kali3000

Last night my DS casually mentioned that he would like to get some professional pictures taken for his senior year (2013), along the lines of the senior picture package. I did a brief search on the web and found a wide variety of pricing that would include 1-5 settings, change of clothes, etc.

Can anyone share their experiences and thoughts about this? What type of pricing? Did you actually use or give away all of the prints, etc.?

Thanks in advance.

sseamom

We got D's senior photos there and get yearly cousin ones when younger D's cousin visits from out of town-we get all that generation's cousins together. The photos have always come out very well and the coupons/specials make them affordable. We always buy the CD of all the poses/effects so we can email to those who want them or print out others. We get a small number of actual prints based on what our relatives want. But we always do seem to have some leftover. The kids these days don't seem to exchange/collect wallet size pictures like we used to but the older relatives and traditionalists want hard copies.

soccergurl7988

When I did mine back in the day (2007), I did them at a local photographer. We did a package type of thing...2 outfits in studio, I think, and 2 outfits at an outdoor location (park, beach). When they were done, you came back in and viewed a slideshow, picked the ones you wanted to keep, then picked a package and distributed them among that. It really was a cool experience, although I still have pictures leftover. Just nowhere near enough relatives, haha. Pretty much everyone at my HS did them, and everyone traded pictures

prefect

In general, I think you get better photos with an independent photographer, but it can get expensive. By researching, getting recommendations, you might be able to find a price that works for you. We were able to buy all the digital images from our photographer for a reasonable price. She also made photo books for us and did retouching of several images. This gave us the option of printing, emailing etc whatever images we wanted.

I felt like getting good photos was important and would be something we would have forever.

LINYMOM

Our HS does it through a company. They use one of the pics for the yearbook. They take it at the end of JUNIOR year (so DS had his last month). There are a couple of required outfits for the school pics, then you can pay for an additional outfit (or more). The packages are expensive, but of course you get them. It always seems to cost more than it should.

It never ends, though. My DD just had a sorority sitting this year and I bought a package of those too... Will have to send some to a few relatives who will enjoy them but, as sseamom said, there are always some left over.

Anyway, the pics of my kids are the best decorations in my house, if I may say so myself!

momofthreeboys

Yes this is very traditional in my family and the area....in fact my kids photos were shot by the son of the photographer who shot my father's pictures and my pictures. We get 3x5s and some wallets that are requested by the school for senior "stuff" and the yearbook, requests from the local newspaper and then we get a large one for the wall at home and a couple 5x7s for the grandparents. We do one studio shot and head shot and then go outside and shoot some location shots (for the "wall"). You can spend as little or as much as you want in our neck of the woods...

missypie

We spent a small fortune for Son's and a larger fortune for D's.

MizzBee

We did the most basic sitting with the required hs photographer for the yearbook, then kept putting off the studio visit. In the end, DS couldn't decide on a different photographer. In the end, we bought a proof from a photographer from a play that he was in, adn used it for the graduation announcement.

Where we are from, everyone leaves the leftover shots for people to take with them at their grad parties, or send them to everyone in the announcements. It is a good way to get rid of them.

CheckersMidwest

Shop around. Everyone at our school and in our area has senior pictures taken. You pick one to turn in for the yearbook.

We used an individual with a studio in her basement. They were really good and more reasonable than the others. We did not have a lot left over...we handed them out the grad reception too. wallet size pix were $1.

Our niece in Nashville has a required photographer and outfits & poses. We have fun poses and with props like your car, dog, sports equipment, etc.

ordinarylives

Put me in the small fortune category with Missypie. Local photographer, indoor and outdoor shots, as many outfits as time allowed. Pretty much, that's the way everybody around here does it.

rushedmom

We did basic Senior pics through year book company. Then did local photographer outside pics for invites etc. spent so much money hubby is still reeling.. ughh

hoosiermom

Another option is using an amateur photographer. One of our friends who has a decent camera and no professional training took his kids senior photos. Beautiful. I know 2 college students majoring in photography who did senior photos for a token fee just for the experience. In fact one charged so little, I added money because I felt guilty. They had the photos printed where professionals have them printed and sold them at cost. What a surprise because D2 had her photos taken by a professional while D2 had hers taken by a student who had worked for that professional one summer. Photos printed by same source. Per unit cost was 8x greater for the professionals photos.

PackMom

We did the school photographer. It was just easier. They did the formal ones (wearing the tuxedo) and brought their own jeans/shirts/shoes(S1 wore Rainbow flipflops) for the casual pics.

With S2 there was an option to do the graduation announcement with his pic. on top. It was 5x7 and we got to compose our own wording to print at the bottom which made it much more personal. Doing it that way saved having to buy both announcements and pictures separately and allowed us to send pics to people we normally would not have afforded to do.

My friends D missed senior pic day and the make-up day at the h.s. She had to go to the company's studio during the summer before senior year and have them done. For some reason (I guess hers didn't get put in with all the rest from our school at the studio) her pic did not appear in the yearbook w/ the senior class. Her parents were so upset.

Onward

I second the use of an amateur photographer. We had a teacher at school do our youngest d's and they were just as good as the professional ones that oldest d used. I paid $80 and got a disc with 400 pictures on it. She would edit so many for free. The photographer was open to several locations and changes of clothes. My d knew her and was very relaxed around her. I feel that because kids change so much, I would rather pay less and get photos again sometime.

happymomof1

Happykid's school requires standard (school pays for them) photos for the yearbook and school photo ID. The photographer takes up to 9 shots (standard head shots) or the kids can combine the standard shots with alternate poses of their own (most often cap & gown) or contract for extras. Happykid opted for the standard shots and I kid you not, I still haven't figured out how the photographer managed to make her not look remotely like herself in nine separate shots. She had to choose the one for the yearbook before we left the photoshoot, and it was truly difficult.

I asked her if she'd like to re-shoot at Sears/Penney's/elsewhere, but she said no. At graduation time she made an 8 1/2 x 11 collage of snapshots of herself with family and friends, printed color copies at Staples, and sent those along with her graduation announcements. I think we paid 39 cents for each color copy.

She also created the wording for her own graduation announcements and picked out a kit of announcement/invitation blanks at Staples to print at home. We used the big cards for the announcements and the little ones (RSVP card size) for the thank-you notes. Again, dirt cheap.

Eventually she will need some professional-quality photos done, but she has scads of pals with cameras who will do the shoot for permission to use her shots in their portfolios so that will be a good deal too.