<p>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.</p>
<p>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.?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>I felt like getting good photos was important and would be something we would have forever.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Anyway, the pics of my kids are the best decorations in my house, if I may say so myself!</p>
<p>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…</p>
<p>We spent a small fortune for Son’s and a larger fortune for D’s.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Shop around. Everyone at our school and in our area has senior pictures taken. You pick one to turn in for the yearbook.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>My 2007 DD had some nice photos in different outfits, including a Broncos jersey (best photo, smiling by a lake). Three years later the photographer was sadly deceased. So we hired someone who did sitting, I think for $100. Then we could order online through a company - max price was $12 for an 8x12. I paid another $50 for the CD and photo rights.</p>
<p>I learned from DS1. We did a set with the school folks (you have to have your yearbook portrait done there), but he was so ill at ease in the studio and it showed in the portraits. So, I found a guy to do some outdoor shots of our family and then a little photo shoot with DS1. Those were SO much better!</p>
<p>With DS2 we’re just doing the minimal in the studio and will find another photog for outdoor portraits. I’m waiting til fall when it’s cooler for those!</p>
<p>We did the school required photo session for the yearbook photo but ordered nothing from them. Then we went to Portrait Innovations - they are all over the US. Great studio, allowed my DD to change her outfits, tons of proofs to pick from, and you go home with photos in hand, as they print them while you’re there. And so inexpensive relative to the yearbook photos.</p>
<p>Get a friend with a f/1.4 lens (I use a 1970s Nikkor S.C. 50 mm f/1.4 on my Canon T2i. The lens cost me 60 bucks.) You have sooo much flexibility:</p>
<p>[Nikkor</a> S.C. 50 mm f/1.4 example shot 1](<a href=“IMG_6881 | Yanping Soong | Flickr”>IMG_6881 | Yanping Soong | Flickr)
[Nikkor</a> S.C. 50 mm f/1.4 example shot 2](<a href=“IMG_6832d | Yanping Soong | Flickr”>IMG_6832d | Yanping Soong | Flickr)</p>
<p>If you have a Canon DSLR with a Nikon-EOS adapter (11 bucks) you can use a Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 lens (30 dollars on eBay) to achieve shots like these: </p>
<p>[Vivitar</a> 135 mm f/2.8 example 1](<a href=“IMG_7111 | Yanping Soong | Flickr”>IMG_7111 | Yanping Soong | Flickr)
[Vivitar</a> 135 mm f/2.8 example 2](<a href=“IMG_6962 | Yanping Soong | Flickr”>IMG_6962 | Yanping Soong | Flickr)
[Vivitar</a> 135 mm f/2.8 example 3](<a href=“IMG_1473 | Yanping Soong | Flickr”>IMG_1473 | Yanping Soong | Flickr)
[Vivitar</a> 135 mm f/2.8 example 4](<a href=“IMG_1713 | Yanping Soong | Flickr”>IMG_1713 | Yanping Soong | Flickr)</p>
<p>(The above shots are candids, but you can imagine the possibilities with posed.)</p>
<p>I think you will find very few photographers willing to do night portraits, but with the right lens you can do it yourself and night portraits are so cool!</p>
<p>OP, are we talking about a HS senior or a college senior?</p>
<p>For D’s HS portraits, we had to go to a specific studio for the yearbook shot. We then had the option to add other poses, outfits, etc. </p>
<p>There was no sitting fee for the yearbook shot, and they were dirt cheap for the other shots. The big bucks, of course, are when you order prints. But our studio keeps them on file for 5 years, so we didn’t have to order mass amounts of expensive prints all at one time. I also discovered that ordering the first print of a pose is quite a bit more expensive than subsequent prints of the same pose. </p>
<p>So when D was a senior, we picked our favorite pose and ordered 5 prints of that one pose for various family, which was considerably cheaper than prints of 5 different poses would have been. And for the next couple of years, I can order any prints I want (which I’ve been meaning to do; thanks for the reminder!).</p>
<p>And then there’s the biggie – they’ll put all of the shots on a CD, and we’ll be able to print our own pictures forever. I’m actually thinking about doing that because there were A LOT of them, so varied and really good.</p>