School Portrait Business Opportunity?

[Allen]

My son has been in school for the past two years and both times the school portraits left a lot to be desired, imo. This year there were so many complaints because of technical issues (bad prints and other problems) they had to take some again. The first year my son's photo was way off center and looked horrible.

I know it's not an easy day taking the photos of so many kids, many who have no desire to have their photo taken.

My question is: is this something a one person crew (me) could handle? What I would like to do is take some photos of my sons class next year as a practice run, then try to pitch the idea to the school the FOLLOWING year. I'd love the opportunity to do something on this scale EVENTUALLY, but certainly don't want to get in over my head and cause the same problems that are going on now.

I'll have a few more questions, but would like to get a feel from those of you in the know right now. Thanks.

[Tom]

I forget the name of the company, but there is some huge company that has contracts with most schools for those portraits.

Same type of deal with most graduation portraits. They send some minimum wage worker with a diagram of how they are supposed to set things up, what settings the camera should be on, etc.

I was shooting some stock photography of a graduation and the guys were there to get the shake hands/receive degree pics. Shooting with a D70/kit lens/third part flash I don't recognize. I heard the shooter going through his checklist of settings/etc and calling into the home office to tell them that he couldn't find the setting to change it to JPG-Small. I can't imagine those big companies for school pics are much different.

"Set flash to 1/2, shutter to 1/100, aperture to 6.3, iso to 400, half click to focus, click.

[Cajungaltx]

I know that TriCoast just posted something about opening up a new 'school photo' division...

I got this from Marathon Press rececently:

Photographers...
Earn up to $1000 per hour with School Photography!


Register by June 8 and receive $50
"Early Bird" Discount off every registration!

This program has SOLD OUT every year for the past 5 years.
Register early to reserve your spot and save money!

Did you know that underclass school photographers (Grades K-11) earn some of the best money in the photo industry? If you've ever thought about diversifying your studio business to bring in BIG money during the Fall and Spring seasons - working weekdays before 3PM - and with no weekend work - this is the workshop for you! This comprehensive 5 day program presents everything you need to know to operate a successful undergraduate school portrait and yearbook business.

The program will be led by Chris Wunder, Cr. Photog., the nation's leading educator, platform speaker and author on School and Event Photography. His programs have been featured at every major convention including PPA, WPPI, PMA, PSPA, SPAC and many others. Chris offers this program only twice per year, and this is your chance!

[peeker]

Allen,

One of the company names is Lifetouch out of Eden Prairie, MN. They have different divisions, schools, churches, etc. Here is how they work and operate:

For church photography
- Photographers have to take pictures with Lifetouch equipment (which is somewhat customized)
- They might have a photographer and a "sales" person there while your portraits are done.
- Depending on the church, they might offer a free 8x10 to get you in the door to take your picture. The church might also get to give free directories out to the parishioners as well.
- The sale happens immediately (in most cases) based on what you like/don't like.
- Photographer makes 6-8%; sales person also makes 6-8% off of every sale. In some locations, the photographer is the sales person which means their cut is 12%-16% on the sale.
10ish appointments per day - 4-5 days a week. Avg of $80-$100 per sale
- 100% commission = $120-$160 / day.

Schools are not much different... the sale isn't immediate, it is done through the mail to the parents.

If you want to sell yourself to a school, you have to sell based on quality of relationship, print quality, etc. You will be in a price war as the school might see other benefits like paybacks based on volume, etc. There are one or two others that are in this same marketplace, although Lifetouch is the biggest.

Hope this helps.
Scott

[bondarnes]

School photography is not something you might take a shot at doing. Although some of the big chains don't have the greatest photographers it is really a numbers game. You will not make any money doing just a few classes or just one school. If you are really serious about this then I highly recommend the Marathon class. It is not cheap, but you will go into the school with enough information to actually have a chance at getting the job.

No one mentioned that to get the better schools be prepared to pay a 35% or more commission to the school.

[Allen]

Great info everyone...thanks for sharing. The school I'm referring to is a smaller, private school and I have no idea about their arrangement. That's info I can find out. Again, would be somethinig I'd possibly like to try do down the road. I'm still building up equipment and other things before I could get to that level. I probably wouldn't have even thought of it until I saw the poor product they were putting out.

Thanks again.

[Tom]

Lifetouch is the one I was thinking about, thanks.

[MyKey]

We (TriCoast) have created a secondary business for school portraits, with 6 full lighting set ups including Larson 3x4 softboxes, strips with AlienBee 800 lights, Denny backdrops, stools, computers for each station, barcode system for each station as well. All in all an investment over 15 grand just to have the basic equipment. School photography can make you money but is also a lot of headaches. If interested Ralph R. On the National PPA board specializes in school photography out of New Orleans and has a great book. Let me know if I can help out any possible way.

[janikphoto]

Originally Posted by peeker

...100% commission = $120-$160 / day.

Jeez!!! I'd rather just assist a commercial photog for that amount of money. back in the old days I used to get $150 a day to assist... plus a good, catered lunch for free.

Assistant's pay is no kind of money for a photographer.