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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate modern 'class' photos?

163 replies

plantsitter · 09/05/2016 16:24

Where's the sense of occasion? Why are they doing cheesy poses in socks? What exactly is wrong with the class in the school hall so you actually know where they are??

(I might be feeling sore cos they grouped my admittedly tall DD with all the shortest kids and she looks like Gargantua...)

OP posts:
EweAreHere · 10/05/2016 16:34

I prefer the new ones, too.

fragsjones · 10/05/2016 17:29

I don't buy them, I hate the 'modern' format. Ours do small groups and basically copy and paste them together...haven't bought a group photo ever from my school and only the first reception pick of my eldest as they changed the singles format after that year too 😭
I take better photos myself so I can't see me ever buying the school photos again - it's a shame for the school as I have 3 children and a fourth on the way so could've been a money spinner for them if they were any good! 😂

MintyChapstick · 10/05/2016 18:16

They're awful. Some schools do sports team ones as well as the whole class photos, but by far the wankiest one ive ever seen is where the Year 6's have a special photo where they are all standing around the head teacher.

Originalfoogirl · 10/05/2016 18:49

Stealthsquiggle. I think she was happy enough, especially this year, she was like lady muck sitting on her throne with her buddies all around her (apparently they were fighting about who got to stand next to her!). But I'm more worried about the wider message it sends out - let's not have these photos with all that "equipment" in it. To me photos are a record of the now, to reflect reality, and her frame is as much a part of who she is, as her ridiculously cheesy grin is. I'd have like to have bought the picture but it would have forever bugged me.

shamelessmailhack · 10/05/2016 19:05

Haha just did nursery pickup and got a leaflet to say photographers will be in next week. Again. Lots of crap stock photos on the leaflet. And they'll be photoshopping out bumps and bruises apparently. Heaven forbid the children don't look like airbrushed angels.

The poster who said about the girl doing the splits made me laugh. There's always one of those isn't there? In my class it was a cartwheel girl who'd never stop doing them. I was so jealous.

Penygirl · 10/05/2016 23:28

I'd just like to point out that if you saw the conveyor belt speed that these photos are taken, you'd understand why your own photos turn out so much better! The companies that provide this 'service' want to get the job done as quickly as possible, preferably in half a day so that they don't have to pack away their equipment over lunchtime. The company my school uses produces a tiny proof copy for individual and family photos, so not much outlay there. I don't think they are that bothered how good a take up there is, to be honest!
The composite ones involve a bit more work and the final result obviously depends upon the skill of the person manipulating the images. That could explain why some people like them whereas others hate them.

Zuba · 11/05/2016 08:20

Ours have reverted to this kind of group school photo as well!! Last year I had my kids telling me they had to sit in a box Hmm this year laying on the floor Confused
I didn't buy either and took my own.
The individual school photos are still the sitting kind so I buy them if they're any good but tbh my ds1 looked bloody miserable in his this year Grin

CocktailQueen · 11/05/2016 11:13

I hate them too. I don't want a long photo that's impossible to frame. I want a small one of them all in rows so I can check in future years who's got married, gone to prison, etc. And don;t get me started on the artistically squint ones. Just gah.

giraffesCantReachTheirToes · 11/05/2016 11:30

Yanbu they look shit

Outofstrategies · 11/05/2016 11:33

They started doing them at my school too. It wasn't too bad till they accidentally deleted one of the groups. They sent us a class photo with 3 children missing. Of course it was the only 3 who wanted to buy it!

Mumpster · 11/05/2016 11:43

I hate them too. All this time I have spent forcefully impression on DS not to dick around in class, and then I get a photo of him looking like he is dicking around.....

Stood on the school gym benches was good enough for me!

As for do I buy them? Yes. What do I do with them? Shove them in my sons bedroom so he can look at the people he spends all bloody day with even on days off, you know..in case he forgets. I even write their names on the back so we know who they are. I'm figuring in years to come he will need to find them on LinkedIn because they will all be high flyers and its good to have contacts...Grin

littlesos · 11/05/2016 11:47

ynbu. Just got ours and we have some children on standing on step ladders, what's that all about??

mumoseven · 11/05/2016 11:47

School photos, the individual ones, are just one more weird anachronism these days like ice cream vans cruising housing estates (useful in the days when home freezers were rare, not so much now)or milkmen.
Who can't take a photo of their own kid these days?
And the potty deal selections of your child (looking like a grotbag) where you end up with one for Nanna, one for auntie whatsit and 20 tiny useless not even suitable for passport squares cluttering up your drawer o shite.

nipersvest · 11/05/2016 11:51

other than the whole class year 6 leavers photo we haven't bought any school photos for either dc. too expensive, hair all over the place, they usually get put with people they're not really friends with for the class shots (ours tend to be done in small groups of 4 or 5, then each group is photoshopped together for the whole class shot). once dd got to high school, she hasn't even shown me the proof as she said they looked awful.

Pixiemumma · 11/05/2016 11:52

I refused to buy a class one of my DD, she is in nursery and they did this silly groups of four, but all the images were put in one really long line panoramic style, not only would I not afford £42 for it, but where would I put it? All the children we cuddling teddies and dolls and stuff. My daughter looked so out of place in it. I'm hoping her new school will do it the old traditional style, or individually at least.

canonlydoblue · 11/05/2016 11:53

I love the new style of doing it but maybe because I'm a teacher and it's easier to send them to the hall in groups of four than send the whole class and have to organise them shortest to tallest.

bruffin · 11/05/2016 12:05

mumoseven
the single photos are used by the school for the childrens file. My ds's was also up in the staffroom because of his allergies. My ds had to go into another school to identify someone who mugged him and we had to go through pages and pages of the school photos to identify him.

greybead · 11/05/2016 12:07

I like the old style ones with rows of kids.

Hate these weird ones, our school also converted to them. They no longer look like proper school photos.

nonicknameseemsavailable · 11/05/2016 12:12

personally as a parent I would far rather someone (parent/teacher/TA) who was pretty good with a camera came in and took a standard traditional style class photo and then took orders with profits to the PTA. cheaper for parents, more likely to get something the parents/school actually want and profits go to benefit the children. I realise harsh for photographers but the ones our school use seem to have the monopoly locally for school photos and the pictures are terrible so I would rather they didn't profit from parents feeling they ought to buy it.

IsSpringSprangedYet · 11/05/2016 12:17

My sisters DS had to pose with his bully! You can see the worry in his face Sad. I didn't like them, my nephews had hoops and beach balls Hmm. Our class ones are all traditional. The individual ones are on a white background but in the typical side on pose. I like those. The modern ones are awful though!

MsHoolie · 11/05/2016 12:26

I like them. Bought one one year but nowhere in the house to hang the damn thing, so it has stayed in it's cardboard roll, so kinda pointless.

RubbleChaseRocky · 11/05/2016 12:39

Yep, hate them. They did the same with my dd in reception, her socks were higher than the children around her. She looked like Gulliver

ilyacailly · 11/05/2016 12:44

I'm a teacher and I absolutely hate the new style class photos. They're awful and I honestly think the only reason photographers do them is that they can photograph small groups of children separately and then create a composed image of all of them, whereas a normal class photo means that at least a couple of children might not look their best. People are too used, nowadays, to getting perfect pictures. Digital photography has stopped the snapshots where someone might not look so great. Gives really unrealistic expectations!!!!

GlomOfNit · 11/05/2016 12:50

They're loathsome. Utterly pointless to group children in arbitrary clusters with children they don't even know, in some cases! (Mixed years.) DS1's at a small village school, so we're talking less than 100 pupils, but even so, he was less than enchanted to be grouped with about 10 other random children, only a few of whom were his classmates, and a TA from a class 4 years below him! Random and meaningless.

Plus the socks thing is bloody stupid. Is it because of the white sheets the photographer lays down? Why can't they wash them between schools if they're that precious? Photos cost enough, after all ...

VulcanWoman · 11/05/2016 13:01

I think it depends on the photographer. My son's school did some of the more modern one's, I thought they were great, but can imagine if the photographer didn't know what they were doing it could look a mess.