How To Choose The Right School Photographer For Your School

Admin Burden

This is the most important question to ask yourself, and it will help you weed out a lot of unsuitable photographers very quickly. The question is, ‘how much administrative burden does our photographer put on us?’ How do they remember and schedule all their shoots without missing an appointment? Do you have to manage the ordering process as well as having to distribute photos and collect money? And most importantly, how much are all of those things costing you in time, money and sanity? Any good school photographer will have a digital ordering system with home delivery options available for you to use, which will take a huge chunk of the admin away from the school. So, if the school photography company you’re talking to doesn’t have one, take their name off the shortlist! Check also how long you’ll have to wait for order information and final order deliveries. Unbelievably some can be as long as 2 months.

Support

School photo time can bring up a lot of questions from both schools and parents. How does the photographer manage this? Are they old-fashioned and expect the school to deal with it all? That’s a lot of extra work for you, and doesn’t leave you with a lot of options if you don’t know the answer! Ideally, you want a photographer who provides a support telephone line for both school and parent enquiries. There should be someone on the other end who can answer questions and provide general support before and after your photo day.

Scheduling

Will your photographer just sit there twiddling his thumbs and expect you to call and book your next shoot? It’s, unfortunately, a common stance, but often not the best one for your school. You want a school photographer who can book your photo days well in advance, reminding you when regular photo days are due and suggesting other photo options that could benefit the school. While we’re on the subject of scheduling, having a photographer who can help you design a timetable and plan for photo day is a big advantage, and will help make your day go much smoother.

The Actual Offering

Now we get down to what your photographer will actually do for you (not just how they do it!). A few questions to ask include:

• Do you offer a range of photo styles to suit the school?
• How many poses will you photograph of each child?
• Can you do outdoor ‘natural’ photographs? Perhaps as an additional fundraising opportunity.
• Do you provide free pictures of the staff and free group samples for the school to keep?
• What is the parent order system like? How quickly is your turnaround of photo orders?
• Can parents mix and match their packs from different photos?
• Can parents build their own packs from any photo oftheir children, reducing waste and added expense?
• For group photos, can the photographer manage outdoor setups but have an indoor solution in case of rain?
• Does you photography company have a no quibble guarantee?

Cost

Sadly, often decisions come down to money. And this is where ‘cost’ vs ‘value’ and ‘quality’ can lead to a wrong decision or two!

You’ll want to ensure prices for parents is not extortionate – they have a limited budget for school photos after all. And this is where it’s worth ensuring your shortlisted photographers have a clear and proven workflow that saves them time and money. It is usually the one-man-bands or occasional school photographers who do everything manually and therefore need to charge more to cover their time. A larger company will have cost-effective processes ensuring lower overheads.

But that’s not the whole story. Beware of ‘too good to be true’ offers. Some bigger companies will promise low cost products for parents (their lowest prices are usually on the packs that parents generally DON’T purchase) and large school commissions (a high percentage paid to you might mean higher parent prices, but be wary of whether that percentage is based on revenues or profits). They’ll even give away freebies and services to get your business. All well and good, but you’ll likely be tied into a long contract, and no guarantee that prices won’t increase after your first year.

We’ve heard it all, and it’s why we always ensure our parents prices are in line with the market, and commissions are fair without disadvantaging parents. There aren’t short term offers, giveaways and tricks. We’re simply honest.

Finally, consider value. A photo that’s less than fantastic will always look expensive when compared to a photograph that makes parents ooh and ahh with delight, and with a fantastic selection of images that leave parents wanting to purchase them all. Yes, great quality photographs may mean parents want to spend more – but they are investing in beautiful memories to keep and share, and likely won’t mind spending a little more as a result! Consider the general cost of School photos vs High Street Studio photoshoots, and you’ll never question cost of high quality school photography again!

Phew! Right – that’s a lot to think about.

But by the time you’ve got through all the above, your school photographer shortlist should be much shorter! The only other thing to do is decide which photographer best suits your school’s size, style and ethos. After all, if you ‘gel’ with your photographer, you’re more likely to get better results and better service. Choose well, and you should have a partner to stick with for many years to come.

Want to know how Smiles at School measure up? We’d love to show you why most of our clients stick with us for over 10 years and more, are delighted with the quality and price we offer, and the smooth processes we deliver, making photo day easy peasy lemon squeezy!

It takes just 3 steps to get started:

1. Complete our contact form
2. We’ll chat through how we can best solve your challenges
3. We’ll find the perfect date for your photo day and get you booked in

The rest is smooth sailing! You’ll be another happy part of the Smiles At School family!