to think school photos are a total rip off

[Cait73]

My lo is nearly 3 he started preschool this year so imagine my delight when he bought home his first school photo

Except when I went online to order it the cheapest package is £27 that's OUTRAGEOUS!!

It's Christmas in 3 weeks, his Birthday happens to be Christmas Eve and I only want 2 maybe 3 photos but you have to order a package

It's not a particularly great photo BUT it's his first "school" photo, I'm gob smacked!!

I don't buy them. For one thing they are expensive and secondly the photos are never really that flattering with the artificial lighting. I have only got photos of my son's first day and that's it. I much prefer to take pictures of him smiling while doing something he loves, plus school photos just end up shoved in a cupboard somewhere, so I don't see the point of them. The only thing I have bought is the rip off Christmas cards once last year, but I was so so busy last year that I still have half of them left, so I won't do that again!

@Thecurliestwurly you're spot on! And I really like the cards they've made but it would be better if a percentage went to a local charity or something?

@GetTheFlockOutOfHere

‘Who cares if it isn’t your intellectual property’

And herein lies the problem with creative endeavours - people don’t recognise the expertise that goes into them.

Can you take a better photo on your iPhone? Go for it, then. But for the vast majority of you who don’t understand framing, lighting etc you need to pay a professional to get a professional result.

Stealing someone else’s copy without crediting them is pathetic.

Who cares if it’s not your own IP? The original author, and countless other creative professionals sick of being ripped off by less talented people.

My eldest's nursery had someone in hung around all day and did shots as and when she saw good ones. They were lovely pictures.

His first school had a traditional school photographer. Photos were fine.

Every one since then, the pictures have just been awful I've kept the samples so that I can pull them out every now and then and shake my head at how they've managed to take such terrible photos.

It's not like we don't all have phones and take hundreds of photos ourselves these days, then can get them printed out at freeprints or whatever for cheap. I really would take your own at this point. If a reasonable service can't be provided at a price people will pay, it's probably time for that service to stop.

Our school photos are so so good. But so expensive. £120 for all digital copies. £20 for 1 digital copy. And I think it was £15 for each printed copy and £6 delivery. I waited for family to buy DDs and then just took their orders to the photo shop to get mine printed from there's for a fraction of the price!!

They've definitely gone up in price over the years. I've one left in primary so got the group photo for him this year as it's his last. Glad there's nothing like this in secondary.

I phone our school photography company and tell them exactly what I want (which is never one of the packages offered on the website) and they make that up for me instead.