the light rays are highly concentrated thru the small pupil, At F-2.8 light ray’s are sporadic, wide open pupil. The F-stops seem confusing which number is bigger, teach this is a fraction, ask which aperture is bigger 1/2 or 1/22.

3) Shutter speed- The amount of time you allow the light to expose. (With 1/60 of a second being the slowest you want to handhold your camera, Use a Tripod with any setting slower than1/60). The most common shutter speeds used is 1/125 to 1/250. When taking action shots use 1/500 of a second to stop motion. Example: Sports action

Group Photography
After the principals of photography have been mastered, decide what you need to achieve? Possibly it’s focus because you want to photograph a group of 400 people and you have fifteen feet between your front row and back row.

1st. I would want a tight grain so I would use a low ISO
2nd. I need everything in focus because of the distance between the front and back row. Will have to use a higher F-stop
3rd. I will have to use a Tripod because I may have to use a slower shutter speed to increase my exposed time since I’m using a low ISO with a small aperture and, both need extra light.

Here are a couple of extra hints + you could bring light.
•Balance your artificial light between the front and back of your group, keeping your lights high will help light your back row and not burn out your front row
• You could increase your ISO sacrificing grain for light sensitivity.
• You could elevate your camera from a ladder, by angling your camera downward you are leaning the plane of focus over thus less distance between front and back rows(from the camera’s perspective).

This is a quick guide to training for you and your photographers on photographing groups. I started with groups because I feel there isn’t an easier way to make money than standing in front of 400 people and selling 400 prints of one image. Then you shoot an informal pose (Crazy picture) and sell 200 additional pictures to 400 people with two images.. There are unlimited groups to book and photograph. Let me mention a few: Sport Teams, School Groups, Elementary to Fifty-year reunions, Bands, Choirs, Company Holiday Cards, City Groups, Church Groups, Conventions, Professional, i.e. Police and Fire.

I will continue in upcoming newsletters with Portraits, both indoor and outdoors. I will also discuss studio lighting placement, single light, two, and three to further help your understanding with guidelines and rules to photography.

Are you looking for another way to increase your Cap and Gown portrait sales? How about a new way to market your composite images and senior portraits?

On Oct. 30th Candid introduced a new version of CORE for Professional Portraits Service (PPS). Like CORE for Grads, this new version includes the ability to ID images, send emails, and print proofs. Also like CORE for Grads, PPS will offer the ability to mount and canvas your prints.

In addition you can also ID composites, cap and gown pictures, and senior portraits. This givesyou the opportunity to give your customer a higher quality print than the grad market and provides you with a great marketing tool. By using CORE to ID these photos, you can print proofs to mail to the customer and send emails with the proof images embedded in the body of the email with a link that will take them directly to their images to view and place an order.

While CORE for Grads offers some basic retouching, PPS has a more extensive range of services. Basics, backdrop repair, lipstick removal, blending of skin tones or make-up, and teeth straightening you have the ability to sell a more finished product. All of the retouching is available through manual retouching, for on-line retouching you can offer basics and light stray hair removal. Contact Customer Development or the Support Dept. for a complete list of retouching available in PPS.

There are some additional products in PPS that allow you to personalize the orders more than in Grads, such as custom titled greeting cards with your choice of 5 different background colors, personalized wallets, designer prints and borders, a more varied array of print sizes and, to finish your order, black presentation folders with elastic ties for a more professional look.

For more information or training on this software, please contact Customer Support - 800-750-0494, option 2 for Technical Support.