Photographers Make Photo Buttons

Making Photo Buttons at Events

I run a photography company in addition to Button Makers. However, I'd never put the two together until a very sweet lady came into my store and asked if I knew anyone who does photo buttons for parties. "Well..." I thought to myself "I can do that..."

The only piece of equipment I needed to buy was a portable photo printer. I settled on a Canon Selphy 740. I choose the Selphy because it's small, portable, and fast. It's not the battery operated model, but I need power for my lighting setup anyway. I went with Canon because I can connect my camera directly to the printer without going through a laptop. However, while on the job, I quickly discovered that you cannot shoot while the printer is printing from the camera! Yeah, uh, probably should have tested that one ahead of time! It was tough explaining to a bunch of exuberant party-goers "Sorry! I can't take your photo for another minute and a half..."

I've heard other photographers say that they bring several memory cards and shoot with one while printing from the other. I wouldn't want to go that route though because at the job I did, people kept coming up to me asking for a duplicate of a button I'd made 30 minutes ago, and I would not want to have to rummage through all my cards using the tiny LCD on the printer trying to find that persons particular shot.

I would recommend bringing a laptop. My canon 5D has a remote capture feature that dumps the image directly on to the computer hard drive (instead of the memory card). This is really draining on the battery though, so I would also need the DC coupler to plug the camera in to a power source.

Exchanging the cards between each shot so you can print while shooting, seems really cumbersome to me (and potentially dangerous too. Removing the card before the camera is done saving is sure path to irrecoverable image corruption!) So remote capture software is definitely the way to go. But if you had no other choice, I'm sure card swapping is doable.

My full equipment list looked (or would look, had I brought a laptop) something like this:

laptop
laptop power supply
mouse
camera body
lenses
compact flash cards
DC coupler
spare battery
flash (back up in case remote transmitter fails)
spare flash batteries
remote flash transmitter
remote flash receiver
spare remote transmitter battery
tripod
tripod quick release
back up sync cables (in case remote transmitter fails)
strobe 1 (I use Alien Bees)
strobe 2
2 umbrellas
2 strobe bells
2 strobe cables
2 light stands
extension cord
power strip
spare flash bulbs
2 backdrop stands
1 backdrop extension pole
backdrop (s)
4-6 sandbags
gaff tape
clamps
printer
extra paper/ink packs (500 total)
paper cartridge
power supply
mini to standard USB cable
standard printer USB cable
USB extension cable
trash bag
Model 350 Photo Button Maker
Model 4000 Graphic Punch
500 Complete Button Sets
500 Easel Back Add Ons
table (this was provided by the party planners)
folding hand truck

Miraculously, I was able to get all of it onto the cart and/or my person for carrying. I didn't have any time to shoot a proper photo of my setup, but I managed to snag a couple of snaps during a slower moment - which was rare!

The event was a total success and the buttons were a major hit. The party was for teens around 12-16 years old. They couldn't get enough of the buttons!! Many of the kids were so into the button machine they wanted to press their own photo buttons. One kid in particular made so many buttons, I slipped him a 20 at the end of the night!! I needed his help for sure.

If I were to get another job like this, I'd definitely bring an assistant.


The packages I offer for event photo buttons are as follows:

$685.00 for up to 100 buttons
or
$850.00 for up to 500 buttons

I usually commit to 5 hours at your standard party. My fees cover my take home pay, an assistant, and materials. If you had to buy all of the gear I listed, it would probably run you $5,000 - $6,000. Essentially you'd break even after 12 events or thereabouts. But you could always start with a stripped down setup: on-camera flash instead of strobes, a cheaper camera, no backdrop and no computer for example. You could also get a battery powered printer and just show up at street fairs, selling photo buttons for $5-$7 a pop. My mother in law is doing pretty well making photo buttons at dog shows with her little point and shoot camera and a battery powered Selphy.

In Seattle there are more photographers than I care to count. The competition is cutthroat and every one needs a niche. Photo buttons are a great niche for events, sports, and kids photography.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them here!!

DIY Wedding Favors

Adorable DIY Wedding Favors!!
Put that Button Maker to use for fun wedding flare!!!

First up: The Super Cute Engagement Photo Magnet Bucket

As you may or may not already know, aside from ButtonMakers, I am also a full time portrait and wedding photographer.

As a nice little perk to my wedding packages I offer an engagement shoot and the most adorable little photo magnets you've ever seen in your life!!

But you don't have to book a photographer to make these cuties for your big day. Just break out your best shot, your button machine, some craft supplies, and you've just made yourself the most adorable wedding favor EVER!

The magnets pictured here are 1-1/2 inch. They cost $0.29 each ($29/hundred). I used 6 per bucket. I got the pails from Michaels for less than $0.99 each. Then I also needed a little bit of foam for the inside of the buckets, and some ribbon. I found these laying around the house. But even if you had to buy the foam and ribbon, it would still be less than $5 per bucket, not counting the price of the machine and punch. It's still a hell of a deal for personalized wedding favors!

Next, We Present: Blooming Buttons!

Okay, I admit I was having a major Martha moment when I came up with this one. You should have seen the way I was gushing when I found those itty bity terracotta flower pots!

With this project, we're using buttons instead of magnets. The idea is that the guests can take the button from the stem and wear it around.

You might need to include a little card with instructions like this: "Take the button off the stem. Wear it around to meet new friends."

While you could make personalized buttons for every guest, and it would be freaking hilarious to see someone wearing a "Therapist of the Groom" or "Personal Trainer of the Bride" buttons, that would be a tad impractical. So instead we made guest of honor 'flowers' and lined the bottom of the pot with green buttons that just say "Jeffrey hearts Heather." Jeffrey and Heather of course, being our fictional bride and groom.

For the stems, I just used small wooden dowel wrapped in yarn. (Actually, the dowels were skewers from a kabobfest I had a while back.) The yarn is really key, because it allows you to affix the pin back to the stem and keep the button in place. Plus it's really inexpensive and looks crafty and cute! I used green peas for the base in this photo, which admittedly didn't work out so well. I would definitely recommend potting foam for anyone doing this for an actual wedding. The leaves are plastic and came from the artificial flower section of Michaels.

I used 1-1/2 inch buttons for the 'flowers' and 1 inch buttons to fill the pot.

Last and Least Expensive: Bride Side / Groom Side Buttons!

This one is the simplest idea of them all and is a great way to help your wedding guests mingle and get to know one another.

Simply make buttons that say Bride Side and Groom Side! Coordinate the colors with the scheme of your wedding, and these little buttons will be the perfect touch to your perfect day!!

For these, I actually printed the flower pattern and text on transparencies. I used the transparency instead of mylar and used a piece of velum instead of a printed graphic. This allows the metal to shine through and gives it a nice creamy metallic look. It's a hard to capture in a photo, but it looks really nice in person.

As always, please feel free to post questions, comments, or ideas here. I love to hear from you!!

What paper is best for buttons?

I get this question a lot. The answer depends on the following things:

1. The printer you own
2. The button machine you own
3. The graphics you intend to print
4. Your personal preferences
   

Before I get into the specifics of each one of these, first I need to point out that many of problems that people often attribute to the paper is actually a printer profile issue. If your prints are coming out too dark or too red or something like that, your paper is probably fine - but you're using the wrong color profile. Please see my post about ICC Color Profiles for information on that.

1. Your printer. If you are using an inkjet printer, you must use coated inkjet papers. Inkjet printers can produce very high resolution (lots of little dots in a small space) almost entirely because of the paper. The coating on inkjet paper does not allow the ink to spread. The ink is contained on the paper in a tiny pocket creating a nice sharp ink dot.

If you use non-coated paper or paper that does not explicitly state that it is designed for inkjet printers, you will know right away, because your print will look like complete ca ca. We're not talking just too dark, or too red - but an all out blurry, strange colored, cloudy, ugly mess.

Okay, so now you know you must use coated inkjet paper in your inkjet printer. Is there a specific brand or style of paper that is better than another? In general it is best to use the brand of paper distributed by your printer manufacturer. You'll have less of a color management headache if you stick with the brand recommended by your printer manufacturer. Also the thickness of the paper is important and is explained in further detail in the Your Button Machine section below.

If you are using a laser printer, you can get the same DPI prints from standard office paper as you can from glossy paper, so the other factors below might be of greater interest to laser users.

2. Your Button Machine. There are two types of button machines available from ButtonMakers.net the Standard or Paper machine and the Photo machine. The Photo machines are only available in the 3 and 3.5 inch sizes at this time. Only the machines specifically labeled as PHOTO machines are photo, the rest are all standard.

If you have a standard machine, we recommend using paper that is 5 mil in thickness or less. If you use paper that is too thick, it'll be really hard to press and you'll get lots of buttons with torn mylar (see the red circle).

If you have a photo machine, you can use pretty thick paper stock without a problem. We generally say up to 16 mil for the photo machines. I've used heavyweight matte, thick coated glossy paper, dye sub prints, and even silver prints from the photo lab in the Photo button machines all with great success. If you've come across a paper stock that's too thick for the Photo machines, please let me know about it.

There is a lot of paper out there that has the pounds printed instead of the mils. But this is not an accurate measurement for the actual thickness of the paper, because depending on the materials used one pound of paper can be thicker than another. In general though, inkjet "presentation" papers are good, but glossy and heavyweight papers are usually too thick.

3. Your Graphics. It is easier to get away with doing solid color graphics on thinner paper. If you're doing mostly graphics based buttons (as opposed to photos) then a laser printer is great, cost effective, and fast. But if you're doing a lot of really detailed graphics, photo realism, or actual photographs you may require more resolution than your average consumer grade laser printer can produce and you're better off using a nice glossy inkjet paper in an inkjet printer. Photos on a laser printer tend to look a little better on coated gloss papers as well.

4. Your preference. As with most things in life, this paper question comes down to personal choice. Once you get your color figured out and you've come to a conclusion on the laser vs. inkjet debate for your specific needs, then it all comes down to whether you like the look, feel, drying time, and density of one finish over another.

I personally use Epson Presentation Paper Matte #3 when I am making photo buttons. I use a regular button machine to make my photo buttons. I don't use the PHOTO button machine with super thick paper, because I find it more cost effective to use the thinner paper. If I were a sports photographer, however, and had 200 different photos to make buttons out of, I would probably opt for a PHOTO machine and I would get my prints done at a lab.

I use regular old office paper for all my other buttons that are graphic based (as opposed to photographic). These I print on a Konica Minolta Magicolor 2300 laser printer. This model has been discontinued, but there are less expensive and higher resolution color laser printers coming on the market. If you're going to be doing custom buttons for a living, or ANY buttons other than photo buttons a decent laser printer is highly recommended. And once again, the paper is mostly irrelevant when using a laser printer.