School photo price moan

[Yellowskies1988]

Sick of been sent several photos and not being able to add them both to a package (tempest)

Why cant schools just set up a seat on the hall, drop the curtain and suggest several backgrounds then do their own photos + Charge half as less and keep the money to go towards funding instead of getting professionals in? Maybe people would buy more + school get more funding.

Also - I’m sorry to hear about DP

I agree op, just bought my dds school photos (Tempest too) bloody extortionate prices and they never have exactly what we want so we have to order not enough or too many!!

Tempest do our nursery and now school photos and they are awful . Just bad photos with odd poses and lighting. I have many hundreds of photos of my dc that are better than those sent home and I can print and frame them for much less than Tempest charge.

So, I do!

@Yellowskies1988

I feel your pain. School photos were shit 4 times out of 5.

Thankfully, with the advent of digital cameras, it was possible to sit DC on a chair in front of the magnolia wall in the kitchen in the school uniform, and take 2 dozen pics, and pick the best! Go to Boots photo booth print off type machine thingy, and get 5 X 7 inch printed for 40p a piece. MUCH cheaper. AND you know they're good.

I am sorry your OH is ill and you are struggling with your other child, but seriously, it will take half an hour of your life.

You have probably spent more time composing your original post, and posting in this thread!!!

You have asked for advice and sympathy (re; the bad school photos,) and have got it. Don't diss people and pour scorn over people. Doing it yourself is excellent advice. School photos are terrible - and massively overpriced.

See also University Graduation Day photos. Effing rip off. The ones me and DH took were waaaaay better. Waste of £65 that was!

If you don't want to pay for a professional service just take your own photos of your kid in uniform. Do you really think schools are so over staffed they can set up a photo studio for you?

People who are saying "you dont have to buy" your right but it's my child reception one this year so it would be nice to have photos.

So take a photo in the uniform yourself 🤷‍♀️

So you're busy working, so are teachers, you take time out of your working day to it. Teachers also have ill parents and children with additional needs.

*ill partners

Good grief spanglydangly - did you have to be so unsympathetic? The OP is just having a bit of a moan about something that many people find frustrating. Why are so many posters taking it so seriously?

OP - I know exactly what you mean and feel it too. Although I would agree with others that if the alternative is to get non-professionals to do it then you may as well do it yourself. I think the problem with 'official' photos is that you do feel emotionally blackmailed into getting them! Also, sorry to hear about your DP

“ no or maybe they could get the local photography club or college class to do it instead ... didnt mean to make you cry”

That’s a really good idea OP! Assume you’ll give the school their contact details yeah?

Don't be ridiculous. If you don't want them don't get them. Schools don't have enough time to take the photos, edit, resize, crop, print, frame, sort orders, take money for, send out.

I'd love to know what tempest and the school make from these photos?
Our school has over a thousand pupils and the average spend must be £20.
I'd imagine the revenue for the day must be 15 thousand.

I'd happily pay the prices of the photographer used by DD's school if he were actually any good. He seems to edit all the photos to the point where the children's features start to disappear. Bit like turning the beauty filter on my phone camera up to ten. He has a complete monopoly on the area but I've no idea why.

Does anybody remember Fred and Penelope, the Rupert Fawcett characters that were very popular on greetings cards 20-30 years ago? They had whimsical captions such as "Fred was horrified to discover a cornflake in his rice crispie collection".

The last photos that were taken of our DS had two different poses - a nice normal traditional one (which we bought) and a 'wacky' one that instantly brought to mind the old Fred 'classic' "Everybody simultaneously pointed at their favourite part of the room". Even if we had been at all interested, it didn't help that our DS's face was 75% obscured by another boy's arm.

Yellowskies No tears here.

The reason why they are expensive, is because it's an expensive business to run (employees, equipment, logistics, admin etc), plus the schedule makes a cut, plus not everyone will buy the photos.
Tempest aren't a charity, they want to make money. Plus it's not exactly compulsory to buy the photos... Just like it's not at theme parks.

When I was a kid (a long time ago), the photos were still expensive and my mum bought one photo of me and my siblings throughout our whole school years, that’s all. She took them from home in our uniforms from that point . I mean it was on Polaroid’s then at home , not mobiles , but you can just take it on your phone yourself?

Just take it yourself. You can print photos online for very little.

Tempest are terrible anyway

They are too expensive. Our school got a parent to take whole class photos one year and sold them for a fiver at the Christmas fair. Made quite a bit of money. The photos were definitely not as high quality but no-one complained. And hardly anyone bought the fancy expensive tempest ones that year

Our school doesn't do photos. Seems to be unusual in that.

There’s a parent at our school who is a professional photographer and one Christmas faire she volunteered to do a photo shoot. Note “one”. She never repeated that mistake again! Anyone wrangling 200-400 kids in a day and getting a decent shot of them deserves to charge outrageous prices

I think we’ve got about seven school photos between them from over the years. We only bought when they nagged sufficiently. Most of the time they were hideous and lacked personality. They wanted the big school leavers class photos but that’s about all.
Just don’t buy them.

You don't have to buy them if you don't want to.

Remember that the photographer is making a living - they need to charge enough to cover their overheads (buy and maintain cameras and lights and backdrops etc, photoshop subs, equipment and public liability insurance, transport to & from the venue, printing and mounting costs etc), as well as make enough to live on. Don't forget that you're paying for their time and experience as well as the finished product.

This is Mumsnet, the place where a quick iPhone snap is better than a professional photographer's work, but I believe that if you want a professional photo you need to pay professional prices.

I've never bought a single one. DS is 14 and has SEN and cannot sit still so they are always crap.