What Should a School Expect From a Professional School Photography Company?
Choosing a school photographer is about more than finding someone who can take a good picture.
A professional school photography company should make picture day easier for your staff, create photographs families actually want to purchase, communicate clearly before and after the event, and have a plan for the dozens of little things that can go wrong on a school picture day.
If you're a preschool director, daycare owner, private school administrator, or school administrator looking for a new photography company, here are some of the things we think you should expect.
1. A Photographer Who Understands Schools
School photography is its own specialty.
Photographing one child during a family session is very different from photographing an entire preschool, elementary school, or specialized school program.
A school photographer has to understand classroom schedules, transitions, siblings, teachers, student absences, staff portraits, ordering, galleries, and the reality that the school still has to operate while picture day is happening.
You should be able to ask a photography company:
How many students do you typically photograph in a day?
How many photographers and assistants will be there?
How do you keep classrooms moving?
How do you handle siblings?
Who communicates with parents?
Who handles parent questions after picture day?
These aren't minor details. They are the difference between a photographer who happens to photograph schools and a company that actually specializes in school photography.
If you're comparing photographers, our guide [How to Choose a Preschool Photographer] goes into much more detail about the questions we recommend asking.
2. A Process That Doesn't Put the Work on Your Teachers
Your teachers have enough to do. Read about how school photo day doesn’t have to be stressful here!
They shouldn't have to collect money, manage paper order forms, organize complicated picture schedules, answer parent questions about galleries, or spend the entire day acting as photography assistants.
A good school photography company should have systems that reduce the amount of work required from your staff.
At Those Photo Ladies, we provide the materials and communication schools need to prepare families for picture day. We work with the school ahead of time to organize the schedule and photography process, then handle the photography, galleries, ordering, and customer support.
The goal is simple: your staff should be able to keep running the school.
3. A Plan for Children, Not Just Cameras
This may be the most important part.
A professional school photographer needs to know how to work with children.
Some children walk into the photo area and immediately smile.
Some are shy.
Some are fascinated by the camera.
Some would prefer to be anywhere else.
Some need a little time to warm up.
And sometimes the child who has been smiling all morning decides that the exact moment the camera comes out is the moment they are absolutely finished cooperating.
That's normal.
Our approach is based on meeting children where they are rather than expecting every child to respond to the same prompt.
We wrote more about this in [What Happens When a Child Won't Smile: Our Real Approach to Preschool & School Photography].
4. Photographs That Look Like Portraits
School pictures don't have to look like school pictures from twenty years ago.
We believe school portraits can be contemporary, simple, and timeless without relying on overly elaborate props or distracting backgrounds.
The goal is to photograph the child, not the set.
Families should be able to look at a photograph years later and still recognize their child in it.
That's especially important during the preschool and elementary years, when children change so quickly.
5. Communication With Families
The school shouldn't have to become the photography company's customer service department.
Parents need to know:
When picture day is happening
How to prepare
What to wear
How siblings are handled
When galleries will be available
How to order
Who to contact with questions
Your photography company should provide clear information and be available to help families after picture day.
That communication is part of the service.
6. A Plan for the Unexpected
Every school picture day has something unexpected.
A child is absent.
A class runs late.
A sibling is in another classroom.
A teacher needs a staff photo.
A student refuses to sit down.
The schedule changes.
A professional school photographer should already have systems for handling these situations.
You shouldn't have to figure out the solution while twenty children are waiting in line.
School Photography in Central Florida and Dallas-Fort Worth
Those Photo Ladies provides school photography for preschools, daycares, private schools, elementary schools, and specialized educational programs.
Our Central Florida team serves schools throughout Brevard County and the Space Coast, including Merritt Island, Cocoa, Viera, Melbourne, and Titusville, as well as the greater Orlando area. We also serve schools in Jacksonville and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Our goal is not simply to arrive with cameras.
It's to make picture day easier for the school and create portraits families are genuinely excited to receive.
If you're considering a new school photographer, don't just ask what the photographs look like.
Ask what the entire experience will look like.
That's where the difference between a photographer and a school photography company becomes very clear.