Yearbook Photos -- What does it take? Advice needed

[daniel_sone]

<p>There are a lot of small schools in my area, with about 500 students or less.

About how much should I charge the school to provide yearbook head shots? You

know, the run-of-the-mill type.<br>

Here are my questions:

<ul>

<li>Are two strobes with stands, umbrellas, etc. enough?</li>

<li>How much should I charge for my time? I usually $150/hr.</li>

<li>What else is important essential?</li>

<li>Logistically speaking, can/should a properly equipped lone photographer

tackle school yearbook head shots for small schools?</li>

</ul>

 

</p>

[blake_abbott]

Daniel,

I'm an amateur photographer and a teacher at a school with 900 students. A commercial outfit does our yearbook photos and they bring a backdrop with two lights, stool etc. Sometimes, IIRC they bring two of these setups and about 6-8 people. It seems like a couple of people aren't doing much to help (maybe they're new). Anyway, I think the schools like this because they can move a lot of people through very quickly. Having 500 adolescents milling around waiting for pictures could be a real management problem. If you were going to try it, I'd think about getting some help.

[sam_ellis]

I'm also a yearbook advisor/wedding and portrait photographer. You don't charge the school anything, in fact, you PAY the school a commission based on what you sell to the parents. I don't know what our school gets percentage wise, but we each year we receive a few thousand dollars from portraits, sports packages, prom packages.

 

We have 1100 students in our school and we have four or five photographers on picture day so we can get it all done in one day. With a smaller school, you could possibly do different grades on different days so you could do it all on your own.

 

Generally, they use a four light setup, main, fill, background, and hairlight.

 

You also need to think about the management of taking the orders, keeping everything straight (who's who), processing the orders, and delivery. It's not an easy task, so make sure you know what you're getting into. This is where a second person or two would be helpful in keeping things straight on picture day. I'll tell you that if things get screwed up and people are standing around waiting, causing disruptions to schedules, kids getting in trouble because they're bored while waiting, you won't be hired again. NOBODY (teachers or administrators) really enjoys picture day, so they want someone who will come in, get it done, be organized, and not have to worry about them.

 

Sam

[daniel_sone]

<p>I never liked picture day myself, and the photographer didn't look like he was having fun either.</p>

<p>Giving the school a slice of my profit pie is not a problem, but how much (%)?<br>

I do have an online service where prints can be ordered and purchased. Or do I have to do it the old-fashioned way which is where an announcement is made, parents fill-out an order form and prepay, and then prints are sent a few weeks later?</p>

<p>I think I'll tackle the smaller, private schools to get my feet wet. I do have an assistant, but I would be the one with the camera.</p>

[sam_ellis]

I couldn't imagine it being a fun experience to do 30-second headshots all day.

 

I think we get about 10% of the company's revenue off print packages. Like I said, that includes dances, seniors, prom, sports, etc.

 

Speaking of the extras, if you get a contract to do the photos, you may have to include their sports and dances as well. They will need a photographer for these things and would expect to only have to deal with one company. There's also plays, band concerts, band individual photos, chorus, clubs... Just something to think about, it's not just the one day at the school.

 

They will also need you to submit the photos for the yearbook, even an elementary school. Most yearbook companies expect photos in a database format so the names and photos can be matched up automagically. When I get the disc from our photographer, I just send it to Jostens and they upload them to their website we create the pages on. The names and photos are automatically matched up. It would be a lot of work to sort them out by hand. Maybe for a smaller school, it isn't a problem.

 

A smaller private school might be willing to break from the old fashioned way of ordering. BUT, you could run into privacy issues unless you password protect each individual student's photos. We have had issues in the past where a student's photo was not allowed to be published on our website, yearbook, newspaper, etc. Generally speaking, they would likely forego the pictures in the first place.

 

I would set up a meeting with the principal/headmaster and find out what they would be interested in doing. Possibly meet with the PTO or other parent organization and find out if online ordering would be a better option, maybe market it as eco-friendly since you don't have the paper forms. More flexibility and not locked into packages.

 

I've considered doing the same thing but come to the conclusion that it's not worth the hassle. :)

 

Sam

 

P.S. Don't forget about re-take day. Again, there's a reason that large companies handle school pictures.

[randmcnatt]

I worked with a large portrait studio which started doing small schools mainly to keep their staff busy in the slow seasons (I wrote some of the software). They arrive on Picture Day with at least 4 people - 2 brat-wranglers, one for paper(less)work and a photographer - at least three computers, a laser-printer and a complete if somewhat lighter-weight studio setup. They shoot tethered using custom software packages.

 

The school gets a % of the sales, a complimentary package for each teacher and staff member, an individual Id card for each student, an office ID index card of each student (if requested) and a CD or DVD with all the students' pictures. That's pretty standard for all school portrait outfits.

 

They print combined proof/payment envelopes on the spot to send home with the students and collect them a week or two later, make up the packages, and deliver those back to the school. For some schools they offer class-by-class composites. Yes, there are make-up days, but they also allow students to drop by the studio for re-shoots and make-ups. Most elementary schools also have two shoots per year, one for individual pics, and one for class groups, and some schools have sports groups, too.

 

So far, they're making a few bucks on it, but as mentioned, they mostly use the shoots to give their photographers something to do during the off months (plus the owner is very community-minded).

[Jerry_]

Looking at a one-man shooting schedule:

 

 

 

Hours = 8

 

 

 

Minutes available = 480

 

 

 

Number of children = 500

 

 

 

Time available per child = .96 minutes, or 57.6 seconds

 

 

 

 

No time for a lunch break. No equipment issues. No 'rest' dduring a full day of shooting. And that is if each child co-operates....

[cjbryant]

Here in Florida (north of Tampa), the commission is around 40% of TOTAL SALES (not net profit). We do a small private school (300 students) that doesn't require a commission as they did not like the national companies. We have inquired about the local public schools, but most of them do not really want to meet with us. They are happy with their 40% from the national companies.

 

However, in order to oust the national chains, you must offer the school a better product, less hassle, and more value. The commission % can vary if you can provide a faster service and much more organized. We are currently in the process of getting more gear to do 8-10 setups. This way we will be able to finish an entire school (1000+ students) by noon, something that most likely cannot be matched.

 

Another thing that will be positive in the eyes of the school is the speed in which you return the orders. With digital you should be able to get everything back to the school within a week at the latest. Keep it organized otherwise it will not work well. It is a must to keep track of each student and keep them in order. Otherwise, you will not match-up the orders properly, creating a huge headache.

 

It is almost impossible to do any size school by yourself. You are just asking for trouble. We use 3 people for 300 students to make things run more smoothly. I shoot the students (tethered to laptop), my wife collects orders and stamps each with a counting stamp (1,2,3, etc) and the other person organizes the line.

 

We have each student enter from the right, sit down, I take 2 pictures and then they exit left. As they leave the stool, my wife grabs their order form. We require each student to turn in a form, even if they do not order. This way we have a name for each person that corresponds to an image number.

 

Hope this helps

[daniel_sone]

<p>Thanks for all the advice. I won't be shooting this ENTIRELY by myself, I already have an assistant for weddings, and borrowing a friend would be easy.</p>

<p>I also can rent back-up equipment or special equipment from a local pro studio for really cheap. They have everything from small stuff to entire HUGE setups.</p>

<p>The quality of my prints would probably be better than usual, as I use Supra Endura and the lab I use is a professional lab which can handle large volumes as well.</p>

<p>Organization is perhaps the hardest part. I can see from your replies that it appears to be numero uno.</p>

<p>To help me tackle this, do any of you know of a photography software that can organize, and even password-protect, such large events? For example, Bob Knight Photo (huge company) has something like that, what can I use?</p>

[keithdunlop]

I think the first thing you should do before spending too much time preparing how to shoot it, is to find out who is doing the work for the schools in your area now. Usually the entire school district contracts with a single company for all their schools, and at least in my area, it's a very monopolistic situation that is next to impossible to break through.

[jim_stulting]

I have used Exposure Manager for a few of my events, they have a good system and people can order online straight from them. You can even create coupon and discount codes to give to your customers that they can redeem online. Here is the link:

http://www.exposuremanager.com/aff/jstultingphoto

 

Hope this helps and best of luck with the yearbook photography.