Kids School Pictures

[summerrluvv]

Ugh, so picture day is next week and I dread it. Last year I spent a ton of money and the pictures were horrible and even the retakes were bad. It's the camera man was on drugs or something. Everyone at school complained about their kids pics. This year they have a new local photographer, not a chain, so I'm not sure how these are going to turn out. The ones on their website don't look that great to be honest. I know I could take him to Sears, Target, etc. for half the price, but then they wouldn't be "school" pictures.

So this year, I'm contemplating getting the smallest package and with my luck they will come out great!! I know in the past you couldn't re-order extras after the pics came in. So now if the pictures come out good, I was thinking of scanning one and ordering some reprints from shutterfly or the like. Has anyone else done this? Do they come out looking like the real pics do? I know it's not the most honest thing to do, but I hate to shell out money on the big package and be stuck with not so good pictures like last year!

 

[juligrl]

DD3 has her first ever preschool pictures tomorrow! The whole idea of ordering an outrageous picture package without being able to choose a shot from multiple images is just so foreign to me that I am ordering the basic package only. If they're great photos bonus! I'll scan and make prints from that. If not, then I still have Target, Olan Mills and WalMart photo appts. scheduled already.

 

[Sherri]

Order small package and they always send a form if you want to order more once you see them.

 

[4greatboys]

Copyright infringement

 

[clh2]

So this year, I'm contemplating getting the smallest package and with my luck they will come out great!! I know in the past you couldn't re-order extras after the pics came in. So now if the pictures come out good, I was thinking of scanning one and ordering some reprints from shutterfly or the like. Has anyone else done this? Do they come out looking like the real pics do? I know it's not the most honest thing to do, but I hate to shell out money on the big package and be stuck with not so good pictures like last year!

I agree with "order the smallest package" as I've been burned in the past too.

This year, we are having family portraits done, so I really didn't care about the school pic.

I doubt shutterfly would take on this job, as the photographer owns the "rights" to the image.

 

[Laurajean1014]

I buy the cheapest set $17.00 for 4 large wallets, one 5x7 and one class 5x7! That's all I need.

 

[golfgal]

Our kids' schools sent out a proof sheet this year and you ordered off that. It was GREAT (well Lifetouch sent out the proof sheet). They actually posed the kids and they almost look like senior pictures. I am THRILLED with our school pictures this year!

 

[NAB]

I guess we are lucky because we get the choice of two pic and then order the package and pic we want.

In the spring they send home a package you can keep and pay for and order extra if need be. Spring pics are always nicer and have nicer backgrounds. Plus my son's hair has grown out of the brush cut from the summer by then.

Ours were by Lifetouch too. Had now problem yet.

 

[munchkin bunchkin]

MyDD's just had their pics today (also by Lifetouch )they came out great the past 3years ! I also like the fact that they send along a photo ID card with your package!

 

[LBAK]

We use LIfetouch too and they come out great!

 

[belle_of_the_ball]

ours are by Lifetouch.....yeah i get the basic sit on the stool...smile...click..next. no awesome back drops or anything! In fact, this is the first year (im in 10th) since 5th I've been able to pick the color back drop. They were always gray...and i have very pale skin...the back used to turn me gray Thank GOD they edit that stuff out now! It was pretty bad, now its blue and its a green screen blue so i didnt have to worry about changing colors. I reallllly love my school pics this year...I got a good photographer this year!!! (you get a new one every year...theres 3010+ kids im my school)


Order the smallest package...unless you get an idiot at walmart or shutterfly they wont do copies, you'd have to go to the photographer for that and he/she should have all negitives on file.

 

[AKLRULZ]

I personally hate Lifetouch, we always order the smallest package and get professional photos made at a real studio each year.

And for what it's worth - they're your photos, you paid for them - feel free to scan.

 

[ElizK]

I quit buying the school pics years ago. Every October or November I take the kids to Target. I tell the photographer I'm having these taken in place of school pics, and they always do a post that would be similar to the school pic. I get to choose the poses I want, and it costs a LOT less for a lot more pics. I'm happy!

 

[PolyHereWeCome]

No help here. Three years ago we saw the light. No more Lifetouch's yucko-overpriced-packages that you have to order sight unseen from the sit-on-the-stool single shot. That was when DD and DS were in 1st grade. We now take the kids the very same week as school picture day (1st week in Nov. to Target or Wal-Mart), and totally consider these photos as the "official school portraits". Family have never known the difference and we spend a fraction of the price for great photos. School nurse and teacher's file still gets the Lifetouch shot (yes, all kids at our school get their photo taken regardless of whether they bring in their check or not) and have never regretted not buying when I do see the outcome.

We tell th photographer that these are going to be their school photos, so they know how to pose them. Love selecting the very best shot from the group, love that they take more than one shot, lots of different background options at no additional cost (can't believe Lifetouch charges our school more $$ for color/non-gray background), and the results are way better. Oh, and did I mention, way cheaper?

Wal-Mart, Target, and Sears all send coupons in the mail or in their fliers.

In the Spring, Lifetouch comes back to take the traditional picture of the entire class and we buy 1 copy each of DD's and DS's class photos.

 

[PaulaSue]

I buy the cheapest set $17.00 for 4 large wallets, one 5x7 and one class 5x7! That's all I need.

WOW! Our biggest package is $14. 1~11 by 14, 2~ 8 by 10, a bunch of other ones and a class one.

 

[summerrluvv]

Thanks for the replies!! Lifetouch is who they used last year and were just awful. I guess they are a franchise though. Herff Jones did the Cub Scout pics and those were awesome. The scanning just seems like a pain. I guess I'll just order the big package and if they come out bad, we'll hit Target and just do xmas pics since I got a coupon from them today.

 

[N.Bailey]

My kids entered the high school this year and the price is double what they'd been up to this point. I don't know if they have the same photographer in the elementary and middle schools, or if they just changed companies this year.

One thing they did add though was retouching for I believe it was $5.00. My kids brought their pictures home today (that's what made me open the thread, LOL) and I was really impressed with them. My kids have PERFECT skin!!! lol

I always buy the smallest package available that has 1 8X10. I'm thinking that package was like $30.00 this year though.

Yearbooks this year have shot from the $20 range to the $40 range, with the ability to pay $25 to have it personalized, plus it would come with a CD of the top 10 (I believe it's 10) songs for the school year.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I don't understand why you would buy bad overpriced pictures of your kids just because they are "school" pictures. They're still bad pics, aren't they? I have a DS8 in 3rd grade, and a DS6 in first grade and from K3 up to 3rd grade, neither one has taken a good school picture. I realized right away that I don't have to have a picture taken at school and said, "no thank you" to the bad pictures and went to Walmart and got great pictures exactly like I want them. And I can be there to coach, whereas a school photographer messes with my kids hair or poses him wrong and it doens't even look like him...

 

[PolyHereWeCome]

I don't understand why you would buy bad overpriced pictures of your kids just because they are "school" pictures. They're still bad pics, aren't they? I have a DS8 in 3rd grade, and a DS6 in first grade and from K3 up to 3rd grade, neither one has taken a good school picture. I realized right away that I don't have to have a picture taken at school and said, "no thank you" to the bad pictures and went to Walmart and got great pictures exactly like I want them. And I can be there to coach, whereas a school photographer messes with my kids hair or poses him wrong and it doens't even look like him...

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fyi, DD9 and DS9 are in 4th grade.

 

[aprilgail2]

I don't understand why you would buy bad overpriced pictures of your kids just because they are "school" pictures. They're still bad pics, aren't they? I have a DS8 in 3rd grade, and a DS6 in first grade and from K3 up to 3rd grade, neither one has taken a good school picture. I realized right away that I don't have to have a picture taken at school and said, "no thank you" to the bad pictures and went to Walmart and got great pictures exactly like I want them. And I can be there to coach, whereas a school photographer messes with my kids hair or poses him wrong and it doens't even look like him...

I buy the smallest package because its the only way you can get a class picture. If you don't have your kids pics taken you don't ge thte class picture and want to getthose for her to have. I still have all my class pictutes from grade school- 1968-1972 and I can name 90 percent of the kids in the pictures! I recently copied them for someone I ran into that was in 2 of my grade school classes, his mother had thrown them away and he was so happy to be getting copies of them!