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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Awful school photos

116 replies

ShepherdMoons · 16/11/2022 13:43

Dcs have had their school photos taken, every year they are awful. This year they are worse, they are always taken at a bad angle and I've taken better pictures of them myself!

Dh thinks we should buy them (the proofs are online) but AIBU to say no this year? I could take a photo of them in their school uniforms and frame it (and I might actually like it!!).

OP posts:

bloomtoperish · 16/11/2022 14:06

I'm sorry my keyboard keeps disappearing so I accidentally click post! I bought them for the comedy value!!

Pirrin · 16/11/2022 14:11

Isn't it the law that they are awful? I love a bad school photo - always disappointing in the moment but so much more entertaining whe looking back on them years later (which is really the main purpose of school pictures - to look back on and have a laugh/cringe). I say embrace the dreadfulness!

Dollydea · 16/11/2022 14:11

DD is 13 and I've only ever bought one of her photos, I refuse to pay for them when they're absolutely awful and frame it just because its a school photo.
I didn't even buy her individual holy communion one.

I suppose it was different years ago when cameras only came out on special occasions, it was rare to have a photo taken with your school uniform on, but camera phones have changed all that.

DogInATent · 16/11/2022 14:11

Most school photographs are contracted out to one of a very few franchise companies. Any skill has been deliberately removed. Set-up according to the diagram using either a provided measure or a marked-up floor mat. Use the settings given in the instructions (I've seen the supplied cameras/lights taped up to prevent settings being changed), and press the button every 30 seconds as the kids are filed past.

The schools put up with the crap photographs because they get a kick-back from the franchise holder towards school funds. It's a mugs game, and the mugs are the parents.

Jayne35 · 16/11/2022 14:13

I wouldn't buy them, they have always been awful. Mine were (which DM has on the wall and they are hideous!) 40 years ago and my DCs school photos were the same. So no OP, YANBU to not waste your money.

mumonthehill · 16/11/2022 14:16

Ds photo was so awful and unlike him I actually thought I had been sent the wrong one! It does not help that he hates them so has a funny expression on his face! I have bought the whole school one as they do not do them often but even then it was like playing where’s Wally to find him!

paulmccartneysbagel · 16/11/2022 14:17

I haven't bought a school photo for years! Call me right but they're a bloody rip off and I'd rather use the money to take them on a fun day trip and take my own pictures!

paulmccartneysbagel · 16/11/2022 14:17

*tight

HerReputationMadeItDifficultToProceed · 16/11/2022 14:19

Probably shouldn't say this as someone will inevitably tell me that it's theft, but apps exist which will- for a few quid outlay- remove watermarks. So you can keep the horrible photos without bankruptcy.

AriettyHomily · 16/11/2022 14:22

I haven't bought them for several years, I can take better photos myself on my phone.

They are a throwback to when lots of people didn't have cameras, and no smart phones so it was a thing to get the school photo.

LookItsMeAgain · 16/11/2022 14:22

Find out from the school if they use the same photographer/studio/company every year.

I had issues when my kids were in primary school with the quality of the photographs taken each year and I raised it to the Parents Association and then the Board of Management as it should be clear that a company providing a service to the school or even through the school, surely it should go out to tender if it's a repeat job/contract so to speak. They did take on board this issue and have decided to use particular service providers but only if they are available, so there would be a pool of service providers and they don't have just one company or one service provider locked in every year.

Other photographers/companies/studios would probably like to get a crack at the whip so why aren't they afforded the opportunity.

templesit · 16/11/2022 14:22

Oh don't. I've just spent £45 (cheapest option with what we need) as dc was all hyped up about it so felt I couldn't say no.

The uniform wasn't even straight 🙄

RelentlessForwardProgress · 16/11/2022 14:26

One of my DC's always looks terrible in his photographs. He's very pale and blonde and every year he has Donald Trumps weird red hair and tanned face in the photos, I have no idea why.

During covid one of the dads, who is an amateur photographer, took photos of the kids individually against the school wall one morning as they were waiting to go into school, and emailed them to the parents, and DC looked absolutely lovely. Its the only nice school photo of him we have. So much nicer than the overpriced horror we normally get.

Parky04 · 16/11/2022 14:29

Never bought a school photo. They are crap and expensive! Can't say I feel as though I have missed out!

girlmom21 · 16/11/2022 14:32

If you don't buy them how are you going to embarrass them every Christmas in 20 years time?

spiderlight · 16/11/2022 14:45

My DS's class photo from about Y4 or Y5 were hilariously awful. One of the boys was late and they'd taken a photo of him on his own and photoshopped him onto the end, but for some reason they'd plonked him over the top of one of the girls. It was when those enormous Jojo Bows were in fashion, so he's just floating there with an enormous bow suspended above his head. We were shown the proofs but then told that the actual photos were mysteriously unavailable for purchase.

I tend to buy the image files to download now and fix the terrible colour/exposure issues myself, because my MIL wants one every single year.

SpaceJamtart · 16/11/2022 14:58

My girls are in reception and I did not buy the pictures- partly because you cant buy just one - they want you to get a bundle of varying sized pictures and I can take one myself. But mostly because my girls are identical twins, and the 'individual' pictures they sent home are both of twin 1. Its two separate photo packs with each of their names on a different pack and a slightly different shot of the same girl.

Easy enough mistake but you can see from the second picture in the packet of them together as a pair that twin 1 is wearing a white polo shirt and a school cardigan with her hair in plaits, and twin 2 is wearing a grey pinafore dress, no cardigan and has her hair down. I know they have the same face but its very clearly two different children. And because of the bundle system I cant buy the picture of them together without paying for 6 small pictures of twin 1.

Itstime1 · 16/11/2022 14:58

Haha mine were always terrible. My nursery one was so bad they gave it to my parents for free (over 20 years ago). I looked like I was doing a Laurel and hardy impression 😂

My nieces ones are fantastically funny. My husband has them in his office as every year they get funnier. She looks neat and pristine but my goodness the faces she pulls have us in hysterics. We look forward to them every year and think our own DD will be the same!

Bad ones are a right of passage though. They are expensive so just take your own if you’re after good ones?

Bluegingerbread · 16/11/2022 14:59

I just do my own. School use Tempest so for the individual ones they have the child's head at a 45 degree angle, shoved up in the top left corner with half their hair cut off, some years even part of the forehead cut off. Have never bought those.

For class photos it's either the weird ones with groups of 3 photoshopped together that are absurdly long and distort the proportions or sometimes we get a 'normal' class one, with kids in rows. Unfortunately for that they use a dark navy backdrop that is the same colour as the uniform (dark skirts and dark crew neck jumpers) so it ends up as an awful gothic picture of shadows with the faces of the kids looming out looking disembodied and floating. I buy the class one every few years as DC want it and I can't do that one myself but the whole thing is awful.

PinkButtercups · 16/11/2022 15:01

Tomadad · 16/11/2022 14:01

Have you ever considered it might not be the pictures?

Really?

Quisto · 16/11/2022 15:02

Our school do a retake day for people who missed the first one or are unhappy with it. This year our school changed uniform and the brief seems to have been " Take a photo of the new jumper, maybe remember there's a child above it". It's definitely a photo of the jumper. 😂

ReformedWaywardTeen · 16/11/2022 15:03

DD is in year 11 and they only do two photos, one individual one in year 7 and then a whole year group one which they did 2 weeks ago. Far more sensible and the individual one I have of year 7 is great.
They didn't want me to buy the whole year group one but actually, when I said how many of their mates are in it so it's nice to have I got them to agree.
I don't see the point of yearly ones anymore. Everyone has camera phones now, it's not like when I grew up and cameras and film cost a bomb and you used to get loads of duff ones.
But I don't mind how DDs school does it.

maddiemookins16mum · 16/11/2022 15:15

You’ll love them in 2046.
My photo from 1974 had pride of place on the mantlepiece, DM called it my ‘chip shop eyes’ photo.

AuntieEntity · 16/11/2022 15:17

@SpaceJamtart I laughed, but that is genuinely outrageous. I'd be so pissed off!

girlmom21 · 16/11/2022 15:17

Tomadad · 16/11/2022 14:01

Have you ever considered it might not be the pictures?

Have you ever considered keeping nasty comments to yourself?

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