Make a Living by Taking Photos at School and Graduation

Most of us have a collection of photos from the period when we were being educated. As well as individual portraits, often taken once a year, there are pictures of the whole class or school, along with shots of sports teams and various clubs. In addition there may be graduation photographs.

Most, if not all, of these pictures will have been taken by a professional. And when you consider the number of schools and colleges there are, you can see that it's big business. It's not an especially creative sphere, but it can be reasonably lucrative.

How can you get involved? Well, one way is to approach local schools and colleges and ask if you could go along and take some pictures of the students. Nursery, kindergarten and 'mums and tots' groups are also worth targeting. They may, of course, have someone who does it already. Most do. But if you persevere, you may find one that doesn't - which will allow you to get a foot in the door.

Obviously you'll need to have some pictures you've taken to show them. If you haven't done any work of this kind before, one option is to photograph the children in your family, or those of friends or colleagues. Many will be more than happy if you let them have some prints in return.

School pictures tend to be of two main types: simple head and shoulder portraits and large groups. The portraits are easy to shoot. They're typically lit with one or two studio flash heads and have a plain or 'old masters' background. The pictures you show them should obviously be typical of the ones you plan to take.

You'll also need to work out a pricing structure that gives the school or college a proportion of the takings. You don't normally charge a 'sitting' fee - but that's not an issue if you shoot digitally, as your costs are kept to a minimum. You make your money from the various 'packages' you offer. At the budget end this might be just one 10x8 and two5 x 4s, rising to several larger prints at the top end. The marketing philosophy of school and college photography is to have a relatively low price that generates a high volume of business. To succeed, therefore, you need to shoot lots of pictures.

When taking head and shoulder portraits, for instance, you may have less than a minute to get the sitter settled and take the photograph. You also need to have an accurate and reliable system for matching the names to the faces.

Photographing the whole school at once, though, is technically much more difficult and can require expensive seating to do it correctly. It is therefore best left to companies that specialize in this area. Many of these companies have exclusive rights to take pictures at the larger schools and colleges, and that can be a barrier to others wanting to get involved. If that's the case in your area, another option is to approach one of the companies to see if you can work for them. Some have employees, but many use freelances on a regional basis as and when required.