School Photos: How do you frame for easy to work with images?

[EdBeck]

I've got my first school photo contract and have been getting my workflow together. I don't know if my setup is pertinent to my question, so here it is.

• I'm using ImageQuix for pre- and post-shoot sales.
• I'm capturing with Lightroom, and FLOW.
• I'm using a color card and X-Rite for my color control.
• FLOW will do my greenscreen knockout and put in the default background for the ID badges.
• FLOW will also match up the photo with the record in the database.
• I'm practicing in my studio to get my technique down.
• Nikon D700 will be my primary body with a 24-70 f/2.8 lens.

I'm now starting to think about how to frame the subject to create a consistent image that will lend itself to as much automation as possible. I think that means to put the center of my viewfinder between the subjects eyes, and then zoom my lens until the top of their head touches the upper grid mark in my viewfinder. I think that this will get me an image that I'll be able to crop for the badges and to crop for 8x10.

How do you get a consistently framed image that you can use in automation? (Please assume that I'm getting consistent color.)

[photolando]

By getting one of these.

ViewFinderMasks - Crop Your Photos IN the Viewfinder

[EdBeck]

Thanks Mike.

Might as well shut this thread down, that solves it.

[photolando]

Your welcome. But having done school photos and other types of portrait work, pleeeease trust me, online sales are the worst way to sell the prints. Especially school photos. Always hand out a price list/money envelope combo a week or so before and do pre pay ONLY. You will make squat if you put them online.

"Money and orders must be given to the photographer on picture day!" is all you need to put on the flyer/order form/money envelope.

I have shot at several schools in an earlier photo life and that is pretty much tradition and what they are use to. It worked then and it still works today.

A few will forget but you can tell them they can bring their money in later and have a certain cutoff date. But only tell them that the day of. If you tell them that before hand, like online sales, they will put it off and never buy anything.

[EdBeck]

I believe you, I'll pass the envelopes out with that text.

[Steven G Webb]

The send home envelops is tried and true. Rather than waste the time on an on-line gallery after the fact, put a re-order form and price list in the delivery envelopes.

[keithdewey3]

I second/third and fourth the orders at the time of the shoot. I do quite a few sports team shoots. We also make the photos available online for later purchase. 95% of the sales come the day of the shoot or a few days after. If they haven't purchased within a few days there is only a 5% likelihood they will ever buy anything.
This is based on 2 years of experience and probably 50 team photo shoots.

[photolando]

I am so glad to hear others chime in for validation. For the life of me I don't understand why people use those online sellers. I have yet to meet anyone who actually makes decent money from them. You will always make more getting the money upfront.

I guess some "think", "Well, more people will like aunts and grandma's will be able to go there and purchase photos." Yet, they rarely do.

Give a person a reason to procrastinate and they will. Give them a sense of urgency, and they will do that too. I'll take the urgency any day.

[EdBeck]

I think people use the online sellers because they're easy and don't require you to interact with people to sell your product. I live in a fairly high-tech area of the country and my clients are generally well educated (my main market is at a private school). Yet when I try to use any electronic system people shy away from it.

I'm using ImageQuix as a front-end because one of the questions when I was bidding on the contract was if parents would be able to pre-order and select different backgrounds online. I agreed and have put a lot of time into it, but I honestly don't expect people to use it.

Make it easy for the customer, and 99% of the time that means a piece of paper and a check.

Another consideration is that people are creatures of habit. People are used to getting the envelope the first day of school and sending it back on photo day. Upsetting the apple cart by asking them to do something else could interrupt their "buy mode".

[Steven G Webb]

I use an online storefront because not every customer can/will shop our on-site display. Not all my customers are actually present. The rider and the trainer of course are at the show but the horse's owner may be states away. I think the on-line sales is a necessary evil. Now, the question comes up, do we lose sales because of our enabling procrastination; or, are we adding sales by the availability? Difficult to say. Shoppers view it as a standard level of service.

We've seen a decline in business this year. Normally we've made the profit on-site and the on-line sales are just gravy. We felt it was worth it to pick up those additional orders. Now, we're maybe not making a profit from on-site sales and the on-line sales are sort of an act of desperation to make something out of the gig. Additionally, we're having pictures stripped off the storefront, watermark and all, and put on Facebook pages. There is no best answer for me. Brick and mortar stores have a figure known as shrinkage. That's inventory that disappears without explanation, like shoplifting and invoice errors. You have to have an allowance for losses, be those theft or refund returns or bad checks. It's when that shrinkage gets out of hand you have a problem. When online storefronts first hit the internet they made folks a lot of money. I know a photographer who generated about 20% of his $250,000/hr horse show photography business from on-line sales. That was when it was a novelty and before every 12 yr old with a Windows OS computer knew how to clip pictures. I'll stop the rant now.