Anyone do a graduation? Kindergarten actually...

My g/f's school (she's a teacher...i knew a joke would come up sometime :rolleyes hired me for the K grad. First of, when did K get a graduation? Aniwho, so I'm hired and was given permission to sell photos to the parents. I was hired by the school only to take pics for them.

So I need price ideas and how to do this. It's not a price for the school, I'm doing that for free since the person last year did it for free (was a teacher) but it took up a lot of her time since she also had to do stuff in the graduation. So I'm shooting fro free and giving a CD but I've never sold pics that weren't just time and CD. I figured prints would be the best way to go.

So, 8x10, 5x7, etc and even just a CD as a whole. We're going to get every kid in a cap and gown with a backdrop and then random shots throughout the ceremony but key shots none the less. Like every kid crossing etc.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

-Nate

Old post, but any help would still be nice.

Well, you are in luck....I've shot these before.

You could have a price sheet already printed up and the parents would pay you in advance for a photo for each child recieving his/her diploma.

Let us say $10-8x10 / $6-5x7 / $4-4x6 /

It is hard to price these sort of shin digs especially since this is a 1 time gig & limited audience.

I try to keep my prices reasonable for these jobs due to the fact that they often lead to additional jobs later. The last shoot like this has landed 5 family portraits, 2 weddings and booked up a few days of senior/personal portraits.

I consider these jobs fillers and promotions. Shoot them to the best of you ability and just like you would shoot a top paying gig. The results will benefit the customer and especially you in the long run and without the pressure of the big job you can experiment and push what you know to maybe learn something new!

Hope it goes well!

I do what pickle does. I shoot alot of graduation and holy communion events and such, and i usually give the same price sheet to all but it really includes a mandatory $25.00 minimum order. They can order a package which includes a 8x10, 5x7, and 4 wallets, or order them seperatly. They can order the package and addon extra prints as well which is what usuually happens since ordering individually is always pricier than ordering a package.
-Joey

I've done some kiddygarten sessions as a result of getting the contract for the rest of the school. I charged them the same as I did any other person. I have a contract with the school/district that I won't charge the school for the shooting time providing that the post sales reach a certain value. To date, after many schools I have never had to revert to charging the school.

I have a few different packages, similar to those explained but my prices are higher. I don't subscribe to the philosophy of charging less and then hoping that someone will contact me later. I have gotten jobs off of the school work despite the pricing. I am in the same ballpark, pricing wise, as others that do it in this area. I see no reason to undercut anyone as I don't like it when others do it to me. This is afterall, my livelihood. People are either going to like your work or not. If they don't you could give it away and not get any more jobs. The only thing that I allow separate ordering on is a minimum of 1 8x10 or 2 5x7. I won't sell 4x6 unless it is part of a larger package.

I did a shot of them receiving their diploma and then they each had an individual shot. We also did a group shot. I take two, sometimes three shots of the individual but never more and I tell the parents this up front. I do offer retakes but it has to be because their eyes are closed or something similar. Too many parents think that Johnny could have smiled better. I got caught in this the first year that I did school pictures and had way more retakes than I thought there should have been. In the end some parents ended up ordering off of the first set because Johnny didn't smile better. I also tell the parents that if we do retakes then the ordering is done off of those only. This may sound tough but when you are doing hundreds of students and several schools in a matter of a few weeks you have to set some ground rules.

I use Miller's undergrad system and it really works great. Go to their site and look it over. Will make your life easy.