This is where school photography becomes very different from ordinary photographic printing.

A standard print order may contain a small number of files selected and checked by one photographer. A volume school job can contain hundreds of students, several poses, class and sibling photographs, multiple packages, optional products, digital files, late orders and delivery rules, all connected through data.

Printing is only one part of the task. The lab or production team must also interpret the order, prepare products, keep each student’s items together, sort them correctly, manage exceptions and create a delivery the school can distribute without unnecessary work.

A strong fulfilment workflow protects the photography, the photographer’s reputation and the family’s trust.

A folder of photographs is not yet a production order.

At the most basic level for a volume print job the lab needs to know the filename, the quantity and the product. Sounds simple but this means you need to provide the lab with structured information explaining:

• which package or products you offer
• the size, quantity and finish of each item
• is there custom graphics or colours
• whether a class, team or sibling photograph is included in a package
• how the order should be grouped and labelled
• where and how it will be delivered

And that is before we start to talk about variable data.

This may now start to sound more complicated but half of this is just part of getting set up with a lab and once you are set up the jobs will flow through like water. Streets Imaging has an easy startup list that will get you rolling – email us to find out more.

Information for individual print jobs may arrive through specialist volume software, an order export, a manually compiled worksheet or some sort of integration. There are endless options here, which we will cover in another article.

Every product should have a unique, controlled code or SKU, not merely a customer-facing description such as “Package B”. That code matches up with a list of products in your lab that will tell the lab the following:

• print dimensions
• orientation
• paper surface or finish
• quantity
• border or template treatment
• package layout
• mount, frame or merchandise type
• digital delivery specification
• packing requirement

So, if two products differ in any way, they should have different SKUs. Keep a master product catalogue and use it across your whole ordering system, price list and export. Most importantly do not add or change codes or product details without telling the lab

“High-resolution JPEG” is not a complete production specification.

Before the first job, make sure you find out from your lab the following. For convenience, Streets Imaging’s responses are included; these requirements are fairly standard:

Be aware some labs may require you to have a separate cropped image for each product size. While Streets Imaging does not require this, if your lab does, ensure you keep them separate and do not overwrite the only high-quality master with a product-specific crop.

If the lab performs cropping, rendering, background replacement or composite work, provide the source files and data in the required form.

If you fail to plan for cropping, your subjects will have hair cut, hands cropped out or oceans of space around your subject. Different print sizes and product openings use different aspect ratios. Either you select sizes and openings that all have the same aspect ratio (recommended) or production needs a clear rule for how each image should be fitted.

Possible approaches include:

• you supply a separate crop for every ordered product (avoid this at all costs)
• you shoot in a way where images will fit all crops
• the lab applies approved crop templates

Package templates should be tested with the photographer’s actual capture standard before orders open. A design that works with a sample portrait may fail when presented with different hairstyles, poses and body proportions.

Check out our article: How to Photograph School Portraits for Consistent Cropping and Package Printing **Link Coming Soon**

Often this is the final thought before submitting a job to the lab, and if you are already late turning the job around, this can be get very stressful! An entire article can be (and probably will be soon) written on this subject. For now, consider the following to achieve a cohesive school job:

• standardise capture lighting and camera settings
• use controlled colour references where appropriate
• calibrate and profile editing displays
• avoid editing the same job on unverified screens
• If in doubt, do test prints

If several photographers are shooting a job or the job is shot over several days or sessions, compare some files from each. Edit each batch to match one batch or reference image rather than approving each station in isolation.

Where possible, keep one editor per job for better consistency, rather than multiple editors on a single job.

A professional lab can print files consistently, but it’s your job to provide consistent files and that becomes much more difficult when the job contains mixed exposures, white balances, cameras, equipment and editing styles.

Streets has a good volume of information on Colour and colour management here.

Soft proofing can help predict how colours and tones will reproduce on a particular printing process, but it works only when the correct profiles and viewing conditions are used.

Test prints are a great way to build your confidence in both your lab and your editing ability and consistency.

Review test prints under suitable neutral light. Check skin tones, shadow detail, highlights, sharpening, background smoothness, graphic text and cropping.

Resolve the standard before the large production batch. Correcting one sample is inexpensive; remaking an entire school is not.

Please contact the lab for our soft proofing profile/s.

Pick a date to be your cut-off date. This is when all orders received at that point in time are submitted to the lab. If you have your school/club/centre advertise this well, it will do you three favours:

1. Encourage more orders – People act when they have a deadline or the possibility of missing out
2. Enable you to be more efficient and receive better pricing from the higher volume order you submit to the lab
3. Get less ‘late orders’ (which are painful to process) and more orders in your bulk order (see point 2)

This also sets a target date for you to work towards and have all your data processing completed by and ready for the lab. The best way to keep your turnaround times down is to set a few milestone dates and stick to them.

So much more can and probably will be written on this also. For now, pick a date, stick to it, get all your images and order info ready and then submit to the lab in one go.

A perfectly printed order can still fail if it reaches the wrong student or part of it is missing.

If you submitted the order to the lab as a spreadsheet, this same sheet becomes your packing sheet. Be meticulous here: pack your prints and products, then tick the subject’s name, rinse and repeat. If something is missing, note it down and keep packing. Momentum becomes efficiency.

Make sure it is obvious who each order is for – labels are commonly used here and are super simple to create and print. Then bag them up into classes or teams and make sure it’s obvious what class or team it’s for. The more obvious it is, the less likely they are to make a mistake and hand out orders to the wrong people (it happens).

Go a step further and consider the person who distributes the classes or teams. Should the bags of classes/teams be sorted into year, then class (or age group then division). Are there two campuses or clubhouses? If so, should they be split up into separate boxes for these?

Your goal here is to make the admin’s, teacher’s or coach’s life as easy as possible so they overlook any minor issues and rebook you.

The goal is for a perfect pack; no re-dos, re-prints or detective work to figure out what went wrong and why. But your work back from the lab doesn’t match what families ordered exactly (and this is likely in the beginning) you need to figure out what and why to reduce these for the next run.

Check for:

• correct image in the correct product
• focus and sharpness quality
• expected density and colour
• skin-tone consistency
• crop and head position
• borders, bleed and orientation
• banding, marks or production defects
• graphic and composite alignment
• names, class labels and spelling
• correct quantity

Not every issue has the same cause or remedy. A printer defect may require a reprint. A source file with closed eyes may need photographer review. A misspelled composite may require school approval of corrected data.

Separate technical reprints from human error and data exceptions. Ensure feedback gets back to the correct source so the person is aware or the system can be fixed. A perfect pack can reduce your turnaround time by a full week.

Before a job goes out for delivery, here are some quick final checks.

Confirm:

• check every subject on your packing list has a tick
• check your packing list notes that they have all been fixed
• check your ‘extras’ pack list (eg. Complimentary school frame, free prints for staff, school album etc.)
• Check the labels on the bags are correct and you have one for each class/team

If you were meticulous in packing this part gets easier.

Late orders are commercially useful, but they can quietly consume time and margin when treated as exceptions forever.

Think about:

• Your bulk order cut-off date
• whether pricing changes or if there are late fees
• how frequently late orders are batched
• whether delivery changes from school to direct shipping
• how long source images and galleries remain available
• who answers historical order enquiries

Ideally you have an integration with lab so these orders flow on directly, but most of the time this is not the case. In that case, do yourself one more favour: have the inevitable late orders drop shipped (sent directly to your customer) from the lab. Streets Imaging can help with this and provides a few options for you to select from.

Clear categories help customer service and production respond appropriately.

Reorder: the family purchases an additional copy or product from an existing approved image.

Technical remake: the original product has a printing, finishing, packing or delivery defect.

Data correction: a name, class, product or delivery record was wrong and needs an approved change.

Photographic review: the source image or pose raises a concern that cannot be corrected by reprinting the same file.

Record the reason and outcome. Repeated issues can then reveal whether the underlying cause sits in capture, data, editing, printing, packing or communication.

Do not send a remake into production without confirming that the source of the problem has been corrected. Reprinting the same wrong file creates the same wrong result.

Here are the most common issues we see with volume orders, all of these will delay your turnaround, cost you money and waste your time:

• file names not matching the spreadsheet of orders
• inaccurate data entry (orders, image matching, group names)
• poor cropping, inconsistent cropping or poor crop planning
• not defining all products or packages to the lab
• adding new products without updating the lab
• not proofing new products with templates, graphics or variable data
• beginning printing before the whole batch is ready
• not tracking the processing of the job in detail
• making corrections in several competing files
• mix corrected and original files
• not doing test prints, especially on jobs with multiple set-ups
• accept late orders through informal messages
• back up photographs but not order and production data
• not doing final job checks

Try tracking the following to identify the pain points and streamline your workflow for the next job:

• unmatched orders at intake
• manual crop and data exceptions
• print and packing remake rates
• missing-item enquiries
• late-order volume
• average time from order close to delivery
• number of production batches
• returned parcels
• school distribution issues
• customer-service time after delivery

These are rarely solved by asking production staff to be more careful. They are solved by designing a system in which missing or conflicting information becomes visible before it reaches the printer.

Streets Imaging supports school, sport and event photographers with volume post-production, professional printing, package assembly, packing and fulfilment workflows. Talk with our team while you are designing the service, not only when the first order file is ready so the path from captured image to classroom delivery is built to work from the beginning.

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