I need to do "an old fashioned" instant photo gig on location where the guests at a country fair dress up for a photo, preferably sepia toned. I have a 4x5 polaroid. I know the 4x5 sepia polaroid film. Event chair person wants larger size photos. Any one know how those tourist trap photographers do it? How do they turn around a 5x7 so fast? I have to shoot it and give it to the guest immediately. So no one hour photos deal here. I hear that 8x10 is a hassel on location. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- joanne (jacstar@earthlink.net), March 10, 2002

Answers

Joanne:

Nikon Coolpix 5000 (or any good new model) and an Epson 800 series printer with the glossy paper and Photoshop 5 LE that comes with digital cameras and a converter for car battery power if you can't get even that. The new print matching system will allow direct printing without a computer if ordinary colour is OK. Photoshop LE will let you make great sepia or any other toned prints very easily.

There are guys at my grandsons' hockey games with this setup making 5x7s & 8x10s in 5 minutes and selling them at enough to pay for the gear in a month.

Polaroid's 8x10 film costs almost as much for one box and the processor as a complete setup as described above.

All this done a a card table and carried in the trunk of a car.

Good luck

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), March 10, 2002.

Richard has the idea, but I'm unsure of how you're going to get the sepia toning with PS 5 without a computer.

There were several models which offered in camera sepia toning, and along with a printer, you'd be in business. Make sure the camera is of the DPOF class, which allows direct printing.

-- Michael Mahoney (mike.mahoney@nf.sympatico.ca), March 10, 2002.

Somewhere in all the trash I keep in expectation of a day like today, there is an article on Mexican tourist photographers that use a "printing out paper process". I can't remember how they get a positive but they esentually skip the negative process entirely. As I remember you get the sepia tone from the process. The big advantage is cheap and historically accurate.

Neal

-- Neal Shields (shields@ftw.com), March 10, 2002.

then you should not velieve everything you hear. But 8x10 Polaroid materials now cost in the $10-20 per print range. with a motorized Polaroid processer it really isn't that much of a hassle.

between the 4x5 and the 8x10 size you'll need something like a Canon D30 or a Fuji S1 and a laptop and a printer or find a source for "Prnting Out " (AKA "POP") materials.

-- Ellis Vener Photography (ellis@ellisvener.com), March 10, 2002.

In the far distant past, we had that similar instant ancestor thing done. It was polaroid with an aerosol spray that produced a sepia tone.

The computer sounds like the best bet.

-- Joe Lipka (joelipka@earthlink.net), March 10, 2002.