School photography packages can look deceptively simple: combine a few print sizes, give the package a name and set a price. In reality, the decisions made at this stage affect almost every part of the job that follows – how you photograph, how parents order, how files are cropped, how products are printed and packed, and how much of the sale is left after the work is done.

Whether you are building your first school offering or reviewing packages you have used for years, the goal is not to squeeze the greatest possible number of prints onto an order form. It is to create a clear product range that families can understand, that suits different households and budgets, and that your business can produce reliably at volume.

School photo packages change and evolve. You do not need to create the perfect offer before you take the first photo, especially when you are starting out – there are so many other things that need your attention. A good offer is perfected by testing, asking, listening and analyzing.

So read on, consider these important points, put it together and move onto the next important task.

At the end of the day your goal is to maximise sales after all this is how you have chosen to pay your bills. This means you need to encourage or build desire in your families to buy the next largest pack that suits them.

So don’t begin designing from the production end: ie. which prints fit together on a sheet or which sizes have traditionally been sold. Production efficiency matters, but it should not be the first question.

Start instead by considering what families are want to buy. For some, the class photograph is the important record of the year. Others want a portrait for each parent or grandparent. Some need products that work across two households. What can you offer them that will tempt them to select that next level up.

A useful range normally allows a family to choose between:

• an accessible option containing the essential school record
• a balanced package with a practical selection of portraits and the class or team photo
• a higher-value package for families who want more copies, gift products or digital files
• individual add-ons for customers who do not fit neatly into a package

The entry package needs to be genuinely useful. If it exists only to make the next package look better, families will recognise that. At the same time, the largest package should offer meaningful value rather than a pile of repeated prints that few households need.

Aspect ratio. Either you just rolled your eyes, glazed over or felt the hairs on your neck stand up. For those that did not roll their eyes we’re simply asking: will the image be square or rectangular? If rectangular – will it be a ‘fat’ rectangle or a ‘skinny’ rectangle? Let’s call the standard DSLR and mirrorless camera shape a normal rectangle (3:2 aspect ratio); let’s call panoramic photos skinny rectangles; and a square… well, is a square. One does not fit in the other without cropping something off.

Most likely, your camera captures images in 2:3, but common school print products can include 5 x 7 inch, 8 x 10 inch, square products, and small wallet formats. These are not all the same aspect ratio and can be a problem if the portrait is composed too tightly.

Streets Imaging has methods for enabling your photos to be printed across different aspect ratios with production templates that crop from the top of your image so the bottom of the subject is cropped off. For this to work (and for many other reasons) you need to do is ensure you shoot and crop with a consistent amount of space between the frame and the subject’s head.

The answer is definitely not shoot extremely loose and fix everything later. If you are not able to use Streets Imaging’s tools then you need a repeatable portrait composition with enough sensible allowance to accommodate every product you intend to sell. Before photo day, place representative images into every package template and inspect the crops. If possible test standing and seated poses, different hair shapes, taller students, smaller children and anyone whose pose occupies more of the frame to ensure your images will work in these formats.

Package design and capture standards should be developed together. If more than one photographer works on the job, everyone needs the same composition guide. This guide should be printed and left in front of them for the whole shoot, on every shoot.

A package is not only a list of products. It is also a set of production instructions so here’s 2 more things to consider; packing ease and accuracy.

It seems most photographers when we first meet them have packages that include different print sizes. For example they will offer a pack that includes an 8×10, a 5×7 and 6×4 wallets all as separate individual prints. This means you are packing orders from three separate piles of prints. Whereas if combine these images onto a single print size, then you are packing from one pile of prints instead. It will surprise you home much this will decreases your packing time by.

Next tip: print with Streets Imaging and you will receive your prints back in alphabetical order within each class. Now your packing is exponentially faster.

After combining images onto larger print sizes probably means some extra real estate, so consider adding some student identifying information, the school’s branding and/or your branding to these areas. Identifying who you’re packing easily makes packing faster.

A long while ago I remember reading an article titled “Do Not Hold the Digital File Hostage.” It was at the beginning of a new wave of photographers and influencers promoting digital packages and encouraging photographers to give clients digital files.

Since then we have come full circle. Most photographers now understand that once you have supplied the high-resolution digital file, your ability to earn further income from that photograph is gone. This is especially true with school photography.

Your school photo packages need to balance giving parents genuine value with allowing you to earn a good living from your chosen profession. Digital files can absolutely be part of that value, but they should be used strategically. Rather than automatically including a high-resolution file in every package, consider using digital files to encourage families into your higher-value packages.

The most effective strategy is; no digital file in the lower end pack, low resolution files in your mid range packs and high resolution file in your top packs. Or use the file as an add on product that is only available when parents have selected one of the top packs. Talk to Streets’ about our supported shopping cart software that allow this.

Quick side note from my personal perspective: I don’t believe we are doing families a favour by simply giving them a digital file and considering the job done. People still want and need printed photographs. And that isn’t just the biased opinion of someone who works in a photo lab. A digital file can be downloaded, forgotten, left on an old phone or computer, lost with a failed hard drive or disappear along with an abandoned online account. Even when it survives, there is a good chance nobody regularly looks at it.

A print is different. Yes, it might eventually end up in a cupboard or box, but it exists. It can be displayed, handed to grandparents, put into an album, framed, stored and rediscovered decades later.

Personally, I have around 6 years’ worth of school photographs displayed in a long line on our family fridge. We see them every day. My parents keep the latest school photograph framed on their wall and replace it each year. They see it every day too. Compare that with the thousands of digital photographs sitting on our phones that we rarely look at again.

Think about package value a little like a showbag. As I write this, the annual show has just been through our city and, as always, showbags are a major attraction. Kids compare them and ultimately choose the one they believe gives them the best value. They may not desperately want every single thing inside the bag, but the combination of products makes the overall offer compelling.

Your school photography packages work in much the same way.

You are not trying to make every individual product equally desirable to every parent. You are trying to create a package where the combined value feels greater than the price being asked. Prints, class photographs, sibling photographs, keepsakes and digital files can all contribute to that perceived value.

So don’t necessarily make the digital file the product. Use it as one component of a well-designed package, a compelling reason for families to move into your higher-value packages.

The lab cost of the physical print is one of many costs. Your pricing must also cover the photography labour, systems and risk involved in winning and delivering the job.

Depending on your model, that may include:

• school communication, quoting and administration
• database preparation and job set up time
• staff, travel and equipment for photo day
• photography time and the number of students able to be processed per hour
• image selection, colour correction and retouching
• gallery, payment and software fees
• traditional group or composite building
• printing, packaging, freight and delivery
• customer enquiries, late orders, corrections and reprints
• complimentary school products, commissions or fundraising arrangements
• most importantly

A package can have an impressive mark-up on its print cost and still be unprofitable once manual administration is included. This is why efficient workflow design matters so much in volume photography: minutes repeated across hundreds of students quickly become days of work.

Model the job at realistic order rate and average-order values rather than assuming every family will purchase the largest package. Then stress-test the numbers at a lower order rate. A sustainable offer should not depend on an unrealistically perfect result.

Parents are often viewing school photo information between work and family commitments alongside the 100 other messages they got from school or sporting commitments. Your next biggest challenge is making your offer easily and quickly understood.

There is a reason most big companies use “linear” pack ranges. Eg. Pack A is the cheapest, Pack B costs slightly more and includes a couple more prints, Pack C costs slightly more again and includes a couple more prints again. Parents can quickly view this and decide where they sit along that spectrum.

If you go for this approach, you need to decide how you add value to each additional level.

Useful products may include:

• individual portrait prints in a small range of practical sizes
• class or group photos
• wallet prints or exchange prints
• magnets, keyrings and other small keepsakes
• portrait or graduation folders
• digital image files
• graduation, leadership or commemorative products for particular year levels

Next, you need to make sure you are consistent. Don’t confuse your school’s parents with different content across your online gallery, printed envelope, parent information and internal product list.

They should communicate the same:

• package names
• included products and quantities
• prices
• product images or diagrams
• whether a class, family or special-group photograph is included
• digital-file inclusions and permitted use
• ordering deadlines, delivery and late-order conditions

Finally, test the buying process as if you were a parent who has never seen your product range before. Ask friends to do the same and get their honest brutal feedback.

Streets Imaging works with school, sport and event photographers on package design, custom templates, software integration, composite building, printing, sorting and fulfilment. We can help you design an offering that suits your clients and continues to work when order volume grows.

Planning your first school photography package range – or wondering whether your existing one could work harder?

Book a conversation with the Streets school, sport and event team about your products, workflow and print fulfilment.

Streets Imaging works with school and event photographers on the post-production, printing, packing and fulfilment systems that sit behind school photography services.