I am getting more and more opportunities to do school pictures which is a little different than what I have been doing (T&I) and family photos and wanted to know for those that do this what do you use for printing the proofs/price sheets and how much estimated costs are there per kid if anyone has ever done the math ? I ask because everyone knows my prices from my league shoots however there is a lot more work when you have to print proofs like the big School Photography companies. I have Photoshop and also Express Digital and both are capable of printing proofs, I also own shinkos for printing and know what my costs would be per print but was just wandering if most send their proof sheets off to a lab or if you print them in house ?
John, the schools I have been talking to want to see proofs before they buy, I guess that is what they have been used to doing, both are K-12. So you never send anything back to the parents and let them pick their package , is it all prepay like the T&I business?
When I was in the school pics business we sent proofs home for 12th graders all the time, but otherwise, for K-11 I'd say 99% was pre-pay and the photog usually only took one shot of each child unless a blink or other facial "error" was apparent.
YMMV.
The way I have seen it approached in the past here is they send home a proof shot and a price sheet, the parents order from that. I would guess that is also why the prices were through the roof, $40.00 for the larger package.
How does prepay "add a lot of time"? If nothing else, it's less time. After all, you still have the same amount of shooting (possibly much less for pre-pay, if for "proof" sessions you shoot multiple poses), same amount of processing per order. The big difference is that you don't have to do the proofing stage and can go straight to fulfilling orders.
As Larry said, the studios around here that do proofing for school shoots have much higher prices. One school shoot of my son in pre-school was "proofed," with three poses. My kids' elementary school studio does Fall pre-paid, but then a "spec" Spring shoot with color-printed-on-the-paper-order-forms proofs.
I was referring to making the proofs adding time and costs but that is what the schools are requesting and they know it adds $$$ to my prices. I have mostly done prepaid but this is definately a change and adding costs to everything.
when I was doing pre-school photography years ago, at the end of the day, I hand over to the school their proof sheet that includes ordering forms. Nothing was prepay. Proof sheets included two poses and they get to pick the one they want to buy or both. 85% of the time, the parents buy both, including a class photo. If the parents are not interested buying them, for the most part, they will let the school know in advance, b4 pic day. but they do need to be in the class pictures...
Which time? The pre-school ones were 8x10 proofs, on Kodak paper.
The elementary "spring" photos are printed on the order form itself, which was standard "white" printer paper. The elementary proofs were very poor quality, printed in color, sepia, and B&W.
And I'm assuming you meant "It does add a lot of time when things are NOT prepay I am finding out" above?
