School Picture Vent

[JoiseyMom]

DD13 started school last week. I started to fill out her picture form today for school pictures. OMG...they are now charging for retouching the pictures!!! They have 2 levels! 6.50 for basic and 10.00 for basic!!

I could see this charge years ago when they used film, but in today's digital age, and with this economy!! I don't think I am getting their pictures this year. I will take them to Target or Walmart!!

In the grand scheme of things it isn't alot but it just bugs me!! I feel like every where I go I am being nickled and dimed to death!

 

[phamy76]

Our school started doing fall and spring pix. But only the fall pix are in the yearbook.
So, I get the basic plan $18.25 for just enough pix for the grandparents in the fall, and pass on the spring pix and go to Walmart for $5.

 

[1PrincessMomma1]

Ours is $26 for the basic and $32 for the retouch for the smallest package. As usual we get ripped off big time.

 

[Leajess99]

Our elementary schools do Fall and Spring pictures. I only buy what I see so generally it is the Spring pictures that get bought.

 

[Coll0610]

Our school has always charged for retouching and I never get it. But they do something I love. You can get a CD of the pictures with a release so you can print as many as you want. You have to buy a package, so I get the cheapest package and the CD for less than $20. Then I print whatever I need at Sams Club for a couple dollars. All the relatives get the size they want and it's much cheaper than trying to order everything I need.

 

[maggiew]

Can you get the package without retouch?

Our school had that too but you didn't have to get it.

Maggie

 

[powellrj]

I have never gotten the retouch with our pictures nor have I gotten the backgrounds you pay extra for. I am just too cheap!

This year our school went with a different company and they are offering an option for the CD and rights for $20. Thats the one I went with. I figured I can buy the packages at CVS or Walgreen for less and get the combination I want.

 

[momejay]

I have 3 children 2 in high school. The first day they came home with picture info. Picture day is tomorrow. Cheapest package is $42! (It doesn't include retouching or a preview of any kind) So if they wake up with a huge zit tomorrow or something...

 

[Lady V]

I might sound crazy but i would never retouch a childs school photo. I think that school pictures should show exactly how they looked that day! i think that is part of the fun---then when they are older they can pull them out and have a good laugh. I want to remember it how it really was.

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

I have never gotten the retouch with our pictures nor have I gotten the backgrounds you pay extra for. I am just too cheap!

Same here! If the kid has a zit, so be it.

I've always purchased the cheapest package and I only do that to support the school. I have a zillion pics of DS and the ones I take are always better than the posed school pics.

 

[kpadalik]

My DDs elementary school does fall and spring pics as well. The fall pics go in the yearbook and we have to pick out and pay for the package in advance. I did that last year, bought the cheapest package since it was Kindergarten and I was not pleased with the pictures. She was slouched over - you would have thought they would have corrected her posture. They offered to do a one time retake, but I figured that probably wouldn't be any better. So I was out $20 or so.

Then in the Spring, they took "personality" photos and they turned out wonderfully! And we didn't have to pay in advance. They sent home all the pics in different sizes and we returned what we didn't want with a payment for what we wanted to keep. I wish fall pics were this way!

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

My DD (12, 7th Grade) had her school picture taken a couple weeks ago. It seems like every year the school portrait company adds more and more options at more and more $$$ .... "pick a pose", "pick a (background) color", "add name on wallets", "add retouching [basic or premium]".

The only option I paid for was the background color - DD really wanted a blue background instead of the default gray. I never get the retouching because, like another poster said, I want to have a true picture of what DD looked like on the day of her school picture.

 

[mamalle]

not buying them for the fall this year.. not worth it IMO... you have to prepay and I havent always been pleased how its turned out.. So spring only for this mama... our spring ones always have a nicer background and you get them to look at prior to paying..

 

[irish_trip_mom]

I personally am not a fan of school pix. I buy the bare minimum package to have as a keepsake. But my one son does not have school pix (he attends a school for children with autism). So we actually do family pictures each year, with individuals of the kids, which end up being much better and much more natural. Last years were gorgeous outdoor shots. Those are the ones I frame for the grandparents.

Of course, it was fun one Christmas to compare all the cousins' pictures and in good fun, vote for the worst. My one son (then 6) and his cousin (then 15) tied! They both got caught with those looks of dread....now THOSE are the pictures that we'll always remember! ;-) Don't we all have one of those??

 

[mouseketeer_mom]

The entire "buy a package of pictures" thing has me beyond frustrated! We are solicited to buy fall school pictures, spring school pictures, a yearbook (no, three yearbooks, one for each kid), separate class pictures (taken and sold seperately from fall and spring pictures) football pictures, baseball pictures, dance pictures and cheerleading pictures. ALL prepaid packages before the pics are taken. I always buy the least expensive package. A very conservative estimate might be $12 per kid per pic and one yearbook to share. About $200. per year. I was unaware, until just this past spring, that pictures are a fundraiser for the school.

 

[poegirl30]

Just wait until senior year pics! I know they are expensive, but they are the last ones for my daughter...well, at least for high school.

 

[newtodis]

DS5's kindergarten pictures are coming up next week and I'm trying to prepare for the arm and leg they're going to try and charge us. And I'm a sucker this year as family's all so far away and it's his first set of school pictures.

The thing that frustrates me the most is having a problem with the pictures and not wanting the photographer to correct the problem. I ordered DS5's t-ball pictures this year and the wallets must have been put in the cutting machine incorrectly as the pictures on the left side of the page look ok and slowly across the page more and more of the top of the picture gets cut off. By the time you look at the pictures on the right side of the page, half his hat's gone! But yet the place the studio used to print the pictures says it was my fault because I cropped the pictures too closely despite them being fine on one side. Ugh!

 

[FINFAN]

ours for HS are $36 but that includes the $10 re-touch, so I guess it is kinda high, but not as bad as some. I pay it as the school has DS "captive" and he gets the photo taken........no way would he go someplace with me, so it's highway robbery, but at least I get pictures of him!

 

[OceanAnnie]

not buying them for the fall this year.. not worth it IMO... you have to prepay and I havent always been pleased how its turned out.. So spring only for this mama... our spring ones always have a nicer background and you get them to look at prior to paying..

We have the similar arrangement with the pre-pay only it's both Fall and Spring. I don't care for the pre-pay at all. I was amazed at how much the pictures went up in price last year. I'm sure it will be up, up, up again. I hope there is a DVD option. Cause that is what I would get!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I don't think that is a bad price.

This was not offered back in the film days of my school picks.

Even though it is digital, it still takes time. I'm not sure what the difference in the two prices is and what it includes...but if it gets rid of a random pimple or whatever--I'd pay it.

(Though I was just looking at my 8th grade yearbook photo the other day and it wasn't half-bad).