Senior Portraits

[deb]

Do any of you do senior portraits?

What type of pictures do you take, and what type of packages do you offer?

I've been approached about doing some of this type of work, but from what I can tell, senior portraits aren't the senior portraits I remember.

Some of what I've seen have looked really good (more casual than I'd have thought, but still good images) but some seem pretty far out to me.

I'd love to know what everyone else is doing.

 

[Christie Photo]

Hi, Deb. My first thought is "YIKES!" There's soooo much to talk about, I dunno if we can do it all here. Let's do this... I'll start, and others will take it from there.

I offer 4 different sessions. The first is very basic... just head-and-shoulders, in the studio, one outfit, about 8 previews shown. Next is two outfits, all in sudio, 3/4 length, at least 12 previews shown. Then, up to four outfits, all in studio, includes full lenght, and more than 20 previews shown. The last is all outdoors (my location), at least 15 previews shown. The outdoor session is uaually added to one of the studio sessions.

Now, a bit of a disclaimer... I've been at this a while, and I haven't kept up with current trends. So, this may be a dated approach.

I hope you find this helpful.

-Pete Christie

 

[Kent Frost]

Something I've learned works very well is to offer a whatever-you-want session for $200. It would come with an album of all the 4x6 proofs, and then wallets/reprints would be extra. Depending on what you charge for reprints, you can make a good amount of money from them, and it allows them the freedom of customizing their own package. In Southwest Missouri here, senior portraits are a huge deal, so something like that at that cost brings your client out at a better price compared to what they'd have to charge with one of the big name portrait people, i.e. $700+ for their package.