Day Care Photography

My daughter's daycare has pictures done every about 3-4 times per year. Thus far, neither my wife (non-photog) nor my self have been remotely impressed with the quality of the pictures for different reasons - body parts cut off, ridiculous looking background/props, so on...). After the last group of them, My wife suggested that I offer to do them once and see what happens. My daughter's teacher, who has seen my work, has also suggested the same and said many parents are not happy with the pictures right now.

Before I do this, I am interested in receiving opinions and suggestions for what to expect or things that have worked well for you in doing this. I'm not viewing it as much as a money maker for me, but more as opportunity to market myself to the parents in hopes for outside business.

If willing, please share any tips or suggestions, including setups or props needed, to make this fairly easy yet high quality.

Are these formal portraits / group shots (standard school portraits) ? Have you done formal portraits before ?

Chris, I describe these as more fun portraits than the standard school portrait. They are not like yearbook type portraits. As for have I done this before, the answer would be whether or not you consider working with my daughter on backgrounds experience. In my mind, yes I have and I would be completely comfortable doing a shoot like this one.

I've done some pre-school photos before and it can be challenging. Two of the biggest factors to consider are the age of the children (younger children can obviously be much more challenging) and the number of children (there's a big difference between shooting a class of 10 and a school of 500). IME, children 3 and under can be very difficult to work with in a group setting. They may get nervous, cry, try too hard to pose or smile (and thus creating something very awkward), not hold still and constantly pull on clothes, twirl hair.....and on and on.
IME, working with young children that do not know you (and who you really don't have time to get to know considering that you'll have to work quickly to capture all of the children), is very different from working with your own children or children who are familiar with you. If you're working with a large number of small children, you're almost guaranteed to have to accept that some just will not co-operate no matter how hard you try. That has been my experience thus far all summed up

I just did a preschool. I got a wood looking backdrop from backdrop outlet and used some flowers. I went a week or so ahead of time and practiced on a few kids and everyone walking by loved the setup.
Like you I dont like some of those "school" backgrounds. I tried to make it look realistic and cute.
I just got the pics in and will give them out after spring break. I am really excited as I think they came out well.

Are you in the PPA? I watched a webinar about doing private school photography and it had some really good suggestions. A lot was talking about high end sales, which I have not done in the setting of private school photos but there was also a lot of tips and other info in there that gave me a good frame of mind. I did mine at a church, which is why I did not implement this sales process yet.

I would recommend this or you can probably find some books.

What to expect: The typical things that go along with anything dealing with sales to "moms".

I am going to change my package pricing: I used the package pricing the old photographer used. I will raise it a bit b/c most only ordered 1 print. My average sale, however was profitable enough to make it worth it. Next time I'm going to have a minimum order or just raise the prices so that it puts me at a min order of a certain amount without specifying.

When I give out the packages I was considering putting a card and ad, and also a reorder form for a % off additional prints.

The typical setup is each child for a picture or 2, generally no group shots during the time I would be there. The teachers escort the children down and stay with them until all have had their picture taken.

Hi huntersdad. The first thing you should sincerely ask yourself is whether if you are good with children. Can you deal with a lot of children. Kids are really wonderful bunch. They are honest in how they feel and will react accordingly. If you are the type that gets frazzled if the shoot don't go your way (which can happen), it will show and the kids can tell.
Engage, engage, engage. Always talk to them and keep it fun. The rest of the stuff will be gravy.

We do are predominantly lifestyle portrait photographers, but every year we take on a couple of school shoots. It's an amazing experience and a change to our regular stuff. Feel free to trawl our website and blog for ideas. We keep it simple and engaging. Don't treat them like cattle.

All the best.