senior pictures

[irmanator]

Did you do them and if so how much did you pay? I am not sure what would be considered reasonable. My friend paid 386 and I had a heart attack!!

[Debt Vigilante]

I think miner were about $200. Granted that was about 10 years ago. Senior pics are almost one of those things in life that you have to get over the money factor. Your kid will only graduate high school once and its about the memories of transition from one stage of life to the next.

Only chance you have to save money is if you know a good photographer that can give you a good deal.

[irmanator]

Originally Posted by Debt Vigilante

I think miner were about $200. Granted that was about 10 years ago. Senior pics are almost one of those things in life that you have to get over the money factor. Your kid will only graduate high school once and its about the memories of transition from one stage of life to the next.

Only chance you have to save money is if you know a good photographer that can give you a good deal.

There are alot of things I am only gonna do once and if i pay alot for each of those I will never have money saved.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Debt Vigilante

Only chance you have to save money is if you know a good photographer that can give you a good deal.

Nope. Senior pictures and yearbooks have become a HUGE scam. Many schools will ONLY allow your child's photo to appear in the yearbook if you use their photographer and pay their prices. It is basically extortion and many parents who can't really afford it are stuck. They don't want to tell their child, "Sorry, you can't be in your high school yearbook," so they suck it up and pay.

When I was in school, we were able to submit our own photo. In fact, when I was in college and doing some side work as a photographer, I shot senior portraits for a number of my friends for a fraction of what the school was charging. Today, that wouldn't be allowed.

[MonkeyMama]

I didn't even hire a wedding photographer. I doubt we will pay much for the kids' senior portraits - we can do our own.

As for mine - I don't remember and my parents paid for them. They never would have paid today's prices - I tell you that. A number of friends have kids graduating this year and were quoted $350-ish for the basic package. I'd refuse. I've got much better things to do with my money than pay a fortune for some pictures that I can take myself.

[MonkeyMama]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Nope. Senior pictures and yearbooks have become a HUGE scam. Many schools will ONLY allow your child's photo to appear in the yearbook if you use their photographer and pay their prices. It is basically extortion and many parents who can't really afford it are stuck. .

When it comes to school pictures, it is really more the tactics that I am against more than anything. Even at the elementary school level -

[PrincessPerky]

I didn't have mine done, my husband did.

I don't regret not having any for me.

I don't think his photo was all that important to him?

Though funny story about senior photos and yearbooks, I saw a photo in a year book of a friend. I pestered the friend to introduce us. I just knew I HAD to meet that guy from the photo. Friend wasn't too willing.....

I met my husband a few months later. One day in his room I saw THE photo, I asked him who it was. He said it was himself. Now holding the two side by side, I can see the resemblance....barely. Now we always joke how I fell in love with him before I met him, based on a photo that only barely looks like him.

[cschin4]

Pros and Cons. If you are the type of people who like photos, who use and display them and will enjoy them over your lifetime, then get them done. If you are just going to put them in a box with the other 50,000 pics then just get the lesser package or do them yourself.
However, for a young person just starting out, it might be very nice for them to have some professionally done photos of themselves that they could include in their portfolio or resume. I do think that might help in landing a job down the road or be useful to them. Also, why not have a beautiful picture of your child at their peak attractiveness in early adulthood? Usually, life gets in high gear, college, marriage, babies, etc and you never really get those kinds of photos of your child again. So, I can see that it is reasonable as well.

[LittleGopher]

When we looked for my oldest, the prices here started at $250, and many photographers were nearer a $400-500 average for a not very large photo package. (I took a quick look this year - I have a senior again - and the prices were still in that range.)

With my oldest, I took the money and bought a digital camera for just under $200, and did the photos myself. With reference to the previous year's yearbook and all the senior photo mailings we received, we tried out a ton of poses, and they turned out great. It was actually hard to choose. I was a little worried that we'd be alone in taking our own, but a lot of them were (the kids would talk to each other, because you really could not tell the difference.) As for printing, we printed some at home, and some of the odder sizes through a photo service.

As far as our school's policy - they take school photos for every child and staff for id purposes once in the fall. The photos are included in the yearbooks, with only senior pictures being allowed to come from a different source. You never have to buy a photo package, though at our school the prices are pretty reasonable.

With my second daughter going into her senior year, I again have taken the photos (went to a local park with gardens, boat house, grecian pillars, and arbor - very popular for photos.) If I say so myself, we got some beautiful photos (saving money is a huge motivator for me!) She posted them on facebook, and they were a hit! Most of her friends are doing their photos themselves, and not professionally. I think it's definitely a sign of the times - in financial as well as digital ways!

You could always try a quick photo session with your own or borrowed camera, and see what you come up with. Study some poses (you can do this online for many of the pro photographers in your area too.) You don't have to be too fancy dress-wise - our favorite poses were with my daughter in neutral-colored shirts and jeans and barefoot!) The outdoor shots that worked best were in the shade - just watched out for dappled shade under trees (there's only so much you can do with an edit program for leaf shadows across the face.) My girls use the free offerings on picnik.com to edit and touchup pictures.

There are also people who are just starting out, and looking to build a portfolio, who will take photos inexpensively. Have your student ask friends - usually someone knows someone...

Otherwise, here (MN) places like ProEx Portrait/Ritz Camera do in-studio packages for about as cheap as you'll find. There you buy only what you want, plus you get the photos on a dvd, so you always have it to print from. (This info is from when I checked two years ago, but you can call ahead for the most current.) If I recall, the session was well under $100, not including photos beyond the proofs.

Good luck!!

[irmanator]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Nope. Senior pictures and yearbooks have become a HUGE scam. Many schools will ONLY allow your child's photo to appear in the yearbook if you use their photographer and pay their prices. It is basically extortion and many parents who can't really afford it are stuck. They don't want to tell their child, "Sorry, you can't be in your high school yearbook," so they suck it up and pay.

When I was in school, we were able to submit our own photo. In fact, when I was in college and doing some side work as a photographer, I shot senior portraits for a number of my friends for a fraction of what the school was charging. Today, that wouldn't be allowed.

I can use anyone, even my own if I wanted. Only conditions are it has to be head and shoulders, not whole body and not outside.

[Confetti]

Sears (and the like) have some reasonable photo packages, usually meant for young children, but nothing is stopping you from having them do senior portraits.

[elessar78]

right, the senior portraits that are in vogue in my area look like fashion shoots! They portraits have little to do with being a senior at a certain high school other than the student. Needless to say, they aren't cheap.

[Like2Plan]

DS's school took the senior picture for free to include in the yearbook. They had evening gown tops for the girls and tux tops for the guys. You could also bring changes of clothes and you received many poses from which to order additional pictures. I thought the prices were a little steep and I wasn't very impressed with the quality of the pictures. We had another set of pictures done outside of the school that I liked better.

I think it is a wonderful thing to have formal pictures taken in the prime of one's youth. I am doing our family tree and I can't tell what a treasure it is to find a formal picture of various family members as they were starting out in life. I think it is a good idea to get some pictures taken in black and white format, too.

[universalremodeling]

Why not taking pictures using a personal cam or a friend's?

[cicy33]

My daughter had hers done at a private photographer when she graduated. I think they were still a couple hundred but they weren't the simple boring ones that are done at school. There were several poses and clothing changes.

[wincrasher]

If you are using a professional photographer, you are getting more than a snapshot - you are getting lighting and some light re-touching. Going with the "glamour" shots is kinda silly really, considering what many of these people will be doing after high school.

I'd go with the basic package and keep them for your album. I'd get some updated professional shots (in business attire) near the end of college years to use with resumes.