The purpose of school photos has changed, hasn't it?

[merzeemee]

When I was a child in the 1970/80's the School Photo was an annual opportunity for a professional shot of me and my brother smiling, sitting still, and looking clean and smart in our uniforms. They were proudly bought, distributed to grandparents, compared from year to year, and fondly looked back on - especially the class photos of familiar faces with gradually forgotten names.

Now I'm a secondary school parent, I see them differently. They're an annual opportunity for the school to get cheap (free?) photos of every child and teacher. The childrens' photos are attached to their records in the school's Management Information System, helping staff to put faces to names. They are also used as profile pictures on school Microsoft accounts, so teachers and students remotely interacting via Teams can see a face rather than just a name. The teachers' photos are put on the wall of a corridor, again to help everyone to put faces to names.

The cost to the school is kept low because the photography firm makes its money from selling copies of the photos to parents, which is fine, so long as the quality of the photos remains high, and parents continue to buy photos.

Unfortunately, I haven't bought my children's individual school photos for the past 6 years, because they are always on an ugly mottled blue background, and I can take nicer pictures myself at home. I don't think the photographer makes any effort at all to take photos that are relaxed or flattering, and they are overpriced. I do buy the group photos, but certainly not every year. (This year the group photo was a clever montage of the whole year group's individual photos - a covid memento we weren't expecting because only individual shots were taken!).

Do you buy your child's school photo every year?

[BoredZelda]

They are also used to help detect eating disorders.

What? A 2 minute photo once a year is betters that than people seeing a child every day?

[Mermaidpool]

I but the first one from each school so for ours reception,y3 and y7. I also have one of both DC when they were in the same school. I don't buy group ones except the y11 whole school year one

[Misknit]

We use 'school' photographers because they provide a free service to schools and we can then easily bulk upload photos in the management system. We are secondary and also only take photos of year 7 and 10 and any in year admissions we are missing a head shot of. We certainly do not make any money out of them. The photography company gets their money from sales which is why I simply can't fathom why they don't take a little more time getting a sellable shot.

Last year, when I planned a schedule for classes to be brought to the photographer, I was told they could be done in a quarter of the time. It was a conveyor belt of point and click.

[BoredZelda]

That’s terrible! Those aids etc are a part of whom they are. What the fuck is wrong with having them there?
’d be recording it, sharing on social media, naming and shaming/ reporting the company.

Sure, I’ll “report them” to the photography police. Do you have the number?

The company are aware, I spoke with them every time. The school are aware. Nobody was interested on Twitter.

[InTheCludgie]

The company the DCs school uses no longer do 'sibling' photos, meaning if I want any pictures, I need to buy two lots. They aren't the best quality anyway and I know some parents weren't happy with them in the past. Prior to covid, the PTA organised for a different photographer to visit the school at the weekend if any parents wanted different photos. Meant the kids had to get into their uniforms on a Saturday but it was well worth it.

[Abraxan]

@Bitofachinwag

Do the school ask your consent to give your child's photo to Microsoft?

All of our parents sign consent forms when they join the school. One of these permissions is that the child's photographs can be used on our learning profile. So yes, permission is usually sought by schools alongside a whole raft of other photograph permissions

[EastWestWhosBest]

The whole process is a military exercise of getting the right children in the right order, in the right place. Literally is sit, smile, click, go.

It’s the family ones that are harder. In my school we have a lot of blended families and children who live with cousins etc. I got stopped in the corridor one photo day by a young lad asking me if the small child he had with him was his brother or his cousin.

[Oldraver]

The ones DS had in Yr7 were dire. The photographer used a 'fake library' background that was dark especially against dark uniforms and also had the sitting at an angle ( I know this is the usual pose, but with the school badge on the wrong side

[Picklypickles]

I've occasionally bought my childrens school photo's when they've been nice, sadly more often than not they are rubbish! I absolutely hate the ones with the white or mottled blue backgrounds, especially when its a full class photo and all the children and teachers are in some weird unnatural pose! We have an absolutely beautiful, old rural school surrounded by greenery and trees, when I was at the school the class photos were always taken outside and had a lovely backdrop of either the school building itself or the playing field with all the trees at the back, it seems such a shame not to use these and have a plain generic backdrop instead there is no context to the photo, it could have been taken anywhere!

[Wafflehouse]

I used to buy them when they were proper school photos, I know I’m old fashioned but I like a school photo to look like a school photo, sitting, posed in uniform.

They’re too gimmicky now, daft, unnatural poses with unnecessary props and I definitely do not want an airbrushed photo of a 5 year old, I know what my child looks like and I want photos to show them and not what someone else thinks makes them look good. I don’t know if it’s just the company our school uses but I’m not even sure the photographers even understand basic photography or lighting. It seems anyone can call themselves a photographer, dp used to do sports photography as a side gig with really good equipment and was so critical of any shot he took, he gave it up pretty much when iPads took off and everyone started heavily editing and filtering. A good photo is a piece of art.

[Natsku]

Every year I say I won't buy photos this year but then I end up buying, usually the class photo because I'm not able to take that one with my phone obviously, and usually one of the portrait pictures. This year I got one of the friend group pictures because it was bloody brilliant (the photographers the school use are very good) and it cracks me up, the way they are posing.

[SpiderinaWingMirror]

When I was in year 9 (or the 3rd year), we were told by our Form Tutor that the photos taken are solely to be passed to the police in the event of running away. They would feature on the news and be put onto flyers and attached to every lamp post in town.
Double whammy in
A) trying us to at least brush our hair (times have changed)
B) stopping us running away

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

Going against the grain here but I like them and still buy them most years. I love having a snapshot of a particular point in their school journey to display and of course they make good pressies for the grandparents. My parents still have mine and my siblings and I think it’s so sweet.

Same here. I know they're expensive and I know they're an anachronism when everybody has a camera in their pocket now, but I agree that it's a milestone event, recording that child at that school in that year, rather than just a means for you to be able to get a nice photo of your child, which you can easily do yourself anyway.

In fact, I think it's one of those things that probably doesn't seem as significant at the time as it may do in years to come. You may not give a hoot when you're older; but if you would have loved to have had your official childhood school photos - where everything is a constant except for you yourself growing older each year - but your parents decided they wouldn't bother, you never have that option again.

Call us mugs, if you will, but we wouldn't dream of not buying the official photo - individual and class - each year. Thankfully, we haven't had a bad one; but I do think some photographers need to remember that it's somebody's future treasured memories and not just go with 'that'll do' when they catch a really unflattering, unfortunate or poorly-lit pose. They might be happy if 97% of the shots come out well overall, but that's not much consolation to the people in the other 3% and their families.

[tttigress]

I think even in the 90s the pictures were used for id-ing the kid.

[ZoyaTheDestroyer]

IME it's pretty rare these days for secondary schools to bring in traditional school photographers. The year 11 group photos on the corridor in the school where I work end in about 2004. Our photos for the MIS are taken by a TA with one of the SLRs from the GCSE Photography cupboard.

[OwlDoll]

I have five children in the same school. The photographer came this week. They were called out in class groups for their individual photos. Because of Covid they are not allow to take a family group
So I now have proofs for five photos, with the cheapest option being £17 each. I can't buy photos of one child and not them all. So I'm left with no school photos as I neither have the money nor the space to display five indvidual photos.

[anon12345678901]

I haven't got one since year 3 but I'll be getting the year 6 one this year, I want to keep it as a reminder of him in the beginning and end of junior school. I look back at the year 3 one now and he's changed so much so I'll put them side by side. Now I just need to get him to smile! Who knew it could be so hard

[MyPatronusIsACat]

@merzeemee



School photos ARE a rip-off. I never got any 'school photos' of my kids (both left 9-10 years ago now) for the past 2 or 3 years they were there. I got my digital camera, and popped them in their uniform, and stuck them in front of the magnolia wall in the bedroom. I took 15 or so pics and they picked the best, and we got them printed out at Boots for about 27p to 43p each, depending on the size. They were MUCH better than the 'official' ones.

Talking about rip-offs. The 'enter your child into the write a story/write a poem' competition was the worst!!! Everyone thought their child was a special little budding author, because their child's short story or poem got accepted for this compendium of stories and poems.

In actual fact, virtually every child who entered got into the book. There would be 500 or more from 3 or 4 different schools. Then the company would offer parents the chance to purchase the book with their child's 'published work' in it for just £14.99! And grab a couple of extra copies for the child's grannies and grandads and get them for just £12 each. Buy FIVE of them and get them just a tenner each.

They went like fucking hot cakes at the time, as everyone wanted the book that had been printed with little Hannah's, or little William's short story in it.

Utter UTTER fucking rip off. This, along with the school photos, and the horrendous price of school uniforms and PE kits (that you can ONLY buy from the school,) is such bullshit. Someone needs to stamp it all out, because some fuckers are getting rich off parents, who are struggling hugely.

[reluctantbrit]

I just got the proof for DD's Y10 picture. Not a chance I buy a photo which resembles a passport photo in clothing I don't like.

The single print is £17 and a digitial one is £19.50.

[Kiduknot]

I have kept all my kids school photos throughout the years, to chart their journey through school - except they all have proof written lightly over them. 😀

Like you I’ve got nicer ones we’ve taken ourselves!

[ICouldHaveCheckedFirst]

I have a complete collection for my 2. All 7 from primary, plus 2 from secondary. Including the last one of DS, in which the photographer insisted on re-parting DS's hair so that it was horrible (he atgued and put it back, she re-did it, he put it back - on repeat. He was 16 FFS!) I insisted on buying it to complete my set but I promised I'd never put it on display.

[Practicebeingpatient]

You are quite right OP. I was the database manager for a large school. Every year we would arrange for one of the large school,photography companies to come in and take photos of Y7, Y10 and Y12. They'd send me a file of all the photos which I could then download onto the database in seconds. It helped new staff who could then print off photo lists of all their classes and groups and was also invaluable for staff and local police to identify miscreants. It was so much quicker than taking the photos in-house and had the added benefit of earning the school a small amount in commission form the sales of photos to the parents.

There are always a few students who slip through the net and don't get their picture done with the rest of the year and it's as much work to track them down, take one photo and manually upload it as it is to press one key and download an entire 180 student year group.

And don't get me started on temperamental teachers who don't want their photos taken or the ones who pop up in my office every two weeks wanting their photo updated to something more flattering!

[BikeRunSki]

I’ve never bought a group photo ;rudest is in Y8 now), why do we wave a momento of 29 other children? By the time DS had left primary school, half the people he’d started YR with had left!

[BikeRunSki]

*;rudest = eldest

[Theunamedcat]

I'm not buying my sons this year they told him to push his hair out of his face which meant it was across his forhead in a weird way and instead of smiling say cheese so his mouth looks weird they wish to charge me 26.50 for the privilege of my son looking weirdly like a hamster having a bad fur day 🤔 no