Senior Portrait submission guidelines

Had to share this:

I realize that guidelines have to be in place, but this is ridiculous.

The only school that gives me headaches is my own home school and they (were) the only one I deal with with this insane policy....it wasn't until my oldest graduated in 2010 (took his Sr. pics in '09) did they allow photographers, other than the contracted one to submit photos for inclusion in the yearbook. Really what it comes down to is the advisor is lazy, and even told me the job was a PIA. So after alot of lobbying to the Superintendant and admin they changed the "rule".

This is a bullet right out of the letter after I pushed for it....drives me crazy they project this info to parents! (starting with the 4th sentence)..and the "WARNING" is laughable!....most parents don't know any better and take it for truth.

What company prints the book? If they can't perform this simple task perhaps a different print house should be selected. Even 10 years ago some yearbook vendors printed pictures and laid them out by hand, only to be scanned or photographed back into digital format for printing. Today even Walmart can make a photobook from digital files and electronic templates.

ChunkyDA wrote in post #15136789
What company prints the book? If they can't perform this simple task perhaps a different print house should be selected. Even 10 years ago some yearbook vendors printed pictures and laid them out by hand, only to be scanned or photographed back into digital format for printing. Today even Walmart can make a photobook from digital files and electronic templates.

Can't remember who the publisher is, the advisor at the HS sent me his name and phone number in an email...he invited me to call the guy if I wanted to. I told the yearbook advisor the Yearbook Rep didn't know what he was talking about (obviously). The advisor isn't very knowledgeable either...and admittedly so.
Last year he gave me the dimensions of the images to be submitted 11x14 pica @ 300dpi, basically a 4x5, 8x10 crop ratio...I send in one senior with his specs and in the published book they cut off her feet at the ankles! He admitted that the students were the ones that positioned them in the layout (passing the buck)...but I reminded him he was there to advise and that wasn't an excuse.

I feel your pain. I have a son with cerebral palsy. It takes a little longer to get him to hold still for a good shot, and I always pay extra for touchups. Last year the results were terrible. I ended up photoshopping it to something acceptable. This year he missed pictureday and retakes because he was sick. They accepted my work and I can garantee it will be the best photo in the book. I have been thinking about submitting a bid to get the school picture photography gig. The one we had when I was in school was excellent but the current one sucks.

Daship wrote in post #15137959
I feel your pain. I have a son with cerebral palsy. It takes a little longer to get him to hold still for a good shot, and I always pay extra for touchups. Last year the results were terrible. I ended up photoshopping it to something acceptable. This year he missed pictureday and retakes because he was sick. They accepted my work and I can garantee it will be the best photo in the book. I have been thinking about submitting a bid to get the school picture photography gig. The one we had when I was in school was excellent but the current one sucks.

Our new Superintendant is awesome!...she wants to know why the school contracts a photographer locally instead of a big company like Lifetouch (which does the elementary school). The HS has always (as long as I can remember) contracted a photog an hour north to shoot the high school photos. Up until 2010, they were the only Senior photos that were allowed to be published, that was until I became a PIA to the adviser.

DD974 wrote in post #15138046
Our new Superintendant is awesome!...she wants to know why the school contracts a photographer locally instead of a big company like Lifetouch (which does the elementary school). The HS has always (as long as I can remember) contracted a photog an hour north to shoot the high school photos. Up until 2010, they were the only Senior photos that were allowed to be published, that was until I became a PIA to the adviser.

If a local photographer is amazing, why not use a local photographer? Big contract companies sound like the photo studio in wall-mart.

BLD_007 wrote in post #15140133
If a local photographer is amazing, why not use a local photographer? Big contract companies sound like the photo studio in wall-mart.

Because in my situation the admin (below the Superintendant anyway) don't really care who does it...it's simpler to just keep the same big photography business year after year, just keep renewing the contract. The new SI wants to change that line of thought. Just pisses me off they actually say in the letter to parents that outdoor photos may be blurry!...what kind of crap is that...and people that don't know any better, believe it. Last week the yearbook adviser replied to my email where I was asking about the crop dimensions (only because he cut off the feet of a person last year I submitted)...he said I was creating drama...The claws came out in the next several email exchanges, and I CCd the SI and Principal on all of them....keep in mind this is the same guy that told me in 2009 that the job of yearbook adviser was a PIA.

DD974 wrote in post #15140237
Because in my situation the admin (below the Superintendant anyway) don't really care who does it...it's simpler to just keep the same big photography business year after year, just keep renewing the contract. The new SI wants to change that line of thought. Just pisses me off they actually say in the letter to parents that outdoor photos may be blurry!...what kind of crap is that...and people that don't know any better, believe it. Last week the yearbook adviser replied to my email where I was asking about the crop dimensions (only because he cut off the feet of a person last year I submitted)...he said I was creating drama...The claws came out in the next several email exchanges, and I CCd the SI and Principal on all of them....keep in mind this is the same guy that told me in 2009 that the job of yearbook adviser was a PIA.

you think by blurry they mean bokeh? or they think bokeh is really a blurry photo?

BLD_007 wrote in post #15140589
you think by blurry they mean bokeh? or they think bokeh is really a blurry photo?

Ya know that's a good point...never gave that a thought.
Maybe they see bokeh as a flaw with the photo...if they do
it just proves that yearbook rep is nothing more than a salesman.

With the size student photos are printed in a yearbook, there is no reason to choose an outdoor photo because the background will be too small to discern.

HappySnapper90 wrote in post #15146968
With the size student photos are printed in a yearbook, there is no reason to choose an outdoor photo because the background will be too small to discern.

But at least it won't be a piece of mottled canvas with a gel thrown on it. All senior photos ever has been in my son's yearbook is a larger image size that grades 7-11...at least they'll all look different and not just a student sitting on a stool with a different color BG.