To dislike her first school photo

[Downandout21]

It really is awful.

I was so excited about her first one but it just hasn't turned out great.

I'm thinking about taking my own photo of her in her uniform, but how do I then get them printed in the school package form?

It won't look the same.

Why does it need to be in school package form? Just take a nice photo of her in her uniform.

You'll get to the end of primary school and will have had several taken and one will be your favourite. There is still time. I know it's the first, but I'm sure you have many other photos of her.

We take so many photos these days with smartphones that I think school photos are a bit outdated and expensive.

Just take your own nice photo of her when she is ready for school and send it to something like Photobox where they can do different sized prints and all sorts of product for far less than you would pay for the school package.

We had quite a few over the years where the school photos are dreadful and I just kept the little card without having them printed.

You can get photos printed anywhere you like!

www.asda-photo.co.uk/about/photo-gifts?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwmaO4BhAhEiwA5p4YLyBSk8tGqPUD0pK4TFb7WqpBAPggG27DzTht9IyLov7pVOx_9yAk5xoCx48QAvD_BwE

If you're desperate for a cardboard frame you could buy from Amazon or Hobbycraft

Aren’t they always dreadful? Ours are! We either buy them or not but accept them in their awfulness.

It always surprises me anyone bothers buying school photos these days. Expensive too

We never buy, just have a chuckle at the DC comedy pose then move on

Every school photo we've had done has been truly awful. I don't know why they're so bad but some years my DCs look like little serial killers.

I've never bought any but I have kept a stash of the proofs for comedy value.

Embrace it I say. DS's first passport photo is truly awful and has inspired shrieks of laughter, but it'll be history by the time he's old enough to be embarrassed by it and as his biased old Mum I love it anyway.

I thought school photos had had their day years ago now pretty much everyone has access to a decent camera phone. We bought yr because we felt we had to, didn't by any since and don't even get me started in the class photos.

Take your own photo and use an app like FaceApp to alter the background.

Also, get used to not liking their school photos. They rarely turn out like perfect portraits.

Yep, my DCs were always terrible. I never bought one. I’ve got thousands of photos of my kids.
School photos are a hanger-on from the days before families owned cameras (never mind smart phones) when that would often be the only record of them as a child.

We must have been lucky, all DC's school photos have been brilliant. I've never got them to pose well. I have loads of lovely candid photos and ones with silly faces but only the school photographer has ever managed to catch them looking semi-formal but still themselves and smiling beautifully.

Yes sorry they’re usually awful! Most little children are not comfortable enough to look all sweet and happy for a stranger in a strange situation at school.
Grab your phone or camera and take a natural one in front of a white background at home where your child is relaxed and happy then frame it yourself.

Ours was awful too. They did a class photo later on the year though which was much better, so we bought that.

Don't buy it if you don't like it!

Downandout21

There's nothing to stop you from taking your own but it really won't look the same unless you take her to a studio to be photographed. They have the lights, the backdrop and very expensive cameras!

I would say that, as a teacher and parent of two adults who has been through this many times, I have seen very few photos that are going to be anyone's favourite of their child!

Each child has about 5-8 seconds for their photo to be taken. As long as they're standing on the right spot, their uniform is straight, they're facing the right way and they're not pulling a daft face, that's all the photographer is looking for. The children are excited and the whole process is a bit like herding manic cats! 😅

It's just one of 100s of photos they'll have taken of them that year and it doesn't really matter. It's a memory of a single point in time and no more. And nice to look back on and see how they've changed.

When you say awful what do you mean? If it's because you don't like how your child looks I think that's really sad. It's meant to be a snapshot of their time at school and how they looked that day. Not a modelling shoot. If it's because the photography itself is crap then yeah that's not good.

This is bizarre. School photos are a bit random. If you want a nice photo of her beginning school take your own and keep that. It's a different thing. Lots of parents never buy the school photo.

DSS have always turned out lovely 🤣.

I think I'll get one small one printed just for keepsake, and to look back and laugh at and then do my own at home. This was I can have one with both DD and DSS together too.

School photos are outdated, from an era when we didn't all have decent cameras

They should be banned, lost teaching time.

A bit of both I guess. It's the smile, she literally looks like she is grimacing, think 😬. Also quality isn't the best either, compared to DSS's photo quality it's not great.

💔

Ahhhh there’s always next year! Our youngest has scowled in all three of her school photos to date. We have a good laugh and just don’t buy them, but keep the little proofs they send you to show her when she’s older and give her a good laugh. This year I’m hoping she finally smiles and we actually get to buy one! She generally won’t smile for anyone taking a photo of her unless it’s me or her dad. Take a nice photo of her in her school uniform yourself and frame it, you don’t need the school packaging.

It takes 10 mins put of the day per class one day a year. Its not really a massive problem 🙄

I don’t always buy them, especially not the individual photos.

Class photos can be quite a nice record and I quite often look at my old ones - especially when one of my Dc ( it’s always the same Dc!) asks about a friend I mention I had at school etc and wants to see them.

I buy the individual only if it’s a nice photo, looking a bit more formal than I manage; but often it’s strained or even just, to be honest, somehow unrecognisable as them!