Photo Journalism Gear, wifi bits & bobs to plug in and send images fast...

Suzy McKnockers

Suzy McKnockers

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Jason
Edit My Images
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Hi Guys & Gals

How we all doing!??!

I've been shooting some bands recently and on occasion the news paper which I have has to send the pictures to generally need them before the gig finishes - which is fine if i live local to the venue but depending on train times ect its not always possible..

I've noticed at some gigs people plugging in little (what I think) are wifi boxes maybe? I may be way off the mark on that...

Anyway - what do I need so I can take the macbook to the gig, come out after the first three songs and send the images ASAP to the paper after a quick edit? here's couple of shots to make the post a little more interesting

Liam Fray - The Courteeners
The Courteeners - Front Man - Liam Fray by Irafusha By Jason Palmer, on Flickr

Inspirals - Clint Boon
Clint Boon - Inspiral Carpets by Irafusha By Jason Palmer, on Flickr

Inspirals - Stephen Holt
20151211-IMG_8951 by Irafusha By Jason Palmer, on Flickr
 
ps... i realise i can tether via my iphone but i dont think the 3g or 4g will be fast enough??
 
If the 3g/4g signal isn't strong enough you will need to get onto a wifi signal either in the venue or nearby (coffee shop etc). Either way, you just need an internet connection then use whatever method the newspaper prefer. I always use a shared Dropbox folder for sharing my images so I can manage the folder and any changes are automatically updated with everyone sharing.
 
With a good signal I would have thought 3G would be reasonable and 4G no problem at all.
Here we are on ADSL and upload is 373kb! - 3G seems much faster uploading, to the extent I sometimes use it while out rather than slow things down at home.
 
I would assume the box is a wifi to 3G/4G mobile hotspot. But tethering or scrounging WiFi should work as well (as has been said).
 
3/4G is plenty good enough to send images out to newspapers.

It is what sports and news photographers use day in day out in many UK football stadiums (few with ethernet pitchside and often wifi is slow/unreliable), but obviously in more remote places as well.

What you don't do is send 15-20MB files through it. Usually a paper will have a spec which will see you sending 1MB files at the largest which means a standard (ideally 4G) cellular phone/modem will handle.

You'll also want to consider using Photomechanic which gives you a strong workflow for selecting and captioning and makes sending selects via FTP a doddle.
 
meonshore said:
3/4G is plenty good enough to send images out to newspapers.

It is what sports and news photographers use day in day out in many UK football stadiums (few with ethernet pitchside and often wifi is slow/unreliable), but obviously in more remote places as well.

What you don't do is send 15-20MB files through it. Usually a paper will have a spec which will see you sending 1MB files at the largest which means a standard (ideally 4G) cellular phone/modem will handle.

You'll also want to consider using Photomechanic which gives you a strong workflow for selecting and captioning and makes sending selects via FTP a doddle.
Click to expand...


Thanks Mike
 
I used to do this every weekend from football and rugby grounds around the country. My recommendation is to get 2 or 3 wifi hotspot "dongles" or "mifi" units with SIM cards from different mobile carriers and use whichever one of those that has the best signal to create a wifi hotspot for your computer to connect to. Then email to the picture desk (or FTP if they want you to send that way). Send no more than 2500 pixels long edge, 70% quality (if using Lightroom) to keep the files around 1Mb as said earlier.

And of course you can create a hotspot with your own phone. The reason for having multiple dongles with different operators is to ensure you can at least get a signal on one of them. Don't rely on just one comms mechanism. Get SIMs from carriers from different operators to your phone obviously. 3G will be fine. 4G is great.

When I went into a football ground I'd check if they had, in priority order, 1) wired LAN 2) WiFi 3) mobile coverage and which carrier was strongest. For wired LAN, always have a network cable in your bag. I went one step further and carried a tiny battery powered TP-Link wireless router so I could create my own hotspot and not worry about cables.

You might want to read this: http://tobinators.com/blog/index.ph...itchside-upload-with-iphone-4-3-wifi-hotspot/

And this: http://tobinators.com/blog/index.php/2014/06/techniques/brazil-9-days-to-go-plus-a-bit-of-rugby/

And this, to show why you need multiple methods: http://tobinators.com/blog/index.php/2014/05/techniques/too-clever-by-half/
 
Last edited:
Tobers said:
I used to do this every weekend from football and rugby grounds around the country. My recommendation is to get 2 or 3 wifi hotspot "dongles" or "mifi" units with SIM cards from different mobile carriers and use whichever one of those that has the best signal to create a wifi hotspot for your computer to connect to. Then email to the picture desk (or FTP if they want you to send that way). Send no more than 2500 pixels long edge, 70% quality (if using Lightroom) to keep the files around 1Mb as said earlier.

And of course you can create a hotspot with your own phone. The reason for having multiple dongles with different operators is to ensure you can at least get a signal on one of them. Don't rely on just one comms mechanism. Get SIMs from carriers from different operators to your phone obviously. 3G will be fine. 4G is great.

When I went into a football ground I'd check if they had, in priority order, 1) wired LAN 2) WiFi 3) mobile coverage and which carrier was strongest. For wired LAN, always have a network cable in your bag. I went one step further and carried a tiny battery powered TP-Link wireless router so I could create my own hotspot and not worry about cables.

You might want to read this: http://tobinators.com/blog/index.ph...itchside-upload-with-iphone-4-3-wifi-hotspot/

And this: http://tobinators.com/blog/index.php/2014/06/techniques/brazil-9-days-to-go-plus-a-bit-of-rugby/

And this, to show why you need multiple methods: http://tobinators.com/blog/index.php/2014/05/techniques/too-clever-by-half/
Click to expand...


Thanks Andy - Thats fantastic advice! I hope it helps others too! I'll most definitely check out the links! cheers buddy !
 
Suzy McKnockers said:
ps... i realise i can tether via my iphone but i dont think the 3g or 4g will be fast enough??
Click to expand...
4g would be plenty fast enough, more than adequate, but you'd need a huge data plan!
 
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